Audio recording of Malcah Zeldis speaking with Charles Rosenak

In this recording, Chuck Rosenak interviews artist Malcah Zeldis in New York City, New York. Most of the interview is about Zeldis’s family and religious life and how it eventually influenced her artistic career later in life. Zeldis begins by talking about growing up in a Jewish household in Detroit. She recounts that after high school, she joined a Zionist religious organization, which eventually led her to go to Isreal to live and work in a kibbutz near Be’er Sheva. Zeldis met her future husband in Detroit but they continued their relationship in Isreal and eventually got married. She began painting when she was pregnant, however, she explains, her artistic practice was not encouraged by her husband. The couple later moved back to the United States and settled in New York City, but they later divorced. Zeldis recalls that her artistic career took off when she enrolled in the adult baccalaureate program at Brooklyn College, where she was encouraged by her professors to become a professional artist and exhibit her work. The interview ends with insights into Zeldis’s thoughts on current artists, the definition of folk art, and the trajectory of her career thus far.