The biggest Jewish event in Dunoon for many years took place when SCoJeC organised a "Celebration of Jewish Music" with Glasgow’s newest Klezmer band, Kasha-Malasha, as part of our Being Jewish in Scotland project. We had been in touch with five or six local Jewish people prior to the event, and weren’t expecting a big audience, but when the doors of Sandford Village Hall opened at 3pm, more than thirty people had turned up! One woman, who was new to the area and really missing contact with other  Jewish people, had been delighted to see a Jewish event advertised in the local paper, and came along with her husband. Another was working on a local farm for a couple of weeks, and had heard about the event from a Jewish friend.  A third, an Israeli, also came with her husband, a local man.

The event begain with a "getting to know you" session and buffet in Sandbank Village Hall, after which the assembled company jumped into cars, and went down to the Braes in Dunoon, where John Kelly and his musician friends had invited Kasha-Malasha to join in their regular Sunday afternoon performance. After a few traditional Scottish tunes from John’s group, it was time for Klezmer! Bob Leiser on double base, Mirek Pukacz on fiddle, Richard Norris on clarinet, and SCoJeC project worker Fiona Frank on concertina and melodeon, accompanied Marzanna Antoniak, who sang a selection of traditional songs in Russian, Polish and Yiddish. Fiona led the audience in some traditional Klezmer dancing and a good time was had by all!

After the music and dancing people began to share their experiences of being Jewish in Scotland. As one woman said: “Every Jew has a story to tell, and every story is different because we’ve become so scattered; every experience is really interesting."