Radical Jewish Culture: The Birth, Life and Death of Soviet Jewish Theater and Cinema

In 1922, Joseph Stalin went to see the Hebrew-language theater Habimah in its famous birthplace, Moscow, years before it would leave the Soviet Union and set up its permanent home in Tel Aviv. He might not have understood the words, but he knew that this was the thing to do in 1922 Moscow. The 1920s were a time of fabulous cultural creativity worldwide, but nowhere more so than in the Soviet Union, the revolutionary darling of the left, the evil bogeyman of the right.

During this Salon Night with David Shneer we’ll learn about the radical Jewish culture that flourished in the Soviet 1920s as culture makers like Marc Chagall, El Lissitsky and Perets Markish envisioned a whole new Jewish world.

Associate professor of history and director of the program in Jewish studies at UC Boulder, David Shneer is a taboo-breaking scholar whose work concentrates on modern Jewish society and culture. He is the author of Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture and he’ll join our Salon Night to discuss the history and why Jewish culture continues to be relevant today.