Young scholars are re-exploring through contemporary thought, practice and tradition, politics,literature, film, and culture. Beth Elohim invites some of these scholars to discuss their cutting-edge work, in dialogue with Rabbi Daniel Bronstein, as part of our Bagel Brunch series

Jewish Blackface, from Eddie Cantor to Chess Records

Dr. Ari Kelman
As songwriters, nightclub owners, record producers, and performers, Jews have had a strange and intimate relationship with African American popular culture. This relationship became most visible and most troubling in the blackface performances of Jewish performers like Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, and Eddie Cantor. On the one hand, their appearances were pure exploitation. On the other hand, they were just trading in popular forms, and occasionally even paying tribute to African American performers. So what do we make of this legacy? What did it mean to audiences of the time, and what might its legacy mean to us?

$5 class fee