Plaque Depicting Lions Supporting Tablets of the Law. Circa 1929. Wood and paint. Yeshiva University Museum. For more, visit the Center for Jewish History’s Flickr photostream.Click here to connect with the Center for Jewish History on Facebook.
The Goldbergs, Puzzle AdvertisementYear: 1932Creator: Pepsodent Co. Type: Color Lithograph The Goldbergs, one of the first successful television sitcoms, spawned from a popular radio program and ran from 1949 to 1956. The show centered around a family of Eastern European Jews living in the Bronx, and often explored themes of ethnicity, financial struggles, and family. The undeniable star of the show was matriarch Mollie…
Marriage Contract Form (Ketubah) Creator: Chaim GrossType: Lithograph on paperYear: 1979Repository: Yeshiva University Museum —– Join the 16th Street Book Club for a discussion of The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer! Tuesday, August 14th at 7pm When the wife of renowned art critic Daniel Lichtmann plunges to her death, she is not alone. Lying next to her is Benjamin Wind, the very artist Daniel…
Refuseniks (отказники)by Anna Khomina, Research and Special Projects Intern, Center for Jewish History The refuseniks were Soviet Jews who sought and were denied permission to emigrate out of the USSR in the ‘60s and ’70s, and who organized protests (such as the ones pictured above) to call attention to their plight. Jews in the Soviet Union were systematically discriminated against and barred from certain…
Molly Picon in Bublitchki Year: 1938Type: PhotographRepository: American Jewish Historical Society Moshe Leib-Halpern had this to say about Yiddish theater in America: “There was once a vulgarian who went to synagogue … when he wanted to weep, and to a bawdyhouse … when he wanted to be gay. But once, when he wanted to weep and be gay at the same time, he put…
Happy (Belated) Birthday, Emma Goldman!by Melanie J. Meyers, Senior Reference Services Librarian, Center for Jewish History “No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.” –Emma Goldman Emma Goldman was an influential political thinker, anarchist and feminist. She was born on June 27, 1869 to an orthodox Jewish family in Kovno, Russia, in what is…
Molly Picon by Anna Khomina, Research and Special Projects Intern, Center for Jewish History In 1903, at five years old, Molly Picon (1898-1992) was on her way to a Philadelphia theater for a contest. On the trolley car, a drunken passenger challenged her to perform her act on the spot, and she complied, adding on an imitation of the drunk at the end, to…
Yiddish Theaterby Anna Khomina, Research and Special Projects Intern, Center for Jewish History The tradition of Yiddish theater in America began in the 1880s and flourished into the 1920s, as Jewish immigrants streaming in from Eastern Europe yearned for a taste of the old country as well as a mode of entertainment and a gathering space that distracted them from the bustle and drudgery…