Jewish Plays, Tabooed for Many Years in Russia, in Good Favor Now

Many Jewish plays which for years were virtually forbidden in Soviet Russia because of their melodramatic nature, have been revived and are now being played in Alma-Ata and other major cities in the Kazakstan Soviet Republic where hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland and evacuated Jews from the Ukraine have found their temporary homes.

The plays, performed in Yiddish by the members of the Jewish State Theatre, which the Russian administration established in Lwow, capital of Eastern Galicia, prior to the occupation of that city by the Nazis, are being produced under the direction of Ida Kaminskaya, famous Polish Jewish actress. Wounded Russian soldiers, recuperating in Middle Asia as well as members of the military forces undergoing training there, make up much of the audiences. Especially successful are the plays "Mirele Efros" and "Chasie the Orphan" by Jacob Gordin which had not been staged in Russia since the establishment of the Soviet regime, though very popular in pre-revolutionary Russia, as well as in America.