One hundred years ago, Yiddish theater producers in Warsaw and Moscow began filming their plays, to show them to Jews in far-off places. The technique was simple—they would mount a movie camera on a tripod and leave it there, unmoving, to record the drama; it was primitive, but effective. The films were financially successful, and the Yiddish cinema was born. It became a major artistic and cultural force in Jewish life until the start of World War II.
And, this week, Eve Annenberg’s Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish makes its North American premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival. It’s a new, Yiddish-language, U.S.-made, full-length feature.
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