Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ is coming back to theaters. Here’s how it changed one actor’s life
Steven Skybell, who played Tevye in a production scuppered by the pandemic, spent lockdown learning Yiddish songs
Yiddish Theater
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Forverts in English Recalling the revolt against a Yiddish theater in Buenos Aires
In Buenos Aires, where I spent the first 30 years of my life, every public school student has heard of Boulogne Sur Mer, a small town in France, where the Argentine national hero Jose San Martin spent the last years of his life. Boulogne Sur Mer is also a street in Buenos Aires where even…
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Forverts in English ‘Waiting for Godot’ in Yiddish to play at Sweden’s Royal Theatre
Sweden’s national theater, the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, has commissioned the Congress for Jewish Culture to stage Samuel Beckett’s play, “Waiting for Godot” in Yiddish on November 13 and 14. This will be the first Yiddish production in the history of Sweden’s national stage for “spoken drama”, a venerable institution founded in 1788. All…
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Culture Former Folksbiene CEO quits 6-figure job after résumé-padding investigation
The former CEO of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, who was recently found to have padded his résumé with fake jobs and professional honors, is resigning from his post at the University of Utah’s Pioneer Theatre Company, citing mental illness. “Despite many good things that have happened over the last two years under my direction,…
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Culture Today’s Google Doodle has a Yiddish soundtrack
Today’s Google Doodle offers an interactive ode to swing dance — and a bisl Yiddish. Please let me explain. If you visit the search engine today, you’ll find an image of dancers in Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, and, if you click, you’ll hear a jazzy instrumental version of the classic “Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn.” The tune,…
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Forverts in English Sholem Asch’s groundbreaking play, “God of Vengeance”, now streaming in English
An artful online video adaptation of Sholem Asch’s groundbreaking 1906 Yiddish play, “God of Vengeance”, is now streaming through May 31, 2021. The 100-minute video is in English. The play, known in Yiddish as “Got fun nekome”, tells the story of a seemingly observant Jewish couple and their daughter Rivkeleh who live upstairs in their…
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Culture Is Sinclair Lewis’s 1936 play about American fascism even timelier today?
In 1936, as the United States struggled to overcome the Depression, Hitler pressed ahead with his revival of the German military and fascist forces in Europe continued to erode the norms of public life, Sinclair Lewis debuted the theatrical adaptation of his 1935 novel of “It Can’t Happen Here.” Co-written with playwright John C. Moffitt,…
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Culture All-Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ Captures How Jews Really Spoke To Each Other
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. As soon as the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” based on the stories of the classic Yiddish writer, Sholem Aleichem, came out in movie theaters in 1971, my family and I went to see it. I thought it was wonderful, especially the songs. I learned…
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