A Lens onto the Jewish Past: How Do Prints of Eastern European Jewish Life Speak to Us Today?

Join us for a conversation with Susan Chevlowe, Ph.D., director and chief curator of Derfner Judaica and The Art Collection at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

In this illustrated talk, Chevlowe revisits an exhibition she organized at the Derfner Judaica Museum in Riverdale, New York, that opened to the public just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closing of cultural institutions throughout the city. She explores how the current moment provides a lens that increases the viewer’s empathy and gives the works by the artists in the show new relevance and meaning today. Prints by 11 artists from the exhibition whose subjects and styles were shaped by their experiences of displacement, genocide, and massive social and political upheaval in the late 19th and 20th centuries will be discussed.

Chevlowe is a former curator at The Jewish Museum and taught in the Jewish Art and Visual Culture program at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is the author of numerous essays and texts on American and Israeli artists, including Leonard Freed, Hana Iverson, Ben Katchor, Jill Nathanson, Adi Nes, and Archie Rand and Ben Shahn, among many others.

All Fordham events in Jewish Studies are free.