Central Europe


February 13, 2020

Interview with Joshua Horowitz on the Orchestration of Bas-Sheve

In February 2019, Josh Horowitz was sent the manuscript of Henekh Kon’s piano and vocal score of the only known pre-Holocaust Yiddish opera, Bas-Sheve.
June 29, 2019

“A Piquant Curiosity”: The Gender-Bending Drama Yo a man, nit a man

Read about the gender-bending play Yo a man, nit a man (Yes a Man, Not a Man).
April 15, 2019

The World of Sara Levy

Sara Levy studied with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, son of J. S. Bach, and became an accomplished keyboardist. She also supported a Jewish orphanage in Berlin and was a known salon hostess.
July 5, 2018

Zylbercweig’s Leksikon and Selfridges’ Rump Steak: In Memoriam Harry Ariel

In this tale of Łódź and London, David Mazower remembers the Yiddish actor Harry Ariel and a life-changing association with theatre historian Zalmen Zylbercweig.
February 12, 2018

Rubber Bullets at False Targets: On Dzigan and Shumacher’s Performance in the Soviet Union

Shimen Dzigan and Isroel Schumacher’s professional artistic career began as actors in the experimental Yiddish theatre “Ararat,” in Łódź .
December 11, 2017

Goodbye, Columbia: A Yiddish Playwright and the German Stage

Pinski came to prominence as a Yiddish writer and playwright, yet his connection to German theatre and cultural life was strong.
February 28, 2017

10 Things You Need to Know About God of Vengeance

A Twitter summary of its production history would read something like this: “admired, translated, parodied, panned, banned, prosecuted, withdrawn, forgotten, revived, celebrated.”
October 24, 2016

Franz Kafka’s Vagabond Stars

On February 18 1912, a Prague businessman and little-known German-language writer named Franz Kafka introduced an evening of Yiddish literary recitations in the city’s Jewish Town Hall.
January 19, 2016

A Tribute to Sonia Lizaron

Arnold Zable is an award winning writer, storyteller, educator, and human rights advocate.