Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh is a Pittsburgh-based theatre company that produces theatre from a Jewish perspective. Established in 2001 by Tito Braunstein, the company held productions in the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill until 2007, when it went dark. In 2011, the theater re-formed with a new board of directors and began producing plays at the Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside. [1] [2] The theatre has produced established plays such as Israel Horovitz's Lebensraum, [3] Arthur Miller's The Price , [4] and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo , [5] as well as newer works such as Aaron Posner's The Chosen [6] and Amy Hartman's Mazel [7] and musicals such as That's Life [2] and Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years . [6]
The history of the Jews in Pittsburgh dates back to the mid-19th century. In 2002, Jewish households represented 3.8% of households in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. As of 2017, there were an estimated 50,000 Jews in the Greater Pittsburgh area. In 2012, Pittsburgh's Jewish community celebrated its 100th year of federated giving through the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The city's Jewish federation is one of the oldest in the country, marking the deep historical roots of Jews in Pittsburgh.
Israel Horovitz was an American playwright, director, actor and co-founder of the Gloucester Stage Company in 1979. He served as artistic director until 2006 and later served on the board, ex officio and as artistic director emeritus until his resignation in November 2017 after The New York Times reported allegations of sexual misconduct.
The Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Shadyside section is a Biblical botanical garden.
Rodef Shalom Congregation is an historic Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The landmark building was designed by architect Henry Hornbostel and completed in the Beaux-Arts style.
Pittsburgh Public Theater, or The Public for short, is a professional theater company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the retirement of longtime Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas, The Public began the 2018–2019 season with a new leadership team: Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski and Managing Director Lou Castelli.
A rodef, in traditional Jewish law, is one who is "pursuing" another to murder him or her. According to Jewish law, such a person must be stopped—even killed—by any bystander after that pursuer has been warned and refuses to stop. A source for this law appears in the Babylonian Talmud:
And these are the ones whom one must save even with their lives [i. e., killing the wrongdoer]: one who pursues his fellow to kill him [rodef achar chavero le-horgo], and after a male or a betrothed maiden [to rape them]; but one who pursues an animal, or desecrates the Sabbath, or commits idolatry are not saved with their lives.
David Esbjornson is a director and producer who has worked throughout the United States in regional theatres and on Broadway, and has established strong and productive relationships with some of the profession's top playwrights, actors, and companies. Esbjornson was the artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre in Seattle, Washington, but left that position in summer 2008.
David Horovitz is a British-born Israeli journalist, author and speaker. He is the founding editor of The Times of Israel, a current affairs website based in Jerusalem that launched in February 2012. Previously, he had been the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and The Jerusalem Report.
Moshe Zemer was a Reform Rabbi in Israel between 1963-2011. He was the co-founder of Jewish Reform institutions in Israel and served in key positions in them, including as chair of MARAM, board member of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, board member of the Union for Progressive Rabbis in the United States, and a senior lecturer of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.
Walter Jacob is an American Reform rabbi who was born in Augsburg, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1940.
The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, commonly known as NYTF, is a professional theater company in New York City which produces both Yiddish plays and plays translated into Yiddish, in a theater equipped with simultaneous superscript translation into English. The company's leadership consists of executive director Dominick Balletta and artistic director Zalmen Mlotek. The board is co-chaired by Sandra Cahn and Carol Levin.
The Harold Green Jewish Theatre (HGJT) is a professional non-profit theatre company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the only non-profit Jewish theatre company in Toronto.
What Strong Fences Make is a 2009 play by Israel Horovitz.
The American Jewish Museum, or AJM, is a contemporary Jewish art museum located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A department of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Pittsburgh, the museum is located in the Squirrel Hill JCC at the corner Forbes Avenue and Murray Avenue, in the heart of Pittsburgh's historically Jewish neighborhood. The museum was founded in 1998, and though it does not have a permanent collection, it hosts several original and traveling exhibitions each year. The AJM aims to explore contemporary Jewish issues through art and related programs that facilitate intercultural dialogue.
Theater in Pittsburgh has existed professionally since the early 1800s and has continued to expand, having emerged as an important cultural force in the city over the past several decades.
The Times of Israel is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. Based in Jerusalem, it "documents developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world." Along with its original English site, The Times of Israel publishes in Hebrew, Arabic, French, and Persian. In addition to publishing news reports and analysis, the website hosts a multi-author blog platform.
Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza is a six-page, 10-minute play by British playwright Caryl Churchill, written in response to the 2008-2009 Israel military strike on Gaza, and first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre on 6 February 2009. Churchill, a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has said that anyone wishing to produce it may do so gratis, so long as they hold a collection for the people of Gaza at the end.
Gab Cody is an American filmmaker and theatre artist. She wrote, produced and directed the feature film Progression, and her plays Fat Beckett, Crush the Infamous Thing, The Alchemists' Lab, Prussia:1866 and Inside Passage have premiered at theaters. She served as Lead Writer on the immersive theatre pieces STRATA, OjO and DODO, produced by the Bricolage Production Company.
Lillian Simon Freehof was an American writer.
Leon Falk Jr. was a steel company executive and philanthropist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Falk was involved in the founding of several arts and cultural institutions in the Pittsburgh area, notably the University of Pittsburgh's Falk Clinic, Falk Laboratory School, the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and the Chancellor's Residence for the University of Pittsburgh.