Original contemporary/vintage polish posters

The National Jewish Theater (E.R. Kaminski) continues a 100+ year history in Poland of performing musicals and dramas in Yiddish. The current repertory includes the classical works by Abraham Goldfaden, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Peretz, Jakub Gordin and Solomon Anski as well as more contemporary dramas by Isaac Babel, Arthur Miller, and others, whose works refer to Jewish themes. Today, productions are simultaneously translated into Polish & English.

The Jewish theater was revived almost immediately after the end of World War II. In the 1950s, two local theaters united as the National Jewish Theater and moved to Warsaw in 1955. It was named after Esther Rachel Kaminska [1870-1925] (the founder of Warsaw's Jewish theater in 1888) and the mother of Ida Kaminska who was the theater's star performer & director until she emigrated in 1968. Since 1970, the State Jewish Theatre in Warsaw has been in its current location on Grzybowski Square and has been led by actor & director Szymon Szurmiej.

Different theories are postulated as to the motivation of the Communist government's support of the National Jewish Theater, since the Jewish population of post-World War II Poland was and still is a small fraction of its former self and of the general citizenry. Szymon Szurmiej once explained, "This theatre is part and parcel of Polish culture."

Comedians is by Abraham Goldfaden [1840-1908], considered by many to be the father of the modern Yiddish theater. (In 1876, he had established the world's first professional Yiddish-language troupe in Romania.) Goldfaden was a Russian-born author whose oeuvre consists of about 40 plays, noted for their use of alternating prose with verse accompanied by pantomime, dance and/or acrobatics.

The Dybbuk is the most famous work of Solomon Anski [1863-1920] a Russian author and dramatist. It was first performed shortly after Anski's death and has been performed globally since its premier. Dubbed 'Romeo and Juliet meets the Exorcist,' its tale of two ill-fated lovers conveys a sense of Hasidic culture, filled with humor and joy as well as sorrow.

Faces of Truth is a drama based on the tradition of the Japanese theater and the film Rashomon by Akiro Kurosaw. The theme deals with the strength and weakness of the human soul that hides the different faces of the truth.

Sholem Aleichem [1859-1916], is often referred to as the "Jewish Mark Twain" because of the similarity of the writing styles of the two authors. However, when the two met, Twain stated that he considered himself the "American Sholom Aleichem. Sholom Aleichem who was born Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz in the Ukraine, originally wrote in Russian and Hebrew but later switched to Yiddish, becoming a central figure in Yiddish literature.
The Gold Diggers was first performed in 1907.
Tevya the Milkman was first performed posthumously in 1917. It was the basis for the first commercially successful English-language production about Eastern European Jewish life -- Fiddler on the Roof (1964).
Wandering Stars was written as a novel and was then adapted for the stage & screen.

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