A CRITICAL STUDY of HABIMA PLAYS AS Sam Levy a Dissertation
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$do. 11? A CRITICAL STUDY OF HABIMA PLAYS AS AN EXPRESSION OF ISRAELI NATIONALISM FROM 1948 TO 1968 Sam Levy A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY June 1972 Approved by Doctoral Committee B © 1972 Samuel Levy ALL RIGHTS RESERVED II , ABSTRACT Hebrew plays produced by Habima between 1948 and 1968 were examined to determine the extent to which they gave expression to Israeli nationalism. Twenty-five scripts, comprising the complete Hebrew repertory of Habima within the twenty years scope of the study, were evaluated by means of descriptive analysis. Theme, setting, plot, and language were examined, and related professional critiques were reported. A survey of Habima*s origins as a Soviet State Theatre (1918-26) indicated the thread of continuity linking Zionist aims of the past with those of the present in Israel: a national home and a national language. Eight dominating themes were discovered in the twenty-five plays: (1) Abandon ment of the kibbutz and couhtry are national disasters. (2) Unity is strength, (3) Collective life is superior to city life. (4) Conser vative fathers against liberal sons. (5) Isolation is hazardous to the state. (6) Duty is of higher priority than personal freedom or comfort. (7) Free press is destructive to the state. (8) Coming of the Messiah necessitates the destruction of Jewish history. Designated as the Israeli National Theatre by the state in 1958, Habima is comparable to some national theatres end is unlike others. Habima responded to the needs of the Israelis by developing Hebrew as a theatrical language, producing the best of world drama, mirroring the national reality as it is and as it could be, but at the same time never becoming a tool of the government. Again, in memory of cousin Yehuda. Note on translations: Wherever a non-dramatic source is cited from an English edition, the title is given, in notes and text, in English. Wherever I have translated from a Hebrew text, the title is given in Hebrew transliteration. All Habima plays discussed are Hebrew texts; titles and quotations are my translation. Any exceptions to the above are noted. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF HABIMA.................................................................................... 9 III. ANALYSIS OF TWENTY FIVE ISRAELI PLAYS AT HABIMA.........................24 ABANDONMENT OF THE KIBBUTZ AND COUNTRY ARE NATIONAL DISASTERS............................................................................................................... 27 UNITY IS STRENGTH...................................................................................................... 47 COLLECTIVE LIFE IS SUPERIOR TO CITY LIFE....................................... 61 CONSERVATIVE FATHERS AGAINST LIBERAL SONS ......................................... 66 ISOLATION IS HAZARDOUS TO THE STATE....................................................... 72 DUTY IS OF HIGHER PRIORITY THAN PERSONAL FREEDOM OR COMFORT 77 FREE PRESS IS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE STATE .................................................. 90 COMING OF THE MESSIAH NECESSITATES THE DESTRUCTION OF JEWISH HISTORY .......................................................................................................... 91 IV. HABIMA PLAYS AS AN EXPRESSION OF ISRAELI NATIONALISM .... 96 V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................126 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................ 131 A. ENGLISH BOOKS..............................................................................................................132 B. ENGLISH ARTICLES AND PERIODICALS.......................................................... 133 C. ENGLISH UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL ................................................................... 134 D. HEBREW BOOKS................................................................................................................135 E. HEBREW ARTICLES AND PERIODICALS.................................................................. 137 The theatre is not a game. It is a spiritual compulsion. Once it celebrated the gods. Now it broods over the fate of man. Ludwig Lewisohn 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Hebrew is the official, national language of Israel. It is spoken in the streets, in schools, in Parliament; it serves Israeli life at home and abroad in speech and literature, newspapers and television, markets and theatres. The ancient tongue was the voice of Zionism, the late nineteenth century movement, which encouraged Jews to return and rebuild their historic homeland in order to live as an autonomous, secure nation among nations. Zionism also gave birth to the first Hebrew theatre, Habima, in Bolshevist Moscow in 1918. Being a studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, Habima (Hebrew for "the stage") meant to express the Jewish renaissance in the historical, national tongue. The significance of Hebrew for Habima is stated by the founder of the theatre, Nachum Zemach: I summoned up all my courage and found an opportunity to tell Stanislavsky about Hebrew culture and our Qiabima'sJ struggle to create an original Hebrew theatre. I went to him in awe, as one goes to a holy man. I sat in his reception room and spoke to him about the fate of the Jewish people and their longing for Palestine. I explained to him that the Hebrew language, which had for centuries been considered dead, like Latin, in fact never lost its continuity from the Bible until our modern Hebrew literature. I told him that the language is in the heart of the people, that in Hebrew the Jews have expressed and continue^to express their longings and desires [""for a national homeland^, Since its inception Habima has produced plays exclusively in Hebrew, expressing Jewish culture and Zionist attitudes. In 1931 the theatre established its permanent home in Tel Aviv, Israel. The repertory included '---------------- 1--------- Isaac, Norman (ed.) Bereshith Habima (Jerusalem: Hasifria HaZionith, 1966), 157. 2 fifteen plays,none of which was originally in Hebrew, none about renewed Jewish life in Palestine. In 1933 Habima staged Bialik's Short Friday, its first adapted offering from Hebrew material. Next was Seckler's Rahab, an original Hebrew play about the most famous Biblical woman in Jericho. Bistritzky's This Night, produced three years later, was also a Hebrew play, and like Bialik's it dealt with the Jewish ghetto in Russia at the turn of the century. Not until 1937 was Habima able to stage its first Hebrew play about the renewed life in Palestine, Watchmen »by Ever Hadani. The play ran for only twenty-two performances. The playwright returned to fiction. The early 1940's boasted new Hebrew plays. Ashman's This Earth, about life in the Palestinian country, proved a popular success in 1942, It was revived in the 1960's. Yet the new era for Israeli play writing begins, no doubt, with Mossinson's Sands of the Negev, which Habima commissioned as its ninetieth play. Dealing with the War of Independence (May, 1948), it opened on February 10, 1949 and ran for 188 performances. Mossinson contributed several other plays which were followed by an ever increasing number of Israeli plays and playwrights. It is these plays which Habima produced between 1948 and 1968 in its theatre in Tel Aviv that are the concern of this research. Because Habima is one of the cultural manifestations of the newly formed nation in Israel, as well as a representative of Israel in the international world, the study will concentrate on Habima's repertory as a possible expression of Israeli nationalism. 3 Justification. Whereas some material in English is available about Habima's repertory prior to Israel's War of Independence, the original Hebrew scripts produced in this theatre after 1948 are largely unknown in English, as are the Hebrew books, newspapers, periodicals, and lesser material which provide critical commentary on these scripts. In addition, this research will be the first detailed study of Habima's Israeli repertory in either Hebrew or English. Limitations■ This research will focus upon Habima's Israeli repertory since the War of Independence in 1948. Although Habima performs exclusive ly in Hebrew, Israeli scripts constitute only one-fourth of its total repertory; however, it is the goal of this research to study these Hebrew plays as an expression of Israeli nationalism. The theatre's Jewish and foreign plays will not be examined because they have been studied in English elsewhere. Because the Israeli audience has responded to some more than others, only original plays receiving fifty performances will be examined. Ten representative plays will be analyzed in detail, while others will be reviewed briefly. The concluding date of 1968 is a further limitation, since Habima is an ongoing producing organization meriting continued attention by scholars and the theatre public. Yet the period of the study (1948-68) is a natural step in the development of Israel as an autonomous state from the War of Independence until the Seven Day War in 1968. Definitions. Certain terms frequently occurring in this study are of significance to the subject matter involved. Therefore, they are defined: 4 (1) "Israeli" plays are original Hebrew