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Moscow state theater merged Yiddish art with Soviet idealism
The Moscow State Yiddish Theater was founded in 1919 and liquidated by Stalin in 1949. During those 30 years, some of the greatest Jewish writers, actors and artists of the 20th century worked there, including Marc Chagall, Isaac Babel, Peretz Markish and Solomon Mikhoels, the leading actor who eventually became the director.
The very existence of the theater underlined the "paradox that Yiddish culture flourished in a state that allegedly sought to eradicate Jewish nationhood," writes Jeffrey Veidlinger in "The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage."
Veidlinger, a fine writer and an excellent historian, narrates a story central to the path secular Jews have traveled during the last century. Non-religious Jews have invested their emotions in many dreams: the dream of Zion, the dream of America and the dream of a classless society in the Soviet Union. One of those dreams, the Soviet dream, would lead to disaster and tragedy. But Veidlinger warns against making easy judgments against those Jews who hoped to express both "socialist principles and nationalist leanings."
Within six years of its founding, the honeymoon between the Yiddish theater and Soviet authorities was over. For the next...