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The Picture and Price of Jewish Assimilation in Documentary & Feature Silent Film
Monday, February 22, 2021 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
The early twentieth century was a period of assimilation and acculturation for large segments of the Jewish population living in the United States and Central and Eastern Europe. It was also a time of development and flowering for cinema – a new, democratic art form. Focusing on documentaries as well as feature silent films, 2019 Jan Karski & Pola Nirenska Award recipient Professor Daniel Grinberg will analyze the changing character and perception of Jews in both the United States and Poland.
This analysis will be compared with sociological theories and observations, as well as with literary presentations of the subject (I. Zangwill, A Yezierska, A Gordin). This talk will also consider the price of assimilation for Jewish communities of this period, the persistent “myth of America,” omnipresent in Yiddish culture before WW2, and antisemitic stereotypes and cliches popular in films of the 1920s and 1930s.
Ticket Info: Free; register at yivo.org/Jewish-Assimilation for a Zoom link