The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

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Peter Antelyes

Peter Antelyes is an associate professor at Vassar College, where he teaches in the English Department and the American Culture Program. Author of Tales of Adventurous Enterprise: Washington Irving and the Poetics of Western Expansion and essays on ethnic literatures and cultures, he is currently at work on a study of multiracial literatures in the United States.

Articles by this author

Vaudeville in the United States

Jewish women in vaudeville helped to cultivate a unique American Jewish identity. Headliners Sophie Tucker, Belle Baker, and Fanny Brice were prominent, as were performers such as Nan Halperin and Nora Bayes. Molly Picon was a star of Yiddish theater, and Sarah Bernhardt a star of the stage. The reign of Jewish female vaudevillians ended in the 1930s, but their voices continue to be heard.