01/05/2024
Did you know... the lead movable type we are using as a prop in "Di psure loyt khaim" (The Gospel According to Chaim) is from the actual set commissioned and owned by Chaim Einspruch, which he used to set his "Bris-khadoshe," his Yiddish translation of the New Testament? Our playwright Mikhl Yashinsky () was first shown the type as a Fellow at the in Amherst, MA, where it had been donated by Chaim's widow Marie, who explained at the time that her husband (though a Christian by faith) would have been very pleased, as a lifelong proponent of Yiddish, to know that Jewish children would be coming to the Center to print their Jewish names using his own lead type. The set was pristine, its letters having only been used once, to set the “Bris-khadoshe.” It was Mikhl's dream to one day use the letters in the play he was writing, to help tell the surprising story of the most unusual book that was printed using those very same letters. Now that dream has come true, thanks to the Yiddish Book Center and its bibliographer David Mazower, who agreed to lend us 21 pieces of the type to use in our show. Our thanks also to .blo0m, who shlepped them to us from the Center, along with a number of copies of the first edition of Einspruch's "Bris-khadoshe." History comes alive on our stage — and it is literally *palpable*. Experience it four more times, till January 7 at the .
Production photos by
