The Chief Commission supervising the theatre reportoire in Soviet Russia has prohibited the production of plays, sketches and songs, patter, etc. which ridicules the Jews or places them in a comic light. Actors are prohibited from using a Jewish accent on the stage or any intonation likely to suggest peculiar characteristics of the Jew.
The first play which has been prohibited under the new rule is the farce, “Aaron Tzadik” which includes a number of comic Jewish characters. This play has been running at the Moscow Russian Summer Theatre for some time with great success. The sane threatre has been ordered not to use any Jewish accept or mannerism in its production of the Russian version of “Potash and Perlmutter”? Certain songs of a semit-Antisemitic character which have been very popular of late in the cabarets have also been prohibited.
The prohibition applies to other nationalities, but in effect is aimed almost exclusively at the protection of the Jews from ridicule, which of late was assuming a constantly growing anti-Semitic character. Ninety-nine per cent. of the light operas and cabaret performances consist of more or less malicious poking of fun at the Jews.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
