Slide show: photographs by Arnold Chekow

America, Exhibits, Theater, Arnold Chekow, New York, photography, Yiddish theater

Caught in the Act is an exhibit of photographs by Arnold Chekow. Checkow grew up in the Bronx, the son of Jewish immigrants in whose house he learned Yiddish and absorbed Yiddish culture. A lawyer by profession, Chekow is also a skilled photographer who found his muse during the 1960s, capturing images of the still-lively Yiddish cultural scene in his native city. Click on the arrows below to view selections from an exhibit at the Yiddish Book Center through March 2013.

Title: Jacob Ben-Ami
Description: In the title role of Bontshe Shvayg (Bontshe the Silent), adapted from the I.L. Peretz story, at a small theater in the Bronx.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: "Se Habla Yiddish"
Description: The cash register at the Jewish Daily Forward rings up a sale.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: Gabriel Preil reads at the 92nd Street Y.
Description: Preil wrote in both Yiddish and Hebrew, a practice that was uncommon by the mid twentieth century.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: I.L. Schwartz
Description: Author of the 1925 epic-length poem "Kentucky." Reading from his collection of "Yunge Yorn" (Young Years).
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: Jacob Glatstein.
Description: In the 1920's, Glatstein was a founder of the "Inzikhistn" (Introspectivists), a modernist movement that revolutionized Yiddish poetry in America.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: Joseph Buloff.
Description: Buloff as Simcha Meyer in the Brothers Ashkenazi, adapted from I.J. Singer's novel. Performed in the Folksbiene Playhouse, 1971.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: Kadya Molodowsky
Description: Kadya Molodowsky recites one of her poems for Chekow in her Grand street spartment during the winter of 1970.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: Meyer Sticker
Description: Meyer Sticker, Yiddish poet, in his other job as managing editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, in the old Forward building on East Broadway.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: Sara Stabin
Description: In "The Court," based on I.B. Singer's memoirs, and performed at the Folkesbiene Playhouse in 1972.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow
Title: "Youth Sings Yiddish," in a concert in Washington Square Park in 1971.
Description: Featured this group: Zalmen Mlotek, Joshua Waletsky, Moyshe Rosenfeld, Khane Kliger and Betty Glasser.
Credits: Photo by Arnold Chekow

November 30, 2012