{"id":5894,"date":"2017-01-16T21:24:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T19:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/?p=5894"},"modified":"2025-02-11T14:53:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T12:53:59","slug":"despre-tes-in-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/2017\/01\/16\/despre-tes-in-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Despre TES \u00een The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keeping Alive a Haven for Yiddish Culture in Modern Romania<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"ROMANIA1-master768\"<\/a>Actors at the State Jewish Theater in Bucharest, Romania, after a performance this month. The theater stages mostly Yiddish plays in a city with a tiny Jewish population. Credit Andrei Pungovschi for The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

BUCHAREST, Romania \u2014 Just a few minutes on foot from the bustle of downtown Bucharest, the State Jewish Theater, down a small side street in the Romanian capital, cuts a forlorn figure.<\/p>\n

Yet the theater is one of the few vestiges of what was once a large Jewish community in Romania, and one of the few professional Yiddish-language theaters left in Europe.<\/p>\n

In 2014, heavy snowfall literally brought the roof down, causing the theater to close for two years. It reopened to the public in November, its roof fixed, its interior freshly painted and the decades-old wiring finally replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two years it was difficult to survive,\u201d said Maia Morgenstern, the theater\u2019s manager and an actress who played Mary in Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ.\u201d \u201cWe performed here and there. Other theaters, public libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"10Romania1-master675\"<\/a>A street in the old Jewish neighborhood in Bucharest, Romania. There are just a few thousand Jews left in the city. Credit Andrei Pungovschi for The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

In early January, the theater staged \u201cWarsaw: Tourist Guide,\u201d a tragicomedy set in the period after World War II, when Jewish families returned to Poland to try to reclaim their property. Despite thick snow blanketing the city, there was a full house.<\/p>\n

The first Jewish theater in Romania was founded in the 1870s in the eastern city of Iasi. The current theater in Bucharest was established in 1940 and remained open throughout the war even as Romania was in the grip of anti-Semitism and many Romanian Jews were sent to labor camps. Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany until it switched sides in 1944.<\/p>\n

During the war years, Jewish actors and playwrights who were forbidden to perform elsewhere came to ply their trade, though they were not allowed to perform in Yiddish.<\/p>\n

Later, during the Communist period, Nicolae Ceausescu, the authoritarian leader who governed Romania from the mid-1960s to 1989, tore down much of the old Jewish neighborhood to make way for his grand, Soviet-style architectural vision for the city.<\/p>\n

\"10Romania2-master675\"<\/a>Maia Morgenstern, an actress and the manager of the Jewish State Theater, right, watched other actors rehearse. Credit Andrei Pungovschi for The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCeausescu demolished all of this neighborhood,\u201d said Ms. Morgenstern, in her backstage office recently. \u201cNothing but this theater stayed. Another house, another street, demolished, demolished. It was an ocean of ruins.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThey didn\u2019t demolish the theater, but it was in a very bad state. No heat, improvised electricity. It was almost a ruin. It was difficult to get here, for us and the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the Communist authorities allowed performances in Yiddish, actors used the fact that many audience members relied on translations to get around some of the tight censorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we were talking Yiddish on stage, we could say things that weren\u2019t allowed to be said in Romania,\u201d said Rudi Rosenfeld, 75, a Jewish actor who has been involved in the theater since the late 1940s. \u201cThe audience had headphones on and our colleagues were translating into Romanian, but they would skip the sensitive parts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"0116-web-BUCHARESTmap-460\"<\/a>By The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, subtitles are provided on portable screens.<\/p>\n

By the late 1980s, most of the city\u2019s Jewish population was gone. The area around the theater, once a bustling Jewish neighborhood, had gradually lost its Jewish ties. The war years and, later, the country\u2019s decision to allow large number of Jews to emigrate en masse to Israel in exchange for Israeli money and assistance, depleted the local Jewish population. Most who had remained left after 1989, when the regime fell.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that the Jewish population in Romania today is less than 11,000, down from around 800,000 before World War II. In Bucharest there are just a few thousand Jews left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no Jewish neighborhood now, just drawings on a map,\u201d said Gilbert Saim, an official at Choral Temple, one of the few Jewish houses of worship left in the city.<\/p>\n

Wandering around the neighborhood, it is easy to miss the few remaining signs of the area\u2019s Jewish history: just a handful of religious buildings, often hidden behind ugly apartment blocks, and the theater itself.<\/p>\n

\"10Romania3-master675\"<\/a>Actors Viorica Bantas and Claudiu Istodor during a rehearsal. Nearly all the performances the theater stages are in Yiddish. Credit Andrei Pungovschi for The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

From the outside, the theater, which became an official state institution in 1948, barely hints at its legacy or, beyond \u201cTeatrul Evreiesc,\u201d or Jewish Theater, written in vertical red letters, its current role. It is unlikely to feature prominently on any list of Bucharest\u2019s cultural institutes. Yet inside, the 250-seat hall offers classical decoration and rich acoustics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played on Broadway and regional theaters all over the States but this theater, the proportions and acoustics are fantastic,\u201d said Allen Lewis Rickman, an American actor who performed at the hall during an international Yiddish festival held in late November.<\/p>\n

Ms. Morgenstern said she did not want the building to just be a monument to the past, but rather a place of active cultural engagement and creativity, bringing in all types of audiences to view the predominantly Yiddish-language performances. (The theater also stages some Romanian-language plays.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about the survival of professional Yiddish theaters,\u201d she said, noting that Bucharest, Warsaw and Moscow probably have the last remaining professional Yiddish theaters in Eastern Europe. \u201cWe want to continue our tradition of speaking and performing in Yiddish. I don\u2019t want to transform this theater into a museum; it is very much alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"10Romania4-master675\"<\/a>Ms. Morgenstern, right, spoke to Natalie Ester, another actress at the theater. Credit Andrei Pungovschi for The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

With few Yiddish speakers left in the country, audiences have been reluctant to see performances that seem so alien to today\u2019s Romania.<\/p>\n

Ms. Morgenstern admits that there have been times when there were more actors on stage than people in the audience. \u201cWe have performed for two people,\u201d she said. But in recent years, before the roof collapsed, they had been playing to much fuller houses.<\/p>\n

Most of the actors had to learn the language before taking the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a major challenge to learn Yiddish,\u201d said Anka Levana, 32, who has been performing with the theater for a decade. \u201cIt took two or three years before I was truly comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, there is a determination to continue the theater\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

When the roof collapsed, the actors, not wanting to admit defeat, laid out a platform in front of the theater, put up some lights and performed surrounded by snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure if it was a protest or not, but we were saying we have no place to perform. We want to perform, we have something to show, but no place,\u201d Ms. Morgenstern said.<\/p>\n

Local officials listened, finding the money needed to repair the building.<\/p>\n

Now the challenge is to keep the traditions alive, while also engaging with a new generation of theatergoers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started in this place I was 18 years old,\u201d Ms. Morgenstern said. \u201cNow I am 55. I\u2019ve always thought another two years and this theater will die.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added with a smile: \u201cThis thought has lasted for 36 years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this article appears in print on January 16, 2017, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Keeping Alive a Romanian Haven of Yiddish Culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

Surs\u0103: The New York Times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keeping Alive a Haven for Yiddish Culture in Modern Romania Actors at the State Jewish Theater in Bucharest, Romania, after a performance this month. The theater stages mostly Yiddish plays in a city with a tiny Jewish population. Credit Andrei Pungovschi for The New York Times BUCHAREST, Romania \u2014 Just a few minutes on foot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stiri"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11720,"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions\/11720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}