The Old Rebbe: Yehuda Pen and the Birth of Jewish Fine Art
Sunday, May 31, 2026 from 11 AM to 12 PM
- Add to Google Calendar
- Add to Outlook Calendar
Download ICS file
Virtual
All Ages
Before Chagall became Chagall, there was Yehuda Pen.
Join art historian Jennifer Stern for an illuminating lecture on Yehuda Pen, the first Russian artist to combine classical technique with Jewish subject matter drawn from everyday life. Pen's Vitebsk art school became a cradle of Jewish modernism, nurturing talents such as Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky, and Solomon Yudovin.
Date: Sunday, May 31, 2026
Time: 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT / 2–3 p.m. ET
Platform: Zoom
Cost: $18 early bird (If registered before May 17, 2026) | $25 regular
Jennifer Stern holds an MA in Art History from Yale University and dedicated 26 years to the Art History Department at Brandeis University. She writes on art and culture in English and Yiddish for the Forverts.
Jennifer Stern discusses the painter Yehuda Pen—Marc Chagall’s first art teacher in Vitebsk and how Pen helped create “Jewish fine art” in Russia by combining traditional techniques with openly Jewish everyday subject matter. We’ll also explore Pen’s influential students, including Chagall, El Lissitzky, and Solomon Yudovin, and why “the Old Rebbe” mattered to Jewish modern art.
Event Supported By
Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America
+1 858-220-2992
info@yiddishland.ca