Salomon Bielasiak (PL/F; Yiddish language)

Salomon was born in 1948 in Lodz, Poland. He is a honorary advocate at the bar in Paris.
As a child Salomon learned the Yiddish language and Jewish history in the secular Jewish school in Lodz. In 1955, his father took him to see a Yiddish-language performance with the big actress Ida Kaminska by the Jewish National Polish Theater Company - an experience that had a great and lasting influence on his love for the language and songs.

When he moved to France with his parents in 1957, Salomon continued to learn Yiddish with the best teachers in Paris. In the sixties, he regularly recited Yiddish poetry, for example every 19th April in honor of the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

In 1988, he began collecting Yiddish songs from all over the world, building up an important collection.
He is a member of a collective of five Jewish cultural associations in Paris and is working towards getting the Purim-Shpil UNESCO.

He has spoken at numerous festivals including the festival of Jewish Culture in Paris where he popularized yiddish song and literature and belongs to the commitee of  remembrance of the CRIF (Representative Council  of Jewish Institutions in France), where he reports on the latest news in the Yiddish world.
Salomon regularly visits and takes part in many international festivals and competitions as Weimar, Berlin, Fürth, Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, Vienna, Tel Aviv where he loves discovering new talents in the area of yiddish song and invites  them to perform in Paris and Deauville where he presides over the association DPCJ (Deauville for Jewish Cultures).

Salomon has received the Max Cukierman award for Yiddish 2015, which is in France the most important award for a person who acts for Yiddish.

Photo: Adam Berry