If you find yourself in Manhattan on Sunday, June 5, finish your business, grab a bite, and head over to Symphony Space, on Broadway between 94th and 95th streets, where, at 4:30 p.m., the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus is presenting a concert of Yiddish music that will make you want to sing along and tap your feet.

This year’s concert, “Love, Loss, Laughter: Favorite Yiddish Folk Songs” includes “Oyfn Pripetshik,” “Der Rebbe Elimelech,” “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen, and “Zuntik Bulbes,” along with lesser-known songs that illustrate what life was like in Eastern Europe a century ago. The concert also includes newer Yiddish numbers, by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman and the late Avrom Sutzkever, and one written by Josh Waletzky to commemorate 9/11. English translations and explanations are always provided, so the audience enjoys the concert and learns about the backgrounds and meanings of many great Yiddish songs.

The West Side Theatre in Manhattan, 8:03 p.m. The stage lights up revealing eight all-white creatures except for their red lips. They scream. The lights turn off.

So begins the new Off Broadway show “The Voca People.” The premise is that aliens from Voca, a planet behind the sun, crash-land on Earth. They communicate only through song and sounds. Singing is also an energy source for the Voca’s spaceship; the aliens sing human songs, unaccompanied, to get enough power to fly home.

The brainchild of creator Lior Kalfo and co-creator and musical director Shai Fishman, “The Voca People” originated in Tel Aviv. The troupe of six vocalists and two “beat boxers” (artists who use their mouths to make incredible sound effects) gained popularity from a video of a practice session that was posted on YouTube. Now, with more than 8 million hits, “The Voca People” are an international sensation.

Days after I learned I was going to Poland for a conference on Child Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, I was asked to prolong my stay by Sigmund Rolat, chairman of the North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He wanted me to learn about the museum being built where the Warsaw Ghetto once stood (I discovered it sits on top of the street where my mother and grandmother lived) and to see some of Poland.

Most especially, however, Rolat wanted me to experience the I.B. Singer Festival, sponsored by The Shalom Foundation and run by a human powerhouse and the Polish queen of Yiddish culture, Golda Tencer. As an actress in the state-run E.R. Kaminska Yiddish Theater, Golda established the foundation in 1988 to promote Yiddish culture and “pass on its rich heritage.” In addition to theatrical performances, seminars, courses, and film festivals, the foundation established the first kindergarten and Sunday School for Jewish children in post-Communist Poland.