Subjects

Yiddish theatre and drama have explored all of the major themes and issues relating to the Jewish experience from medieval times to the present.


December 17, 2015

Interview: Indecent Playwright Paula Vogel and Director Rebecca Taichman

Joel interviews Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman about the drama Indecent, which premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
December 4, 2015

Six Degrees of Yankev Blayfer

Yankev Blayfer. Sonia Alomis. Leola Vendorf. Baruch Lumet. Wolf Barzel. Who are these figures and what is their place in history?
November 17, 2015

The Sholem Asch Festival: Poland Rediscovers a Yiddish Dramatist

Every two years around this time I visit the Polish town of Kutno, for the Jewish festival named after my great-grandfather, the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch. He was born there in 1880 in a single-story wooden house on one of the town’s main streets. Asch left Kutno as a teenager, having grown weary of his religious studies, […]
October 26, 2015

Yiddish Lives, Smirks, and Breathes: Restoring Community Theatre into Yiddish History

Diving off of the raised proscenium stage, I don a fish mask and begin to swim through the audience. “Vu zaynen di fish?” (Where are the fish?).
July 2, 2015

A Lost Film, Found

I’d never heard of him before, but I’ve found out a few things about Mark Schweid since February.
June 29, 2015

The Krakow Yiddish Theatre Postcards – a Crowdsourcing Experiment

Think of the pulsating energy of Motown’s dawn in Detroit. Or the soaring sounds of early jazz in New Orleans.