About

The Digital Yiddish Theatre Project [DYTP] is dedicated to studying the rich legacy of the Yiddish stage from its origins to the present day. Founded in 2012 by Joel Berkowitz and Debra Caplan, the DYTP is an international group of  scholars  who are among the world’s leading authorities on Yiddish theatre and drama.

The DYTP is a digital publication platform that explores the cultural, linguistic, and geographic complexity of the Yiddish theatre. We publish on Yiddish drama and performance, including original scholarship, theatre reviews, interviews, plot synopses, and translations from primary sources. We write for a wide range of readers, including researchers, theatre practitioners, students, teachers, translators, and the general public.

In addition to our original scholarship, the resources the DYTP offers include:

• Plotting Yiddish Drama [PYD]: a searchable database of English-language plot synopses of Yiddish plays.
• The Encyclopedia of the Yiddish Theatre, volume 7: a digital publication, with supporting metadata, of the previously unpublished last volume of Zalmen Zylbercweig’s magisterial reference work.

For centuries, Yiddish theatre was one of the most significant cultural phenomena in the Jewish world. Yiddish was the native language of almost all of eastern European Jewry. Yiddish plays addressed all of the major issues facing modern Jewry, including the tension between tradition and modernization, antisemitism, religious reforms, radical politics, the Holocaust, and debates over the creation of a Jewish state. The Yiddish theatre is thus one of the most powerful tools we have for understanding modern Jewish history.

Core Values

Community is central to the ethos and practices of the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project. Each of our team members brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the group, while also supporting one another. We also seek to nurture younger scholars and integrate them into collaborative, public-facing scholarship. Our community of contributors also assists us in creating a well-rounded body of work that is accessible and solidly grounded in research.

We also interact with an international readership that further broadens the diversity of our online community. They span countries, languages, generations, religious affiliations, and walks of life. The material we publish is often used in classrooms, as a way for readers to learn the history of their own culture, by performing artists seeking to deepen their understanding of the Yiddish stage, by scholars in adjacent fields, and by members of the general public who have an interest in Jewish or performance history.

We are committed to broad representation in terms of both our membership and the content of our publications. Our research team consists of members at various stages of their careers, which span academia, libraries, and performance. The content of our articles, posts, and plot synopses expands upon traditional criticism and scholarship in our field while exploring and expanding the boundaries of Yiddish theatre studies. This includes highlighting the contributions and experiences of traditionally under-represented groups and individuals, and grappling with broadly compelling, relevant subject matter, including questions of racial, religious, ethnic, and gender identity, and the vital role that an understanding of Yiddish drama and performance plays in the understanding of Jewish identity and Jewish history. 

We are always interested in improving our commitment to equity and welcome ideas and suggestions from our readers.

Contributors

• Aaron Rubinstein
• Alyssa Quint
  Alyssa Quint is Leo Charney Visiting Fellow at the Center for Israel Studies at Yeshiva University.
• Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel
  Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel, is a Yiddish singer, songwriter, actor and researcher in Yiddish culture.
• Ann Hanlon
  UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE
• Barbara Henry
  Barbara Henry is Associate Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures at University of Washington.
• C. Tova Markenson
  Dr. C. Tova Markenson is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at Technische Universität Berlin.
• David Mazower
  David Mazower is the Bibliographer and Editorial Director at the Yiddish Book Center and the co-editor with Aaron Lansky of the Center’s English-language magazine Pakn Treger.
• Debra Caplan
  ​Debra in an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Baruch College, City University of New York.
• Faith Jones
  Faith Jones is a librarian, translator, and researcher in Vancouver, Canada. Her work focuses on gender in Yiddish culture. She is currently working on a book-length translation of stories by Soviet author Shira Gorshman.
• Joel Berkowitz
  Joel is Professor of English and Director of the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
• Judith Thissen
  Judith Thissen is associate professor of media history in the Department of Media and Culture. Her research interests reach across fields into cinema history, social history, urban studies and Jewish studies.
• Nick Underwood
  Nick Underwood is assistant professor of history and the Berger-Neilsen Chair of Judaic Studies at The College of Idaho.
• Sonia Gollance
  Sonia Gollance is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Yiddish at University College London.
• Zachary Baker
  Zachary Baker was the Reinhard Family Curator Emeritus of Judaica and Hebraica Collections in the Stanford University Libraries.
• Zehavit Stern
  researcher of Yiddish and Hebrew literature, and Yiddish film, theatre and folklore, currently teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Board