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What is a “true” Jewish theatre? Is it one that treats Jewish experience and culture as unique, independent entities? Or is the Jewish theatre part of a larger, universal culture, no less concerned with eternal human verities than the art of any other nation? The eternal question of Jewish particularity and universality was posed anew in connection with the success of the ambitious Vilner Trupe (Vilna Troupe) in Łódź, Poland in 1930. The local Yiddish newspaper Folksblat (People’s newspaper ) posed two key questions to members of the ensemble, which achieved wide renown ten years before through its production of Der dibek (The Dybbuk).1 First, should Jewish theatre be reyn-yidish (purely Jewish) or veltlekh (worldly and cosmopolitan )? Second, was it time for di kapote (traditional Jewish garb and folklore ) to be eliminated from the Jewish stage, and if so, was that even possible? The question was not an isolated one, as in 1928, a similar survey of Yiddish/Jewish theatre directors and activists had been conducted by the Warsaw daily Der moment (The moment).2 One popular notion held that Jewish theatre should present exclusively Jewish topics and plays. Another maintained that the “Jewishness” of the theatre should not be based on external appearances or the use of ethnic elements, but should concentrate instead on achieving a high artistic standard and a modern, progressive approach. The eminent Jewish theatre director, Mikhl Weichert (1890–1967), articulated a third view: that “every theatre where Jewish artists play for a Jewish audience in Yiddish is a Jewish theatre, exactly as every theatre where German artists play for a German audience in German is a German theatre.”3 But a question of “Jewishness” in the theatre created by Jews and for Jews warrants attention not only as a theoretical problem, but also as a practical one. Drawing on examples from specific productions, I will examine the artistic evolution of CHAPTER 5 “Cosmopolitan” or “Purely Jewish?”: Zygmunt Turkow and the Warsaw Yiddish Art Theatre Mirosława M. Bułat “Cosmopolitan” or “Purely Jewish?” 117 the interwar Polish Yiddish director Zygmunt Turkow (1896–1970), whose work exemplifies two different concepts of the “Jewish/Yiddish theatre.” Zygmunt Turkow hailed from Warsaw.4 His contacts with the theatre world were not limited to the Yiddish stage, as he had studied in several Polish drama schools, and his initial forays onto the stage were made in Polish theatres. At the same time, however, Turkow was interested in Yiddish literature, and he wrote and translated plays into Yiddish, and took part in amateur performances in Hebrew and Yiddish. Avrom Yitskhok Kaminsky’s (1867–1918) theatre was the first professional Yiddish theatre in which Turkow began acting. Between 1917 and 1918, while the country was still under German and Austrian occupation, Turkow participated in a great tour of Poland by the theatrical company of Esther-Rokhl Kaminska (1870–1926) and her daughter, Ida Kaminska (1899–1980), whom he married in June 1918. In 1919, Turkow even performed in Russian for a short time in Kharkiv, Ukraine, before returning to Warsaw in 1920. Zygmunt Turkow’s attitude toward Jewish theatre was not static, but evolved in two distinct stages. He discussed the progressive transformation that he experienced both in interviews and in his memoirs. Reviews by eminent critics published in respected periodicals also testify to his personal exploration of Jewish theatre.5 I will illustrate these distinct periods in Turkow’s career through discussion of selected productions prepared by the director for four theatre ensembles. The first period is connected to Turkow’s activities involving the Tsentral Teater in Warsaw, where he was appointed director in 1921. In 1924, the name of the company was changed to the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (the Warsaw Yiddish Art Theatre; Yiddish acronym—VYKT; I will refer to it as “the first VYKT”). It ceased to exist in 1925 because of substantial financial losses and the death of the celebrated actress (and Turkow’s mother in-law) Ester-Rokhl Kaminska. In 1926, Zygmunt Turkow resurrected the theatrical company (“the second VYKT”), which continued along its initial guidelines as a “European theatre in the Yiddish language” until 1928. The evolution of the director’s views on Jewish theatre became clear, however, only in 1938, when a new company was formed under the same name, “the third VYKT.” A European Theatre in Yiddish In 1939, Zygmunt Turkow summarized the earliest phase of his activities in the first and second VYKTs as follows: VYKT was...

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