By Martin B. Shichtman
Professor Emeritus of English/Jewish Studies, Eastern Michigan University
EMU Students at the Joseph Papps Public Theater
From February 24 to February 28, 2025, Marty Shichtman (Professor Emeritus, English/Jewish Studies) and Pirooz Aghssa (Professor, Theatre) accompanied a group of 15 Eastern Michigan University Students to New York City for our class, “Jewish Identity and American Theater.” Travel classes like this are extremely intense, with faculty and students often on the go from early in the morning until nearly midnight. We visited Greenwich Village, the East Village, the Lower East Side, and Broadway. We went to showings of Cabaret (with Adam Lambert) and Gypsy (with Audra McDonald). We met with EMU alum, Michael Page, General Manager of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, who invited us to a performance of the New York Philharmonic (with guest violinist Hilary Hahn).
The class inside the Eldridge Street Synagogue
Most EMU Students are working-class. Many of them are first-generation college students. Several had never been on an airplane before this journey. Only a few had been to New York. This trip provided opportunities to think about and discuss how Jews, a tiny minority culture, even in New York City, have influenced American culture, have provided an intellectual foundation for the arts in the United States.
EMU Student Shayla Mostyn at the bima of the Eldridge Street Synagogue
This class was made possible by EMU Center for Jewish Studies and its benefactors. Our students could not afford this experience without such financial assistance. The EMU CJS provides the kinds of support that opens worlds of possibilities.