Course Description: 

Yiddish theater has had a long history of performing and taking inspiration from Shakespeare’s works. The 1892 production of Jacob Gordin’s The Yiddish King Lear is credited as the start of the great era of Yiddish theater in New York City. It was followed by Yiddish productions of Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. The Merchant of Venice was the first Shakespeare play published in Yiddish, and Jacob Adler received rave reviews as Shylock on Broadway in both 1903 and 1905. Playwrights like Jacob Gordin continued to adapt Shakespeare for Yiddish audiences, while actors such as Maurice Schwartz, Jacob Adler, and Solomon Mikhoels delivered legendary performances to rapt audiences worldwide.