CFY is Proud to Support the Tribute to Dzigan and Schumacher Film Series at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival
Enjoy this three-part screening series devoted to the comedy team Shimon Dzigan and Israel Schumacher, considered by many to be the greatest Yiddish comedy performers. Sometimes compared to Abbott and Costello, Dzigan and Schumacher are a product of the Jewish working class in Lodz, and emerged as a popular duo in Warsaw in the second half of the thirties, against the backdrop of the Depression and emergence of Nazism. These roots form the subversive edge of their humour that still resonates today.
This tribute consists of Dzigan and Schumacher’s first and last film appearances, as well as a 2003 documentary that chronicles the team’s trajectory from Lodz to the Soviet Union to Israel, with stops in New York, Paris and Argentina along the way.
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival is proud to offer the world premiere of a new restoration and translation of the Al Khet (1936), one of the first Yiddish sound films made in Poland, as well as the landmark of postwar Jewish cinema, Our Children (1948). Both in-person screenings will be introduced by Dr. Diego Rotman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Toronto), author of The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home: Dzigan and Shumacher’s Satirical Theater (1927-1980).
In-Person Screenings:
Unzere Kinder (Our Children)
June 6, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Carleton Cinema
"Our Children is not only among the first films about the Holocaust, it is also the first to critique its representation.” (J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds). This landmark semi-documentary film features comedy duo Shimon Dzigan and Israel Schumacher in a virtuoso turn as all the characters in Sholem Aleichem's Kasrilevke is Burning. The audience consists of children from the Helenowek Colony, an orphanage and school for Holocaust survivors near Lodz. When audience and performers exchange roles, the kids demonstrate the healing power of music, dance, and storytelling. Produced in 1948, Our Children is the last Yiddish feature made in Poland.
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Guest: Dr. Diego Rotman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Toronto), author of The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home: Dzigan and Shumacher’s Satirical Theater.
Al Khet
June 8, 2025 | 2:00 PM
Innis Town Hall
WORLD PREMIERE OF RESTORATION AND NEW TRANSLATION
Out of circulation for generations, Al Khet marks the film debut of comedy duo Shimon Dzigan and Israel Schumacher and one of the very first Yiddish sound films made in Poland. Set in a small Jewish town during World War I, the film follows a rabbi’s daughter who becomes pregnant by a German-Jewish officer. After his death in battle, she abandons the child and flees to America as the town is evacuated before the Russian advance. It is Dzigan and Schumacher who recover the baby and reunite mother and child in the last reel. Blending melodrama, comedy and music (including a song, "Shpil Mir a Yidishe Tango"), “Al Khet has the heavy chiaroscuro of a contemporary European art film [and the story] … is certainly less oblivious to historical events than comparable American melodramas, haunted as it is by the wartime destruction of Galicia.” (J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds)
Newly-restored by the National Center for Jewish Film in memory of Eda Zimler Schiff.
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Guest: Dr. Diego Rotman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Toronto), author of The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home: Dzigan and Shumacher’s Satirical Theater.
Online Screening: Free!
It Sounds Better in Yiddish
June 14-16, 2025
TJFF Virtual Cinema
We are delighted to present this loving and comprehensive documentary on legendary Yiddish comedy duo Shimon Dzigan and Israel Schumacher. Part of a ten-episode television series on the origins of Israeli comedy, the film serves as both a biography of the comedy team as well as a look into the changing status of Yiddish culture in Israel. The film boasts an abundance of film clips, rare footage and recreations of Dzigan and Schumacher’s Polish and Israeli theatre performances. It also includes interviews with the daughter of Israel Schumacher, Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol as well as actors such as Mike Burstyn and Hana Laszlo.
ORDER TICKETS HERE
