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The Impossible Birth of a Jewish Theatre
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2009
Abstract
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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References
Notes and References
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