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List of Jewish American playwrights

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This is a list of notable Jewish American playwrights. For other Jewish Americans, see Lists of Jewish Americans.

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  • David Adjmi{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/theater/17stunning.html|title=David Adjmi's 'Stunning' Explores Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, at Duke on 42nd Street|first=Felicia R.|last=Lee|date=16 June 2009|via=NYTimes.com}}
  • Lynn Ahrens{{cite web|url=http://www.jinfo.org/Musicals.html|title=Jewish-Composed Musicals|last=JINFO|website=www.jinfo.org}}
  • Sholom Aleichem{{cite web |url=http://www.odessaglobe.com/english/people/sholom-aleikhem.htm |title=Sholom-Aleichem |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026191140/http://www.odessaglobe.com/english/people/sholom-aleikhem.htm |archive-date=2006-10-26 }} "Recognized as the best Jewish writer who ever lived in Russia and wrote in Yiddish..."
  • Woody Allen (born 1935), film director, writer, actor, and comedian{{cite encyclopedia |title=Motion Pictures |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica |publisher=Keter Publishing House |date=1971–1972}}
  • Jacob M. AppelJM Appel Phoning Home University of South Carolina Press 2014
  • George Axelrod[http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/031226/notable.shtml Notable Jewish deaths in 2003] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060314185954/http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/031226/notable.shtml |date=2006-03-14 }}
  • Jeff Baron
  • S. N. Behrman{{cite web |url=http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/behrman/bio.html |title=Worcester Area Writers - S. N. Behrman - Bio |access-date=2006-07-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060913101717/http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/behrman/bio.html |archive-date=2006-09-13 }} "He was the third child of Joseph and Zelda Behrman, Jewish immigrants living on Worcester's East Side."
  • David Belasco{{cite web |url=http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_list.aspx?articleGroupID=55 |title=All About Jewish Theatre - News |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060512023153/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_list.aspx?articleGroupID=55 |archive-date=2006-05-12 }} "It was staged by the young David Belasco, a Sephardic Jew..."
  • Saul Bellow{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bellow.htm |title=Saul Bellow |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=Kuusankoski Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424052424/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bellow.htm |archive-date=24 April 2006 |url-status=dead }}
  • Leo Birinski
  • Agnes Borinsky
  • Mel Brooks{{cite web|url=http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID%3D538 |title=All About Jewish Theatre - Mel Brooks take his musical "The Producers" to Germany |access-date=2010-12-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161008/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=538 |archive-date=2011-05-19 }} "as the 77-year-old Brooklyn-born Jewish comedian put it unrepentantly..."
  • Paddy Chayefsky[http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm JewishAmThea] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902103349/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |date=2006-09-02 }}
  • Betty Comden & Adolph Green
  • Norman Corwin[https://web.archive.org/web/20040816084342/http://www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=3183] "Corwin, who is Jewish, started his journalism career sans a high school..."
  • Howard Dietz{{cite web|url=http://www.jinfo.org/Songs.html|title=Hebrew Melodies|last=JINFO|website=www.jinfo.org}}
  • Edward Einhorn{{cite web|url=http://www.edwardeinhorn.com|title=Edward Einhorn - Novelist, Playwright, Director|website=www.edwardeinhorn.com}}
  • Eve Ensler[http://www.jwa.org/feminism/_html/timeline.htm] [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/22839/format/html/displaystory.html] "The celebrated actress-playwright, born to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, sees herself as “a Jewish being. My mother looked like Doris Day. I was a dead ringer for Anne Frank. I came out Jewish.”"
  • Harvey Fierstein[http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2003/11/26/3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721115233/http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2003%2F11%2F26%2F3 |date=2006-07-21 }} "Harvey Fierstein, nice Jewish boy from Bensonhurst, dressed in holiday finery..."
  • Edna Ferber{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ferber.html|title=Edna Ferber|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}
  • Herb Gardner
  • Larry Gelbart{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/021108/comic.shtml |title=The comic gift of Larry Gelbart |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060517124416/http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/021108/comic.shtml |archive-date=2006-05-17 }} "Besides writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay "Oh, God!" the Jewish comedy screenwriter is famous..."
  • Joel Gersmann{{cite news|last=Peterson|first=Gary|title=Donna Peckett: a tap dancing fool|newspaper=The Capital Times|date=November 4, 1982|location=Madison, Wisconsin|pages=6–7, Off Hours section}}
  • Josh Greenfeld[https://web.archive.org/web/20050227221605/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,903557,00.html] "He, Josh Greenfeld, was a Jewish writer from Greenwich Village."
  • Oscar Hammerstein II[http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2001/february28/jewishlit-228.html] "When American Jewish songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Oklahoma!, they were, Felstiner argues, doing what all children of immigrant parents do: desiring to possess the new land."
  • Otto Harbach
  • Yip Harburg[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/JewishComposers.html] {{cite web |url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/Music/AmericanJewishMusicTO/AmericanJewishSongs.htm |title=MyJewishLearning.com - Culture: American Jewish Songs |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060702024154/http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/Music/AmericanJewishMusicTO/AmericanJewishSongs.htm |archive-date=2006-07-02 }}
  • Moss Hart[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1Y1:86465963/Show+of+a+Lifetime+%3B+Moss+Hart+and+George+S+Kaufmans+Debut+Broadway+Hit+is+Coming+Back+to+London~R~+Alan+Strachan+Looks+at+the+Duo+Who+Ruled+Over+a+Golden+Age+of+Theatre.html?refid=ency_botnm]{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}(on Hart and George S. Kaufman) "Both were tall, dark and Jewish, and both had private demons..."
  • Ben Hecht[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/BHecht.html] "Ben Hecht was an American Jewish journalist, novelist, and playwright.
  • Lillian Hellman[http://www.fau.edu/library/bro91.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905131607/http://www.fau.edu/library/bro91.htm |date=2006-09-05 }} {{cite web |url=http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/rkamper/hellman1960.htm |title=Hellman1960 |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907210355/http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/rkamper/hellman1960.htm |archive-date=2006-09-07 }} "She is Jewish."
  • Peretz Hirshbein{{cite web|url=http://www2.jewishculture.org/awards/awards_arts_hirshbein.html|title=National Foundation for Jewish Culture}}
  • Israel Horovitz{{cite web |url=http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |title=JewishAmThea |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902103349/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |archive-date=2006-09-02 }} [http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Horovitz_Miller.htm]
  • George Jessel{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1:79377579/The+History+of+Jewish+American+Comedians~C~+New+Book+Traces+Humor+from+George+Jessel+to+Jerry+Seinfeld.html?refid=SEO|title=This article is unavailable - HighBeam Research}}{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
  • George S. Kaufman
  • Sidney Kingsley[http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1478295,00.html?gusrc=rss] "second-generation American Jewish writers: Miller, Odets, Sidney Kingsley"
  • Tony Kushner[http://www.barclayagency.com/kushner.html] "The gay, Jewish socialist raised in Louisiana and educated at Columbia and NYU most enjoys addressing audiences that are receptive to ideas for change and progress."
  • James Lapine{{cite web |url=http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |title=JewishAmThea |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902103349/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |archive-date=2006-09-02 }} "finest Jewish playwrights, including Elizabeth Swados, William Finn and James Lapine, Herb Gardner..."
  • Arthur Laurents[http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/reviews/091800re.htm] "...the creation of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim: four gay Jewish men, all working at the very top of their craft." [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/1557834679/] "Laurents also writes extensively on being gay, Jewish, left-wing..."
  • H. Leivick{{Cite web |url=http://www.met.com/golem/notes.html |title=MET's Past Productions: The Golem - Notes on the Play |access-date=2006-05-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060511211641/http://www.met.com/golem/notes.html |archive-date=2006-05-11 |url-status=dead }}
  • Alan Jay Lerner[http://www.jinfo.org/Musicals.html] {{cite web |url=http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |title=JewishAmThea |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902103349/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm |archive-date=2006-09-02 }}
  • Ira Levin{{cite web |url=http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?id=82 |title=Celebrities |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717191755/http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?id=82 |archive-date=2011-07-17 }} "Dickens wasn’t Jewish, in case you were wondering. But Bette just did a remake of The Stepford Wives, based on the novel by Ira Levin, who is."
  • Craig Lucas[http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/Arts/content.html?oid=oid:95339] "Besides the mainstage premiere of a major new work by acclaimed Jewish playwright Craig Lucas..."
  • David Mamet[http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521894689&ss=exc] "David Mamet is a Jewish writer, though until recently few accounts of his life or work suggested as much..."
  • Donald Margulies[http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12291] "he was Donald Margulies, the darling of regional theater, the state-sanctioned "Jewish American Playwright""
  • Arthur Miller[http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Horovitz_Miller.htm] "Let's have a look. Miller, like myself, (and like Ed Siegel) is a Jewish-American, meaning, simply..."{{cite book | last1 =Chametzky | first1 =Jules | last2 =Felstiner| first2 =John| last3 =Flanzbaum | first3 =Hilene | last4 = Hellerstein| first4 =Kathryn| title =Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology| publisher = W.W. Norton & Company| date =2001 | pages =558 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=DwQlVoyHac8C | isbn =9780393048094 }}
  • Cheryl Moch
  • Becky Mode{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,91443,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216014119/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,91443,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 16, 2007|title=Best Theater 2000|date=17 May 2001|via=www.time.com}}
  • Itamar Moses
  • Clifford Odets{{cite web |url=http://yiddishbookcenter.org/story.php?n=10313 |title=National Yiddish Book Center - Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays Ellen Schiff, editor |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060524121530/http://yiddishbookcenter.org/story.php?n=10313 |archive-date=2006-05-24 }} "...introduced the work of Jewish playwrights Aaron Hoffman, Clifford Odets, and Paddy Chayefsky to contemporary audiences..."{{cite book | last1 =Chametzky | first1 =Jules | last2 =Felstiner| first2 =John| last3 =Flanzbaum | first3 =Hilene | last4 = Hellerstein| first4 =Kathryn| title =Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology| publisher = W.W. Norton & Company| date =2001 | pages =451 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=DwQlVoyHac8C | isbn =9780393048094 }}
  • Carl Reiner[http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/rob.htm] "But consider the milieu the show's Jewish creator, Carl Reiner, was trying to portray: the heavily Jewish New York comedy scene out of which came Your Show..."
  • Elmer Rice{{cite web |url=http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1236 |title=All About Jewish Theatre - Elmer Rice Revival Now Off-Broadway |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060512083354/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1236 |archive-date=2006-05-12 }} "Elmer Rice, nee Reizenstein, an American/Jewish writer of the ‘20s and ‘30s, did not necessarily focus on Jewish characters and issues..."
  • Morrie Ryskind[http://www.sfsevents.org/juneFest05/timeline.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050526083250/http://www.sfsevents.org/juneFest05/timeline.htm |date=2005-05-26 }} "George and Ira Gershwin team up with another Jewish team—George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind..."
  • Peter Sagal{{cite web|last1=Kaplan|first1=Ron|title=NJ native hosts game show with twist of the news|url=http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/071306/mwNJNativeHostsGame.html|website=New Jersey Jewish News Life and Times Feature|publisher=New Jersey Jewish News|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920204054/http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/071306/mwNJNativeHostsGame.html|archive-date=20 September 2013|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Peter Sagal|url=https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/authors/profile/view/url/peter-sagal|publisher=Dramatic Publishing|access-date=7 February 2017}}
  • Rod Serling[http://www.rodserling.com/presence.htm] "Rod was Jewish and that doesn't necessarily mean that it should have meant more..."
  • Irwin Shaw{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/Community/swansea-amis.htm |title=JCR-UK - Amis and the Oriental in Swansea - Article by H. Pollins |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070530041950/http://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/Community/swansea-amis.htm |archive-date=2007-05-30 }} "Amis and I often talked about Jewish matters, such as novels by American Jews, like Irwin Shaw – that dates it."
  • Wallace Shawn[http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?ID=64 JUF : Tweens : Celebrities : Wallace Shawn] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717191810/http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?ID=64 |date=2011-07-17 }}
  • Sidney Sheldon[http://www.pbclibrary.org/story-jewishlit.htm Jewish Literature Month – Palm Beach County Library System] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010031021/http://www.pbclibrary.org/story-jewishlit.htm |date=2006-10-10 }}
  • Martin Sherman{{cite web |url=http://citypaper.net/articles/042700/cw.critpick.martin.shtml |title=Martin Sherman |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050212022034/http://citypaper.net/articles/042700/cw.critpick.martin.shtml |archive-date=2005-02-12 }}""Being Jewish and being gay are the most important parts of me," he explains, "and they’re the DNA in my bones.""
  • Neil Simon[https://web.archive.org/web/20040825212037/http://www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=4571] "Broadway Bound is the least known play of prolific Jewish playwright Neil Simon’s trio of comical semi-autobiographical dramas."
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Singer.html|title=Isaac Bashevis Singer|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}
  • Joey Soloway, playwright, television writerSoloway — [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16466] "One aspect of herself that Soloway reveals in her book, due out in paperback next month (published by Free Press), is that she, a self-described "Jewess," feels a sisterly solidarity with Monica Lewinsky, as well as Chandra Levy"
  • Aaron Sorkin (born 1961), screenwriter, producer and playwrightSorkin — [http://www.atlantajewish.com/content/092006/falltv-peet.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005450/http://www.atlantajewish.com/content/092006/falltv-peet.html |date=2007-09-27 }} "...says the Jewish Sorkin..."
  • Gertrude Stein
  • Joseph Stein{{cite web|url=http://www2.jewishculture.org/disciplines/performing_arts/theater/350th_playlist.html|title=350th Play List}}
  • Louise Stern{{cite web|title=Deaf writer shines at RADAR festival|url=http://www.hearingtimes.co.uk/Art%20&%20Culture/1414/Deaf%20writer%20shines%20at%20RADAR%20festival|website=Hearing Times|access-date=26 September 2014}}
  • Jeffrey Sweet[http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=722 All About Jewish Theatre - The Sins of the Father, Another Holocaust Play] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927020828/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=722 |date=2007-09-27 }}
  • Chaim Towber{{cite web | url=http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/T/towber-chaim.htm | first=Zalmen |last=Zylbercweig | title= Lives in the Yiddish Theatre. Short biographies of those involved in the Yiddish theatre. | website=Museum of Family History | access-date=2023-12-27}}
  • Alfred Uhry{{cite web |url=http://www.performink.com/Archives/stagepersonae/2000/UrhyAlfred.html |title=PerformInk Online |access-date=2006-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060319122629/https://www.performink.com/Archives/stagepersonae/2000/UrhyAlfred.html |archive-date=2006-03-19 }} "I’ve probably come late to the party accepting, and being proud of, the fact that I’m Jewish. But I’m here. Am I an observant Jew? No. Maybe I’ll get there."
  • Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006), playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University; recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for DramaWasserstein — [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/725/edition_id/4/format/html/displaystory.html] "“My father loved me dearly, but I’m not a Jewish American Princess,” playwright Wendy Wasserstein said. “I’m a Jewish mother, but I’m not Molly Goldberg.”"
  • Jerome Weidman{{cite web|url=http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR9462.aspx|title=ABC-CLIO/Greenwood - Reference - Home|last=ABC-CLIO|website=www.greenwood.com}}
  • Franz Werfel{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fwerfel.htm |title=Franz Werfel |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=Kuusankoski Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424054430/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fwerfel.htm |archive-date=24 April 2006 |url-status=dead }}
  • Norman Wexler, screenwriter of Saturday Night Fever, Joe, Serpico, Mandingo

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See also

{{Portal|Literature}}

References

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Playwrights

Jewish American

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