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2026 marks the sesquicentennial of a watershed moment in Jewish history and culture. In October 1876, in Iaşi, Romania, Avrom Goldfaden (1840-1908) forever changed the Jewish cultural world by planting seeds that would quickly blossom into the modern, professional Yiddish stage. Out of a performance in a beer garden, which even by Goldfaden’s own account […]

Excerpts from Fir doyres idish teater: di lebns-geshikhte fun Zina Rapel (Cuatro generaciones de teatro israelita), by Nechemias Zucker (Buenos Aires: Eygener farlag, 1944) Translated and with an introduction and commentaries by Zachary M. Baker. Zalmen Zylbercweig’s Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre; 6 vols., 1931-1969) has significant gaps in its coverage of Yiddish actors […]

A search in the Yiddish press for Ida Badanes (1874-1946) largely returns two types of results: regular advertisements for her medical office (first in the East Village, and later on the Upper East Side), shared with husband, Alexander (Jacob) Ravnitsky, and many hundreds of columns published in the Forverts, Der Tog and the Jewish Ladies Home Journal’s “Di froyen […]

Read Part I here. Published in Der tog (the day) – March 7-Nov. 14, 1925 Translated by Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel PART II:  EARLY CAREER May 27, 1925 “Actress and Wife”  I, from my side, must confess to you that I was not among the most famous housewives… Believe me, it was easier for me to perform […]

Last November, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene opened its final production of 2023, a musical revue called Amid Falling Walls (Tsvishn Falndike Vent): Unveiling Resilience and Hope During the Holocaust. The production was curated and written by Avram Mlotek, with music curated and arranged by Zalmen Mlotek, and directed by Motl Didner. The Folksbiene’s website explains […]

Der dibek, 1975, Israeli Yiddish entertainment posters, 1930-1981, Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University.