Talk:Jewface
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[edit] Potential for an article
BrianSmithson points out at Talk:Blackface that The Village Voice has an article (by Michangelo Matos) on American vaudeville songs about stereotyped Jews. I've heard Jody Rosen of Slate do an excellent talk on the topic at Experience Music Project's 2005 Pop Conference; only the abstract is online though: Abstract of "'Yankee Doodle Abie': Tin Pan Alley Sings 'Hebrew'". Amazingly (as Rosen demonstrated in that talk) "God Bless America" musically quotes/plagiarizes "When Mose With His Nose Leads the Band".
Most of these songs, by the way, were written by Jews, including Irving Berlin. I believe "Jewface" is Rosen's term, referencing "blackface".
Among the more interesting remarks in Rosen's talk was that many of these songs, which could easily be read as antisemitic (and were widely so read at the time), are so thick with Yiddicisms that they were obviously intended for a mainly Ashkenazi Jewish audience, because who else would have been able to understand them? - Jmabel | Talk 01:43, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
- Just a quick note: "Jewface" gets at least a respectable number of hits at Google Books and Google Scholar. The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project has 22 public-domain examples. I'd investigate further, but I've got my hands full with minstrel show and coon song. — BrianSmithson 09:04, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
- I'm not sure turn-of-the century novelty songs based on stereotypes about Jews would be too encyclopedically distinct from those about Irish or Germans or Italians. Perhaps we should have a general article on Vaudeville ethnic humor.--Pharos 16:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
