Performing Orthodox Girlhood: Bais Yaakov Plays in Interwar Poland

• In Event: Jewish Queer Woman Bodies and (New) Materialities of Reproduction

Abstract

This paper will investigate the construction of female Orthodox subjectivities and body practices in the interwar Bais Yaakov movement, in which theater played a perhaps surprisingly central role. Bais Yaakov involved the construction of new female body practices, from the monastic co-habitation in the seminaries to new forms of ecstatic worship, religious pilgrimage and focused study. But one of these new practices was theater: Bais Yaakov attracted students through their highly visible plays, which were often the most exciting public event in a small town. While the Orthodox world had developed its own theater tradition around Purim, these Bais Yaakov plays were elaborate productions generally held around Chanukkah, held in large rented halls and with more "professional" production values. Sarah Schenirer, founder of the movement, was an avid theater-goer, (like Shakespeare) used theater as a frequent metaphor for life, produced her first "Judaism" textbook in the form of scripted dialogues, and wrote at least ten plays for use in the movement. As photos and reports from the period testify, these plays often involved cross-dressing. Interestingly, a parallel and less-scripted set of phenomena accompanied this performance culture: the cross-dressing of boys and young men eager to get into the plays (that involved girls cross-dressing) that were performed solely for women, the policing of entry into these venues, and the coverage of such "scandals" in the popular press. My paper will document the role of the play in the new cultural production that was Orthodox girlhood in interwar Poland, in which new body practices--modesty, piety, learning--were being inculcated in part through the "freedom" of performance.

Author

• Naomi Sheindel Seidman, Graduate Theological Union