Habimah Leaves Israel for U.s.; Starts Playing in New York Next Week

Habimah, Israel’s national theater group, left here this morning for a tour of the United States, beginning with nine weeks on Broadway under the joint sponsorship of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the management of the Little Theater in New York. The company will open in New York with “The Dybbuk” on February 3. The Israeli group will also participate in symposia and meetings with Hebrew groups and theatrical circles.

The greetings of Mayor Mordechai Namir of Tel Aviv were conveyed last night to the Habimah troupe at a farewell gathering attended by members of the press and public personalities. A spokesman for the group said “we are leaving with full knowledge of our responsibility to bring the Hebrew word and the Israeli theater to the United States and its Jewry.”

Founded in Russia some 50 years ago, Habimah’s aim was the establishment of a permanent theater that would demonstrate that the treasure of world drama could be revealed to the Jewish people through Hebrew. The company appeared for the first time on September 2, 1913 before the members of the World Zionist Congress meeting in Vienna. They performed in Hebrew translation a famous Yiddish play, Osip Dimov’s “The Eternal Wanderer.”

The original group disbanded and reassembled five years later in Moscow. In the 1920’s, Habimah went on a world tour, performing “The Golem” and “The Dybbuk” in Europe and the United States. Subsequently, the majority of the actors migrated to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. Today, Habimah plays in two theaters in the center of this city, one with 2,000 seats and the other, for more intimate productions, with 500.