
Jews, and the Transformation of American Folklore
September 19 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
FreeEli N. Evans Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies with Dr. Naomi Graber, University of Georgia.
The Center’s inaugural Alumni Lecture. Co-sponsored by the department of music. In-person event: September 19th, 5:30pm.
Ghetto Pastoral: Street Scene, Jews, and the Transformation of American Folklore
In 1947, Kurt Weill, Elmer Rice, and Langston Hughes’s Street Scene opened on Broadway. Although Weill referred to the work as a “Broadway opera,” Street Scene embodies what Michael Denning calls a “ghetto pastoral,” a genre that arose in the early 1930s depicting violent, yet innocent coming-of-age stories in ethnic or black urban working-class neighborhoods, combining naturalism and allegory to prove that urban communities could produce a new style of folk hero. Within this pastoral-folkloric atmosphere, Jewish characters take center stage. Sam Kaplan, the Jewish hero of “Street Scene,” is the moral center of the community, and sings in the most folkloric genres, cementing his status as a true “American.” He also presents a strong contrast to his father, an ardent Communist, proving that second-generation immigrants could assimilate, even if their parents could not. Still, notes and drafts for Street Scene reveal that Weill and Rice struggled with both characters. Over the course of production, Sam became more traditionally “heroic,” while his father’s Communist leanings were significantly toned down. “Street Scene” thus demonstrates the difficulties of inserting Jews into American folklore in a post-Holocaust United States.

As part of the Center’s 20th anniversary celebrations in 2022-2023, this lecture is the inaugural Alumni Lecture hosted by the Center. Dr. Graber was the first graduate student to receive a full-year dissertation fellowship from the Center, and thus, it seems fitting to have her also provide the inaugural Alumni Lecture.
Additional event details TBA.