by Anna Khomina, Research and Special Projects Intern, Center for Jewish HistoryVisitors to exhibits at the Center for Jewish History sometimes discover the Ackman and Ziff Genealogy Institute and the adjacent Lillian Goldman Reading Room, and they wonder what these serene and light-filled research oases are. This post serves as a basic introduction to these two rooms, based on inquiries I have received from…
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…
A Perspective on the Revolutionary Warin honor of the Fourth of Julyby Anna Khomina, Research and Special Projects Intern, Center for Jewish History Although the Declaration of Independence–the symbol of America’s freedom and autonomy–was signed July 4, 1776, the real battle for independence had just begun. The American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 to 1783, came as a shock to many colonists, most of…
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…