Sunday, May 26 – Wednesday, July 3

Forget the stereotypes: the Yiddish Cinema is really just like any other world cinema, only ‘writ small.’ In its late 1930's heyday, Yiddish movies – shot in either New York or Poland – covered a broad range of genres: comedies, soap operas, films of the supernatural, literary adaptations, musicals… pretty much everything except westerns and science fiction. The one unifying element is how, through language, gesture, and a common cultural sensibility, these funny, touching, and atmospheric movies captured the essence of the Jewish soul… on the day before the apocalypse.

Restored by Lobster Films, Paris, and presented by Kino Lorber, these beautiful restorations – vastly superior to anything done before – feature, for the first time ever, complete subtitle translations, by noted Yiddish translator (A SERIOUS MAN, BOARDWALK EMPIRE) Allen Lewis Rickman.

CUNY Graduate Center