In the mid 1950s, more than half of the lawyers in New York City were Jewish, and Jewish law students consistently graduated in the top ranks of the best law schools. But the elite crop of New York law firms had firmly established White Anglo Saxon Protestant identities and either didn’t hire Jews at all or didn’t promote them to their partnerships. That situation led to rapid growth of de facto Jewish law firms in the mid-twentieth century. Only a few decades later, there were no longer Jewish firms and WASP firms.

Episode 12 of Recognizably Jewish explores this history in detail, including the social, cultural, and business factors that contributed to the rise – and eventual obsolescence – of the New York Jewish law firm.

There are many Jewish artists who flourished during the 20th century. Mark Rothko. Amedeo Modigliani. Barnett Newman. Diane Arbus. Lee Krasner. Roy Lichtenstein. But no other visual artist was or is as closely associated with Jewish themes and imagery as Marc Chagall. Today on the Recognizably Jewish Podcast, we’ll learn about Chagall’s life, his art, and his place in the Jewish cultural canon.Check out our Substack: recognizablyjewish.substack.com

SHOW NOTES

You may not know who Sholem Aleichem is. Or you may just assume he’s a fusty old Yiddish author. But if you’ve ever laughed at an episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, you should know about Sholem Aleichem. If you’ve ever enjoyed a movie by Mel Brooks or Woody Allen, you should know about Sholem Aleichem. If you’ve ever appreciated a book by Philip Roth or Jonathan Safran Foer, you should know about Sholem Aleichem. If you’ve ever chuckled at a self-deprecating joke told by Rodney Dangerfield or Joan Rivers or Jon Stewart, you should know about Sholem Aleichem.

For this second episode in our informal series leading up to an episode about Fiddler on the Roof, we’ll learn about Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, whose tragicoming writing has been called the “anchoring work of the modern Jewish canon.”

SOURCES

Alisa Solomon, Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (https://a.co/d/f9zpnBO)

https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1142

https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2020/05/sholem-aleichem-the-yiddish-mark-twain/

https://tikvah.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Tikvah_StudyGuide_Wisse_v3.pdf

https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/discover/yiddish-literature/sholem-aleichem-conversation-ruth-wisse-and-david

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VouWU91olA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMhLaVUb4oc