Shelley Salamensky

This project investigates what may be termed “Jewface” minstrelsy performances and “Jewfaçade” architectural and decorative displays—primarily by non-Jews, for both local audiences and foreign Jewish roots-seekers—in Europe and in the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia’s far east. It completes text-based and first-hand observational research on Jewface and Jewfaçade in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the JAR. It examines a significant cultural development that has received nearly no attention, with objectives of furthering understanding of Europe’s memory of its Jewish past; demonstrating complex ways in which this memory is represented and transmitted; and providing vital insight into constructs of “home” and “homeland” within and beyond the Jewish case.