Yiddish theatre

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Yiddish Theater is the term used to describe plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Eastern European Jewish community. Yiddish theater's roots came from the traditional plays performed during religious holiday of Purim, but grew to an art form and secular entertainment after the Jewish enlightenment (Haskalah).

Yiddish theater Abraham Goldfaden is often considered the founder of the first professional Yiddish theater troupe, which he founded in Romania and later moved to New York. Between 1890 and 1940, over a dozen Yiddish theater groups existed in New York City alone, and over 200 others toured throughout the United States. Original plays, musicals, and even translations of Hamlet and Wagner's operas were performed, both in the United States and Eastern Europe during this period. Yiddish theatre in London began in 1886, and flourished until the mid- 1930s.

Yiddish theater is said to have two artistic golden ages. The first in the realistic plays produced in New York City in the late 1800s, and the second in the political and artistic plays written and performed in Russia and New York in the 1920s. Some of the most important Yiddish playwrights of the first era included: Jacob Gordon, author of Siberia (1892), Solomon Libin (1872-1955), Leon Kobrin (1872-1946), David Pinski (1872-1959), and H. Leivick (1888-1962). In the second golden era, one of the most famous plays was The Dybbuk (1919), by Shloime Ansky, was considered a revolutionary play in both Yiddish and mainsteam theater.

Although its glory days have passed, Yiddish theater still thrives in Israel, while the Folksbiene (People's Theater) company still performs in New York City, 90 years after it was founded.

Yiddish theatre

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