Jewface: “Yiddish” Dialect Songs of Tin Pan Alley

Opening Reception Watch the video

With his fake beard, putty nose, and thick Yiddish accent, the “stage Jew” was once a common character in vaudeville, part of a genre that mocked immigrants and minorities. Essentially a variant of blackface minstrelsy, the music that accompanied these “Jewface” performances was not only performed on stage, but also published as colorfully illustrated sheet music so fans could play them at home. Outrageous and offensive by today’s standards, these “Yiddish” dialect songs exploited a variety of unpleasant stereotypes about Jews. 

Based in part on the sheet music collection of The New York Times’ Sunday Magazine Critic-at-large Jody Rosen, YIVO presents its latest exhibition, Jewface: “Yiddish” Dialect Songs of Tin Pan Alley. Join Eddy Portnoy (Senior Researcher & Exhibition Curator, YIVO), the curator of Jewface, and Jody Rosen for a discussion with Tablet Magazine editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse about this form of early 20th-century entertainment, how it mocked Jews, engaged Jews, and developed Yiddish-accented English for comic effect. Allen Rickman, Yelena Shmulenson, and Steve Sterner will be performing selections from the exhibit, as well as a number of classic Yiddish/English comedy routines.

About the Participants

Eddy Portnoy received his Ph.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary. His dissertation was on cartoons of the Yiddish press. He also holds an M.A in Yiddish Studies from Columbia, having written on artists/writers Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler. His articles on Jewish popular culture phenomena have appeared in The Drama Review, Polin, and The International Journal of Comic Art. In addition to speaking on Jewish popular culture throughout Europe and North America, he has consulted on museum exhibits at the Museum of the City of New York, Musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme in Paris, and the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam. He is Senior Researcher & Exhibition Curator at YIVO, as well as YIVO’s Academic Advisor for the Max Weinreich Center.

Jody Rosen is critic at large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine. His writing on music and culture has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and many other publications. He was the music critic for New York, Slate, and the Nation, and a senior critic at Rolling Stone. He is the author of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song and the compiler of Jewface, an anthology of early 20th century Jewish dialect songs, released by the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation in 2006.  His new book, Two Wheels Good: A Bicycle History of the World, will published by Crown in 2017. 

Alana Newhouse is the editor in chief of Tablet Magazine, which she founded in 2009.

Allen Lewis Rickman is a writer, director, and actor. His plays have been produced in France, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, and New Jersey. His directing work includes the Yiddish Pirates of Penzance, which he also co-adapted and acted in, and which was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revival; Paul Kane’s Dancing On Nails Off-Broadway; and The Small Empire, which he co-wrote and directed for Centenary Stage. Acting credits include Relatively Speaking on Broadway, Barry Levinson’s You Don’t Know Jack (with Al Pacino), a recurring role on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and extensive work Off-Broadway, in regional theatre, and in Yiddish theatre. He appears in two movies in current release, Fading Gigolo and Chinese Puzzle. But he’s probably best known for his performance in the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated A Serious Man.

Yelena Shmulenson was born in Belarus, spent her early childhood in Siberia, her adolescence in the Ukraine, and emigrated here in 1993. She’s perhaps best known for her performance as the icepick-wielding wife in the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated “A Serious Man”. Other film and TV credits include “Boardwalk Empire” (as ‘Mrs. Manny Horvitz’), Robert De Niro’s “The Good Shepherd”, “Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish”, and “Chinese Puzzle” (w/ Audrey Tautou; upcoming); stage credits include five seasons Off-Broadway with the Folksbiene, two at the Ellis Island Theatre, “The Golem of Havana”, “The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum” (Fringe/tour), “Covers”, (New York and Moscow), etc. She’s won three Earphones Awards for her recorded books, and is fluent in five languages.

Steve Sterner has written music for and accompanied over 300 silent films at venues such as Film Forum, MOMA, Lincoln Center, BAM and the Thalia Theater. A veteran New York City pianist, he has also performed Off-Broadway and on television.