Early 20th Century

The professional Yiddish theatre began to come of age, and to spread, remarkably quickly. While broad comedies and lavish spectacles often fed company coffers, playwrights and troupes also embraced the newest trends and techniques behind a new golden age of Western theatre and drama.

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Apr 18, 2017

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On outtake from the play INDECENT.

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Oct 24, 2016

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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.

Sep 16, 2016

When History Belonged to the Opera Writers

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When Avrom Goldfaden dubbed himself the “Father of the Yiddish Stage,” the epithet was in many ways well-earned, if not exactly modest.

Apr 26, 2016

Lekoved pesach

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Apr 13, 2016

Should a married woman visit a Yiddish music hall?

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“What a strange question,” you might think. Why would it be a problem if someone went to a music hall simply to have some fun? In the early 1900s, the answer was complicated.

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Yiddish Theatre in Denmark, 1906-56

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In 1912, a Jewish tailor left Imperial Russia for Denmark.

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Uncle Ed, Yiddish Theatre Impresario

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“My Uncle Ed was a Yiddish theatre impresario,” my friend Martha mentioned casually, as we were busy prepping for an event at our local Yiddish organization.

Jan 04, 2016

Boris Thomashefsky and Aaron Lebedeff

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A few years ago, while roaming the open stacks of the Stanford University Libraries, I came across a copy of Thomashefsky’s memoir, Mayn lebens-geshikhte (The Story of My Life).

Nov 17, 2015

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The Krakow Yiddish Theatre Postcards - a Crowdsourcing Experiment

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

May 18, 2015

Audiences are Idiots

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One of the hardest problems in theatre studies is understanding audiences response.

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Some photographs just make you smile.

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Goldfaden’s Rules for Yiddish Actors

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This is the story behind an exquisite portrait of a Yiddish dramatist.

Dec 15, 2014

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Sidney Lumet was a legendary director. He was also a child actor in the Yiddish theatre.

Dec 14, 2014

An Amateur Yiddish Theater in Cairo

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I bought this photograph on eBay, intrigued by the combination of the Cairo photographer’s mark and the Yiddish language banner.