Talk:Yiddish theatre

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Contents 1 State of Yiddish theatre today 1.1 Do any of the early operettas survive? 2 Recent Additions 3 Any ideas how to integrate this? 4 nice article

[edit] State of Yiddish theatre today

Writing that Yiddish theatre "thrives" in Israel creates a wrong impression. Yiddish theatre survives in Israel, just barely, and probably thanks to the relatively recent influx of Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants. The documentary film The Kommediant paints a picture of Israel in the 1950's as being positively hostile towards Yiddish-language theatre. One commentator on IMDB finds this to be an exaggeration: I tend to believe the film. I studied theatre at Tel-Aviv University for three years, and during this time heard not one word about Yiddish plays or Yiddish theatre outside of a seminar on the history of directing, taught by an American-born lecturer. "The Dybbuk" of course couldn't be ignored, but I honestly didn't even know what language it had originally been written in before looking it up for the wikipedia article. --Woggly 11:07, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, Woggly. I was thinking of killing that remark, since it struck me as unlikely, but never even having been to Israel myself I wasn't sure I had an accurate assessment of the situation myself.

I would never have known that Yiddish theater was somewhat alive in Bucharest if I hadn't been there. Does anyone know if there are other places in Europe where Yiddish theater is currently performed on any regular basis? -- Jmabel | Talk 19:17, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Do any of the early operettas survive?

Cut from article:

Our knowledge of the actual material of the early years of Yiddish theatre is very limited. In particular, according to Lulla Rosenfeld, none of the elaborate operettas that were the most popular plays in the first decades of Yiddish theater survive; not even Abraham Goldfaden's Shmendrik, a mainstay of Yiddish theater for fifty years. [Adler, 1999, 318 (commentary)]

I originally put that there, but I'm not sure I believe it. I know that the Foksbiene in New York as performed at least significant excerpts from Goldfaden operettas. Rosenfeld is a pretty good source, but this wouldn't be the first time I've seen her be wrong about something. Can anyone give an account of the degree to which 19th century Yiddish operettas survive? -- Jmabel | Talk 07:59, Feb 25, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Additions

Jmabel, you've been doing a wonderful job. But I'm begining to get the feeling that this article has lost the balance it used to have. The Bercovici source you cite seems to be mostly about origins and what you call the first golden age of Yiddish Theatre - ancient history. However there is still almost nothing about later history of Yiddish theatre, or Yiddish theatre in America. There should also probably be sections about Yiddish theatre and vaudeville, and Yiddish theatre and early film. And I think some highly significant writers have been overlooked, such as Itzik Manger. But I don't know enough about this topic to make the needed additions myself, and I won't have the time to look into it for the next year or so!! --Woggly 08:06, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Yes, that later period needs to be written (as does the vaudeville stuff). I had an excellent source on the precursors and on the Goldfadenian period, and I believe I drew solidly on what I had. I am now reading Jacob Adler's memoir, which should bring the story forward the next step, at least the early years in New York. I or someone needs to continue beyond that. I'm by no means finished; I've been working on a bunch of related articles; I've got probably 12 more pages of handwritten notes from the Bercovici book that I haven't yet used appropriately (mostly elsewhere, I believe). And then there are other books to devour.

I suspect that eventually this will be refactored into more than one article. -- Jmabel | Talk 21:36, Jan 27, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Any ideas how to integrate this?

In 1931, a commentator for the Bucharest daily Dimineaţa observed that the Yiddish theatre no longer depicts "the domestic and religious life of the Jews", as Mihai Eminescu had remarked in 1876, but now reflected "the tragic and comic intrigues of modern international life". [Dim., 17 April 1931, cited at Bercovici, 1998, 152]

If nothing else, I can put it in a future article on Joseph Buloff, whose troupe was the one being written about, but maybe it belongs here, too? -- Jmabel | Talk 21:36, Jan 27, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] nice article

Really thorough article. One thing it could use is a wikiquotes page link that had some quotes from Yiddish theatre. Other than that I'm stumped on what could make it better. Peace, --Urthogie 14:52, 31 January 2006 (UTC)