{"id":{"repo_id":"ku","oai_identifier":"oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39510"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/ku/oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39510","repository":{"repo_id":"ku","name":"University of Kansas","base_url":"https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Amateur and Community-Based Theatre Within Jewish Organizational Spaces in Post-World War II America","abstract":"This dissertation examines amateur and community-based Jewish theatrical performance in Jewish organizational spaces in the United States since World War II, arguing that such productions simultaneously reflect and construct localized Jewish American communities. To define what constitutes a Jewish community, I employ Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan’s term Am (which roughly translates to “people” or “nation”). This study moves beyond Broadway and professional stages, instead focusing on performances staged at Jewish communal sites including Jewish summer camps, synagogues, and Jewish Community Centers across the country. Through case studies including Ladino-inflected productions at a Sephardic synagogue, musical theatre performances on community theatre stages at JCCs, and educationally motivated youth-centered camp shows, I demonstrate how amateur and community-based theatre functions as a site where Jewish American identity is rehearsed, negotiated, and embodied.","abstract_html":"This dissertation examines amateur and community-based Jewish theatrical performance in Jewish organizational spaces in the United States since World War II, arguing that such productions simultaneously reflect and construct localized Jewish American communities. To define what constitutes a Jewish community, I employ Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan’s term Am (which roughly translates to “people” or “nation”). This study moves beyond Broadway and professional stages, instead focusing on performances staged at Jewish communal sites including Jewish summer camps, synagogues, and Jewish Community Centers across the country. Through case studies including Ladino-inflected productions at a Sephardic synagogue, musical theatre performances on community theatre stages at JCCs, and educationally motivated youth-centered camp shows, I demonstrate how amateur and community-based theatre functions as a site where Jewish American identity is rehearsed, negotiated, and embodied.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Greene, Jonah"],"institution":"University of Kansas","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Theatre","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Bial, Henry"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-05-31","date_published":"2026-05-31","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:45:42Z","subjects":["Amateur Theatre","Community Theatre","Jewish Community","Jewish Organizational Life","Jewish Theatre","Theatre History"],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32673701"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32673701","href":"https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32673701","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1808/39510","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Bial, Henry"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Greene, Jonah"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2026-07-20T21:00:24Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-07-20T21:00:24Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2026-05-31"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Kansas"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Theatre"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Amateur Theatre","Community Theatre","Jewish Community","Jewish Organizational Life","Jewish Theatre","Theatre History"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32673701"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1808/39510"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation examines amateur and community-based Jewish theatrical performance in Jewish organizational spaces in the United States since World War II, arguing that such productions simultaneously reflect and construct localized Jewish American communities. To define what constitutes a Jewish community, I employ Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan’s term Am (which roughly translates to “people” or “nation”). This study moves beyond Broadway and professional stages, instead focusing on performances staged at Jewish communal sites including Jewish summer camps, synagogues, and Jewish Community Centers across the country. Through case studies including Ladino-inflected productions at a Sephardic synagogue, musical theatre performances on community theatre stages at JCCs, and educationally motivated youth-centered camp shows, I demonstrate how amateur and community-based theatre functions as a site where Jewish American identity is rehearsed, negotiated, and embodied.","Drawing on Kaplan’s concept of Jews as an Am (a people defined by shared civilization, culture, and collective belonging), this project proposes that amateur theatre uniquely materializes Jewish peoplehood at the local level. These productions create what I call “micro-Amim”: distinct micro-communities that gather to perform and witness themselves into being. Also incorporating the Ladino concept of engleneate (“to entertain oneself”) and the Yiddish nu (often translated to “well?”) as interpretive frameworks, I argue that postwar Jewish amateur and community-based theatre reveals important aspects of Jewish American identity and life, particularly through the way productions change according to context. These performances generate communal cohesion while remaining flexible in meaning, ultimately shaped by geography, denomination, language, local politics, and historical moment.","By foregrounding these community-centered, nonprofessional productions, this dissertation fills a significant gap in Jewish American theatre scholarship. Amateur Jewish theatre – performed by Jews, for Jews, and often about Jews – reveals how communities articulate anxieties about assimilation and belonging in postwar America. Ultimately, this study contends that theatrical performance has been central to the ongoing creation of Jewish American identity, demonstrating that local stages across the United States have served as vital avenues for enacting, preserving, and reinventing Jewish American peoplehood."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Amateur and Community-Based Theatre Within Jewish Organizational Spaces in Post-World War II America"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Bial, Henry"],"dc:creator":["Greene, Jonah"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2026-07-20T21:00:24Z"],"dc:date.available":["2026-07-20T21:00:24Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2026-05-31"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation examines amateur and community-based Jewish theatrical performance in Jewish organizational spaces in the United States since World War II, arguing that such productions simultaneously reflect and construct localized Jewish American communities. To define what constitutes a Jewish community, I employ Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan’s term Am (which roughly translates to “people” or “nation”). This study moves beyond Broadway and professional stages, instead focusing on performances staged at Jewish communal sites including Jewish summer camps, synagogues, and Jewish Community Centers across the country. Through case studies including Ladino-inflected productions at a Sephardic synagogue, musical theatre performances on community theatre stages at JCCs, and educationally motivated youth-centered camp shows, I demonstrate how amateur and community-based theatre functions as a site where Jewish American identity is rehearsed, negotiated, and embodied.","Drawing on Kaplan’s concept of Jews as an Am (a people defined by shared civilization, culture, and collective belonging), this project proposes that amateur theatre uniquely materializes Jewish peoplehood at the local level. These productions create what I call “micro-Amim”: distinct micro-communities that gather to perform and witness themselves into being. Also incorporating the Ladino concept of engleneate (“to entertain oneself”) and the Yiddish nu (often translated to “well?”) as interpretive frameworks, I argue that postwar Jewish amateur and community-based theatre reveals important aspects of Jewish American identity and life, particularly through the way productions change according to context. These performances generate communal cohesion while remaining flexible in meaning, ultimately shaped by geography, denomination, language, local politics, and historical moment.","By foregrounding these community-centered, nonprofessional productions, this dissertation fills a significant gap in Jewish American theatre scholarship. Amateur Jewish theatre – performed by Jews, for Jews, and often about Jews – reveals how communities articulate anxieties about assimilation and belonging in postwar America. Ultimately, this study contends that theatrical performance has been central to the ongoing creation of Jewish American identity, demonstrating that local stages across the United States have served as vital avenues for enacting, preserving, and reinventing Jewish American peoplehood."],"dc:identifier.other":["https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32673701"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1808/39510"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["University of Kansas"],"dc:subject":["Amateur Theatre","Community Theatre","Jewish Community","Jewish Organizational Life","Jewish Theatre","Theatre History"],"dc:title":["Amateur and Community-Based Theatre Within Jewish Organizational Spaces in Post-World War II America"],"dc:type":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Theatre"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:45:42Z"}