History of Yiddishe Theater

Throughout history, Judaism's serious nature preculded real theatre. Indeed, the second commandment, "Thou shalt not create graven images", was a major obstacle to such artistic pursuits. The closest condoned form of acting fo r Jews prior the 1880s were the purimsphieler, or re-enactments of the events of the Megilah, on the holiday of Purim. On this one night, men could dress as women, women as men, alcohol flowed freely, and creative and expressive Jews could dress up as characters from the story like Mordecai and Haman (Rash! Rash! Sorry, couldn't resist).

With the advent of the Haskole, the Jewish experience under the Enlightenment, the old conventions against acting began to fade in the eyes of the revolutionary maskils. Freedom of expression became more tolerable, and wand ering bands of groderzingers (folksingers) began to perform in the shtetls. True Yiddish Theatre, however, did not come until Avram Goldfaden, who is credited with fathering it.

Born in Russia in 1840, Goldfaden escaped the then-mandatory decades of military service for Jewish males by attending the Czar's "crown schools."

Extremely creative and energetic, Goldfaden wrote both dialogue and music for his plays, constructed the sets himself, and casted and directed the actors. Goldfaden was entrepreneurial as well - he was the first to charge admission for a Yiddish theatrical production!

Goldfaden's themes were usually pro-Haskole attempts to educate his audience. Ironically, one of his more famous plays is Sve Cuni Lemel, a sort of Yiddish precursor to Hollywood's movie "Dumb and Dumber."

Although he set the ball rolling, Goldfaden could not keep this genie in the bottle. With no such thing as copyright laws, the occasional handful of castmembers would split off and put on their own plays, either new creations or even rep etitions former employer's works. In turn, they would soon find people splitting off from their groups as well.

In this way, Yiddish theatre spread far and wide, eventually to America, where it faced a cold reception. American playgoers considered the Yiddish style of melodrama and audience involvement degenerate and trashy. It was, however, inte nsly popular with the immigrant crowds, and thus stayed in business. Even Soviet Russia tolerated it for fear of revolt if it intervened, such was Yiddish theatre's drawing power!

By the 1920s, a third of New York City was Jewish, and in an assimilated, Americanized community, the Yiddish Theatre became the substitute for the synagogue as a meeting-place for a euphoric boost of collective, community spirit.

As important to the history of Yiddish Theatre as Goldfaden was Jacob Gordin. A radical Russian socialist who emigrated to the United States in 1891, he was determined to use dra ma to raise the intellectual level of the masses. 1890-1910 is considered by many to be the Golden Era of Yiddish Theatre, for it was the time when Gordin's plays enjoyed their greatest popularity.

These works included Siberia (which Adler interrupted production of on opening night to plead with the audience to give it the proper respect - it worked, too!), the afforementioned Der Yiddisher Keng Leire, and a Faust-like story called Got, Mentsh, un Tayvul.

Another Golden Age came about with a flowering of playwrites like Ash (G-d of Vengeance), Ansky (The Dibbuk), Hirschbein, Ledik (The Golem), and Pinsky. Stanislovski's Freudlike analytic character style set the Mosco w Art Theatre aflame, and the great Yiddish writer Yitzak Peretz rented the largest theatre in Warsaw to celebrate high-intellect threatre. The audience of 2000 wasn't impressed, though - the people knew what they liked, and they liked shun, or campy melodrama. This is not to say that popular Yiddish Theatre did not deal with serious themes - they just had to be dressed in this manner in order to be successful.

In the 1920s, the Vilna troupe debuted in Warsaw, young, impoverished, and dedicated actors who hit it big and toured Europe. They gained more wealth than fame, but even more importantly, their plays achieved a synthesis between modern c ulture and the old-world shtetl themes.

My information on the eventual dimming of Yiddish Theatre is not extensive. I am in the proccess of conducting more research, and will update this page as I do so.