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Yiddish Research: Plays

Yiddish research guide covering general resources, article and books, folklore, genealogy, linguistics, literature, music and dance, oral history, theater, film, radio, translation and student resources.

Plays

The Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays at The Library of Congress: An Annotated Bibliography
By Zachary M. Baker With the assistance of Bonnie Sohn
Use these indices to find play manuscripts, since most Yiddish plays were never published.

 

מעסטעל, יעקבֿ. 70 יאָר טעאַטער־רעפּערטואַר: צו דער געשיכטע פֿון ייִדישן טעאַטער אין אַמעריקע

Mestel, Jacob. 70 Yor Teater-Repertuar: Tsu der Geshikhte fun Yidishn Teater in Amerike. Nyu York: Ikuf farlag, 1954.
--. Undzer Teater. Nyu-York: Shrayber-sektsye baym Ikuf, 1943.
Search indices for play titles and authors; use this to find dates of production, stars, and more.

 

National Jewish Theater Foundation - Holocaust Theater Catalog

Catalog of 600+ plays on Holocaust themes, including works in Yiddish, English, and other languages.


 
1977 די ייִדישע דראַמע פֿון 20סטן יאָרהונדערט. אַרויסגעגעבן פֿון אַלוועלטלעכן ייִדישן קולטור־־קאָנגרעס, ניו-יאָרק

Di yidishe drama fun tsvantsikstn yorhundert. Aroysgegebn fun Alveltlekhn Yidishn Kultur-Kongres, Nyu-york, 1977. This is a two-volume collection of classic Yiddish plays, republished in modern orthography and with biographical and critical notes. Includes:

Sh. An-Ski - Dibek; Peretz Hirschbein - Grine Felder; H. Leivick - Shmates; Y. L. Peretz - Di goldene keyt.  Jacob Gordin - Mirele Efros; Sholem Aleichem: Dos groyse gevins; David Pinski - Yankl der shmid; Leon Kobrin - Yankl Boyle.

 

Yiddish Theater Manuscript Plays, Dorot Jewish Division, New York Public Library (Faith Jones)
Alphabetic list of play scripts in the collection.

Yiddish-Language Playscripts, Library of Congress
77 full Yiddish plays. They are manuscripts and hard to read, but each page image links to a high-resolution TIFF for better decipherment.

 

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research / Internet Archive

More than 600 digitized works from one of the world’s largest Yiddish theater collections.