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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2009
Accurately tracing the process leading to the creation of a theatre within most western societies is an endeavour usually fraught with hazards, since so much needful information has been lost or remains conjectural. But the Jewish theatre arrived far later than most, due to a combination of the prohibitions against theatricality in Jewish laws and the problems of preserving a performative tradition during the long period of the Diaspora. The eventual emergence of a Jewish theatre little over a century ago thus offers a unique opportunity not only to investigate the subsequent development of that specific theatre, but also potentially to illuminate questions concerning the social, economic, and demographic variants which determine the cultural distinctiveness of other national theatres. The author, Corina Shoef, is a researcher based in Tel-Aviv who has already published several articles on related themes, and is currently working on a project to create a research database of the Jewish and Hebrew theatre.
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3. Gur, I., ‘Hundred Years of Jewish Theatre’, Bama, No. 87–8 (1981)Google Scholar; Avisar, S., The Jewish and Hebrew Dramaturgy and Theatre (Jerusalem: Reuven Mass, 1996), Ch. 19 (both in Hebrew)Google Scholar. One can still see these traditional ingredients on the few surviving Yiddish stages, including the one in Tel-Aviv. It is interesting to note the sudden flourishing of the Tel-Aviv Yiddish theatre following the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel since the beginning of the 1990s.
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5. Avisar, ‘Introduction’, op. cit.; Levy, S., ‘Introduction’, The Altar and the Stage (Tel-Aviv: Or-Am, 1992, in Hebrew)Google Scholar. One may add that several Jewish performers were known throughout European theatre history. Although they were never aiming at a kind of theatre culturally identifiable as Jewish, a possible exception is Leone de Sommi, the Italian-Jewish Renaissance playwright, director, and theorist. But whether his attempt to connect theatre and Judaism came to anything is still debatable. See articles in Belkin, A., ed., Leone de Sommi and the Performing Arts (Tel-Aviv: Assaf Book Series, 1997)Google Scholar.
6. The Hebrew word used originally for ‘mockers’ means, in fact, ‘clowns’. An unusual article within the Halkha writings (the literature on Jewish religious laws and norms) entitled ‘Theatre and Judaism’, by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, was published in the collection Iturei Cohanim (freely translated as ‘Priests' Elaborations’), published by the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva in Jerusalem (in Hebrew). Rabbi Aviner explained to ‘modern’ orthodox Jews all the different prohibitions on performing theatre according to the Halakha, and their exceptions (namely, when it is done for the sake of the Torah).
7. Turner, V., The Anthropology of Performance (New York: PAJ Publications, 1986)Google Scholar.
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9. On aesthetics within the Jewish discourse, see Levi, Z., ‘The Status of Aesthetics in Jewish Philosophy’, in Cassuto, D., ed., Judaism and Art (Institute of Contemporary Judaism, Bar-Ian University, 1989, in Hebrew)Google Scholar. Even today, a secular discourse on Jewish art would refer mainly to ornaments of ritual, and Jewish music would be considered as mainly liturgic.
10. Gorni, Y., ‘From Negation to Reconciliation with the Diaspora’, Zemanim, No. 58 (1997, in Hebrew)Google Scholar, identified a third option – that of a ‘modernized’ Jewish religion, as suggested by the Reform and other movements.
11. Like the European Enlightenment, the Jewish Enlightenment affected mainly the fields of literature and philosophy. However, this phenomenon also has its roots deeply in the Jewish cultural tradition, which favours intellect over aesthetics (see Z. Levi, op. cit.).
12. The Eternal Jew was the second production of the Habima Theatre, which soon became the National Theatre.
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18. Slomiansky, A., Ha-Zvi, Yiar II, 5655 (1895)Google Scholar.
19. For example: Brockett, O. G., ‘Origins of Theatre’, History of the Theatre (Boston; London: Allyn and Bacon, 1984)Google Scholar; Kirby, E. T., ‘Introduction: General Theories of Origins’, Origins of Theatre (New York: New York University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Pickering, J. V., ‘The Beginnings: Myth, Ritual, Magic’, Theatre: a History of the Art (St. Paul; New York: West Publishing, 1978)Google Scholar.
20. On symbolic performances see M. Govrin, ‘The Jewish Ritual as a Genre of “Holy Theatre”,’ in Judaism and Art, op. cit.; on role-playing in the Talmud studies see Heilman, S. C., The People of the Book: Drama, Fellow ship, and Religion (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1987)Google Scholar. One should mention, however, that most of these practices are fulfilling the needs of male society only. Women (at least in Judaism) are not supposed to have any social needs. As a Jewish saying goes, ‘the princess's place is indoors’. Another necessary comparison here is with early Christianity, which also identified the danger of theatrical competition and sought to supply alternative performative practices, though eventually adopting the theatre itself.