Sunday, January 20, 2019 1 PM (Inclement weather date - January 27 at 1 PM), Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem, USA, 2014, 75 minutes. English. Narrated by Alan Alda. This film features the portraits of two beloved icons - Sholom Aleichem and Theodore Bikel - that are woven together in this enchanting new documentary. The two men have much in common: wit, wisdom, and talent. Bikel’s masterful performance of stories, songs, and monologues from his stage shows are intertwined into a broader examination of Sholom Aleichem’s life and work and their continuing relevance to Jewish culture.

 

Sunday, February 10, 2019, 1 PM (Inclement weather date - February 24 at 1 PM) The Singing Blacksmith (Yankl Der Schmid) USA, 1938, 95 minutes.  Yiddish with new English subtitles. Moishe Oysher, the renowned cantor and star of Yiddish radio, stars in the musical version of David Pinski’s play Yankl der Shmid. Singing, dancing, and flashing his eyes, Oysher gives his most robust performance as a passionate shtetl blacksmith who must struggle against temptation in order to become a mensch.

 

Sunday, March 10, 2019 1 PM His Wife's Lover (Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik) USA, 1931,                80 minutes. Yiddish with new English subtitles.   Billed as the "first Jewish musical comedy

talking picture," His Wife’s Lover stars the popular Yiddish theater comedian Ludwig Satz in one of his only surviving film performances. When handsome actor Eddie Wien decides to marry, his uncle Oscar Stein warns that all women are frivolous and selfish, only on the lookout for a fat pocketbook. To prove him wrong, Eddie woos shop girl Golde Blumberg while disguised as a repulsive old millionaire “Herman Weingarten.”

 

These programs are made possible in part by the Monmouth County Historical Commission through funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders.