The history of The Dybbuk by S. Ansky, with discussion of its origins and sources, variants, and performances, as well as works adapted from or inspired by The Dybbuk. Includes a synopsis of the play as well as of related dramatic and cinematographic works.

THE DYBBUK (BETWEEN TWO WORLDS) YIDDISH-ENGLISH EDITION x, 192 pp. Yiddish and English on facing pages. The Dybbuk, by S. An-sky (1863-1920) is the crown jewel of the Jewish theatre, the most renowned, most beloved, most translated, and most performed of all Jewish plays. It was first performed in Yiddish by the Vilna Troupe in Warsaw in 1920, and by the Habima Theatre in Moscow in 1922. It has subsequently been performed thousands of times all over the world in a score of languages. It is still being performed well into the 21st Century. As an agnostic Socialist, An-sky enigmatically wrote this play which favorably depicts a late 19th Century Hasidic community. A young maiden in love with one youth being forced to marry another is the kernel of the play around which the rest is developed: the dybbuk himself. A dybbuk is usually defined as a malevolent spirit that inhabits the body of a living person. An-sky's dybbuk is unique in that the spirit of the unsuccessful lover inhabits the body of the hapless bride. That is, the two love each other. This is the nature of the tragedy. ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR Fernando Penalosa, born in 1925 in Berkeley, California, is Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, California State University, Long Beach. He has carried out research in California, Hawaii, Mexico, Guatemala, Israel, and Macedonia, and has written and published books in a number of fields. A convert to Judaism in 1965, Penalosa is selftaught in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Jewish studies. He has published translations from Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Akatek Mayan, and from and to Spanish. A more remote connection to Judaism is documented by the frequent occurrence of the surname Penalosa in the archives of the Spanish Inquisition. His family is descended from a Converso who came to Mexico with Hernan Cortes and the other Spanish invaders in 1520.

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Four Plays, by S. An-sky. Bilingual edition, translated by Fernando Penalosa While The Dybbuk is the best known and most beloved of An-sky's works, he wrote a number of other plays of interest and value in the early 20th Century that have been virtually forgotten. Four of them, Day and Night, Father and Son, In a Conspiratorial Apartment, and The Grandfather, were included in his Collected Works, and are presented here for the modern reader with Yiddish and English on facing pages. Only Father and Son has been translated into English before, and it was of a different version.These texts feature modern Yiddish spelling and very readable typography and format, as do the translations. Day and Night is a Hasidic tragedy, reminiscent of The Dybbuk in a number of ways, but more violent in its depiction of the struggle between good and evil. The play goes back and forth between reality and fantasy and the reader is not always sure of what is happening. But the action moves along very fast; it's a real page turner. The other three plays deal with the lives of revolutionaries in the tumultuous period preceding the 1905 Russian Revolution. They are not plays about demonstrations, marches, and strikes, but rather depicts how the revolutionaries' activities impact the lives of their families as they struggle against the intrusion of the Tsarist authorities. They are labelled "comedies" by the author, but in the dictionary meaning of light, often satirical pieces that may have a happy ending. They are not at all funny, although there are some humorous episodes. viii, 327 pp., introduction, notes.

The Dybbuk by S. An-sky is the most performed and the most beloved of all Jewish plays. An-sky probably first wrote it in Russian and then in Yiddish. It was subsequently translated into Hebrew by H. N. Bialik. The Dybbuk was never performed in Russian; it was first performed in Yiddish by the Vilna Troupe in Warsaw in 1920 and in Hebrew by the Habima theatre in Tel Aviv in 1922. Both companies subsquently toured much of the world and the play has been translated into a number of languages and performed all over the world, right down to our own times. It has received much criticism, positive as well as negative. In the early years some parodies of The Dybbuk were published and/or performed that strike me as good-natured, affectionate criticism. I leave it to my readers to decide whether this is a valid evaluation as they peruse the four parodies included here. Three of the parodies included here are in Yiddish: The Dybbuk, by Yoysef Tunkel, With the Power of the Dybbuk, by Menakhem Kipnis and Moyshe Bunem Yustman, and The Dybbuk in the Courtyard, by Menakhem Kipnis. They are, understandably, parodies of the Yiddish version, with insider jokes likely to be appreciated by Ashkenazi Jewish theatre goers. The one parody in Hebrew, The Dybbuk at the Kumkum, by Avigdor Hameiri is, understandably, a parody of the Hebrew version, with insider jokes likely to be appreciated by theatregoers in the Yishuv under the Palestine Mandate. The text is printed in Yiddish/Hebrew and English on opposite pages for the reader's convenience.