Writers

Many of the most important Yiddish writers of all time turned at least a hand to playwriting. For some it was their primary focus, for others it played second fiddle to writing fiction, poetry, reportage, or in other genres. Yiddish drama runs the gamut from hastily written hack work to some of the greatest masterpieces of Yiddish literature, and of world drama.


January 20, 2022

Tea Arciszewska: Remembering the Modernist Playwright on Her Sixtieth Yortsayt

Sixty years ago thoday, the Yiddish playwright, actress, theatre company founder, and salonnière Tea Arciszewska (c. 1890 – 1962) died in Paris.
December 7, 2021

My Path to the Yiddish Theatre: David Edelstadt’s Revolutionary Recitation

Bella Bellarina was born in Warsaw on July 15, 1898, into the legendary Rubinlicht family, known for the intellectual and cultural accomplishments of its worldly children.
December 6, 2021

“Permit New Actors on the Stage?”: A 1905 Protest Letter by Tsipe Abelman

Tsipe (Tsipoyre) Abelman trained as a factory seamstress before performing in popular musical works on the Yiddish stage.
June 29, 2021

A Timeline of Yiddish Drag

Yiddish theatre…the gayest theater?
June 24, 2021

A Year of Yiddish Theatre in Covid: A Wrap Up?

In the past year, we’ve covered a number of COVID-era online productions, from drag, to Yiddish-inspired new plays, to a re-mounted classic, to long-ignored material and more long-ignored material.
June 17, 2021

Interview: Sabina Brukner on the Folksbiene’s Yiddish Women Playwrights Festival

The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene recently launched its Yiddish Women Playwrights Festival with a reading of Chava Rosenfarb’s drama of the Vilna Ghetto, Der foygl fun geto.