Despite the taboo surrounding homosexuality, the topic was too intriguing to be left entirely out of the Yiddish picture. An exploration of lesbian and gay subtext in Yiddish cinema during its heyday, from the 1920’s to the outbreak of World War II, reveals distinctly Jewish concerns of the time intertwined with a striking array of allusions to this highly-charged subject.
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See full list of publications and lecture venues: scholarly anthologies to popular magazines, as well as colleges, film festivals, community centers and more throughout North America and Europe. Available as either a solo clips-lecture, or as a full-band multimedia presentation with live music.
A musical documentary theater adventure, by grandchild and bandleader Eve Sicular featuring Isle of Klezbos bandmates and special guest. From klezmer to Kodaly to jazz, baroque to boogie woogie to gospel, from Hazel Scott’s cancelled TV show to derelict theories of homosexuality, exploring surveillance files leads in even more directions than the Department of Justice could have foreseen. read more
PHOTO CREDITS top to bottom: NY Times, December 23, 2007, photo by Neal Boenzi; still from Yevreyskoe Schast'ye, USSR 1925 — courtesy of YIVO Archives; Yiddish Celluloid Closet poster— Peter Cramer; J Edgar Klezmer poster — Christie Grotheim and Kyle Hanson