It is commonly understood that the two voices of Jewish national discourse in the early twentieth century, Yiddishism and Hebrew-based Zionism, reflected two separate, distant, and non-communicating worlds. Therefore, their artistic outputs are rarely explored as an interconnected whole. Despite the heated debate and the unbridgeable gap on fundamental issues such as homeland and language, it is nonetheless evident that these two contrasting worlds were intertwined. Besides sharing the same origins in Yiddish-speaking Eastern European communities, most people from both parties had cultural and political experiences in common. In the artistic turmoil of the 1920s, Yiddish and Hebrew culture expressed similar experiences when two workers’ theatres were established in New York City and in Mandatory Palestine, the Artef and the Ohel, respectively. Both companies were founded in the same year by former members of Habima Theatre from Moscow and were heavily influenced by the Russian revolutionary and artistic experience. As workers’ theatres, they were both formed by non-professional actors who kept their day jobs in the factories or in the fields and were organised as collectives. Sharing an idea of politically committed high culture and art theatre, they offered similar repertoires, staging Western plays on the condition of workers as well as Yiddish folk heritage, which the Ohel translated into Hebrew. Their parallel experiences are presented here and considered within the framework of Jewish politically committed drama and theatre beyond language and land boundaries.

Jewish Theatres and Jewish Languages. Intersections of the Yiddish and the Hebrew Stage

Raffaele Esposito
2023-01-01

Abstract

It is commonly understood that the two voices of Jewish national discourse in the early twentieth century, Yiddishism and Hebrew-based Zionism, reflected two separate, distant, and non-communicating worlds. Therefore, their artistic outputs are rarely explored as an interconnected whole. Despite the heated debate and the unbridgeable gap on fundamental issues such as homeland and language, it is nonetheless evident that these two contrasting worlds were intertwined. Besides sharing the same origins in Yiddish-speaking Eastern European communities, most people from both parties had cultural and political experiences in common. In the artistic turmoil of the 1920s, Yiddish and Hebrew culture expressed similar experiences when two workers’ theatres were established in New York City and in Mandatory Palestine, the Artef and the Ohel, respectively. Both companies were founded in the same year by former members of Habima Theatre from Moscow and were heavily influenced by the Russian revolutionary and artistic experience. As workers’ theatres, they were both formed by non-professional actors who kept their day jobs in the factories or in the fields and were organised as collectives. Sharing an idea of politically committed high culture and art theatre, they offered similar repertoires, staging Western plays on the condition of workers as well as Yiddish folk heritage, which the Ohel translated into Hebrew. Their parallel experiences are presented here and considered within the framework of Jewish politically committed drama and theatre beyond language and land boundaries.
2023
De manière générale, il est considéré qu’au début du XXe siècle les deux « voix » du discours national juif – le Yiddishisme et le Sionisme basé sur l’hébreu – reflètent deux mondes séparés et distants qui ne communiquent pas. Par voie de conséquence, leurs productions artistiques sont rarement explorées comme un ensemble interconnecté. Au-delà de l’origine commune des communautés de l’Europe de l’Est de langue yiddish, la plupart des gens des deux groupes partagent des expériences culturelles et politiques communes. Dans la tourmente artistique des années ’20, les cultures yiddish et hébraïque ont subi des expériences similaires, dans un moment où, à New York et en Palestine mandataire, deux théâtres ouvriers naissaient : Artef et Ohel. Les deux compagnies théâtrales ont été fondées la même année par des anciens membres du Théâtre Habima de Moscou, tout en étant profondément influencées par l’expérience révolutionnaire et artistique russe. En tant que théâtres ouvriers, les deux ont été formés par des comédiens amateurs qui travaillaient dans les usines pendant la journée, et qui étaient organisés en collectifs. Partageant la même idée d’un td’une « haute culture » et d’un art théâtral politiquement engagés, les deux compagnies proposaient des répertoires similaires. On mettait en scène à a fois des pièces « occidentales » traitant de la condition des ouvriers ainsi que des pièces inspirées par l’héritage folklorique yiddish, ces dernières étant traduites en hébreu par les membres de la compagnie Ohel. Leurs expériences parallèles sont décrites dans cet article et considérées à l’intérieur d’un cadre théorique qui englobe un art théâtral et un théâtre juif politiquement engagés, au-delà des frontières linguistiques et territoriales.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11574/219280
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