The State Jewish Theatre: The Bucharest Stage That Kept Yiddish Alive

In September 1940 Jewish actors, musicians and singers were thrown off every stage in Romania. Six months later a revue was playing in a modest building on Strada Iuliu Barasch in Bucharest, and that same hall, home since 1948 of the State Jewish Theatre, still stages plays in Yiddish today.

From Goldfaden to the Vilna Troupe

On 19 August 1876, in the Pomul Verde garden in Iași, Avram Goldfaden staged what is regarded as the beginning of professional Yiddish theatre anywhere in the world (see our article on Iași). Soon afterwards Goldfaden took his troupe to Bucharest, and from then on the capital was a centre of the Yiddish stage. According to the theatre, the director Iacob Sternberg began his career here in 1917, working mainly in revue. In 1923 the celebrated Vilna Troupe played Bucharest, and its ensemble acting had a decisive influence on local performers.

The Barașeum: A Stage for the Banished

In September 1940, under the new Legionary–Antonescu regime, Jews were removed from theatres, opera houses, orchestras and philharmonics. Performing in Yiddish was banned, and Romanian stages were closed to Jewish actors as well. In response, the actors Alexandru Finți and Beate Fredanov, together with writers and musicians, founded the Barașeum theatre, named after the Jewish physician Dr. Iuliu Barasch. According to Israil Bercovici’s chronicle of the theatre, its first show, the revue Ce faci astă seară? (“What Are You Doing Tonight?”), opened on 1 March 1941.

The Barașeum ran until 1944 and performed in Romanian, mostly revues, which drew Romanian audiences too. The building then had two halls: one on the ground floor for drama and one on the first floor for revue. Among those on its stage were Alexandru Finți, Beate Fredanov, Willy Ronea and Mircea Crișan. The Romanian Cultural Institute describes the Barașeum as a bastion of “cultural resistance and hope” in a time of antisemitic violence. This was not a story of artistic freedom. It was an attempt by outcast artists to keep working while a pogrom raged in the city and deportations went on in the country.

1 August 1948: Yiddish Under State Patronage

After the war Yiddish returned to the stage. On 1 August 1948, on the initiative of the Jewish Democratic Committee and the IKUF cultural association, the Yiddish company was nationalised as the State Jewish Theatre (Teatrul Evreiesc de Stat, TES). It moved into the building where the Barașeum had played. Its first production was Sholem Aleichem’s The Big Win, and six productions opened in the first season.

State status brought a budget and a permanent stage, and with them the oversight of the communist regime. In 1957 a Yiddish Studio opened to train actors, and its teachers included Fredanov and Finți from the Barașeum days. TES went on performing in Yiddish without a break for decades, even as its audience shrank with each wave of emigration to Israel.

One Hall, Three Lives

The building at Strada Dr. Iuliu Barasch 15 dates from the last decade of the 19th century and is listed as a historic monument. In the mid-1950s, under the director Franz Auerbach, it was rebuilt with a modern stage, and it has kept that form ever since. During the works the company played on other stages in the city. According to the theatre, the hall now seats 200, and it is also used for conferences.

In January 2014 a strong wind tore some 80 square metres off the roof, and water poured onto the stage. Performances were suspended, and the company moved temporarily to the New Hall of the Comedy Theatre on Strada Sfânta Vineri, near the Choral Temple. The building was later fully renovated under the management of Maia Morgenstern.

From Sevilla Pastor to Maia Morgenstern

The permanent company of 1948 included Sevilla Pastor, Dina König, Seidy Glück, Mano Rippel and Isac Havis. Later generations brought, among others, Samuel Fischler, Benno Popliker, Leonie Waldman-Eliad and Rudi Rosenfeld. The company also produced Lia König, Dina König’s daughter. Born in Łódź in 1929, she trained at the Yiddish theatre in Bucharest and emigrated to Israel in 1961. A few months later she joined Habima, and in 1986 she won the Israel Prize. For more than thirty years Israil Bercovici served as the theatre’s literary secretary, and he wrote the standard work O sută de ani de teatru evreiesc în România (A Hundred Years of Jewish Theatre in Romania).

Since the 1980s the company has included Theodor Danetti, Andrei Finți, Nicolae Călugărița, Roxana Guttman, Mihai Ciucă and Maia Morgenstern. Morgenstern, one of Romania’s best-known actresses, ran the theatre from 2012, first as interim manager, and won the competition for the post in 2017. Before her, Harry Eliad had run the theatre from 1990. The theatre’s website now names Andrei Munteanu as manager.

Yiddish with Translation: The Stage Today

Since 1948 the theatre has staged more than 200 premieres. Its repertoire includes adaptations of Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, Mendele Mocher Sforim, S. An-sky and Isaac Bashevis Singer, plays by Romanian Jewish writers such as Mihail Sebastian, and world classics from Molière and Lessing to Brecht and Arthur Miller. The theatre hosted the International Yiddish Theatre Festival in 1991 and 1996, and since 2016 it has run TES FEST. In recent decades the company has toured Israel, the United States, Canada and many European countries.

Most Yiddish performances come with a Romanian translation. Sources differ on how it is delivered: the theatre’s website describes a surtitle system above the stage, while other sources describe simultaneous translation through headphones. There is no confirmation of English or Hebrew translation, so ask at the box office before you book.

Visiting

The theatre is at Strada Dr. Iuliu Barasch 15, Sector 3, near the Sfânta Vineri–Udriște junction and not far from Piața Unirii metro station. The area is a remnant of the old Jewish quarter, and the Choral Temple and the Great Synagogue are within walking distance.

• Tickets and schedule: on the official website, teatrul-evreiesc.com.ro, and at the theatre’s box office. There are not performances every night.
• Language: before booking, check the language of the production (Yiddish or Romanian) and how translation is provided.
• Visiting the building: the hall is open for performances and events. For a visit at other times, contact the theatre office.