This project encourages you to examine the confluence between cafés, the urban environment, and the creativity of multilingual Jewish communities. The mapping and digital storytelling tools you will find here are based on extensive research done for Prof. Shachar Pinsker’s book A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture (NYU Press, 2018). Consider this site a companion resource, or a standalone project for you to experience.

Explore

antique city map
Cities

Experience the culture geographically by viewing cafes and taking guided tours through digital mapping.
people network map showing 7 nodes
People

Learn more about writers, artists, journalists, activists, and actors. by discovering connections between people and cafes.
historic drawing of cafe patrons
Time

Witness the expansion of cafés in Jewish culture dating back to the 1800s with a timeline.

Stories

Choose a StoryMap to learn more about key people and events which shaped Jewish culture in the café. Each story offers detailed narratives incorporating historical maps, photographs, paintings, and literature.

Women smoking at a table in a café
Women in the Café
 
Leah Goldberg, 1935 (Courtesy of the Ganzim Institute, Tel Aviv, and Yair Landau)
Watercolor painting of patrons at a café counter
Jewish Café Culture
in Warsaw
Cafe Scene, 1934, Moshe Rynecki
Middle aged man with round eye glasses sitting at a writing desk
The Travels of Sholem Aleichem and Menakhem Mendl
Sholem Aleichem
Watercolor of a birds-eye view of a cafe with multiple tables and patrons
Jewish Café Culture
in Berlin
Romanisches Cafe, Berlin. Ullstein Bild.
Early black and white photograph of men standing together observing something
Jewish Café Culture
in New York