Since the writing of my Ph.D. I have been developing a research project on the the work and fascinating life and career of the most important comic duo in Yiddish Theater, Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher. Spanning over the course of half a century – from the beginning of their work at the Ararat avant-garde Yiddish theater in Łodz, Poland to their Warsaw theatre – they produced bold, groundbreaking political satire. Results of this research has been published in books and articles in Hebrew and English.
Currently I am collaborating with visual and performance artists developing a theater-research-creation project base on the historical research, on their skits and on their unique political satire. The art project is being done in collaboration with Lea Mauas (Sala-manca Group), the Argentinean based artist Ayelen Coccoz (picture of the work in progress in the bottom), and the Israeli artists Adi Kalplan and Shahar Carmel (painting on the right).
The English version of the book, was published by De Gruyter was possible thanks to a grant by the ISF (Israel Science Foundation) and Kronhill Pletka Foundation.
Related Publications and projects:
Sala-manca Group (Rotman and Mauas), 2021.Yiddish Silence, Reconstruction of a Lecture about Dzigan and Shumacher
Diego Rotman. 2021. The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home - Dzigan and Shumacher's Satirical Theater (1927-1980), Pp. 321. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Diego Rotman. 2019. Performing Homeland in Post-Vernacular Times: Dzigan and Shumacher’s Yiddish Theater after the Holocaust. Publisher's Version
Diego Rotman. 2017. ha-Bamah ke-bayit araʻi : ha-teʼaṭron shel Dz'igan ṿe-Shumakher, 1927-1980 [The Stage as a temporary home : on Dzigan and Shumacher's theater, 1927-1980]. Jerusalem: Magnes.
Diego Rotman. 10/2016. “The “Tsadik from Plonsk” and “Goldenyu” Political Satire in Dzigan and Shumacher’s Israeli Comic Repertoire.” Edited by Eli Lederhendler and Gabriel N. Finder. Studies in Contemporary Jewry, A Club of Their Own: Jewish Humorists and the Contemporary World, 29.
Diego Rotman and Shimon Levy. 2009. “The Dybbuk is not Moyshe Sne - On the Satirical Parody "Der Nayer Dybbuk [Heb.].” In "Do not Chase Me Away" : New Studies on the Dybbuk [Al na tegarshuni : ʻiyunim ḥadashim beha-Dibuḳ], edited by Dorit Yerushalmi. Tel Aviv.
Access to fragments of the research at the Jewish Theatre Museum On-Line (Hebrew)
Reviews of the book on Dzigan and Shumacher
Caplan, Debra. “Review of Diego Rotman’s The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home” In geveb (September 2023): Accessed Sep 19, 2023.
Vassili Schedrin, "Diego Rotman D. The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home. Dzigan and Shumacher’s Satirical Theater (1927–1980)", Judaic-Slavic Journal, / № 1-2(7-8) (2022): Специальный выпуск: Вечные странники еврейского театра [Russian]
Vassili Schedrin, "The Yiddish Stage...", Studies for Contemporary Jewry 33, 2023, pp. 225-227. [English]
Susana Skura, "Trashumancia y generación de comunidad. A propóisto de la presentación de libro THE YIDDISH STAGE AS A TEMPORARY HOME." , in Shoah: 80 anos de memória e resistência, volume 1: Diáspora e Imigração / Lyslei Nascimento, João Paulo Vani, organizadores. - 1. ed. - São José do Rio Preto, SP: HN, 2022., pp. 319-334. [Spanish]
Svetlana Pohomova, "The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home [...]", International Yiddish Center, September 2022 [English]
Adi Mahalel, East European Jewish Affairs, December 2019 [English]
Raphael Cohen Almagor, Tamar Hermann, Hanna Herzog, Sam Lehman-Wilzig, and Ruvi Ziegler, Israel Studies Review 34, September 2019 [English
Ruthie Abeliovich, Gal-Ed Journal, April 2021 [Hebrew]
Mihail Krutikov, "Dzigan and Shumacher: Actors on the Stage of Jewish Exile", The Yiddish Daily Forward, April 2021.[Yiddish]