What did it mean to flirt, date, and fall in love as a Jewish immigrant in early 20th-century New York? This class explores how the social dances hosted by landsmanshaftn—Jewish hometown mutual aid societies—became crucial spaces for young people to forge romantic relationships and assert their independence from their parents. Drawing from oral histories and Yiddish literature, we’ll examine how the ballroom floor both reflected and reshaped generational norms around gender, sexuality, and courtship—and how we can see their impact in our communities today.

Judy Goldstein (she/her) is a recent graduate from Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Her thesis, titled “A Night at the Ball: Jewish Immigrant Social Events in New York City, 1900-1939, won the 2025 Ingeborg, Tamara, and Yonina Rennert Senior Thesis Prize in Jewish Studies at Barnard.