Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater

Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, 1919-1949 at the Jewish Museum

"...a fascinating tale of two vanguard theater companies…" - The New York Times

The Jewish Museum organized the first exhibition devoted to the extraordinary artwork created for Russian Jewish theater productions in the 1920s and 1930s. The exhibition brings to light a remarkable period in the early years of the Soviet Union when innovative visual artists, including Marc Chagall, Natan Altman, and Robert Falk joined forces with avant-garde playwrights, actors, and theatrical producers to create a theater experience with extraordinary mass appeal. Through paintings, costume and set designs, posters, photographs, film clips and theater ephemera - many of which have never been exhibited before- Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, 1919-1949 captured an exhilarating but fleeting moment in the cultural history of the Soviet Union.

The two most important Jewish theater companies in post revolutionary Moscow—the Hebrew-speaking Habima and the Yiddish-language Moscow State Yiddish Theater (GOSET)—galvanized a growing community of Jewish artists, actors, and composers. At first, the Bolseheviks believed Habima and GOSET were an effective means for conveying the goals of the Revolution. Later, even as Stalin instituted increasingly repressive measures against creative expression, the two theater troupes were the most prominent manifestation of Jewish identity and culture in the Soviet Union.

Habima was founded by a former Hebrew teacher, Naum Tsemakh (1887–1939), in Bialystok in 1912, and then reestablished in Moscow in 1918. By performing solely in Hebrew, the company stressed the continuous relationship between the heroic past of the Bible and the present. The use of a language unfamiliar to the majority of Russian Jews and primarily associated with prayer ultimately alienated those it wished to attract. The company was forced to leave the Soviet Union for good in 1926. It eventually settled in Palestine, and today is the national theater of Israel.

GOSET - from its beginning in 1918 until it was disbanded in 1949 was a dynamic expression of Jewish culture. Founded by Aleksei Granovsky in Petrograd, GOSET performed in Yiddish, the Russian Jewish vernacular. In 1920 the troupe relocated to Moscow, and the following year the theater received the patronage of the government and was renamed State Yiddish Chamber Theater. That same year Marc Chagall was invited to design the sets and costumes for An Evening of Sholem Aleichem, the troupe’s inaugural production in Moscow. Chagall had a tremendous influence on the company with his innovative stage, costume, and makeup designs. He also played a key role in conceiving the extreme stylization of the actors’ gestures for which GOSET became known (read more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/JewishTheaterUSSR).

It was an interesting and curious exhibition mostly because I didn't know much about Jewish theater in Soviet Russia, nor have heard my family talk about it much. I called my grandfather walking out of the exhibit and inhaling cold crisp air of New York winter. He grew up in Soviet Belorussia close to the theater circles of Minsk and knew some of the prominent Jewish theater figures both in Minks and later in Moscow. He however, never heard of Habima, only Goset. Strangely enough, one of Habima's plays featured Tmima Yudelevich in its roster of actors (her last name spelled in Russian exactly the same way mine is - I doubt we are related though).