Pardes Festival 2026 | September 12–13 | September 18–20 |
Information provided by the Organizer
After thirteen years of wandering in the footsteps of the Jews of the Lublin region, traveling the paths of mythical shtetls, and journeying through the microcosm of multicultural cities and towns scattered across Lublin land, Pardes Festival is setting off on the heritage trails of multicultural Greater Poland, coming to Leszno and Rydzyna. It will also visit Wschowa, where during the festival encounters in this remarkable town, we will discover the turbulent history of the Greater Poland and Silesia borderlands.
The festival's name serves as a metaphor for the centuries of Jewish presence across Europe. In the Hebrew language, 'Pardes' signifies a garden, orchard, or paradise. In its secondary meaning, drawn from Jewish mysticism, it describes the four levels of explaining the Torah. During the festival encounters, we step into the garden of Jewish memory, tradition, and culture, creating a space that evokes the rich multicultural heritage of Poland and Europe.
In 2026, this series of festival events connects Leszno, Wschowa, and Rydzyna, creating a space to explore history and its connections with the present day. Above all, it fosters a meeting ground with Jewish studies scholars, multicultural experts, prominent literary scholars, and exceptional artists.
The rich and diverse program, aimed at both younger and older audiences, invites participation in lectures, themed walking tours around Leszno, Wschowa, and Rydzyna, museum gatherings, and literary events linked to exhibitions showcasing Franz Kafka and Stefan Zweig—two giants of world literature—in a broad context. The musical events in the Pardes Festival program inspire audiences to experience music in its various forms and styles. The festival will open with a concert of traditional Jewish songs performed by the charismatic André Ochodlo. In contemporary arrangements and compositions created especially for the artist, traditional Jewish songs acquire a new life. Klezmer jam sessions around the former synagogue in Leszno—now the home of the District Museum in Leszno—along with a rich program evoking the history of the Jews of Greater Poland, will fill Saturday, September 12. We invite you to join us!
An accompanying event of the Pardes Festival is an exhibition prepared by the District Museum in Leszno and the State Archives in Leszno. It is dedicated to the Leszno-born Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873–1956), a philosopher, spiritual leader of Jews during the Nazi regime, and a moral authority in post-war Europe.
A detailed schedule of the festival events is presented on the festival's Facebook profile.
Touring festival
For years, the itinerant festival format has given Pardes Festival events a broader, cross-regional character. The organizers consistently pursue this approach, incorporating three exceptional locations into this year's edition: Leszno, Wschowa, and Rydzyna. Although situated close to one another, each has left its own distinct mark on the history of Greater Poland and the Silesia-Greater Poland borderland.
The Spichlerz Kultury Foundation, together with the festival partners, invites you to spend time together. They are creating an event that serves as an invitation to discuss Poland's rich multicultural heritage, the history of Polish and European Jews, memory and (forgetfulness), identity dilemmas, the intertwining of the past and present, and the experience of history so beautifully preserved in the architecture of Leszno, Wschowa, and Rydzyna. Local histories are becoming part of the contemporary narrative about Polish and European cultural landscapes.
The festival encounters do not close the topics they raise; instead, they open up a space for reflection on a past that is sometimes suppressed, and a difficult present filled with tensions, crises, and the threat of a war already raging at our borders.
Three spaces, three rhythms, a single message
The itinerant festival format is also an attempt to create events in partnership and cooperation with local government institutions, non-governmental organizations, residents, and audiences who live outside major cultural centers on a daily basis.
This year, the organizers invite you to three locations, each offering its own rhythm and a distinct genius loci, yet the message remains one: the festival program restores images from the past and sets them in a contemporary context. We ask about the nature of the relationship binding the present with the past. We foster a climate of acceptance for the 'other' and openness to cultural diversity, while working to eliminate 'hate speech' from the public sphere.
This year, the organizers invite you to three locations, each offering its own rhythm and a distinct genius loci, yet the message remains one: the festival program restores images from the past and sets them in a contemporary context. We ask about the nature of the relationship binding the present with the past. We foster a climate of acceptance for the 'other' and openness to cultural diversity, while working to eliminate 'hate speech' from the public sphere.
Honorary Patronage
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Grzegorz Rusiecki, Mayor of the City of Leszno
Grzegorz Rusiecki, Mayor of the City of Leszno
