North America

Jan 05, 2023

Osherowitch and Rumshinsky on the Piety of Regina Prager

Beth Dwoskin, Alyssa Quint, Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

Regina Prager was one of the first leading ladies of the Yiddish stage, known for her extraordinary operatic voice and her continued Jewish observance throughout her life.

Sep 12, 2022

Vos flist durkhn oder: A conversation with playwright Mikhl Yashinsky on his new play

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

Mikhl Yashinsky’s new one-act Yiddish play premiered at the Lower East Side Play Festival at the Stanton Street Shul in New York City on July 25, 2022.

Jun 20, 2022

How I Got Five Thousand Dollars from a Theatre Customer

Menashe Skulnik, Zachary Baker

In his memoirs, Menashe Skulnik recalled the many years when he performed in cities outside of New York – including six years in Philadelphia, which he considered to be a theatrical purgatory.

Aug 23, 2021

Khonen in Drag: Cross-Dressing in Two Productions of The Dybbuk during the 1920s (Plus, a Review of One of These Productions)

Zachary Baker

What was the “trouser role”?

Long Form

Jun 29, 2021

A Timeline of Yiddish Drag

The Digital Yiddish Theatre Project

Yiddish theatre…the gayest theater?

Jun 21, 2021

The Bird of COVID

Faith Jones

Chava Rosenfarb’s Der foygl fun geto (The Bird of the Ghetto) had its Yiddish-language premiere April 18 to 22, on the Folksbiene’s video channel.

Jun 08, 2021

The Menashe Skulnik Story in the Forward

Zachary Baker

Menashe Skulnik (1892-1970) was one of the great comic actors of the Yiddish theatre, remembered for his trademark porkpie hat and beloved for his schlemiel-like stage persona.

Apr 12, 2021

Why Wikidata is Good for Yiddish Theatre Research

Heidi G. Lerner

Part two of two on how the digital humanities can inspire the world of Yiddish theatre.

Mar 15, 2021

Wikidata, Yiddish Theatre Posters, and the World

Heidi G. Lerner

Part one of two on how the digital humanities can inspire the world of Yiddish theatre.

Feb 11, 2021

When Corona Came to The Party

Faith Jones

What do you do when Coronavirus comes to your birthday party?

Dec 30, 2020

An Interview with Ellen Perecman

Alyssa Quint

DYTP contributing editor Alyssa Quint interviews Ellen Perecman about her new collection of translations, Ten Yiddish Plays in Translation.

Jul 29, 2020

How Two Nudniks Saved History from the Fire

Vassili Schedrin

The Moscow State Yiddish Theatre archives are available digitally!

Jul 15, 2020

Teaching with the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project

Sonia Gollance, Caitlin Hatten

Yiddish in the time of COVID.

Apr 21, 2020

“S’iz nisht dos vos amol iz geven”: Max Perlman (1909-1985)

Veronica Belling

Of all the Yiddish entertainers to have visited South Africa after the Holocaust, Max Perlman is virtually the only artist who is still remembered today.

Long Form

Mar 11, 2020

Biz 120: The Yiddish Artists and Friends Actors’ Club at 85

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

85 years of the Yiddish Artists and Friends Actors’ Club…

Feb 13, 2020

Interview with Joshua Horowitz on the Orchestration of Bas-Sheve

Jake Marmer, John Schott

In February 2019, Josh Horowitz was sent the manuscript of Henekh Kon’s piano and vocal score of the only known pre-Holocaust Yiddish opera, Bas-Sheve.

Jan 23, 2020

Interview: Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin on Their Film Score for The Ancient Law

Mark Slobin

Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin on scoring a Weimar-era film about a backwoods Jewish boy whose talent leads him to show business success and possible romance with a well-placed Gentile woman.

Dec 20, 2019

Magic and Melody Delight in a Yiddish Fairytale Reborn

Debra Caplan

Debra Caplan reviews The Sorceress / Di Kishefmakherin at the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene.

Nov 06, 2019

Theatre: A Sketch

Jessica Kirzane

Jessica Kirzane’s translation and introduction of Miriam Karpilove’s “Theatre.”

Aug 21, 2019

An Interview with Daniel Galay

Ellen Cassedy

Daniel Galay is a prolific playwright, composer, and pianist living in Israel.

Jun 29, 2019

“A Piquant Curiosity”: The Gender-Bending Drama Yo a man, nit a man

Zachary Baker

Read about the gender-bending play Yo a man, nit a man (Yes a Man, Not a Man).

Long Form

May 17, 2019

Grand Opera for Yiddish Speakers in Early Twentieth-Century America! Who Knew?!

Daniela Smolov Levy

In the spring of 1904, New York witnessed the unlikely spectacle of a musical-dramatic adaptation of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal—in Yiddish.

Dec 21, 2018

Why Does Muni Weisenfreund Play “Shund”?

Zachary Baker

The career of the young actor Muni Weisenfreund is noteworthy, practically legendary.

Oct 12, 2018

Hatuey: Memory of Fire—An Interview

Joel Berkowitz

As part of our coverage of the recent premiere of Hatuey: Memory of Fire, Joel Berkowitz interviewed members of the production’s creative team about the work’s genesis and influences and much more.

Oct 02, 2018

A Yiddish Poet, a Cuban Revolutionary, and a Historical Legend Walk Into a Bar: A Review of Hatuey: Memory of Fire

Debra Caplan

A brand-new opera, sung partially in Yiddish and partially in Spanish—and sometimes in both languages at the same time.

Aug 02, 2018

How Jewish Can One Fiddler Be?: Reflections on the Folksbiene’s Fidler afn dakh

Rebecca Kobrin, David Shneer

The question that lingered for both of us was, “What does Yiddish add?”

Jul 26, 2018

A Yiddish Homecoming for Fiddler on the Roof

Devora Geller

Fidler afn dakh returns Tevye, his family, and his fellow denizens of Anatevke, to their imaginary Yiddish roots.

Jul 20, 2018

Interview: Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof Actor Rachel Zatcoff

Debra Caplan

Fiddler on the Roof is back Off Broadway and the DYTP’s Debra Caplan spoke with Rachel Zatcoff, who is playing Tevye’s eldest daughter, Tsaytl.

Jul 17, 2018

A fidler afn dakh: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish

Alisa Solomon

Before there was Fiddler, there was Tevye.

May 09, 2018

Yiddish Theatre Stars & Matinee Girls on the Move

Judith Thissen

You didn’t need to be the Great Gatsby to have a good time in the Roaring Twenties.

Mar 12, 2018

Curtain Falls on the Sunshine Theatre

Judith Thissen

One of the last remnants of the Second Avenue Yiddish Theatre District will be demolished to give way for a “boutique” office building.

Jan 09, 2018

Revival and Homage Productions of Yiddish Theatre

Mark Slobin

There’s something about the popular entertainment of the 1880s-1930s that draws people to fool around with creative ways of making it contemporary.

Dec 11, 2017

Goodbye, Columbia: A Yiddish Playwright and the German Stage

Sonia Gollance

Pinski came to prominence as a Yiddish writer and playwright, yet his connection to German theatre and cultural life was strong.

Sep 24, 2017

Something Special for the High Holidays

Judith Thissen

Kol Nidre on Broadway, a cantor with a voice that sounds like fifty canaries, and other High Holiday gigs in turn-of-the-century New York City.

Jul 20, 2017

The Grand Street Theatre: A Modern Playhouse Built for Old-fashioned Shund

Judith Thissen

The opening of the Grand Theatre brought together, gallery gods, an up-and-coming shund writer, and Jacob Adler.

Apr 27, 2017

Scoring Indecent

Lisa Gutkin

Lisa Gutkin details the living and breathing aspect of music composition, what it means to strike the right tone, and how melodies appear, disappear, and reappear.

Apr 18, 2017

The Stones Outtake

Paula Vogel

On outtake from the play INDECENT.

Apr 06, 2017

Yiddish Drama on the Broadway Stage

Stefanie Halpern

From its beginnings, New York’s Yiddish theatre intersected with the mainstream English-language stage.

Mar 22, 2017

“I would have run away, but there was only one path for me - onto the stage”: Bertha Kalich at the Romanian National Theatre, Part II

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

When I finished the performance, I kept asking Spachner and Hirsh, “where did the rotten onions go?”

Feb 28, 2017

10 Things You Need to Know About God of Vengeance

David Mazower

A Twitter summary of its production history would read something like this: “admired, translated, parodied, panned, banned, prosecuted, withdrawn, forgotten, revived, celebrated.”

Jan 16, 2017

Sholem Asch: God of Vengeance is Not an Immoral Play

David Mazower

Because of the wrong interpretation of my play, *The God of Vengeance*, now running at the Apollo Theatre, I wish to make the following statement…

Jan 07, 2017

Brothel Intrigue, with a Modern Twist: Got fun nekome at the New Yiddish Rep

Debra Caplan

The New Yiddish Rep’s production is no period play. The play itself feels remarkably modern, even 110 years later, and the New Yiddish Rep has given *Got fun nekome* a production to match.

Dec 23, 2016

Mending The Torn Curtain: A Documentary Film About the First International Yiddish Theatre Festival

Ben Gonshor

Montreal prides itself on being the city of festivals.

Nov 20, 2016

London - New York, or The Great British Yiddish Theatre Brain Drain

David Mazower

We Brits have been sending some of our finest actors across the Atlantic for as long as anyone can remember. Charlie Chaplin, Vivien Leigh, Kate Winslet, Christian Bale… the list goes on and on.

Sep 29, 2016

A Yiddish Musical That Never Was

Leon Gildin

Camp Boiberik opened in the 1920s and closed in 1979, and if you will indulge a momentary digression form the topic, allow me to illustrate the importance of the camp to the subject matter

Sep 16, 2016

When History Belonged to the Opera Writers

Joel Berkowitz

When Avrom Goldfaden dubbed himself the “Father of the Yiddish Stage,” the epithet was in many ways well-earned, if not exactly modest.

Aug 31, 2016

FYVUSH

Rokhl Kafrissen

My first real-life encounter with Fyvush Finkel coincided roughly with my entry into the world of New York Yiddish theatre.

Jul 27, 2016

How I Rediscovered Di goldene kale (The Golden Bride)

Michael Ochs

Michael Ochs on rediscovering the 1923 Yiddish operetta Di goldene kale by Joseph Rumshinsky.

Apr 26, 2016

Lekoved pesach

Judith Thissen

It was in 1910 that the Yidishes tageblatt (Jewish Daily News) observed, with some dismay, “Where other nationalities spend the bulk of their money at weddings, funerals and processions, the Jew has h

Apr 13, 2016

Should a Married Woman Visit a Yiddish Music Hall?

Judith Thissen

“What a strange question,” you might think. Why would it be a problem if someone went to a music hall simply to have some fun? In the early 1900s, the answer was complicated.

Feb 08, 2016

Uncle Ed, Yiddish Theatre Impresario

Faith Jones

“My Uncle Ed was a Yiddish theatre impresario,” my friend Martha mentioned casually, as we were busy prepping for an event at our local Yiddish organization.

Jan 19, 2016

A Tribute to Sonia Lizaron

Arnold Zable

Delivered at her funeral service, 26 August 2015.

Jan 04, 2016

Boris Thomashefsky and Aaron Lebedeff

Zachary Baker

A few years ago, while roaming the open stacks of the Stanford University Libraries, I came across a copy of Thomashefsky’s memoir, Mayn lebens-geshikhte (The Story of My Life).

Dec 17, 2015

Interview: Indecent Playwright Paula Vogel and Director Rebecca Taichman

Joel Berkowitz

Paula Vogel’s drama Indecent premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, in October, and then moved to the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, where it just completed its run. Next

Dec 04, 2015

Six Degrees of Yankev Blayfer

Debra Caplan

Yankev Blayfer. Sonia Alomis. Leola Vendorf. Baruch Lumet. Wolf Barzel. Who are these figures and what is their place in history? Their names don’t appear in any theatre history or reference work. The

Oct 26, 2015

Yiddish Lives, Smirks, and Breathes: Restoring Community Theatre into Yiddish History

C. Tova Markenson

Diving off of the raised proscenium stage, I don a fish mask and begin to swim through the audience. “Vu zaynen di fish?” (Where are the fish?).

Jul 02, 2015

A Lost Film, Found

Margaret Compton

I’d never heard of him before, but I’ve found out a few things about Mark Schweid since February.

May 18, 2015

Audiences Are Idiots

Faith Jones

One of the hardest problems in theatre studies is understanding audiences response.

Apr 28, 2015

Matzah and Melodrama: Nahum Stutchkoff’s Yiddish Song Lyrics

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

Nahum Stutchkoff (1893-1965) was a beloved Yiddish radio personality, playwright, lyricist and linguist who created dramas and commercials for WEVD radio.

Feb 04, 2015

Goldfaden’s Rules for Yiddish Actors

Joel Berkowitz

In 1888, the first school for Yiddish actors was supposed to open in New York. It never did.

Jan 29, 2015

Ola Lillith’s Edgy, Avant-Garde Yiddish Cabaret

Jane Peppler

I first discovered Ola Lilith while researching for my band Mappamundi’s Cabaret Warsaw CD.

Jan 21, 2015

The Talented Mr Rotblat and His Micrographic Tribute to Jacob Gordin

David Mazower

This is the story behind an exquisite portrait of a Yiddish dramatist.

Jan 13, 2015

Yiddish Theatre Posters of the 1890s

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

The New York Public Library’s Digital Collection includes Yiddish theatre posters dating back more than a hundred years.

Jan 01, 2015

The Chasidim Ball

Faith Jones

Between 1921 and 1933, a “Chasidim Ball” was held to raise funds for Poale Zion, or for the Peretz Shule. But why?

Dec 15, 2014

Advice from Sidney Lumet’s Yiddish Actor Dad

Debra Caplan

Sidney Lumet was a legendary director. He was also a child actor in the Yiddish theatre.

North America

Khenkin, Viktor

VOL. VII PP. 6133-6139

North America

Related Posts

Jan 05, 2023

Osherowitch and Rumshinsky on the Piety of Regina Prager

Beth Dwoskin, Alyssa Quint, Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

Sep 12, 2022

Vos flist durkhn oder: A conversation with playwright Mikhl Yashinsky on his new play

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

Jun 20, 2022

How I Got Five Thousand Dollars from a Theatre Customer

Menashe Skulnik, Zachary Baker

Aug 23, 2021

Khonen in Drag: Cross-Dressing in Two Productions of The Dybbuk during the 1920s (Plus, a Review of One of These Productions)

Zachary Baker

Jun 29, 2021

A Timeline of Yiddish Drag

The Digital Yiddish Theatre Project

Jun 21, 2021

The Bird of COVID

Faith Jones

Jun 08, 2021

The Menashe Skulnik Story in the Forward

Zachary Baker

Apr 12, 2021

Why Wikidata is Good for Yiddish Theatre Research

Heidi G. Lerner

Mar 15, 2021

Wikidata, Yiddish Theatre Posters, and the World

Heidi G. Lerner

Feb 11, 2021

When Corona Came to The Party

Faith Jones

Dec 30, 2020

An Interview with Ellen Perecman

Alyssa Quint

Jul 29, 2020

How Two Nudniks Saved History from the Fire

Vassili Schedrin

Jul 15, 2020

Teaching with the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project

Sonia Gollance, Caitlin Hatten

Apr 21, 2020

“S’iz nisht dos vos amol iz geven”: Max Perlman (1909-1985)

Veronica Belling

Mar 11, 2020

Biz 120: The Yiddish Artists and Friends Actors’ Club at 85

Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel

Feb 13, 2020

Interview with Joshua Horowitz on the Orchestration of Bas-Sheve

Jake Marmer, John Schott

Jan 23, 2020

Interview: Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin on Their Film Score for The Ancient Law

Mark Slobin

Dec 20, 2019

Magic and Melody Delight in a Yiddish Fairytale Reborn

Debra Caplan

Nov 06, 2019

Theatre: A Sketch

Jessica Kirzane

Aug 21, 2019

An Interview with Daniel Galay

Ellen Cassedy

Jun 29, 2019

“A Piquant Curiosity”: The Gender-Bending Drama Yo a man, nit a man

Zachary Baker

May 17, 2019

Grand Opera for Yiddish Speakers in Early Twentieth-Century America! Who Knew?!

Daniela Smolov Levy

Dec 21, 2018

Why Does Muni Weisenfreund Play “Shund”?

Zachary Baker

Oct 12, 2018

Hatuey: Memory of Fire—An Interview

Joel Berkowitz

Oct 02, 2018

A Yiddish Poet, a Cuban Revolutionary, and a Historical Legend Walk Into a Bar: A Review of Hatuey: Memory of Fire

Debra Caplan

Aug 02, 2018

How Jewish Can One Fiddler Be?: Reflections on the Folksbiene’s Fidler afn dakh

Rebecca Kobrin, David Shneer

“I would have run away, but there was only one path for me - onto the stage”: Bertha Kalich at the Romanian National Theatre, Part II

Brothel Intrigue, with a Modern Twist: Got fun nekome at the New Yiddish Rep