International aspects of the World Congress of Jewish Theaters, Vienna, Austria, March 2007
by Henrik Eger
Jewish gravestones in Vienna, hidden from the Nazis, dug up and restored in the 1980s. For more details click the photo above.
1. PROLOGUE: “To Jews and non-Jews in the audience . . .”
| “To Jews and non-Jews in the audience, we must show not just a rosy picture, glossing over blemishes, but a picture as close and sometimes as painful to the truth as we can come.” Theodore Bikel’s (Austria/USA) advice from his important keynote address for the members of the Association for Jewish Theatre (AJT)—now the Alliance for Jewish Theatre--and many other theater groups around the world, organized by Warren and Sonja Rosenzweig, founders of the Jewish Theatre of Austria. Bikel's address represents one of the many powerful images in our constantly changing conference kaleidoscope where theater people from around the globe contributed beautiful, thought-provoking, and sometimes even terrifying aspects of life, showing the strength and tremendous range of Jewish theatre worldwide. |  Theodore Bikel, Austrian-born keynote speaker at the AJT Conference in Vienna, 2007. |
Looking into our conference kaleidoscope from an international perspective, I vividly recall dramatic beads, pebbles, and shards of many different colors, impressions, and emotions that terrified, challenged, but also nurtured me.
2. TERRIFYING SCENES
An unidentified boy raises his arms as German soldiers capture Polish Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising,
sometime between April 19 and May 16, 1943.
sometime between April 19 and May 16, 1943.
Haunting Holocaust puppet theater for children, counteracting the relentless attack on “the Jews"
Dutch Puppeteer Coby Omvlee (Netherlands/Norway) presented Teater Fusentast’s educational outreach to Scandinavian, Dutch, and immigrant audiences, including children from Africa and the Islamic world—a puppet-sized step toward counterbalancing the often vicious, relentless, and threatening verbal attacks on “the Jew” hammered into the children in many madrasahs around the world on an almost daily basis. Coby describes two of the scenes:
“Acting as a Nazi with an SS collar, I take one of the hand-sized paper puppets, Willem—whom the audience has grown to know quite well—set him on fire, and throw him into an “oven.” Later, without any expression of anger or hate, I take the remaining characters out of the family portrait and throw them away, except Hetty, the main character—the only one left. She then tries to find out if there are any family members left and reads from the lists of the deported and murdered on the miniature Red Cross building. During those scenes, both children and adults tend to sit in an edgy silence."
“Acting as a Nazi with an SS collar, I take one of the hand-sized paper puppets, Willem—whom the audience has grown to know quite well—set him on fire, and throw him into an “oven.” Later, without any expression of anger or hate, I take the remaining characters out of the family portrait and throw them away, except Hetty, the main character—the only one left. She then tries to find out if there are any family members left and reads from the lists of the deported and murdered on the miniature Red Cross building. During those scenes, both children and adults tend to sit in an edgy silence."
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ABOVE LEFT: Dutch Puppeteer Coby Omvlee presented Fusentast Theatre, Norway, describing a scene where she,
wearing an SS collar, burned Jewish paper dolls for kids. AJT World Congress of Jewish Theater, Vienna, 2007.
ABOVE RIGHT: The multi-linguistic Coby Omvlee, together with her husband Jaap den Hertog, run a well-known puppet theater in Trondheim, Norway, but they also perform in many other countries in various languages.
wearing an SS collar, burned Jewish paper dolls for kids. AJT World Congress of Jewish Theater, Vienna, 2007.
ABOVE RIGHT: The multi-linguistic Coby Omvlee, together with her husband Jaap den Hertog, run a well-known puppet theater in Trondheim, Norway, but they also perform in many other countries in various languages.
Tashmadada, the Jewish Theater Down Under: Medea--Kaddish for the Children
Turning the kaleidoscope by 180 degrees, some conference participants lucked out and reached Tashmadada, the Jewish Theater Down Under, temporarily transplanted to the residence of the Australian Ambassador in Austria who had invited us and Deborah Leiser-Moore (Australia) to present aspects of her physical theater.
In 2019, Australians experienced Medea: Kaddish for the Children, a re-imagining of one of the most iconic and tragic figures, Medea—played by Deborah Leiser-Moore.
In 2019, Australians experienced Medea: Kaddish for the Children, a re-imagining of one of the most iconic and tragic figures, Medea—played by Deborah Leiser-Moore.
Deborah Leiser-Moore as Medea, Kaddish for the Children, Tashmadada, Melbourne, Australia, 2019.
Theater of Genocide (USA) and Maurice Ravel’s Kaddisch (France)
At the end of the Theater of Genocide presentation by Robert Skloot (USA), Susan Salms-Moss (USA and Germany), an American opera singer who has performed in Germany for the past 25 years, sang Maurice Ravel’s Kaddisch with a God-given voice that went under my skin as if it had been sung in a forgotten concentration camp—the last song of the last surviving Jewish woman on earth.
[Kaddisch performed via the link above by Nikola Hillebrand (soprano) & Alexander Fleischer (piano) in Heidelberg, Germany, 2019.]
[Kaddisch performed via the link above by Nikola Hillebrand (soprano) & Alexander Fleischer (piano) in Heidelberg, Germany, 2019.]
KADDISH, a 13th century Aramaic prayer for the dead— Kaddish Yatom or Mourner's Kaddish (literally, "Orphan's Kaddish")--
is said during every traditional Jewish prayer service, including funerals and memorials.
is said during every traditional Jewish prayer service, including funerals and memorials.
Jewish Theater of Austria and Die Judenstadt (USA/Austria)
Having secured the Bishop’s permission to perform in Vienna’s Votivkirche, one of the most important Neo-Gothic religious architectural sites in the world, our host Warren Rosenzweig (USA/Austria), founding artistic director of the Jüdisches Theater Austria (Jewish Theater of Austria), and his international cast presented his dramatic epic Die Judenstadt [The Jewish City].
Centered around Theodor Herzl in the months before he conceived the Zionist manifesto Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), the play follows the psychological journey of Herzl, a frustrated bourgeois playwright, as he faces down his inner demons and, in particular, his self-hatred, to emerge at last with a grand vision of himself as redeemer of the Jewish people.
The performance of Rosenzweig’s play on the Jewish city and the Jewish state—an extraordinary event—was held in a sacred Christian place. Three generations ago, such a Jewish performance would not have been allowed, and if it had taken place in secret, would have led to most audience members being carted off to Theresienstadt (Terezin)—coming from Germany, this scenario colored and haunted my perception of the entire Jewish theater conference in Vienna.
Centered around Theodor Herzl in the months before he conceived the Zionist manifesto Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), the play follows the psychological journey of Herzl, a frustrated bourgeois playwright, as he faces down his inner demons and, in particular, his self-hatred, to emerge at last with a grand vision of himself as redeemer of the Jewish people.
The performance of Rosenzweig’s play on the Jewish city and the Jewish state—an extraordinary event—was held in a sacred Christian place. Three generations ago, such a Jewish performance would not have been allowed, and if it had taken place in secret, would have led to most audience members being carted off to Theresienstadt (Terezin)—coming from Germany, this scenario colored and haunted my perception of the entire Jewish theater conference in Vienna.
Warren Rosenzweig and two actors rehearsing for Die Judenstadt [The Jewish City] at the Votivkirche, Vienna, 2007.
Metronome Ticking: “Human beings on both sides of the Holocaust” (Germany/USA)
 ABOVE: Jewish Museum of Vienna, Austria--Museum Judenplatz, host of AJT's annual short play gala with playwright Rich Orloff (USA) as the lively MC. RIGHT: At the Jewish Museum in Vienna, Austria, Henrik Eger holding up a photo of his father. Mira Hirsch holding up a photo of Lily Spitz, whose husband had been deported from Vienna first to Dachau and then to Buchenwald. |  |
Set during the Third Reich in Europe and the U.S., my play Metronome Ticking (Germany/USA), the only Holocaust docudrama which presents the harrowing experiences of Lily Spitz, an Austrian Holocaust survivor, fleeing across Europe, collide with the conflicting conscience and actions of Alf Eger, a Third Reich war correspondent and propaganda officer in occupied France—was performed at the Jewish Museum of Vienna by Mira Hirsch (USA), artistic director of the Jewish Theatre of the South, and myself.
Our scene began with both the original German and the English translation of my father’s letter to my mother: “Lies mehr als meine Buchstaben, lies was ich nicht schrieb, lies was mein Herz zerspringen lassen möchte."—“Read more than my letters, read what I did not write, read that which could shatter my heart.”
Our scene began with both the original German and the English translation of my father’s letter to my mother: “Lies mehr als meine Buchstaben, lies was ich nicht schrieb, lies was mein Herz zerspringen lassen möchte."—“Read more than my letters, read what I did not write, read that which could shatter my heart.”
During the performance, I felt a gnawing awareness of what might happen to the predominantly Jewish audience of theater people from around the world being confronted by authentic texts of a victim and a perpetrator who, through his articles, had fostered anti-Semitism until, as a journalist, he witnessed a mass execution in Russia—an event that shattered him so badly that he could barely talk until he got killed by Russian partisans in the summer of 1944.
At the end of the scene, Mira dressed in black, slowly went to the back of the stage in silence, picked up a poster-sized photograph of Lily, the young Holocaust survivor, and held it up for all to see. Then, also dressed in black, I went to the back of the stage and picked up a poster of Lily’s contemporary, Alf—my father.
We both stood there holding up the photos of real people. Neither Mira nor I said a word, while a metronome was ticking mercilessly, until the audience broke the Third Reich spell and applauded—a cathartic moment in my life.
Shortly before the reading of that scene, I had asked our conference host, Warren Rosenzweig, whether he would like to have the two large photographs from our presentation. He told me that he would feel honored and that those historical images would hang on the walls of his Jewish Theater of Austria—a permanent reminder of the work that still had to be done.
At the end of the scene, Mira dressed in black, slowly went to the back of the stage in silence, picked up a poster-sized photograph of Lily, the young Holocaust survivor, and held it up for all to see. Then, also dressed in black, I went to the back of the stage and picked up a poster of Lily’s contemporary, Alf—my father.
We both stood there holding up the photos of real people. Neither Mira nor I said a word, while a metronome was ticking mercilessly, until the audience broke the Third Reich spell and applauded—a cathartic moment in my life.
Shortly before the reading of that scene, I had asked our conference host, Warren Rosenzweig, whether he would like to have the two large photographs from our presentation. He told me that he would feel honored and that those historical images would hang on the walls of his Jewish Theater of Austria—a permanent reminder of the work that still had to be done.
ABOVE: Warren Rosenzweig, founding artistic director of the Jüdisches Theater Austria (Jewish Theater of Austria)
and host of AJT's international theater conference, accepting the two posters for his theater.
and host of AJT's international theater conference, accepting the two posters for his theater.
From My Brooklyn Hamlet docudrama (USA) to The Forgiveness Project
We were taken to the edge of human existence many times: Brenda Adelman’s (USA) My Brooklyn Hamlet relived her mother’s murder by her father (who then married the victim’s sister), a drama that created a classical Greek catharsis in a modern Brooklyn setting (at right, Adelman performing below a painting of her murdered mother).
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LEFT: Brenda Adelman's father, the murderer, who killed her mother (see painting).
RIGHT: Photo of the daughter who not only wrote My Brooklyn Hamlet, but who also developed
THE FORGIVENESS PROJECT.
RIGHT: Photo of the daughter who not only wrote My Brooklyn Hamlet, but who also developed
THE FORGIVENESS PROJECT.
3. THOUGHT-PROVOKING, CHALLENGING IDEAS
Time machine mapping the future and the past.
Moscow Art Theatre, Gregog Zeltser, and Boris Yukhananov: A radical concept of Jewish theatre
A century ago, the Moscow Art Theatre developed revolutionary new acting methods under Konstantin Stanislavski and became the topic of heated discussions in Europe, ranging from actors and directors reviling to revering this new method, so much so that during a tour through Germany, one playwright called Stanislavski and his troupe “artistic divinities.”
The Russian cultural revolution spawned many ideas and books, including Utopian Construction — Judaism and the Soviet Avant Garde, which in return helped in fostering the next generation of Russian theater artists, especially in the theater and film world to advance their own revolutionary ideas.
The Russian cultural revolution spawned many ideas and books, including Utopian Construction — Judaism and the Soviet Avant Garde, which in return helped in fostering the next generation of Russian theater artists, especially in the theater and film world to advance their own revolutionary ideas.
El Lissitzky, illustrations for For the Voice, written by Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1923. Published in Berlin, Germany.
In Vienna in 2007, few groups sparked more discussion than young theatre artists, Gregog Zeltser of the LaboraTORIA ensemble from Moscow (Russia), and Boris Yukhananov—“a Russian director of theatre, video, cinema and TV, a theatre educator and theorist. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, Moscow. He was a pioneering figure in Russia’s underground art movement in the 1980s and 1990s and was one of the founders of the Soviet Parallel Cinema movement, which provided an alternative cinema to that which was produced by the state.”
Revolutionary Russian Jewish theater at the international theater conference in Vienna with Greg Zeltzer, Boris Yukhananov, and
Nikolay Karkash.
Nikolay Karkash.
Based on their intensive studies of traditional and mystical Jewish texts, they presented a radical concept of new Jewish theatre. Their purist, if somewhat combative approach, seemed to exasperate some conference participants—especially those directors in the US, who are facing the often brutal reality of unsubsidized theater.
Quite a few small Jewish theaters had to close their doors over the last few years, simply because they could not generate enough funds to pay all the expenses and find enough audiences to play to full houses—especially as more and more theaters in the US are producing Jewish-themed dramas and musicals.
Quite a few small Jewish theaters had to close their doors over the last few years, simply because they could not generate enough funds to pay all the expenses and find enough audiences to play to full houses—especially as more and more theaters in the US are producing Jewish-themed dramas and musicals.
Dybbuk and hauntingly beautiful “fleurs du mal”: Irina Andreeva of Russia’s Teatr Novogo Fronta
Irina Andreeva covered by leaves in her version of the Dybbuk, Teatr Novogo Fronta (Czech Republic).
Similarly provoking was the dispossessed spirit in Dybbuk, presented by Irina Andreeva of the Teatr Novogo Fronta, now settled in Prague (Czech Republic), whose movement-oriented, non-verbal method of acting created physical expressions and images, even absences, that crawled and crept into my mind—some of the most hauntingly beautiful “fleurs du mal” (“flowers of evil") from Eastern Europe that I have ever seen.
“Young Jewish-American revolutionary” now singing in Yiddish and performing in Berlin
 Daniel Kahn playing the accordion and other instruments not only on stage, but also walking through the streets, singing Yiddish songs in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere. | The strong emphasis on revolutionary Jewish theater in Russia captivated, even mesmerized others, including Daniel Kahn (USA/ Germany), whom some conference participants considered “our young Jewish-American revolutionary.” This multi-talented Michigan native, who left the United States for Berlin, walked through the streets between conference events, playing klezmer music on his accordion and singing Yiddish songs in the rain—charming some Viennese, challenging others—an unforgettable experience. |
Action-oriented political theater: Eva Brenner (Austria)
Eva Brenner (Austria), the outspoken artistic co-director of the experimental theater collective PROJEKT THEATER STUDIO/FLEISCHEREI-mobil (the Butchery), co-founder of the independent political Castillo Theater, an independent experimental theater worker, author, and producer, and one of the very few Austrian theater people actively participating in the conference program. She directed over 50 political performances and new formats of socio-theatre with migrants and community people. In 2013, she published her book about independent theater--ADPATATION or RESISTANCE: The Loss of Diversity (Promedia, Vienna).
At the AJT conference, she presented one of her company’s action-oriented political theater pieces, Robert Blum, der Außenseiter (Robert Blum, The Outsider), who was executed in 1848 for his revolutionary activities, shortly after he wrote his famous Abschiedsbrief (farewell letter).
At the AJT conference, she presented one of her company’s action-oriented political theater pieces, Robert Blum, der Außenseiter (Robert Blum, The Outsider), who was executed in 1848 for his revolutionary activities, shortly after he wrote his famous Abschiedsbrief (farewell letter).
Painting of the execution of Robert Blum in 1848.
“We are the Workers of Vienna”: Singapore's Sun Sun Yap joins Jewish Austrian activists
In a performance at the store-front sized Jewish Theater of Austria, the audience was taught some warm-up exercises by Sun Sun Yap (Singapore/Austria), which slowly transformed into a protest rally where we imperceptibly became part of a revolutionary scene. Marching along, singing “Wir sind die Arbeiter von Wien” (“We are the Workers of Vienna”), a Socialist song written by Fritz Brügel, a Jewish Viennese activist, we became totally integrated into an old documentary of marching workers, now flickering on a large screen in front of us.
To hear the rousing revolutionary song, "Workers in Vienna," click the image above.
The performance forced even the most ardent capitalists (if they were in the audience) to join this historic workers’ protest movement—probably the headiest and most physically involving theater experience I had in Vienna, making me both conform and rebel at the same time.
The Arab-Hebrew Theater of Jaffa: Challenging notions of the cultural and political divide
Gaby Aldor (Israel) represented The Arab-Hebrew Theater of Jaffa, where two theatrical groups produce plays, together and apart, in both Hebrew and Arabic, and in which Israeli and Arab actors and directors work collectively, provoking controversy for many in the region as they challenge notions of the cultural and political divide. They often engage in heated debates and arguments, but out of the pain can come good theater:
Tikun Olam at its best, as witnessed by the Jewish Arab peace song, or, in Aldor’s words, “sharing and working together in the theater makes us forget our different origins. It makes us become and stay close friends.”
Tikun Olam at its best, as witnessed by the Jewish Arab peace song, or, in Aldor’s words, “sharing and working together in the theater makes us forget our different origins. It makes us become and stay close friends.”
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ABOVE LEFT: Photo of The Arab Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa with inscriptions in Hebrew and Arabic.
ABOVE RIGHT: Photo montage of Farid al-Atrash, Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player,
and actor (1910-1974), played by Jewish Israeli, Ziv Yehezkel, Israeli singer and popular oud player,
born to Iraqi Jewish parents, who sings in Arabic (1985-), Arab Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa.
ABOVE RIGHT: Photo montage of Farid al-Atrash, Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player,
and actor (1910-1974), played by Jewish Israeli, Ziv Yehezkel, Israeli singer and popular oud player,
born to Iraqi Jewish parents, who sings in Arabic (1985-), Arab Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa.
Motti Lerner: “The Politics of Jewish Theatre”—giving theater back its ancient centrality in life
Motti Lerner (Israel), internationally acclaimed Israeli playwright and screenwriter, just as the legendary Theodor Bikel did before him, presented deeply challenging ideas about the prospect of Jewish culture and identity in his speech on “The Politics of Jewish Theatre” at the palatial Austrian Theater Museum:
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Motti Lerner, Israeli playwright, addressing members of the international AJT theater conference with his speech
“The Politics of Jewish Theatre” at the palatial Austrian Theater Museum in Vienna, March 2007.
“The Politics of Jewish Theatre” at the palatial Austrian Theater Museum in Vienna, March 2007.
“It is still unclear whether [. . .] the globalization process will actually weaken nationalism in the world. If it does, then the centrality of the State of Israel in Jewish culture will become weakened, and Jewish culture will have to define a particular identity for itself that is not based on nationalism, and apparently not on religion either. On what, then, will our future particular identity focus? I hope that the focus will be on the same aspiration towards progress, depth, and universal justice–on the same “Tikun Olam."
Looking at Lerner’s theses and his many plays performed worldwide, I thought of Karl Marx’s “Theses on Feuerbach,” especially number 11 (published in 1888) which postulates that philosophers have only interpreted the world, but that others must change it.
Lerner is one of those Jewish intellectuals and dramatists who, in his own way, may eventually do both—interpret and contribute toward a change of the world—at least by giving theater back its ancient centrality in life.
Looking at Lerner’s theses and his many plays performed worldwide, I thought of Karl Marx’s “Theses on Feuerbach,” especially number 11 (published in 1888) which postulates that philosophers have only interpreted the world, but that others must change it.
Lerner is one of those Jewish intellectuals and dramatists who, in his own way, may eventually do both—interpret and contribute toward a change of the world—at least by giving theater back its ancient centrality in life.
Inscription on Karl Marx’ tomb Highgate Cemetery The Ivy Castle, London.
Shimon Levy: playwright, director, Beckett scholar & author of The Bible as Theatre
I thought of Shimon Levy (Israel)—playwright, director, academic, and Beckett scholar—who brought up the Israeli saying that theater is a secular synagogue. Such a powerful institution, a synagogue-theater without walls.
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Shimon Levy, Israeli playwright and academic, Beckett scholar, and author of The Bible as Theatre.
All About Jewish Theatre: The world’s largest secular synagogue and Open University
A synagogue-theater without walls already exists, thanks to editor Moti Sandak’s (Israel), who, in 2003, founded the All About Jewish Theatre website (AAJT), the world’s largest Jewish theater online portal—an influential, secular synagogue on the Internet, an Open University—which provides free access to everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike (see my YouTube video about AAJT).
Henrik Eger, editor of Drama Around the Globe & Philadelphia, USA, correspondent for Moti Sandak's All About Jewish Theatre,
the world's largest Jewish theater website, Tel Aviv, Israel.
the world's largest Jewish theater website, Tel Aviv, Israel.
[Unfortunately, the extensive English language section with hundreds of reviews and articles about Jewish dramas around the globe—even scripts of dramas and operas created in the ghettos and concentration camps—all became inaccessible in 2014.
Via The Wayback Machine, I managed to create a section on Drama Around the Globe, called, “Rescued Jewish Theater,” which features my articles, reviews, and interviews, including the richly illustrated “’Don’t ask me what happened. It’s best not to know!’: A DYBBUK, or Between two worlds.”]
Via The Wayback Machine, I managed to create a section on Drama Around the Globe, called, “Rescued Jewish Theater,” which features my articles, reviews, and interviews, including the richly illustrated “’Don’t ask me what happened. It’s best not to know!’: A DYBBUK, or Between two worlds.”]
4. BEAUTIFUL AND NURTURING EXPERIENCES
Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, PIFA, Cirkus, Cirkor, 2.
Vienna wants Jewish artists from around the world to enrich Austrian culture
 | The president of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce Brigitte Jank (Austria) had earlier welcomed the conference participants, telling them how important their presence was to the city of Vienna, and encouraging them to come back and enrich the city with their culture. I was honored to have been asked to serve as her translator during her conference welcome speech. Later, she was elected as the Deputy to the Austrian National Council, and became Chair of the University Council of the Module University Vienna. |
ABOVE LEFT: Brigitte Jank, president of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce welcoming the world's largest theater conference in Europe. ABOVE RIGHT: Dr. Henrik Eger serving as her German interpreter.
Jewish Theatre of Lemberg (Ukraine) director, now teaching AJT actors in English and German
Moisej Bazijan, former artistic director of the Jewish Theatre of Lemberg (Ukraine), who now teaches and directs in Munich (Germany), created one of the most international experiences for me when I served as his German-English interpreter while he presented his “Role Analysis through Action” for English-speaking actors from Europe and the U.S.
Director, drama teacher, and actor, Moisej Bazijan.
Within a short period of time, Bazijan taught the American actors a kind of “Stanislavsky plus” method—training them to pay close attention to the subtext and the unspoken messages within a script, and showing them how to link the text to their own experiences in honest and convincing ways. The actors then used all of these elements to generate actions for their characters while performing a scene from Anton Chekhov’s Seagull.
Bazijan then introduced the actors to a passage from Zilinski ist tot (Zilinski is dead) by Franz Mon—one of Germany’s most avant-garde authors, famous for his semantic turmoil and intricate acoustical pantomimes.
Directed so creatively by Bazijan that I thought I was witnessing actors from the U.S. transforming themselves into huge insects, reliving Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The acting by the young Jewish-American performers, rolling on the floor under a table, head to head, reciting Mon—was so persuasive that during those moments I actually thought my American friends had permanently and irrevocably transformed into Beckett characters on speed.
Bazijan then introduced the actors to a passage from Zilinski ist tot (Zilinski is dead) by Franz Mon—one of Germany’s most avant-garde authors, famous for his semantic turmoil and intricate acoustical pantomimes.
Directed so creatively by Bazijan that I thought I was witnessing actors from the U.S. transforming themselves into huge insects, reliving Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The acting by the young Jewish-American performers, rolling on the floor under a table, head to head, reciting Mon—was so persuasive that during those moments I actually thought my American friends had permanently and irrevocably transformed into Beckett characters on speed.
Classic Yiddish European Culture after the Shoah: Rafael Goldwaser’s Der LufTeater
| Rafael Goldwaser (Argentina/France), founded Der LufTeater (Le Théâtre en l'Air) in 1992 with the goal of presenting Yiddish European Culture after the Shoah. We were in awe of his colorful, multi-layered, and inspiring Yiddish Theater through sketches of ordinary Jewish folks, based on the stories of Sholem Aleichem with the kind of innovation, high energy, and humor only found in a few places on earth. DHE, a reviewer, describes Goldwaser’s “furious interpretation” with “a whole life pouring out of him.” [. . .] “as if he were a complete Shtetl in one person.” [my translation from Schwäbisches Tagblatt, Tübingen, Germany, 2007. For more and the original, click here]. |  Rafael Goldwaser as an old woman in a shtetl. |
Creating a Life in the Shadow of History: Robin Hirsch’s Germany, England, and USA
Built in 1907, Berlin's most prestigious hotel, the Adlon Kempinski, tremendously supported by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The wit of Robin Hirsch (Germany, England, USA), author of Last Dance at the Hotel Kempinski: Creating a Life in the Shadow of History, in spite of his terrible experiences in the 1940’s, kept the audience in stitches, showing life through the lens of the upper classes, first in Germany, then, after escaping the Nazis, in England.
Robin Hirsch was born in London during the Blitz to German Jews who had escaped Hitler. Coming of age in postwar England, he quickly learned the ironies of survival: His best friend at school, an English Jew—at the age of six—called him a “Nazi.” Hirsch moved to America as a young man and became well known for his literary, artistic, and musical career sponsoring rising artists through the performance room at the Cornelia Street Café in New York's bohemian Greenwich Village.
Robin Hirsch was born in London during the Blitz to German Jews who had escaped Hitler. Coming of age in postwar England, he quickly learned the ironies of survival: His best friend at school, an English Jew—at the age of six—called him a “Nazi.” Hirsch moved to America as a young man and became well known for his literary, artistic, and musical career sponsoring rising artists through the performance room at the Cornelia Street Café in New York's bohemian Greenwich Village.
International Playwrights’ Forum: A preview of some of the best new Jewish-themed plays
 Playwright Rich Orloff.  Eliran Caspi, writer, director, actor. Photo by Shmuel Yaar. | Witty New York dramatist Richard Orloff (USA), author of over sixty popular short plays, mostly comedies, emceed the International Playwrights’ Forum at the Jewish Museum in Vienna. Thanks to senior drama judges Norman Fedder and Diane Gilboa (USA), eleven playwrights from around the world were chosen to present scenes from one of their most promising new plays through ten-minute excerpts. The International Playwrights’ Forum presented a wide range of short dramas, including a piece by the visually stunning Eliran Caspi (Israel), a writer whose well-built play showed old and new worlds clashing in modern Israel. He also works as a director, film and stage actor. However, according to an Israeli interview, Caspi “stays away from media and public events and strongly refuses to talk about his private life." Caspi founded Dad left the Group, and writes a personal comedy column for Haaretz, the progressive and longest running newspaper in print in Israel. |
Ethiopian Jewish odyssey: Starting a new life as an immigrant actor of color in Israel—Yossi Vassa
| Yossi Vassa (Ethiopia and Israel) took the international viewers on a present-day Jewish odyssey in It Sounds Better in Amharic—an Ethio-Semitic language, spoken by Jews and others in Ethiopia. Carrying a cheap suitcase, he took us along on a painful secret flight, not from Egypt, but from Ethiopia, their homeland of thousands of years—a country that did not allow them to leave. We experienced the 700 kilometer journey on foot via a hostile Sudan, the robbery of 10 of their donkeys, and the death of his grandmother and two of his brothers on a torturous, secret passage during many nights before finally reaching Israel, where the rabbis had decided to accept Ethiopia’s Falasha, the forgotten Jews, whose ancestors claimed to have roots going back to King Solomon. In Israel, Anda Argi, now renamed Yossi Vassa, lived in a rough town together with many other immigrants without money. Yet, he succeeded at Haifa University, “dabbled in theater,” performed in the army, and even put on a show in Amharic for his fellow immigrants. When his mother walked into his show, expecting perhaps classical theater, not a retelling of their own lives, she exclaimed, “They pay you to do that? But you're just talking!” Like so many other parts of this comic-tragedy, the audience roared with laughter. However, the young actor who tried to develop a new identity as a Jew from Africa in an almost all-white Israel also had the courage to describe the difficulties of getting accepted by people whose ancestors, not too long ago, were discriminated against brutally because they were Jews. It was during those parts that I wasn’t the only one fighting tears as it showed the dilemma of an immigrant, trying to start a new life as a Jewish artist of color in Israel. We saw Vassa as a mensch who has come into his own as a theater artist and educator—another ambassador of good will. For an excerpt of his show, click this link. |  Operation Solomon, Jewish Ethiopians moving to Israel.  Anda Argi, now Yossi Vassa, Ethiopian Jewish immigrant and actor in Israel. |
International solo performances and a celebration of life at the magnificent Piaristenkeller
Every playwright, director, actor, creative artist, board member, even theater critic in support of Jewish theater around the globe became a cultural ambassador the moment we all walked into the Imperial and Royal Wine Treasure Vault of the Piaristenkeller with glorious food and wines and, great company at the largest theater congress in modern history.
Cultural ambassadors arriving at the Piaristenkeller, 1700s. Hand-colored engraving.
Against the backdrop of this historically furnished, elegant restaurant and museum from the 1700s, Deborah Baer Mozes (USA), artistic director of Theatre Ariel, the Jewish theater of Philadelphia, presented actors from around the world in the “International Solo Program.”
A Viennese Holocaust Survivor incarcerated in Britain during World War II: Ruth Schneider
Her Majesty's Prison Holloway, the main prison in London. In 1897, the British Home Secretary, to avoid probable demonstrations, instructed the authorities to transfer Oscar Wilde from Reading Jail to Holloway Prison. Later, quite a few women were hanged there.
As part of the solo theater conference’s Solo Performance Series, we experienced an entertaining, yet gut-wrenching series of performances.
The past came back forcefully but also showed us a new spirit of hope, which surfaced again when Warren Rosenzweig introduced Ruth Schneider, a Viennese Holocaust Survivor (Austria and Britain), who spent some time incarcerated at Holloway Prison in London.
The past came back forcefully but also showed us a new spirit of hope, which surfaced again when Warren Rosenzweig introduced Ruth Schneider, a Viennese Holocaust Survivor (Austria and Britain), who spent some time incarcerated at Holloway Prison in London.
Female prisoners at work, Holloway Prison in the 1940s. Photo by Getty Images & Jewish Chronicle, May 23, 2018.
German and Austrian residents in the UK and newly arrived victims of Nazi persecutions who had fled to England, like Ruth Schneider, were labeled an “enemy alien” during WWII and incarcerated (see “Imprisoned for being refugees” in The Jewish Chronicle).
Son of an Austrian Holocaust survivor who now speaks the “Queen’s Yiddish”: David Schneider
 | We also met Ruth Schneider’s son David Schneider, a former student of Yiddish at Oxford where he pursued a Ph.D. in Yiddish Drama—before he became a professional writer, actor, and stand-up comedian, including his video The Story Of The Day The Clown Cried, where Schneider “presents a look at some exclusive behind the scenes material from the notorious unseen Jerry Lewis film about the Holocaust.” When he told us with a poker face that he now speaks the “Queen’s Yiddish,” even the wine in our glasses giggled, chuckled, and laughed full-throatedly about so much chutzpah. The talented Schneider with his Mad Hatter look had all of us in stitches. For more information, click this link. |
Better Don't Talk: A Holocaust Story--A daughter discovers her mother's hidden past
 Deborah Baer Mozes carrying a birthday cake with a “magic flame” onto the stage, accompanied by Robin Hirsch, celebrating Naava Piatka's birthday at Vienna's Piaristenkeller. | Up on stage, she brought parts of the past into our own lives with Better Don't Talk: A Holocaust Story—“A daughter discovers her mother's hidden past. The uplifting musical theater tribute to comedienne Chayela Rosenthal, wunderkind of the Vilna Ghetto." Piatka drew us into the past in such a way that everyone there came alive, making quite a few of us fighting tears. At the same time, Piatka also made me laugh and feel empowered by her art, her work, her life. I wasn’t surprised when Piatka—physically and emotionally drained but radiant—received one of the biggest rounds of applause at the international conference. |
Robin Hirsch, whose parents had fled Nazi Germany, and Deborah Baer Mozes (see links above)—whose mother, a refugee from Nazi Germany, aged only 16, arrived in the U.S. alone—walked up to the stage at the monastic Piaristenkeller with a birthday cake whose huge flame shot high up on that stage.
I will never forget the way Piatka held her hands up to her chin in utter surprise, radiating even more joy and energy than before—if that is possible.
I will never forget the way Piatka held her hands up to her chin in utter surprise, radiating even more joy and energy than before—if that is possible.
Where the Imperial Austrian court once danced, Jewish theater ambassadors celebrated life: L’Chaim
The ambassadors of Jewish theater from around the globe rose from their chairs, walked a few feet and paid a visit to the Piaristenkeller’s “Emperor Franz Joseph Hat Museum.” There they donned classical chapeaus, large feather boas, and old helmets from the Imperial Austrian Monarchy.
With much laughter and mutual admiration about the quick transformation, the cultural ambassadors then sauntered into the Imperial wine cellar, where the theater royalty drank more of those good spirits, toasted, sang together, and listened as the beloved Theodor Bikel (songs)—a native son of the city on the Danube—treated us to another song.
With much laughter and mutual admiration about the quick transformation, the cultural ambassadors then sauntered into the Imperial wine cellar, where the theater royalty drank more of those good spirits, toasted, sang together, and listened as the beloved Theodor Bikel (songs)—a native son of the city on the Danube—treated us to another song.
Tamara Brooks (L), pianist and conductor, champion of contemporary music, and wife of Theodore Bikel (C),
with Kayla Gordon (R), actor, teacher, and artistic director, Winnipeg Studio Theatre, Canada. Vienna 2007.
with Kayla Gordon (R), actor, teacher, and artistic director, Winnipeg Studio Theatre, Canada. Vienna 2007.
5. CONFERENCE CONCERNS: Dominance of American Jewish theater
Discussion about Jewish theater in our time with three American theater artists at Vienna's Piaristenkeller, March 2007.
In spite of all the beauty and power of the emerging images in our kaleidoscope of Jewish theater, a few glass splinters did hurt when one of the active participants wrote, “The conference was very monopolized by American Jewish theater,” and when another participant e-mailed, “Why were so few Europeans participating in Vienna . . . Is this a question of lack of communication?”
Is America the New Rome? – United States vs. the Roman Empire: Bridging a cultural gap.
One participant suggested more follow-up and another recommended more personal, direct, and ongoing contacts with the Artistic Directors outside North America to enhance the mission of the AJT.
Uniting the conference with the Haggadah and a meditative healing: Michael Posnick
| Michael Posnick (USA), writer, editor, academic, and Artistic Director of the Mosaic Theater (New York), a caring, modern Solomon who united everyone on the last day of the conference with his group meditation and singing, responded to these concerns by quoting the Haggadah which invites everyone: “Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in need, come and share”—next year at the Jewish Theatre Conference, hosted by Evelyn Orbach, founding artistic director of the Jewish Ensemble Theatre (JET) in Michigan (USA), and the following year, we hope, in Israel. Everyone is invited to come and share. Everyone around the world: איעדער. Ayeder.כולם; העולם כולו. كل شخص, كل امرأ Die ganze Welt. Tout le monde. Полностью мир. Tutto il mondo. すべての世界 Al wereld. Всеки. Todo el mundo. Όλος ο κόσμος All verden. Todo o mundo. 所有世界 The whole world. Everyone is invited to come and share. |  Page from the illuminated Darmstadt Haggadah, Germany, c. 1420. |
6. EPILOGUE
West Coast Jewish Theatre and artist Marcia Isaacs
Hardly a day goes by without images from the Vienna kaleidoscope flashing into my mind, each of them—whether terrifying, thought-provoking, or nurturing—has encouraged me to continue my writing.
Chanukah, Photographic artwork by Marcia Isaacs.
Many other conference participants seem to have been inspired by the conference, too. One of them, Marcia Isaacs (USA) of the West Coast Jewish Theatre in California (with husband Herb Isaacs, playwright and WCJT board member) went all out. She created a DVD with a beautiful musical and visual tribute to Tikkun Olam and all its participants in the spirit of old Vienna, a digital “laterna magica.”
“Like all theater, Jewish theater is not one thing alone”:
Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Russia, Singapore, UK, and USA
Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Russia, Singapore, UK, and USA
| The Latin-American representative of the AJT, Leslie Marko Kirchhausen (Brazil), whose mother also escaped Vienna and the Holocaust like her contemporary Lily Spitz (see Metronome Ticking above), decided to support Jewish theater in her way. Following the advice of our keynote speaker Theodore Bikel, “Like all theater, Jewish theater is not one thing alone,” Marko Kirchhausen translated the AJT conference poster into Portuguese, inviting people in Brazil and elsewhere to learn more about Jewish theater around the world and perhaps even attend the conference. Back home in São Paulo, she encouraged playwrights, directors, actors, editors, and academics to contribute to Jewish theater—continuing the work that was shared in Vienna—all in the spirit of Tikkun Olam. |  |
Let’s celebrate theater, let’s celebrate life,
let’s interpret and change the world and with it, ourselves:
L’Chaim, wherever you live, wherever you work.
H.E.
let’s interpret and change the world and with it, ourselves:
L’Chaim, wherever you live, wherever you work.
H.E.
Interior carved and painted wooden mural at a synagogue in Dura-Europos, Syria, depicting Esther, hiding with Mordechai, who adopted his orphaned cousin before she sacrificed herself, married Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and persuaded him not to kill the Jewish people—a mythical event that is celebrated to this day on Purim, one of the most theatrical events in Jewish history where people wear masks and costumes and celebrate life and survival in numerous ways.
This article was published originally by Theatre Arts, www.HenrikEger.com, March 2007, now updated, with additional texts and images, published by Drama Around The Globe, 2020.
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