Current Exhibits
Pages from a Performing Life: The Scrapbooks of Molly Picon
Small in stature but larger than life, Molly Picon commanded a global audience. Born to immigrant parents in New York, Picon spoke English from childhood, yet she rose to fame performing in Yiddish for audiences from Argentina to Zagreb. She entertained American troops in Korea and played to Jewish survivors in post-Holocaust Warsaw. She dressed as a yeshiva boy to play Yidl and an old woman to play Yente and in doing so won the hearts of audiences even if they did not speak Yiddish.
A combination showstopper and public servant, character actress and superstar, Molly Picon embodied the spirit of Yiddish theater and culture for the 20th century.
The American Jewish Historical Society presents a personal account of Molly Picon's life on and off the Yiddish theater stage in this exhibit of scrapbooks kept by the legendary performer and her husband and collaborator, Jacob Kalich.
Opens: January 26, 2009
Location: Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, NY
Directions to the Center for Jewish History. For Information and tours please call 212-294-6160
Photograph:Molly Picon in French Vodvil, Alhambre, Paris, France, 1936
The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan in cooperation with the
American Jewish Historical Society presents:
From Haven to Home: Jewish Life in America
At the Detroit Historical Museum
May 6, 2009-August 30, 2009.
Opening October 26, 2008, the American Jewish Historical Society presents:
Voices of Change: Jewish Youth in America
Young Jews in America have been prominent in the ranks of Jewish political and social movements from anarchism to the counterculture and feminism. They have played a key role in developing a Jewish press, pioneering new Jewish institutions, and creating alternatives to those institutions. They have also been the object of communal disapproval, anxiety and policy.
The exhibit includes leaflets, newsletters and reviews from World War I into the twenty-first century that contain expressions of their desire to “do something Jewish” to implement change, oppose oppression and war, assure the survival of Yiddish, find their own Jewish identity and new forms of religious observance.
Location: Center for Jewish History, mezzanine, 15 W. 16th Street, New York
Directions to the Center for Jewish HistoryFor information and tours please call 212-294-6160