WHY THE DORA WASSERMAN YIDDISH THEATRE TOURS!

A Living Legacy

The mission of The Yiddish Theatre is the dramatization of the Jewish experience.

Dora Wasserman, C.M., C.Q. wrote, "Yiddish Theatre is not just theatre. It reflects the whole panorama of Jewish life, the language and literature, the traditions and turbulent history, folk-wisdom and music. "

The Yiddish language and culture never had a country of its own. It always was carried in the hearts of the Jews as they wandered, were expelled from and resettled in villages, towns and cities across Europe. In the pre-Holocaust and pre-Stalinist world, 90% of European Jewry and a large portion of Western Jewry expressed themselves in Yiddish.

Over the centuries Yiddish had accumulated a rich deposit of idiom, proverb, legend, story, humour and song, as if it were all waiting for literary use. Yiddish Theatre became a mode for the transformation of the strong oral tradition of the Yiddish language and culture.

Before, during and after the Holocaust, Yiddish theatre helped educate, entertain and provide solace for a people. "By 1942, there were some 3,500 to 4,000 theatre seats in the Warsaw Ghetto. " Leivick's The Golem and Goldfaden's Bar Kockhba were among the 119 performances for 35,000 spectators in the Vilna Ghetto between January 1942 and June 1943. Poet and survivor, Avrom Sutzkever wrote a prologue for the ghetto performance of Shlomo Molko, about the Marranos of Portugal. "However, as soon as the war was over, the survivors reasserted their need for theatre (and) the need itself has become a survivor that keeps on defying extinction ." The remaining Yiddish actors and Dora Wasserman among them, performed in the Displaced Persons (DP) Camps to raise the morale of the survivors.

Among the hopes of the victims of the Holocaust, in addition to remembrance, was the hope of the continuity of their culture. This legacy of spiritual resistance, of maintaining Yiddish culture, despite the destruction of the majority of Europe's Yiddish speakers, has continued in isolated pockets. While many Yiddish theatres have disappeared, a few have survived against all odds.

One of the goals of contemporary Yiddish theatre is to "mend the torn thread of our cultural heritage." As scenes of Jewish life are presented in both modern and classical plays, it inspires masses to see Yiddish as a living culture, in all its joy and depth.

The demise of the 1000-year-old Yiddish culture seemed imminent by the 1940's. After the liquidation of the Soviet Yiddish writers, after the decimation of the Yiddish actors and their audiences in Europe, after the descent of Yiddish to the level of a patois among North American Jewry, Dora Wasserman resolved to resurrect a Yiddish theatre. This theatre has continued and evolved since its first performance in 1956. In 1967, the Yiddish Theatre became the permanent resident company of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts.

Dora and her theatre became a symbolic stronghold, carrying the torch of Yiddish theatre throughout the world. The Yiddish Theatre performers are all volunteers dedicated to that one goal: to bring the joy and meaning of Jewish culture to people everywhere.

By the mid 1960's, invitations to tour started to pour in to such an extent that it was impossible to meet all the demands. The Yiddish Theatre of the SBC has performed in all the major cities of Canada, across the USA, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, the USSR and Israel. The vigour and calibre of the productions have astounded people wherever the company has performed. As they travel, this theatre is a visible demonstration not only of the richness of the past but of the vitality of the language, the culture and the repertoire. It is also proof of the openness of our Canadian society.