​CIRCUS JEWS UNDER NATIONAL SOCIALISM

Stav Meishar, a circus artist and academic, has spent the last decade extensively researching the stories of Jewish circus families in Germany from before and during the Nazi regime, and created a marvelous talk about these little known histories.
Tracing their legacies back to the golden age of circus, this talk charts the successes of the Jewish circus families, their tours and their specialty acts, painting a vivid picture of their lives and artistry.
Together we will discover the fates of these formidable artists - individually and as businesses - throughout the years of the Nazi regime. Telling these stories with sensitivity and humor, the talk includes photos from family albums, recorded testimonies, and personal stories.
Additionally, the talk includes excerpts from Stav's show "The Escape Act: A Holocaust Memoir", is based on one of these stories — thus offering insight into the process of transforming historic research into performance.

This talk is one of two-parts. Click here for the complementary talk.

This talk has been hosted at: Manchester Jewish Museum UK, Village Temple NYC, New Stoke Newington Shul UK, Bristol Synagogue UK, New London Synagogue, UK, New North London Synagogue UK, Paideia Sweden, Jewish Community Center of Vancouver Canada, and privately in USA, Israel and UK
This talk has been presented at the following academic conferences: Circus and Beyond - University of Sheffield, UK May 2018; Circus and Its Others - Cirquon, Prague, CZ August 2018; Popular Culture Association National Conference - Washington DC, USA April 2019 (Winner of the Michael and Madonna Marsden Grant)