Jewish Theatre

זהו סיכום של מחקרים שונים שנעשו על תיאטרון יהודי ואמני תיאטרון במזרח התיכון וצפון אפריקה לפי ארצות ואיזורים. הסיכום הזה נולד כדי להראות היסטוריה נעלמת ומושתקת של תיאטרון היהודי הזה. בכל המחקרים על תיאטרון יהודי יש עיסוק רק באירופה ואמריקה באופן בלעדי.

This article points to the complexities of Jewish engagement with theater; thus, despite frequent condemnation of the theater by rabbis we find also more nuanced voices. The article reviews the evidence for Jewish theater attendance in ancient Palestine and the Diaspora, outlines the views on theater in the works of Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus, discusses evidence for Jewish actors and actresses, and takes a look at Ezekiel's Exagoge, the clearest case of a Jewish drama handed down from antiquity.

Chapters from "Man Tovà -- L'interculturalità in scena": "Leone De' Sommi", "Leone De' Sommi dal Talmud al teatro", "La trilogia ebraica", "I Salmi", "Tzachut bedichuta de qiddushin", "L'anima del teatro", "I testi desommiani per la scena", pages 156-243

Precisely because of its radical instability as a theatrical signifier, playwrights have seized on the prop as a tool for destabilizing the conventional symbolism previously embodied by the now ambiguous object. Although they cannot legislate the prop's impact, playwrights can seek to orchestrate the prop's movement through concrete stage space and linear stage time. They can also shape the audience's reception of the prop through dialogue and stage directions. . . . This is especially the case during periods of semiotic crisis, when the meaning of the object the prop represents is (quite literally) up for grabs.—Andrew Sofer, The Stage Life of Props

This discussion is intended to examine the politics of Jewish Theatre in the 21 st century against the backdrop of the macro-political changes that have taken place in the world from the mid-20 th century to the present day, and mainly against the backdrop of the phenomenon known as 'globalization', or more precisely, cultural globalization. Cultural globalization is usually defined as the standardization of world culture that enables different cultures to acquire cultural products from one another.

As theater is an art form that many times juxtaposes texts with the performing body, one of its main contributions to Jewish culture could be in its "corporeal reading" of Jewish textual heritage. Tony Kushner's celebrated play Angels in America proposes such a reading of Jewish texts-mainly the biblical Jacob cycle and the Jewish tradition regarding angels-as a queer re-performance that emphasizes bodily aspects such as desire, sexuality, and disease. Analyzing the play alongside Jewish classical texts from the midrashic and exegetic traditions, this paper suggests that the re-performance of Jewish texts as queer repertoire in Angels in America raises questions about the politics of the body in contemporary culture while at the same time opening up new horizons within textual tradition itself, exploring new meanings within these texts-as well as the efficacy of their performance.

В исследовании впервые реконструируется история создания и забвения пьесы
В. Гроссмана «Старый учитель», созданной автором в 1946 г. на основе одно-
именного рассказа 1943 г. по заказу Московского государственного еврейского
театра. Основные задачи исследования: 1) восстановить историю создания и
утверждения пьесы; 2) выявить причины, по которым пьеса так и не была ни
опубликована, ни поставлена на сцене; 3) определить место и роль данного
произведения в творчестве автора. Основными источниками исследования
являются материалы Российского государственного архива литературы и ис-
кусства, ранее находившиеся вне сферы внимания биографов и исследователей
творчества Гроссмана.

This is the first time a researcher reconstructs the whole history of creation and oblivion
of the piece «The Old Schoolmaster», written by V. Grossman in 1946, based on the story
of the same name. This work was ordered by the Moscow State Jewish theatre. The major objectives of the research are: 1) to reconstruct the history of the creation and approval of the play; 2) to find out the reasons why the play had not been neither published nor staged; 3) to determine the place and role of this piece in the literary heritage of the author. The main sources for the research are the documents in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, which have never been the area of interest of Grossman’s biographers and researchers.

In 2001, for the first time, an Arabic-language performance by Jewish
actors was performed for a Jewish audience that did not deal with the
Israeli-Arabic conflict. This article’s aim is to discuss how JewishMoroccan ethnic identity is fashioned through Jewish-Moroccan theatre in Israel through three main aspects: 1) Production and lack of public subsidy. The Jewish-Moroccan theatre is positioned on the margins of Israeli theatre, is perceived as amateurish by the tastemakers and gatekeepers of the theatre field, and is therefore not eligible for a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture. Although commercial logic leads the Jewish-Moroccan theatre, its producers identify with its communal
goals as well as the creation of an empowering ethnic identity on
stage. 2) Repertoire. The productions are realized in popular theatre
style and use nostalgia to appeal to Moroccan Jewry, which is incompatible with the Zionist narrative. 3) Reception. Engagement with the performance by the Jewish-Moroccan audience is very active, pointing to a celebration of its identity, culture, and language, as well as a protest against the hegemonic mainstream. Theatre is perceived in Israel as a ‘white space’ belonging to the middle-class, Ashkenazi Jewish hegemony. The spectators of Jewish-Moroccan theatre ‘darken’ the ‘white space’ by transgressing received Western audience-behavior.

Wolf Barzel. Who were these individuals and what were their contributions to theatre history? Their names do not appear in any theatre history text or reference work. In fact, these figures are almost entirely absent from the historiographic record. Googling their names reveals a few Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) references, a handful of Wikipedia stubs, and perhaps a mention or two in a little-known memoir. 1 And yet, Blayfer studied with Max Reinhardt and, in his later career as a Hollywood actor, performed alongside Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Kirk Douglas, Clark

En este trabajo nos proponemos reflexionar sobre los procesos de intercambio, circulación y cooperación que se producen entre los directores europeos que llegan a Buenos Aires durante el período de entreguerras y el teatro judío IFT (Idisher Folks Teater-Teatro Popular Judío), donde se incorporan como directores artísticos. Partimos de la idea de que la participación de estos directores en el IFT fue fundamental en el desarrollo de la identidad estética del teatro, en la elección de su repertorio y en su consolidación como un teatro de innovación dentro del campo teatral de Buenos Aires.

Russian abstract follows
התיאטרון היהודי בשפה הרוסית נולד בברית המועצות בסוף המאה העשרים.
בעוד שלפני מלחמת העולם השנייה הפעילות התיאטרונית יהודית בברית המועצות התנהלה בשפת יידיש והיתה ענפה מאוד, השואה והמדיניות האנטישמית של סטלין אחרי המלחמה הפסיקו את הפעילות הזאת לשנים רבות.
אחרי מותו של סטלין נעשו ניסיונות ספוראדיים לשחזר את הפעילות התיאטרונית היהודית, אך רק בסוף שנות ה-60 ובמיוחד בשנות ה-70 הפעילות הזאת חזרה להיות אינטנסיבית, אלא עם כן היא לעולם לא שבה לרמת הכמות והאיכות הקודמת.
עקב אותן סיבות היסטוריות, הדור הצעיר של יהודי ברית המועצות לא שלט ביידיש ורק המבוגרים עדיין שמרו עליה. לכן הפעילות התיאטרונית היהודית התנהלה בשתי שפות – יידיש ורוסית. אחרי השינויים הפוליטיים שחלו בברית המועצות בסוף שנות ה-80, פעילות תיאטרונית יהודית התחילה לפרוח שוב ופורחת עד היום. אך מכוון שדור היהודים השולטים ביידיש הולך ונעלם  הפעילות הזאת מתנהלת לרוב בשפה הרוסית ורק התוכן של ההצגות נשאר להיות יהודי. התיאטראות היהודים ברוסית קיימים היום במוסקבה, קייב, ברלין, ניו-יורק ועוד.
אם גל העלייה מברית המועצות בשנות ה-90 הגיעו לישראל אלפי אנשי תיאטרון דוברי רוסית. לצד תרומתם של יוצאי רוסיה לתיאטרון ישראלי בעברית וביידיש, העלייה הרוסית הולידה תופעה תיאטרונית חדשה – להקות ישראליות המציגות ברוסית. אחרי יותר מעשרים שנה של ניסוי ותהייה ניתן לדבר על התיאטרון הישראלי ברוסית כתופעה מגובשת, מגוונת ומתפתחת.
באיזו מידה ניתן לראות בלהקות הללו "התיאטרון היהודי בשפה הרוסית", בדומה לתיאטראות היהודים ברוסיה, אוקראינה ומדינות מערב? האם ניתן להגדיר אותן כנציגות התיאטרון הרוסי במדינת ישראל? מה הן התכונות הישראליות דווקא של הלהקות הללו?
במאמר נעשה ניסיון, לראשונה, לתת את התמונה הכללית של התיאטרון הישראלי ברוסית, לסווג את פעילותו הענפה ולאפיין את התכונות המשותפות ואת ההבדלים בין כל ענף וענף תוך כדי הצגת הנפשות הפועלות המובילות בתחום.

Израильский театр на русском языке: русский, еврейский или израильский? Автор статьи пытается найти определение такому сложному феномену, как израильский театр на русском языке. Эта статья является первой попыткой исследовать израильский театр на русском языке, определить основные тенденции его развития, его сходства и различия с другими русскоязычными театрами зарубежья и ответить на вопрос, принадлежит ли израильский русскоязычный театр такому феномену, как Еврейский театр на русском языке? Автор статьи приходит к выводу, что израильский театр на русском языке является прежде всего израильским и русскоязычным и только потом еврейским.

Sh. An-ski's "The Dybbuk" (Yiddish version). Introduction, new edition of the Yiddish original text, and a new Italian translation (176 pages).

דער דיבוק פֿון ש. אנ-סקי. הקדמה, נײַע אויסגאַבע פֿונעם ייִדישן טעקסט און נײַע איטאַליענישע איבערזעצונג (176 זײַטן).־

הדיבוק של ש' אנ-סקי. הגרסה היידית. הקדמה, הטקסט היידי המקורי במהדורה חדשה ותרגום איטלקי חדש (176 עמודים).־""

More info: http://www.raffaeleesposito.com/books.php?lang=it&title=Dibbuk%20yiddish

Buy: http://www.arborsapientiae.com/libro/17604/adse-iii-3-dibbuk-yiddish-introduzione-traduzione-e-nuova-edizione-del-testo-originale-archivio-di-studi-ebraici-iiii-3-raffaele-esposito.html

The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home takes us through the fascinating life and career of the most important comic duo in Yiddish Theater, Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher. Spanning the course of half a century-from the beginning of their work at the Ararat avant-garde Yiddish theater in Łodz, Poland, to their Warsaw theater-they produced bold, groundbreaking political satire. The book further discusses their wanderings through the Soviet Union during the Second World War and their attempt to revive Jewish culture in Poland after the Holocaust. It fi nally describes their time in Israel, fi rst as guest performers and later as permanent residents. There, in the 1950s, their political and cultural critique constituted a unique voice among the Hebrew theatrical troupes www.degruyter.com "[…] a masterfully crafted, defi nitive account of these major fi gures." Adi Mahalel, East European Jewish Affairs "This book constitutes a milestone in the historiographical study of Israeli theater […] Here the reader encounters many different voices within a textual fabric that moves between Hebrew and Yiddish." Ruthie Abeliovich, Gal-Ed Journal "A comprehensive study, brimming with facts and details, it lays out before us the duo's life stories and artistic endeavors." Michal Zamir, Haaretz "Diego Rotman's book gives Jewish humor a face, descends from the great heights of myth to tell a real story of fl esh and blood." Ya'ad Biran, Haaretz

Although his philosophical masterpiece, "Ethics," written in the notoriously exact and forbidding "geometrical mode," is one of the least dramatic works in the history of modern philosophy, and despite the dryness of both his personality and his intensely private life, Baruch Spinoza has exercised the imagination of a long line of dramatists, especially Hebrew and Yiddish stage impressarios. The parched prose of his writing, the dry determinism of his thought and the solitude of his life are more than compensated for by the lure of his heretical ideas and especially by the salacious story of his excommunication from the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1656.

Resumen: En este trabajo abordaremos el estreno de la obra Réquiem para un viernes a la noche de Germán Rozenmacher en el teatro IFT (Idisher Folks Teater, Teatro Popular Judío) en 1964. Sostenemos que se trata no sólo de una obra emblemática de la dramaturgia judeo-argentina, sino de un estreno que da cuenta de un cambio de orientación en el IFT, en tanto expresa un giro en las preocupaciones de sus integrantes que buscaban tener una mayor llegada a los espectadores de la nueva generación, así como al público no judío. Este objetivo los había llevado ya a partir de 1957 a comenzar a realizar sus obras en castellano, cuando hasta entonces se realizaban únicamente en ídish. Esto respondía a la voluntad del IFT de lograr una mayor integración tanto en la sociedad argentina como en el movimiento de teatro independiente. Y en este sentido, consideramos el estreno de la primera obra de Rozenmacher -un autor joven que le daba voz a las preocupaciones de la nueva generación al retratar el conflicto generacional y el choque entre dos maneras contrapuestas de ser judío y argentino-como un momento cúlmine de este proceso, en el cual indagaremos.

For over two decades, orthodox Israeli women have been creating theatre despite traditional Jewish reservations against it and despite the fact that theatre involves a certain degree of exhibitionism rather than the tsniut (modesty) demanded of them, particularly in the public sphere. 1 A source for Jewish thought about tsniut is Micah 6:8 "Walk humbly with thy G-d" as interpreted by Rabbi Eliezer in Tractate Succah 49b of the Babylonian Talmud, whose explicit application of this as a principle to both public and private spheres is then further elaborated in halacha (religious law), in terms of dress, speech etc. This article highlights the unresolved inherent contradiction between theatre and tsniut, and how orthodox women negotiate and combine modesty with theatre performance. It focuses on two case studies of groups of orthodox actresses who have performed before mixed audiences (men and women), thus pushing the dilemma of modesty to its limit. It shows how their choice not to appear only before their own gender influenced their acting and impacted the concept of modesty in various ways ranging from being stricter than the rabbis to overlooking certain norms of modesty in order to perform and engage in political activism. Our research shows that many orthodox Jewish actresses and audience members disregard the assumption of aesthetic distance between performers and character; they do not accept the possibility of being like "peacocks on stage and modest offstage" (as one non-religious actress puts it). In this article, we explore the twofold considerations of modesty among orthodox actresses: concern for their own personal modesty, and for that of the audience. So far there has not been much research on this phenomenon. Reina Rutlinger-Reiner's earlier research on orthodox women's theatre in Israel, conducted between 1998 and 2002, being a precedent. This qualitative research included formal, in-depth interviews with performers, directors and educators; spontaneous interviews and "theatre conversations" recorded or jotted down in a field journal; videotapes, texts, and press reviews. Based on this research, which was updated in 2006 and led to her book The Audacity of Holiness,2 we began a joint research project focusing on the inherent contradiction between modesty and performing onstage. Our aim was to examine the difference between secular actresses' and orthodox actresses' concepts of theatre in general and of tsniut on stage in particular. One of the conclusions from our research is that orthodox actresses regard theatre primarily as an educational tool, rather than as an art. As such, they feel there should be no discrepancy between their personal life and the life created onstage. Many actresses declare that working within the strict limitations of the rules of modesty offers a challenge and creates opportunities for developing a new genre which they hope will become an alternative to western, secular Israeli theatre. Theatre in Religiously Orthodox Israeli Society: Background A surge of artistic activity within orthodox Israeli society has taken place in the fields of art, dance, music, literature and theatre since the 1990s. In theatre, orthodox artists' initiatives can be divided into men's and women's theatre. Women's theatre encompasses the whole range from storytelling, performed without acting, in schools and community centres (where they perform exclusively for women), to avantgarde theatre performed in front of mixed audiences in the Israeli annual alternative theatre festival in Acco. Most orthodox actresses consult the male religious hegemony (rabbis) before going onstage, especially

En el período de entre guerras, y especialmente a partir de 1930, Buenos Aires se posicionó como un centro teatral judío de importancia internacional gracias su gran población de judíos ídish-parlantes y al desarrollo de un circuito teatral en ídish. Buenos Aires se convirtió así en un destino privilegiado en las giras de los artistas y compañías itinerantes del teatro judío y en un polo teatral que atraía a una gran cantidad de actores, actrices y directores judíos que buscaban radicarse en el continente americano. ¿Cuáles fueron las concepciones teatrales y estéticas que llegaron a la Argentina a través de los artistas judíos que arribaron en el país? ¿De qué manera y en qué medida los repertorios y las poéticas actorales y de puesta en escena que se desarrollaron en los escenarios judíos influenciaron al teatro nacional? En este trabajo buscaremos responder a estas preguntas a partir de la hipótesis de que el teatro judío funcionó como una corriente modernizadora que influyó notablemente en el campo teatral de Buenos Aires, ya que debido a su carácter itinerante y por vía del ídish llegaron a la Argentina concepciones teatrales, repertorios, poéticas de actuación y estéticas modernas que aún no se habían desarrollado en los escenarios porteños y que tuvieron un gran impacto sobre las compañías y artistas locales.

L'auteur de cet ouvrage explore l'écriture si particulière de René Kalisky, un des dramaturges belges les plus importants de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Dans son théâtre, Kalisky prend l'histoire à bras le corps et n'hésite pas à mettre en scène des figures comme Hitler, Trotsky, Mussolini, Pasolini, Coppi, Saül ou le Roi David, tout en renouvelant les formes avec sa technique du « surtexte ».
Par une analyse méthodique et fouillée de l'ensemble des pièces, l'auteur montre comment René Kalisky a su tirer parti de la tradition ainsi que des innovations scéniques de son temps pour ériger un art qui lui était propre et en mesure de rendre compte du caractère tragique de l'histoire.

Les enjeux posés par cette dramaturgie s'éclairent grâce à la mise en valeur d'un élément essentiel : la dimension ludique. Jeu de l'acteur avec son rôle, du personnage avec son sort ou de l'homme avec l'histoire, l'étude nous rappelle en cela un principe essentiel : au théâtre, la recherche de la vérité est indissociable de celle du plaisir.
Contenu : Kalisky : quel héritage ? - Une oeuvre en perfectionnement - Étude dramaturgique de Dave au bord de mer - La rencontre avec Antoine Vitez - Les germes du surtexte - Le jeu avec les fantômes - Deux personnages au coeur de l'événement - Le surtexte dans ses dernières conséquences - Dans le monde de la prière - Le surtexte simplifié - Entre Shakespeare et les jeux de Pourim."

For over two decades, orthodox Israeli women have been creating theatre despite traditional Jewish reservations against it and despite the fact that theatre involves a certain degree of exhibitionism rather than the tsniut (modesty) demanded of them, particularly in the public sphere.1 A source for Jewish thought about tsniut is Micah 6:8 “Walk humbly with thy G-d” as interpreted by Rabbi Eliezer in Tractate Succah 49b of the Babylonian Talmud, whose explicit application of this as a principle to both public and private spheres is then further elaborated in halacha (religious law), in terms of dress, speech etc. This article highlights the unresolved inherent contradiction between theatre and tsniut, and how orthodox women negotiate and combine modesty with theatre performance. It focuses on two case studies of groups of orthodox actresses who have performed before mixed audiences (men and women), thus pushing the dilemma of modesty to its limit. It shows how their choice not to app...

En 2018 se estrenó en Nueva York la obra Fiddler on the Roof/A fidler afn dakh (en español: El violinista en el tejado), versión en ídish del famoso musical de Broadway basado en las historias del escritor judío Sholem Aleichem. El espectáculo fue llevado a escena por el Folksbine, una de las compañías de teatro ídish más antiguas del mundo y, debido a su gran éxito, se mantuvo en cartel en una sala del circuito
off-Broadway hasta principios del 2020. Este trabajo indaga en este fenómeno a partir de un análisis de los elementos de la puesta en escena, preguntándose especialmente por la incidencia y el papel que la utilización del ídish tuvo en el impacto de la obra en el público.

ABSTRACT In 1955, Iraqi Jewish immigrant artists founded Ur Ensemble (Lahakat Ur in Hebrew) and produced in Arabic the Majnūn Laylā (The Madman of Layla) by the Egyptian poet and playwright Aḥmad Shawqī. The Israeli Establishment subsidized and supported the Ensemble and intended the play for Palestinian spectators in Israel. It is a puzzling fact, because the policy of the Zionist melting pot required Middle Eastern Jews to move away from Arab culture and adopt a western orientation. I argue that the Israeli establishment perceived the Ur Ensemble as a propagandistic vehicle in order to display the state’s favourable attitude towards the Arab minority for the international community. However, in practice, the theatrical event created an Arab-Jewish dialogue based on a shared Arab culture contrary to the establishment's political intentions.