Well that snow is settled here in New York City. The streets of the Bronx are covered. The traffic and children seem to be playing in the streets together…and I’ve been thinking about the history of Yiddish puppeteering for the past 15 minutes.:) Last summer, when I rummaged through the piles of donated books at The National Yiddish Book Center’s warehouse, I remember passing over a few Yiddish journals that satirized the current political and social climate both within and without the Jewish neighborhoods of New York and The Pale. When I think about the visions that Jewschool has for our future, I often look for moments in Jewish history that kindle the flames of Jewish artists who remained on the vanguard. Even though it dismantles my revolutionary fervor, it engulfs me in awe. I know puppeteering, adopted from the gentiles by Yiddish speakers in the Pale, contributed a new critique of local politics from a transnational perspective unique to European Jews. That’s really cool, I think. Check out these links on Jews, puppets and Zuni Maud, an obscure (but thick with slickness) graphic artist from di alter heym.
Modicut Puppet Theatre: Modernism, Satire, and Yiddish Culture By Edward Portnoy
Gel’e bleter (Yellow leaves) by A.M. Dillon with drawings by Zuni Maud / Yung Vilneh trods the Baltic).
Zuni Maud and Yiddish Children’s Books