Language:
English
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
Modern Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
9,2 (1989) 165-178
Keywords:
Sobol, Yehoshua.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), and the theater
Abstract:
A critique of Israeli playwright Yehoshua Sobol's "Ghetto" (1984) which deals with the theater which functioned in the Vilna ghetto up until the ghetto's liquidation. Analyzes the psychological undertones of the text and characterization, contending that they express two oppositions: Judaism vs. Germanism (the life instinct vs. the death instinct) and Diaspora vs. Zion. Criticizes Sobol's "line of 'identification' from Nazi aggression to Zionist nationalism in Israel, while skipping the local link of the Vilna partisans" (the play does not deal with the Jewish resistance), and his selective use of historical facts in order to criticize current ideology. Concludes that the strength of the play is not in its dramatic coherence or psychological astuteness but rather in its attestation to the need for Israelis to change their attitudes toward the Holocaust and the Diaspora, to understand and empathize with the "victim."
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