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63-637: The Purim spiel is considered the "only genuine folk theater that has survived a thousand years in European culture." Integrating texts, theater, music, dance, songs, mimes, and costumes, the Purim spiel is considered to be the origin of Yiddish theatre . The descriptive term "Purim spiel" became widely used among Ashkenazi Jews as early as the mid-1500s. By the 18th century in eastern Romania and some other parts of Eastern Europe , Purim spiels had evolved into broad-ranging satires with music and dance, for which

126-408: A soubrette , a comic, a lover, a villain , a villainess (or "intriguer"), an older man and woman for character roles, and one or two more for spares as the plot might require," and a musical component that might range from a single fiddler to an orchestra. This was very convenient for a repertory company, especially a traveling one. Both at the start and well into the great years of Yiddish theatre,

189-421: A Purim spiel is an informal theatrical production with costumed participants, often including children. Typically, each congregation writes its own new Purim spiel every year, or acquires a new script from elsewhere. Purim spiels often include parodies of popular songs or well-known musicals . Purim spiels are often used to satirically address modern social and political issues through the biblical narrative, "using

252-759: A Yiddish theatre at Odessa, which for several years became the capital of Yiddish theatre. Russia offered a more sophisticated audience than rural Romania: many Russian Jews were regular attendees of Russian-language theatre, and Odessa was a first-rate theatre city. In this context, serious melodramatic operettas, and even straight plays, took their place in the repertoire among the lighter vaudevilles and comedies that had thus far predominated. All three major troupes in Odessa did their own productions of Karl Gutzkow 's play Uriel Acosta (with Goldfaden's production being an operetta). However, even this increased sophistication could not compare to later, more ambitious efforts of

315-701: A Yiddish theatre at the Pavilion Theatre in 1906 marked a new era for the Yiddish theatre in London, providing a permanent home for the theatre for almost three decades. The theatre was home to a number of actor-managers throughout its history, the first being Sigmund Feinman, a Yiddish actor and playwright who grew to prominence on the American Yiddish stage. Feinman staged plays such as Gordin 's The Jewish King Lear , for which Adler returned for

378-558: A crucial role in providing a forum for theater professionals to discuss these issues and try new solutions, such as collectively run theaters. Theatrical performances themselves also addressed social issues. Michal Weichert's Yung-teater was particularly known for political engagement, staging an attention-getting avant-garde performance of the play Boston, by Bernhard Blum, about the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti , in 1933. The 1883 Russian ban on Yiddish theatre (lifted in 1904) effectively pushed it to Western Europe and then to America. Over

441-624: A guest appearance in the lead role. The Pavilion Theatre closed as a Yiddish theatre in 1935. It was succeeded by the Grand Palais Theatre and the New Yiddish Theatre Company at the Adler Hall, Whitechapel. Poland was an important center of Yiddish theatrical activity, with more than 400 Yiddish theatrical companies performing in the country during the interwar period. One of the most important companies,

504-642: A tragedy drawn from life, and you shall also cry — while my heart shall be glad." B. Nathansohn, correspondent of the Warsaw -based Jewish newspaper Hamelitz visited Romania in the summer of 1878 and wrote, "When a Jew enters a Yiddish theatre in Bucharest he is thunderstruck hearing the Yiddish language in all its splendor and radiance", and called upon Goldfaden to create similar theatres in Warsaw, Lublin , Vilna , Berdichev, and Balta . While Yiddish theatre

567-1138: A year or two of Goldfaden's founding the first professional Yiddish theatre troupe, there were multiple troupes, multiple playwrights, and more than a few serious Yiddish theatre critics and theoreticians. Abraham Goldfaden is generally considered the founder of the first professional Yiddish theatre troupe, which he founded in Iaşi , Romania in 1876, and later moved to Bucharest . His own career also took him to Imperial Russia , Lemberg in Habsburg Galicia (today Lviv in Ukraine ), and New York City. Within two years of Goldfaden's founding of his troupe, there were several rival troupes in Bucharest, mostly founded by former members of Goldfaden's troupe. Most of these troupes followed Goldfaden's original formula of musical vaudeville and light comedy, while Goldfaden himself turned more toward relatively serious operettas about biblical and historical subjects, especially after his own company left Bucharest for an extended tour of

630-458: Is a secondary Jewish stage ... just making people laugh and cry is an evil for us Jews in Romania." Goldfaden himself agreed with such sentiments; later recalling his views at the time, he wrote: "If I have arrived at having a stage, I want it to be a school for you ... Laugh heartily if I amuse you with my jokes, while I, watching you, feel my heart crying. Then, brothers, I'll give you a drama,

693-487: Is now Ukraine . Israel Rosenberg 's troupe (which later had a series of managers, including Goldfaden's brother Tulya, and which at one point split in two, with one half led by actor Jacob Adler ) gave Russia's first professional Yiddish theatre performance in Odessa in 1878. Goldfaden himself soon came to Odessa, pushing Rosenberg's troupe into the provinces, and Osip Mikhailovich Lerner and N.M. Sheikevitch also founded

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756-513: Is often traced to Passion Plays and other religious pageants, similar in some ways to the Purim plays. In the Middle Ages , few Jews would have seen these: they were often performed in the courtyards of Christian churches (few of which were near the Jewish ghettos), on Christian holidays, and they often had significant antisemitic elements in their plots and dialogue. However, in later times,

819-918: The Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (1714), a collection by Johann Jakob Schudt (1664–1722). Another similar current in Jewish culture was a tradition of masked dancers performing after weddings. The most elaborate form of this was the Dance of Death , a pageant depicting all layers of a society, which had originated among Sephardic Jews in Spain in the 14th century and had spread through Europe among both Jews and Gentiles. 16th-century Italian Jews had taken music and dance to an even more refined level of art: at that time in Italy there were Jewish virtuosi and dancing masters in Mantua , Ferrara , and Rome, and

882-542: The Romanian Orthodox Christmas tradition of Irozii — minstrel shows centered around the figure of Herod the Great (Rom: Irod ), which were the origin of Romanian-language theatre — definitely influenced Purim plays and vice versa . Jews had far more exposure to secular European theatre once that developed. Meistersinger Hans Sachs ' many plays on Old Testament topics were widely admired by

945-719: The Young Theater , founded by Michal Weichert in 1932. In addition to the serious artistic efforts of the art theaters, cabaret flourished in Poland during the interwar period, combining musical performances with standup comedy. The most celebrated practitioners of this kind of performance were Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher , who began their lifelong Yiddish comedy career at the theater Ararat in Łódź in 1927. Puppet and marionette theater also attained great artistic significance, often staging satirical shows on contemporary social issues. Yiddish theater in Poland reflected

1008-445: The troubadours or Minnesänger , apparently growing out of the music associated with Jewish weddings, and often involving singers who also functioned as cantors in synagogues. The first records of the early Brodersänger or Broder singers are the remarks of Jews passing through Brody , which was on a major route of travel, generally disapproving of the singing of songs when no particular occasion called for music. The most famous of

1071-436: The 1830s, there was also, according to one contemporary source, a professional company that in 1838 performed before a receptive audience of both Jews and Gentiles a five-act drama Moses , by a certain A. Schertspierer of Vienna , with "well-drawn characters and good dramatic situations and language." The same source relates that this theatre had among its patrons a number of Russian military officers, including one general who

1134-477: The 1880s, playing in small theatre clubs "on a stage the size of a cadaver", not daring to play on a Friday night or to light a fire on stage on a Saturday afternoon (both because of the Jewish Sabbath ), forced to use a cardboard ram's horn when playing Uriel Acosta so as not to blaspheme , Yiddish theatre nonetheless took on much of what was best in European theatrical tradition. In this period,

1197-651: The Bowery Garden, the National and the Thalia, with unknowns such as Boris Thomashefsky emerging as stars. The Thalia Theatre sought to change the material of the Yiddish stage to better reform the material that was being produced. “The reformers of the Yiddish stage, Jacob Gordin later explained, wanted to “utilize the theatre for higher purposes; to derive from it not only amusement, but education.” Jacob Gordin himself had numerous times tried to get his plays onto

1260-989: The Folkspartei gained 4 seats in Warsaw . In 1918 he became a member of the Provisional Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland . Elected as a member of the Legislative Sejm in 1919 , he had to resign his seat because he was not a Polish citizen. After obtaining Polish citizenship, in 1922–1927 he was reelected to the Sejm on the Bloc of National Minorities list. Pryłucki authored numerous books on Yiddish folklore, philology, culture and theatre, published in Warsaw . He once said of Yiddish theatre that it did not arise simultaneously with theatre in other European "national" languages; he conjectured that this

1323-463: The Gentiles who would come to Yiddish theatre would not be the antisemites, they would be those who already knew and liked Jews, and that they would recognize satire for what it was, adding that these criticisms were "nothing" when weighed against the education that Yiddish theatre was bringing to the lower classes. Writing of Sigmund Mogulesko 's troupe in Romania in 1884, and probably referring to

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1386-538: The Jew plays a degrading role." Goldfaden's plays ultimately formed a canon of Yiddish theater, and were performed continuously for over fifty years; in the theatre world they were reverently regarded as a kind of "Torah from Sinai", and the characters of the plays permeated Jewish cultural life over several generations. If Yiddish theatre was born in Romania, its youth occurred in Imperial Russia, largely in what

1449-641: The Jews of the German ghettos, and from the 16th century through the 18th, the biblical story of Esther was the most popular theatrical theme in Christian Europe, often under the Latin name Acta Ahasuerus . Professional Yiddish theatre is generally dated from 1876, although there is scattered evidence of earlier efforts. Besides some 19 amateur Yiddish-language theatrical troupes in and around Warsaw in

1512-590: The Purim story with the Purim characters performing comic antics. In 2015, the French Ministry of Culture added the Purim spiel to its Inventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of France. Purim spiels are performed annually in many American synagogues, and in Jewish communities in much of Europe. In France, for example, Purim plays continue to be widely performed in active Ashkenazi communities. In many modern-day synagogues,

1575-652: The United States and Eastern Europe during this period. Noah Prilutski Noach (Nojach) Pryłucki or Noach Prilutski (1 October 1882 in Berdichev – 12 August 1941 in Vilnius ) was a Jewish Polish politician from the Folkspartei . He was also a Yiddish linguist, philologist, lawyer and scholar of considerable renown. Pryłucki was a respected attorney and was said to have had "leadership over

1638-887: The United States. At many times, a dozen Yiddish theatre groups existed in New York City alone, with the Yiddish Theater District , sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Rialto ", centered on Second Avenue in what is now the East Village , but was then considered part of the Jewish Lower East Side , which often rivaled Broadway in scale and quality. At the time the U.S. entered World War I , there were 22 Yiddish theaters and two Yiddish vaudeville houses in New York City alone. Original plays, musicals, and even translations of Hamlet and Richard Wagner 's operas were performed, both in

1701-718: The Windsor stage without luck. “Gordin successfully challenged Lateiner and Hurwitz in 1891–1892 when he entered the Yiddish theatre with an avowed purpose of reforming Yiddish drama.” Rather than “pandering to the public's taste for cheap shund (trash) plays, he sought to secure goodwill of the East Side’s intelligentsia with literature and increasingly incorporated the concepts of “true art” and “serious drama” into their public image.” Professional companies soon developed and flourished, so that between 1890 and 1940, there were over 200 Yiddish theaters or touring Yiddish theatre troupes in

1764-530: The Yiddish theater. Looking back on this period, although acknowledging certain of Goldfaden's plays from this era as "masterpieces", Jacob Adler saw this as a period of relative mediocrity compared to what came later. "For three years I... wandered in the cave of the Witch and the motley of Shmendrick and what did I really know of my trade?" he describes himself as thinking in 1883. "If someday I return to Yiddish theater let me at least not be so ignorant." Much of

1827-691: The ancient story to poke fun at current reality." Yiddish theatre Hebrew Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Arabic Other Jewish diaspora languages Jewish folklore Jewish poetry Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish , the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta , musical comedy , and satiric or nostalgic revues ; melodrama ; naturalist drama; expressionist and modernist plays. At its height, its geographical scope

1890-701: The avant-garde Vilna Troupe (Vilner trupe), formed in Vilna , as its name suggests, but moved to Warsaw in 1917. The Vilna Troupe employed some of the most accomplished actors on the Yiddish stage, including Avrom Morevski , who played the Miropolyer tsaddik in the first performance of The Dybbuk , and Joseph Buloff , who was the lead actor of the Vilna Troupe and went on to further accomplishments with Maurice Schwartz ’s Yiddish Art Theater in New York. It

1953-466: The choir, or between the choir and the leader of the ritual (Hebrew menatseach ). Also, traditional dances were associated with certain holidays, such as Sukkot . Purim plays – the skits performed by amateur companies around the time of the Purim holiday – were a significant early form of theatrical expression. Often satiric and topical, Purim plays were traditionally performed in

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2016-419: The cities of Imperial Russia . Goldfaden's troupe began as all-male; while they soon acquired actresses, as well, it remained relatively common in Yiddish theatre for female roles, especially comic roles, to be played by men. (Women also sometimes played men's roles: Molly Picon was a famous Shmendrick .) Many early Yiddish theatre pieces were constructed around a very standard set of roles: "a prima donna ,

2079-557: The coronation"; he acquired the costumes for the Romanian National Theatre , which he headed at the time. Both the nature and aspirations of early professional Yiddish theatre are reflected in Moses Schwarzfeld 's 1877 remarks calling for serious and "educational" Jewish theatre: "If we write only comedies or if we only imitate German, Romanian and French pieces translated into Yiddish, all we will have

2142-503: The courtyard of the synagogue , because they were considered too profane to be performed inside the building. These made heavy use of masks and other theatrical devices; the masquerade (and the singing and dancing) generally extended to the whole congregation, not just a small set of players. While many Purim plays told the story in the Book of Esther commemorated by the Purim holiday, others used other stories from Jewish scripture, such as

2205-508: The entire number of written dramas of which there is any record hardly exceeds five hundred. Of these at least nine-tenths are translations or adaptations." Yiddish Theater in the United States has been described as "a keepsake of home, and yet also a means of acculturation" for the 2.5 million Jews who immigrated from 1881 to 1924. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, amateur theatrical companies presented Yiddish productions in New York City, leading to regular weekend performances at theatres such as

2268-574: The first known troupes of Jewish performers in Europe. Less refined versions of the same also occurred in 18th-century Germany. Additionally, there was a rich tradition of dialogues in the Jewish poetry known as Tahkemoni , dating back at least to Yehuda al-Harizi in 12th-century Spain. Al-Harizi's work contained dialogues between believer and heretic, man and wife, day and night, land and ocean, wisdom and foolishness, avarice and generosity. Such dialogues figured prominently in early Yiddish theatre. In

2331-543: The formal advent of Yiddish theatre. Bercovici suggests that, as with ancient Greek drama , elements of dramatic performance arose in Jewish life as an artistic refinement of religious practice; he highlights references in the Bible to dance, music, or song, especially in the Psalms (Hebrew tehillim , or songs of praise), where some of the headings refer to musical instruments, or to singing in dialogue, either between parts of

2394-557: The founder of the first professional Yiddish theatre troupe, attended that same rabbinical school, and while there is known to have played (in 1862) a woman's role in a play, Serkele , by Solomon Ettinger . Shortly after that (1869, according to one source), Goldfaden wrote a dialogue Tsvey Shkheynes ( Two Neighbors ), apparently intended for the stage, and published with moderate success. A short-lived Yiddish theater in Odessa in 1864 performed dramas Esther and Athalia . Abraham Baer Gottlober 's Decktuch , like Ettinger's Serkele ,

2457-691: The freedom to perform. The Moscow Yiddish Theater , or Jewish Kamerny Theatre in Moscow , or new Yiddish Chamber Theater, directed by Aleksey Granovsky , and with contributors including Marc Chagall , was founded in Petrograd in June 1919 as an experimental workshop then became the Moscow State Jewish Theatre . Of the next era of Yiddish theatre, Adler, who arrived in London with his wife Sonya in 1883, wrote, "...if Yiddish theater

2520-722: The journal Nostalgia in Jewish-American Theatre and Film, 1979-2004 , Ben Furnish establishes the deep roots of nostalgia based on Jewish history. Many of these origins are based in stories like that of the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BCE) of Jews from the Holy Land. Shows up to present day productions pull influence from these experiences, creating a concrete picture of Yiddish themes and tenets seen in Jewish theatre. The origin of theatre in Christian societies in Europe

2583-521: The next few decades, successive waves of Yiddish performers arrived in New York (and, to a lesser extent, in Berlin, London, Vienna , and Paris), some simply as artists seeking an audience, but many as a result of persecutions, pogroms and economic crises in Eastern Europe. Professional Yiddish theatre in London began in 1884, and flourished until the mid-1930s. By 1896, Kalman Juvelier 's troupe

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2646-460: The plays of Moses Horowitz and Joseph Lateiner , Moses Gaster wrote that Yiddish theatre "represents scenes from our history known by only a tiny minority, refreshing, therefore, secular memory" and "shows us our defects, which we have like all men, but not with a tendency to strike at our own immorality with a tendency towards ill will, but only with an ironic spirit that does not wound us, as we are wounded by representations on other stages, where

2709-660: The plays of Schiller first entered the repertoire of Yiddish theatre, beginning with The Robbers , the start of a vogue that would last a quarter of a century. Adler records that, like Shakespeare , Schiller was "revered" by the broad Jewish public, not just by intellectuals, admired for his "almost socialist view of society", although his plays were often radically adapted for the Yiddish stage, shortening them and dropping Christian, antisemitic , and classical mythological references There were several smaller Jewish theatre groups in Manchester and Glasgow . The opening of

2772-498: The political preoccupations of its time. They struggled financially, like all Jewish cultural institutions during that period, even while flourishing for a time during a more liberal political atmosphere. Actors and directors, just like others during that period, were highly aware of labor relations, and tried to create egalitarian working relationships. Organizations such as the Yiddish Actors’ Union , based in Warsaw, played

2835-522: The scattered (non-Zionist) national clubs, societies, and groups". In 1910–1936, Pryłucki was the editor of the Folkist newspaper Warszawer Togblat (The Warsaw Daily), later renamed as Der Moment . In 1916 he was the founder and then became the leader of the Jewish People's Party in Poland ( Folkspartei ), and was elected the same year at the municipal elections (under German occupation), where

2898-474: The singers from Brody was the itinerant Berl Margulis (1815–1868), known as Berl Broder , "Berl from Brody"; 24 of his 30 surviving songs are in the form of dialogues. Another influential performer in this style was Benjamin Wolf Ehrenkrantz (1826–1883), known as Velvel Zbarjer . Bercovici describes his work as "mini-melodramas in song". Such performers, who performed at weddings, in the salons of

2961-774: The singing of cantors in the synagogues ; Jewish secular song and dramatic improvisation; exposure to the theatre traditions of various European countries, and the Jewish literary culture that had grown in the wake of the Jewish enlightenment ( Haskalah ). Israil Bercovici wrote that it is through Yiddish theatre that "Jewish culture entered in dialogue with the outside world," both by putting itself on display and by importing theatrical pieces from other cultures. Themes such as immigration, poverty, integration, and strong ancestral ties can be found in many Yiddish theatre productions. Noah Prilutski (1882–1941) noted that Yiddish theatre did not arise simultaneously with theatre in other European "national" languages; he conjectured that this

3024-462: The story of Joseph sold by his brothers or the sacrifice of Isaac . Over time, these well-known stories became less a subject matter than a pretext for topical and satiric theatre. Mordechai became a standard role for a clown . Purim plays were published as early as the early 18th century. At least eight Purim plays were published between 1708 and 1720; most of these do not survive (at least some were burned in autos da fe ), but one survives in

3087-474: The story of Esther was little more than a pretext. Since satire was deemed inappropriate for a synagogue , these events were usually performed outdoors in the synagogue courtyard. By the mid-19th century, some routines were based on other stories, such as Joseph sold by his brothers, Daniel , or the Binding of Isaac . Other traditional forms of Purim spiel have included puppet shows for children, reenacting

3150-579: The theater performed during this period was later referred to as shund, or trash, though critics such as Itsik Manger felt it possessed a naive energy and was unfairly maligned. What seemed, for a time, a boundless future in Russia was cut short by the anti-Jewish reaction following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II ; Yiddish theatre was banned, under an order effective September 14, 1883. This ban caused an exodus of Yiddish actors and playwrights to other countries – Poland, in particular – where they had

3213-404: The troupes were often in one or another degree family affairs, with a husband, wife, and often their offspring playing in the same troupe. At its high end, early Yiddish theatre was noted for its pageantry. A pageant about the coronation of Solomon , presented on the occasion of the 1881 coronation of Carol I of Romania was described by Ion Ghica as "among the most imposing things that paraded

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3276-500: The two main criticisms from this quarter were (1) that the Yiddish "jargon" was being promoted to the detriment of "proper" Hebrew and (2) that satire against Hasidim and others would not necessarily be understood as satire and would make Jews look ridiculous. Bercovici quotes an anonymous 1885 article as responding to these criticisms by saying (1) that all Jews speak some modern language and why should Yiddish be any more detrimental to Hebrew than Romanian, Russian, or German; and (2) that

3339-581: The wealthy, in the summer gardens, and in other secular gathering places of the Eastern European Jews, were not mere singers. They often used costumes and often improvised spoken material between songs, especially when working in groups. Israel Grodner , later Goldfaden's first actor, participated in an outdoor concert in Odessa in 1873 with dialogues between songs comparable to much of what was in Goldfaden's earliest plays. Goldfaden himself

3402-416: Was already a noted poet, and many of his poems had been set to music and had become popular songs, some of which were used in that 1873 performance. Finally, around this time Yiddish was establishing itself as a literary language, and some Jews with secular interests were familiar with the dominant theatrical traditions of their respective countries; given this burgeoning literary intellectual culture, within

3465-402: Was an immediate hit with the broad masses of Jews, was generally liked and admired by Jewish intellectuals and many Gentile intellectuals, a small but socially powerful portion of the Jewish community, centered among Orthodox and Hasidic Jews , remained opposed to it. Besides complaints about the mingling of men and women in public and about the use of music and dance outside of sacred contexts,

3528-403: Was at least in part because the Jewish sense of nationality favored Hebrew over Yiddish as a "national" language, but few Jews of the period were actually comfortable using Hebrew outside of a religious/liturgical context. Nonetheless, various types of performances, including those of cantors, preachers, jesters, and instrumental musicians, were a part of Eastern European Jewish life long before

3591-417: Was comparably broad: from the late 19th century until just before World War II , professional Yiddish theatre could be found throughout the heavily Jewish areas of Eastern and East Central Europe , but also in Berlin, London, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York City. Yiddish theatre's roots include the often satiric plays traditionally performed during religious holiday of Purim (known as Purimshpils );

3654-584: Was considered a "protector" of it – a circumstance that suggests the difficulties it faced. Around the same time, there are indications of a traveling Yiddish-language theatre troupe in Galicia , organized along the lines of an English or Italian theatre troupe. In 1854, two rabbinical students from Zhytomyr put on a play in Berdichev . Shortly afterward, the Ukrainian Jew Abraham Goldfaden , generally considered

3717-642: Was destined to go through its infancy in Russia, and in America grew to manhood and success, then London was its school." The arrival of Adler and his troupe beckoned the era of professional Yiddish theatre in London, and as word of the troupe's arrival started to spread throughout the East End, they began to receive financial assistance from the local community which allowed them to form the Russian Jewish Operatic Company. In London in

3780-613: Was in Warsaw that the Vilna Troupe staged the first performance of The Dybbuk in 1920, a play that made a profound and lasting impression on Yiddish theater and world culture. The Vilna Troupe inspired the creation of more avant-garde and ambitious Yiddish theatrical companies, including the Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater , founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kamińska in 1924, the Warsaw New Yiddish Theater , founded by Jonas Turkow in 1929, and

3843-410: Was not intended for the stage. Hersh Leib Sigheter (1829–1930) wrote satirical Purim plays on an annual basis and hired boys to play in them. Although often objected to by rabbis, these plays were popular, and were performed not only on Purim but for as much as a week afterwards in various locations. Another current that led equally to professional Yiddish theatre was a tradition resembling that of

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3906-436: Was the only one that remained in Romania, where Yiddish theatre had started, although Mogulesko sparked a revival there in 1906. There was also some activity in Warsaw and Lvov , which were under Austrian rather than Russian rule. In this era, Yiddish theatre existed almost entirely on stage, rather than in texts. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901–1906 reported, "There are probably less than fifty printed Yiddish dramas, and

3969-462: Was written between 1830 and 1840, but published much later; Israel Aksenfeld (died c. 1868) wrote several dramas in Yiddish, which were probably not staged in his lifetime. Another early Yiddish dramatist was Joel Baer Falkovich ( Reb Chaimele der Koẓin , Odessa, 1866; Rochel die Singerin , Zhytomyr, 1868). Solomon Jacob Abramowitsch 's Die Takse (1869) has the form of a drama, but, like Eliakim Zunser 's later Mekirat Yosef (Vilnius, 1893), it

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