about Hebrew Drama History

1. The rebirth of the Hebrew theatre, When and why?

The rebirth of the professional Hebrew theatre which included both written and performed drama staged during the period of Settlement(1882-1948),served the purposes of secular Zionism. The rebirth of Hebrew theatre accompanied with the rebirth of the Hebrew language in Palestine and the Diaspora. Before that time, in the 18th and 19th centuries, Hebrew was not a "living" language, and Hebrew drama was a literary rather than theatrical issue. At the beginning of the 20th, a new generation of writers arose, laying the foundations for a new era in Hebrew theatre, which was launched in 1918 with the establishment in Moscow of "Habima". The rebirth of Hebrew theatre was as part of the general renaissance of the Hebrew culture.

2. What were the themes it dealt with? Who is the main protagonist? What was the ideology behind these plays?

Throughout this period the Hebrew stage and a great portion of its repertoire were committed to adapting Hebrew as an ideological artistic language and element in the process of creating the Hebrew settlement. Many plays about the renewal of the Hebrew settlement and its symbols were written and presented on school and community stages, with most aimed at reinforcing the nationalist awareness of their creators and audiences.
Almost 80 plays about "life in the Land of Israel" were published before 1948, and an even greater number were staged although never published. A lively dramatic activity was carried on, harnessed to the purposed of promoting the Zionist ethos.
Chaim by Menachem Badar (1942), is an exemplary play in that it incorporates many elements characteristic of other plays of the period.

3. Who are the Dor ba'aretz writers and what typifies them?

Dor ba-haretz means‘a-generation-born-on-the-land’writers, who wrote plays after the War of Independence (1948) and establishment of the State of Israel. They are the second generation, the ‘sabra generation’, the children of those who had immigrated to the Land of Israel before establishment of the State, and the children of refugees from the holocaust. They were Hebrew-speakers who had been educated according to the halutz idealist-Zionist pioneering ethos. Most were members of youth movements, who volunteered to realize this ethos through settlement on the land and who fought in the War of Independence.
Among the works of the first ‘native-born’ generation of playwrights (Yigal Mossinson (1917- 1994), Moshe Shamir (1921-2004), Natan Shacham (b.1925), Aharon Meged (b.1920) and others, the stalwart tie of sabra youth to the group and to the Land of Israel is portrayed as indigenous culture.

4. How was the question of Ashkenazim and Sephardim dealt with up to and after the 1960's?

Until the middle of the 1960s the Ashkenazim (Jews from Europe) perceived the Mizrahim (Jews from Arab countries) as inferior and socially threatening, and pressurized them to assimilate into the Ashkenazi hegemonic culture.
Towards the end of the 1960s, as a reaction to the cultural change undergone by the Mizrahim, their increasing protest, and the influence of the ethnic pluralism prevalent in the U.S., the Ashkenazi standpoint became somewhat moderated. These changes are represented in the play Kazablan by Yigal Mossinsohn.