Yiddishland California

The Old Rebbe: Yehuda Pen and the Birth of Jewish Fine Art
2026-05-31 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Jennifer Stern will talk about the painter Yehuda Pen, who was Marc Chagall’s first art teacher in Vitebsk, Russia.
Pen was not an obviously revolutionary artist; he trained at the art academy in St. Petersburg and painted in an old-fashioned style. But he was the first Russian artist to combine traditional techniques with openly Jewish subject matter – drawn not from the Hebrew Bible but from the daily lives of ordinary Jews. Pen invented “Jewish fine art” in Russia, and passed on this innovation to the mostly Jewish students at his Vitebsk art school.
Chagall, El Lissitzky, Solomon Yudovin and other Pen students embraced the avant-garde, but in a distinctively Jewish way. Without “the Old Rebbe,” Chagall’s affectionate nickname for Pen, Jewish modern art in Russia (and beyond) might never have existed.
Come learn about Pen himself and about some of his famous students.
When: Sunday, May 31, 2026, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT / 2–3 p.m. ET / 8–9 p.m. CET.
Where: on Zoom
Cost:
Early bird: $18 (if registered before Sunday, May 17, 2026)
Regular admission: $25
Jennifer Stern lives near Boston, Massachusetts. She has an MA in Art History from Yale University. She dedicated 26 years of service to the Art History Department at Brandeis University. She writes about art and culture in English and Yiddish for the Forverts.

Jews and Classical Music
2026-09-13 11:00 - 12:40 (America/Denver)
This will be a lecture that includes photos and music.
When: Sunday, September 13, 2026, 11 a.m. – 12:40 p.m. PT / 12 p.m. – 1:40 p.m. MST / 1 p.m. – 2:40 p.m. CST / 2 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. EST
Where: Online (Zoom)
Cost:
Early bird pricing: $20 per lecture
Regular pricing: $25 per lecture
Artist Name: Yale Strom
Artist’s Bio: Yale Strom (violin) is one of the world’s leading ethnographer-artists of klezmer and Romani music and history. With a master’s degree in Yiddish Studies, he has conducted extensive ethnographic research across Eastern Europe on Jewish and Romani musical culture.
His fieldwork shaped the repertoire of his klezmer band Hot Pstromi and informed his work directing 10 award-winning documentary films, including The Last Klezmer (Oscar short-list).
Strom has written 15 books and two award-winning audio dramas, recorded 20 CDs, and presented numerous photo exhibitions in North America and Europe. His latest documentary, Recordially Yours: Lou Curtiss (2023), explores the life of San Diego audiophile-ethnomusicologist Lou Curtiss; he is currently developing a musical on Marc and Bella Chagall. Strom was Artist-in-Residence in Jewish Studies at San Diego State University (2006–2020). He now teaches in the Music Department and previously taught at New York University. His first historical novel, The Autobiography of the Offenbacher, will be published in 2026.
