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The Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theater

Alyssa Quint author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Indiana University Press

Published:24th Jan '19

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The Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theater cover

Alyssa Quint focuses on the early years of the modern Yiddish theater, from roughly 1876 to 1883, through the works of one of its best-known and most colorful figures, Avrom Goldfaden. Goldfaden (né Goldenfaden, 1840-1908) was one of the first playwrights to stage a commercially viable Yiddish-language theater, first in Romania and then in Russia. Goldfaden's work was rapidly disseminated in print and his plays were performed frequently for Jewish audiences. Sholem Aleichem considered him as a forger of a new language that "breathed the European spirit into our old jargon." Quint uses Goldfaden's theatrical works as a way to understand the social life of Jewish theater in Imperial Russia. Through a study of his libretti, she looks at the experiences of Russian Jewish actors, male and female, to explore connections between culture as artistic production and culture in the sense of broader social structures. Quint explores how Jewish actors who played Goldfaden's work on stage absorbed the theater into their everyday lives. Goldfaden's theater gives a rich view into the conduct, ideology, religion, and politics of Jews during an important moment in the history of late Imperial Russia.

This is the final word on the subject; the sources are in Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew, French, and German. If the adjective definitive holds any meaning in literary history, it can be applied to this volume, yet the prose is transparent and comfortable for any reader.

* Choice *

Finalist, 2019 Jewish Book Awards, Scholarship


This is a major contribution that fills longstanding scholarly gaps, both in our understanding of Goldfaden as a historical figure and in our understanding of how modern Yiddish theater first developed.

-- Debra Caplan * In Geveb A Journal of Yiddish Studies *

Quint sucessfully outlines the interconnections between theatre producers, audience, actors, and theatre critics as well as Yiddish critics.

* The Year's Work in Modern Language Studi

  • Runner-up for Jordan Schnitzer Book Award 2020 (United States)
  • Runner-up for Jewish Book Award - History 2019

ISBN: 9780253038616

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

300 pages