More in ‘1930s’

In 1936, the novelist and critic Ludwig Lewisohn was asked to name the world’s ten greatest living Jews. The resulting list, which ran in The New York Times, included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Louis Brandeis. Lewisohn deemed only one writer great enough to be included in this illustrious company: Sholem Asch.

The Polish-born ...

Every self-respecting collector of blue-chip 20th-century design these days owns at least a piece or two by Jean-Michel Frank. The Parisian elite’s favorite interior designer in the 1920s and ’30s, Frank specialized in what connoisseurs call luxe pauvre—“impoverished luxury.” He’d wrap spindly, minimalist tables or chairs in rarefied materials—goatskin, vellum, glittery mica—to look modern, but ...

Jews were once as critical to the boxing world as Kenyans are to long distance running today. In 1930s New York City, legendary champions like Benny Leonard and Barney Ross fought before largely Jewish audiences. And when these fans remember the German boxer Max Schmeling, they recall that he had a Jewish manager and saved ...

For anyone who’s ever gazed at their housecat and wondered what depths of wisdom and perversity lay hidden behind those half-closed, almond-shaped eyes, along comes The Rabbi’s Cat. French author Joann Sfar’s erudite, charming, and hilarious graphic novel, set in 1930s Algeria, stars an earthy old rabbi and a hyperintelligent, scrawny feline. This learned but ...