Rubinstein, the street jester of the Warsaw ghetto, photographed in 1941. Courtesy of Beit Lohamei Haghetaot (Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum)
2019 J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Annual Lecture
Rubinstein was viewed as both a philosophical prophet and a comic fool of the Warsaw ghetto. Rooted in an Eastern European Jewish culture of jesters (badkhanim), Rubinstein used to roam the streets of the ghetto, amusing passersby with his extravagant body gestures, puns, and sayings, including his most famous: "Alle gleich—urm un reich!" ("All are equal—poor and rich!”)
In this lecture, Amos Goldberg attempts to decipher the meaning of Rubinstein’s humor, his popularity among the ghetto inhabitants and his impact during the Holocaust.
Speaker
Amos Goldberg, Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This program is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. For more information, please contact calendar@ushmm.org.
THE J. B. AND MAURICE C. SHAPIRO SENIOR SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE FELLOWSHIP, endowed by the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Charitable Trust, enables the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies to bring a distinguished scholar to the Museum each year to conduct innovative research about the Holocaust and to disseminate this work to the public. The scholar in residence also leads seminars, lectures at universities in the United States and serves as a resource for the Museum, educators, students, and the general public.