5. The war years

During the Second World War, two theatres flourished in the East End: the Jewish National Theatre, founded at Adler Hall by Fanny Waxman and Meier Tzelniker in 1936, and the Grand Palais, from 1939 under the direction of husband and wife team, Mark Markov and Etta Topel.

It was the start of a remarkably rich few years in the history of Yiddish theatre. Wartime restrictions meant that it was impossible to engage guest artists from abroad, and the two companies relied on dramatist Abish Meisels to produce a steady flow of original plays, translations and adaptations. At the Grand Palais, success came in the form of a comedy called the 'The King of Lampedusa', written by S. J. Harendorf, based on a true wartime incident involving a Jewish pilot, Sidney Cohen, who had to make a forced landing on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. The Italian garrison surrendered to him and he was nicknamed 'The King of Lampedusa'. This became the longest running and most successful Yiddish play in London.

From 1943 to 1947 the New Yiddish Theatre at Adler Hall also found success, but its success was generally of the artistic rather than the commercial variety. The company staged a wide repertoire such as a modernised version of Goldfaden's Purim play 'King Ahasuerus', in which Joseph Sherman was made up to look like Hitler. One of the company's most imaginative steps was to engage Robert Atkins, then director of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, to stage 'The Merchant of Venice' (translated by Abish Meisels) with Meier Tzelniker playing Shylock and his daughter, Anna, playing Portia. This was the last Yiddish-language production of the play in London.