From ´Text´ to ´Performance´. New Aspects of the History of Viennese Jews

This text is an application for a continuance/an extension of my current project (Vom Text` zur Performanz`. Neue Aspekte zur Geschichte der Juden Wiens im Fin de Siècle). Research I have done so far has opened up new vistas on the topic of performance in Jewish history, mooted new questions, and indicated new areas of study that shall be dealt with and answered by the new project. The application is divided into four sections. The first chapter is related to theoretical issues concerning the use of performance as a methodological approach in Jewish historiography. Answering the questions raised in this section is essential for drafting historical narratives and explaining, instead of merely describing, performative events. The second part of the proposal deals with the Yiddish theatre. It is partly related to various theses I intend to confirm by my current project but goes beyond the present work regarding the period to be examined as well as in geographical terms. Another topic of this section concerns translations of classical European dramas into Yiddish. The third chapter deals with performative activities among Jews. By shifting the focus from interactions between Jews and non-Jews to (exclusively) Jewish performances a more comprehensive picture of Viennese Jewish history is to be attained. Topics cover the roles of rabbis and cantors in religious service as well as the interior architecture of synagogues, especially the location of the bimah, and the impact of the architectural setting on the relations between rabbi and congregants. In the last part of my proposal I deal with the employment of a performative approach to anti-Semitic articulations resulting from the encounter of Jews and non-Jews.

The research work has examined and elaborated new approaches to Jewish identity and Jewish and non-Jewish relations by applying `performance` as a methodological tool. In addition, it has dealt with the Yiddish theatre, with performance in the fields of religious service and anti-Semitism. Most importantly, the project has generated new vistas for reimagining the Yiddish theatre in Vienna and placing it in a broader context embracing developments in Eastern Europe and the United States, especially New York. Above all it can now be proved that the Yiddish stage was more popular among non-Jews than previously assumed, and that writing about Jewish and non-Jewish cultures as distinct cultural realms is a very thorny undertaking, fraught with potential error. The research work made use of the concept of performance in the religious-liturgical realm and thereby could break up long-held binary categorizations, such as Viennese vs. Eastern European Jews, or liberal vs. Orthodox Jews. The employment of performance as a methodological tool and prism helped to integrate the history of Viennese Jews around 1900 and Jewish cultural processes into the larger contemporary societal context; it also served to recast how we see the presumed boundaries between Jews and non-Jews. Significantly, the project sought to substantiate various theses on performance as a methodological approach for assessing the relations between Jews and non-Jews. Through the application of performance as a methodological approach, it is now arguable that historiography can benefit from more and better knowledge on the history of Viennese Jews generated from this hitherto much neglected perspective.