Polish-Jewish theater: The case of Mark Arnshteyn, a study of the interplay among Yiddish, Polish and Polish-language Jewish culture in the modern period

This is a study of the development of modern Jewish culture in Poland and of Polish-Jewish cultural relations from the latter half of the nineteenth century until World War II. Its primary focus in theater, both Yiddish and Polish, taken in the broadest sense to include repertoire, performers, performing style, performance sites, audiences and criticism. Other realms of culture, especially the Yiddish and Polish-language Jewish press, are investigated for comparative purposes.;After a survey of Jewish contacts with Polish theater in the nineteenth century, the presentation of the "Jewish question" on the Polish stage, and the development of Yiddish theater in the Polish environment, the study examines the career of the bi-lingual dramatist and stage director Mark Arnshteyn (Andrzej Marek). Arnshteyn (c. 1879-1943?) was the only creative artist in the modern period with the ability and inclination to make use with equal facility of both Polish and Yiddish. Special attention is devoted to his advancement of Polish-language theater intended for a Jewish audience, efforts which culminated in the 1920's in a series of highly controversial Polish productions of celebrated Yiddish plays.;As a result of this study, theater, first of all, is shown to be a realm of crucial significance to both modern Polish and Jewish cultures, and a major and heretofore unexplored meeting ground between them. Secondly, the importance of the model, advanced by Chone Shmeruk, of modern Jewish culture in Poland as a "polysystem" consisting of linguistic sub-systems in Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish, is strongly confirmed. Thirdly, the interplay between the functions of Polish and Yiddish within the Jewish cultural polysystem through two very different historical periods discloses the following pattern: prior to World War I, Polish-language Jewish culture appears as a hostile competitor of Yiddish culture, whereas in the interwar period, when Yiddish, and at least in theory Hebrew as well, attain center stage as the vehicles of a Jewish cultural renaissance, a "nationalized" Polish-language Jewish culture assumes a new supportive role.