The Yiddish State Theater in Bucharest

Since September 2016 Prof. Corina L. Petrescu is researching the history, aesthetics, programs, actors and performance practice of the Yiddish State Theater in Bucharest after World War II. The project is funded by a research grant of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Within the scope of this project Prof. Petrescu examines the Bercovici Collection of the Potsdam University Library. This collection includes 3000 volumes on Yiddish theater, poetry and prose. The Yiddish poet Israil Bercovici (1921-1988), who privately compiled the collection, was the longstanding director of the Yiddish State Theater in Bucharest in the time of the Ceaucescu dictatorship. His library is a unique source for the history of Yiddish theater, not only in Romania.

Prof. Corina L. Petrescu is Associate Professor of German at the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi. Focus areas of her research are National Socialism, the portrayal of the year 1968 in German and Romanian literature, German-Jewish relationships since the 18th century and East European Yiddish theater.