Boston Premiere
Thursday, March 31, 6:30 pm
Newly Restored Yiddish Feature Film
USA, 1940, 87 min, Yiddish with English subtitles
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
In celebration of the Jewish community’s 350th anniversary in America

Starring Leo Fuchs, “the Yiddish Fred Astaire,” as an elegant and eligible bachelor who never quite closes a marriage deal, American Matchmaker was Edgar G. Ulmer’s last Yiddish film; it was also his most modern, an art deco romantic comedy set on New York’s Upper West Side. This clash between the urbane, slick manners of the new country and the old, busybody, communal ways of the shtetl, offers a satisfying combination of humor, music and schmaltz.

Introduction & Book Signing: Jonathan Sarna, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University; Author, American Judaism: A History (2004)