Camelia Crăciun

The paradoxical popularity that Yiddish theatre, especially international companies such as the Vilna Troupe, enjoyed in interwar Romania among the non-Jewish audience, mostly unfamiliar with Yiddish language, and the significant impact it had on the local culture and elite during a period of fluctuating anti-Semitism is still under researched. The complexity of this socio-cultural phenomenon, namely the appeal of Yiddish theatre on the non-Jewish elite (especially artists, intellectuals, politicians, and professionals, basically significant social influencers) who were attending and responding to Yiddish theatre, completely ignored by researchers so far, needs to be addressed especially in a period of social and political radicalization as it might offer insights into the capacity of transnational actors of accomplishing transcultural communication and transfer while influencing social categories and their respective cultural (and eventually political) options.