The Stage as a Temporary Home takes us through the fascinating stages in the life and career of the duo Shimen Dzigan and Isroel Shumacher, over the course of half a century - from the beginning of their work at the Ararat avant-garde Yiddish theater in Łodz, Poland, and to their Warsaw theater, where they produced bold, groundbreaking political satire. The book further discusses their wanderings through the Soviet Union during the Second World War and their attempt to revive Jewish culture in Poland after the Holocaust, and finally describes their arrival in Israel, first as guest performers and later as permanent residents. Despite the restrictions on Yiddish actors in Israel, the duo insisted on performing in their own language and succeeded in translating the new Israeli reality into unique and timely satire. In the 1950s, they voiced a political and cultural critique of a kind that was not heard on any of the Hebrew stages. After they parted ways, and following the death of Shumacher in 1961, Dzigan continued to perform on his own and with other Israeli artists until his death in 1980.

The book is based on rare recordings, transcriptions, programs, personal diaries, letters, photographs, oral testimonies, and critical articles, all of which come together to create the first critical portrait of this extraordinary duo. The book also examines their art, the connection between theater and politics, and the complex relationship between majority culture and minority language.

The study includes several valuable indexes: of titles of programs and plays, of the artists who participated in them, of writers and the drafts they wrote, of actors and the programs in which they participated, and a general name index. The book also includes a facsimile of the manuscript Der Nayer Dybbuk [The New Dybbuk].

Reviews of the book on Dzigan and Shumacher

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]

Ellen Presser, "Laurel und Hardy auf Jiddisch", Jüdische Allgemeine, 19.5.2021 [German]

Avrom Lichtenbaum, Entrevista con Diego Rotman, YIWO Radio, March 2021 [Spanish]

Vassili Schedrin, "DZIGAN AND SHUMACHER: BEFORE “CABARET” AND “SCHINDLER’S LIST.” AN INTERVIEW WITH DIEGO ROTMAN", The Theatre Times, September 2020
Adi Mahalel, East European Jewish Affairs, December 2019
Raphael Cohen Almagor, Tamar Hermann, Hanna Herzog, Sam Lehman-Wilzig, and Ruvi Ziegler, Israel Studies Review 34,  September 2019
Arieh Sover, Humor Mekuvan - Academic Online Journal of Humor Research 11, December 2018 [Hebrew]
Michal Zamir, Haaretz, July 2018 [Hebrew]
Hagai Hitron, Haaretz, June 2018 [Hebrew]
Yaad Biran, Haaretz, March 2018 [Hebrew]
Itay Zutra, The Jewish Post & News, March 2018
Gabi Zohar, Radio 104.5, interviewing Diego Rotman, February 2018, [Hebrew]
Beni Mer, "Diego Rotman Describes the Art of Dzigan and Shumacher", The Yiddish Daily Forward, June 2017, [Yiddish]

Launching Events

Susana Skura, Cynthya Gabbay, Diego Rotman, Launching event in Spanish, at Simania/LAJSA - Latin American Jewish Studies Association

Diego Rotman, Dr. Diego Rotman: "Di geshikhte fun nisht farbetene gest: Dzigan un Shumacher in Yisroel" (Scholem-Alejchem-Vortrag 2021) [Yiddish]

Zehavit Stern, Ruthi Abeliovich, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Elyakim Rubinstein, Shmulik Vircer-Atsmon, Launching of the book in Hebrew, Hansen House

This chapter examines the career and political satire of comic duo Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher. Their performances dealt with issues that reflected the major topics that preoccupied Jews of their era: the vagaries of making a living, the state of the economy, world and local politics, marriage, Jewish tradition, antisemitism, and current events. After they emigrated to Israel, their repertoire expanded to include such issues as the individual confronting the Israeli bureaucracy, the question of Yiddish versus Hebrew, the Jewish-Arab conflict, relations between diaspora Jewry (especially American Jews) and Israel, the memory of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, and the Holocaust. The chapter analyzes two pairs of skits that focused on two prime ministers: David Ben-Gurion in “ Der nayer dybbek” (The New Dybbuk, 1957) and “In der yeshive fun plonsker rebbe” (In the Plonsker Rebbe’s Yeshiva; 1961); and Golda Meir in the monologue “Goldenyu” (1971) and the skit “Golde baym poypst” (Golda Visits the Pope; 1973).

*Heara is a collection of testimonies, reflections, interpretations and documentations of Heara events, as well as images from issues of Hearat Shulaym (Note in the Margin), an independent contemporary art and literature journal published together and as an inherent part of the events. The book includes articles published in Hearat Shulaym and additional articles written especially for the book by Israeli artists and scholars, as well as artworks which were part of the Heara art project. The art events and journal were active in divided, grief-stricken Jerusalem of the Second Intifada, outside conventional art venues and without any cooperation or funding by the government or private corporations. Nevertheless, the events managed to form fascinating connections between artists operating in different media ־ visual art, theater, poetry, video and sounds, and created a platform of growth and articulation for hundreds of artists, producing exciting, unpredictable, inspiring and thought-provoking pieces