Where Neon Goes to Die 

 
Cosponsored by Linda & Eric Lutz, Adrienne & Robert Z. Feldstein
and Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, Ellen Bates-Brackett, Director

A Special Director’s Selection

2007, 50 minutes, English, Color, USA

“..magically enriching and completely unexpected...”

The Miami-based Dora Teitelboim Center for Yiddish Culture makes its first foray into the world of film. It’s a bold attempt to detail the rise and fall of a Yiddish-speaking Jewish culture, beginning with the post- World War II era and ending with its demise in the heady “Miami Vice” days and beyond.

The title — from an oft-quoted statement by comedian Lenny Bruce — isn’t the only clue that the film is about a lost society; the first few seconds of the documentary comprise a montage of shuttered cafeterias, pastel-clad dancing retirees and implosions of faded hotels. Over the course of 53 minutes, the film, drawing on the center’s vast amount of archival footage, takes viewers on a journey that zigzags from the Yiddish vaudeville stage to the shtetl, the Everglades and back.

Producer/Director (and head of the Teitelboim Center) David Weintraub
has been invited to answer questions and discuss the film.

Followed by: Justice Louis D. Brandeis: The People's Attorney