Selected Events 2008
Consul For Public Affairs Opens Weimar Klezmer Music Festival
July 11, 2008. Mark Wenig, Consul for Public Affairs, delivered remarks at the opening concert of the annual “Yiddish Summer Weimar” Klezmer music festival in Weimar. The five-week long festival, supported by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and U.S. Consulate General Leipzig, features jam sessions, workshops, dance courses, symposia, public concerts and street music events. This year, there is a special emphasis on the relationship between Yiddish and Roma music, under the title, “The Other Europeans.” The fact that this festival takes place every summer in Weimar, located in the shadow of the former Buchenwald Concentration Camp, has given this event special significance and high-profile press coverage, especially in the U.S. In his remarks, Wenig emphasized the increased popularity of this event, which attracts Klezmer musicians from all over Europe, North America and other parts of the world. It has become a major cultural staple of the Weimar summer cultural scene. 
Consul Mark Wenig delivering his remarks
