Lecture by Anat Feinberg

Tuesday, November 9, 5:00 p.m., Class of 1955 Room (2nd floor), Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut Street

In September 1945 the famous Deutsches Theater in Berlin re-opened with Nathan der Weise, Lessing's canonical plea for tolerance. No other than Fritz Wisten, a Jewish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, was asked to direct the production. Wisten is one of a surprising influential group of Jewish theatricians who contributed to the restoration and growth of the German stage after 1945. The lecture addresses the role of Jewish theatre professionals in postwar German theatre and the taboo-breaking productions of theatre directors Peter Zadek and George Tabori.

Anat Feinberg studied English Literature, Philosophy and Theatre Studies in Tel Aviv and London. She has published books and articles on German Theatre,on Jewish literature as well as on Hebrew literature and culture. Among her publications are Wiedergutmachung im Programm, Judisches Schicksal im deutschen Nachkriegsdrama, Moderne hebraische Literatur, and Embodied Memory: The Theatre of George Tabori. She teaches Hebrew and Jewish literature at the Hochschule fuer juedische Studien in Heidelberg and is chief editor-in-charge of Modern Hebrew Literature for the new edition of theEncyclopaedia Judaica.

This lecture, in commemoration of Kristallnacht, is sponsored by the Kutchin Seminar Series in Jewish Studies, the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures, and the Theater Arts Program.