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.
October 19, 2021
Interview with Nahma Sandrow, translator and editor
Joel Berkowitz and Nahma Sandrow in conversation about her new anthology, Yiddish Plays for Reading and Performance.
August 21, 2021
Khonen in Drag: Cross-Dressing in Two Productions of The Dybbuk during the 1920s (Plus, a Review of One of These Productions)
What was the “trouser role”?
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 21, 2021
The Bird of COVID
Chava Rosenfarb’s Der foygl fun geto (The Bird of the Ghetto) had its Yiddish-language premiere April 18 to 22, on the Folksbiene’s video channel.
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.
June 14, 2021
The Dybbuk of COVID
The Congress for Jewish Culture’s YouTube Live performance of Der dibek (The Dybbuk), presented in Yiddish, premiered on December 14, 2020, in honor of the play’s 100th anniversary.
June 8, 2021
The Menashe Skulnik Story in the Forward
Menashe Skulnik (1892-1970) was one of the great comic actors of the Yiddish theatre, remembered for his trademark porkpie hat and beloved for his schlemiel-like stage persona.