Ben Hecht's Theatre of Jewish Protest

By Garrett Eisler

Rutgers University Press

Ben Hecht is most remembered as a famous Hollywood screenwriter and Broadway playwright, but only recently has his extensive Jewish activism during the Holocaust and its aftermath received scholarly attention. Unlike other, more expansive Hecht biographies, this book focuses in depth on his Jewish political theatre, drawing on extensive archival research of four dramas: We Will Never Die (1943), A Jewish Fairy Tale (1944), A Flag Is Born (1946), and The Terrorist (1947). Garrett Eisler's readings of these little-known (and out of print) texts reclaim them as pivotal to the history of Jewish American drama, being among the first works of U.S. theatre to address the Holocaust. The full texts of all four works are republished here for the first time, along with production details and full performance histories.

Hecht also introduced a new heroic Jewish identity to the American stage, one that challenged popular stereotypes of villainy or weakness. This powerful and (still) controversial body of work stands as a striking testament to the power of theatre to rise to the moment. In Hecht's use of the stage to aggressively engage with history as it was happening, his story is a compelling case of an artist who made a difference.

Offering a deep dive into Ben Hecht’s explicitly Jewish and Zionist pageants of the 1940s, Garrett Eisler has rescued these compelling and star-studded spectacles from their previous consignment to the footnotes of Hecht’s long and illustrious career. Richly detailed and documented – including the full-text of four out-of-print or previously unpublished scripts – the book vividly evokes the period when a handful of Jewish theatre artists, galvanized to action by the Holocaust, used the tools of their trade to influence public opinion, and in so doing assert their Jewishness to a degree never before seen on American stages. Henry Bial, author of Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen

'Ben Hecht’s Theatre of Jewish Protest is an admirably thoughtful and thorough exploration of Hecht’s four plays focusing on the Holocaust. I highly endorse it.' Norman J. Fedder, distinguished professor emeritus of theatre at Kansas State University

A welcome contribution to the growing body of research on Ben Hecht's work with the Bergson Group during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. Edna Nahshon, author of New York's Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway

GARRETT EISLER has taught in theatre programs at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the New School’s Eugene Lang College, Brooklyn College, and Boston University. He is the editor of Twentieth-Century American Dramatists: Fifth Series.

Introduction
Part I: From “Vanishing” to Visible: Barriers to Jewish Representation, 1933–1943
Chapter 1: Protesting Antisemitism via Antifascism
Chapter 2: Breaking the Silence: We Will Never Die
Part II: Tevye and the Terrorists: Plays for Palestine, 1944–1947
Chapter 3: The Assassination of “Lord Moisha”: A Jewish Fairy Tale and the Pivot to Palestine
Chapter 4: The Death of Tevye and the Birth of Israel: A Flag Is Born on Broadway
Chapter 5: Passion Play for a Jewish “Terrorist”
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Text of We Will Never Die
Appendix 2: Text of A Jewish Fairy Tale
Appendix 3: Text of A Flag Is Born
Appendix 4: Text of The Terrorist
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Introduction 1
Part I From “Vanishing” to Visible: Barriers to Jewish Representation,1933–1943
1 Protesting Antisemitism via Antifascism 15
2 Breaking the Silence: We Will Never Die 28
Part II Tevye and the Terrorists: Plays for Palestine, 1944–1947
3 The Assassination of “Lord Moisha”: A Jewish Fairy Tale and the Pivot to Palestine 63
4 The Death of Tevye and the Birth of Israel: A Flag Is Born on Broadway 78
5 Passion Play for a Jewish “Terrorist” 105
Conclusion 117
appendix 1: we will never die 125
appendix 2: a jewish fairy tale 153
appendix 3: a flag is born 165
appendix 4: the terrorist 203
acknowledgments 223
notes 225
bibliography 249
index 000

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