Jewish Theatre, For Heaven’s Sake!

HowlRound: Does the dismissal of Ari Roth, the Artistic Director of Theater J in Washington, D.C., the theatre that has been the gold standard for Jewish theatre, bode disaster for Jewish theatre that is creative, edgy, and challenging?

The particulars of Roth’s situation in relation to DC’s Jewish Community Center and the content he produced—which included plays that were deemed critical of Israel and plays by playwrights such as Tony Kushner—are compelling. But I would like to zoom out from the firestorm in order to understand a new trend for Jewish institutions that used to be primary presenters of Jewish arts and culture and are now shying away from culturally specific and intellectually daring theatre.