Classical World

The Athens/Jerusalem dynamic is understood by the philosopher Leo Strauss as the secret macro-dynamic of western culture. Yaari refers to "Athens and Jerusalem" as a shorthand for the two distinct spheres of influence in the Jewish national renaissance in modern times, as encapsulated by the titles of two famous Hebrew poems: In Front of the Book Case by Haim Nahman Bialik on the one hand and, on the other, In Front of the Statue of Apollo by Shaul Tchernichovsky, which presents classical Greek culture as the foundation for a universal humanistic identity for enlightened Jews.

Yaari explores the Athens/Jerusalem cultural tension by looking specifically at the performance reception of ancient Greek drama in Israel since 1948. He also touches on theater adaptations inspired by ancient Greek paideia and the classical tradition; so, e.g., Racine's Phèdre, translated by Natan Alterman (Habima Theater, 1945), and Antigone by Jean Anouilh (The Cameri Theater, 1946).

Historically, twenty-two different plays of the classical Greek dramatic corpus have been presented on Israeli stages in eighty-six different productions. These fall into three broad categories in terms of their relationship to sources: (i) classical Greek drama (in Hebrew translation); (ii) Israeli plays created through rewriting of or dialogue with classical Greek drama; and (iii) productions based on classical Greek sources. Yaari shows how the figurative encounter between Athens and Jerusalem became a major constructive force that influenced intertextual and intercultural dialogue and integration so as to forge a new cultural identity that reflected the wider political, social, and cultural debates in the Israeli public domain.

Yet his Greek-based drama has worked at cross-purposes with, and even in counterpoint to, other identifiably Jewish classics of Hebrew drama and Israeli theater. This dramatic/theatrical tradition includes Italian Renaissance plays in Hebrew translation; important, original Israeli works such as He Walked Through the Fields; and Yiddish theater in Europe, as represented in (e.g.) the writings of Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908). Goldfaden was the author of over fifty Yiddish plays, which often constituted adaptations of literary works by the likes of Mendele Mocher Sforim and Sholem Aleichem. [End Page 109]

Although rabbis during the second Temple period frowned upon Greek and Roman theatrical dramas, great scholars of Rabbinic texts such as Samuel Krauss, Saul Liberman, Menachem Stern, Lea Gluskin Amusin, Louis Feldman and others have all acknowledged the importance of knowing ancient Greek and Roman culture to better understand the second Temple Rabbinic symbiosis with Hellenism.

The evolution of Israeli theater since the establishment of the State of Israel highlights questions about Israeli society and culture (Tarbut). To illustrate the changes that have taken place within this cultural picture, Yaari draws upon both historiographical research and sociological studies within the theater. He looks in particular at the research questions raised by historians and sociologists about rifts within Israeli society, and about the role of stigmatized others (women, communities of non-Western origin, immigrants, Orthodox Jews, Arabs and Palestinians: 21). Yaari sheds light on how the performance of ancient Greek theater and its adaptation should be read within different social, political, cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts. He thereby shows how Israeli theater has become a major social and cultural mechanism for forging and consolidating Israeli socio-cultural identity. Further, Yaari explores the classical Athenian repertoire as performed against the backdrop of Israel's military conflicts in the twentieth century. Chapter nine in particular is noteworthy for its consideration of the relationship of the works of Hanoch Levin, the most prolific and innovative of Israeli playwrights, to those of Euripides.

This volume contributes to the well-established field of reception studies for classical Greek drama in modern theater and performance. What sets it apart is its focus on Hebrew/Israeli theater. Yet that focus poignantly reveals the many internal struggles that Israel has undergone in seeking to define itself as a modern, enlightened Jewish...