By Talia Feldman and Tamara Yeshurun, Arts and Culture Editor
When the Stern College Dramatics Society (SCDS) announced this year’s play, we received a lot of mixed responses. “Seriously? A Jewish play?” Even before the auditions, when all anyone had seen was the title — Journey Through Ruth — people already recoiled, or rolled their eyes. Jokingly, we blamed antisemitism. But, as with most jokes, there was a kernel of truth to it. The reaction to the play revealed an unfortunate underlying reality: the assumption that “real culture” — whether in theater, visual arts, literature or music — can only exist outside the Jewish world. So, why is our immediate instinct to scoff at “Jewish” art or “Jewish” theater?
To be considered “sophisticated,” a Jewish artist must either be divorced from Jewish life and practice, like Franz Kafka or Felix Mendelssohn, or be deeply tortured by it, as in My Name is Asher Lev or Yentl. In contrast, “frum” stories have a reputation for being narrow, kitschy and sentimental. To be fair, there is no shortage of trash out there. The phenomenon even has a name: the “Bais Yaakov effect.” One-dimensional ideas like “the goyim will always hate us” or “they became religious and all lived happily ever after” smother all nuance and conflict with a black and white ribbon.
But Yeshiva University students, especially those who have been involved with SCDS in the past, are well aware that Stern’s fall play is not a Bais Yaakov production. Why, then, was the immediate reaction still so skeptical?
It wasn’t a reputation issue, but rather an underlying belief that unapologetic Jewish art cannot possibly be good. By definition, compelling stories build tension, entertain dissonance and engage with multifaceted ideas — but if you’ve “bought in” to frumkeit (religiosity), where is the room for doubt, discovery, or profound conflict?
This question betrays a grave misconception about the inner life of Orthodox Judaism. There is no shortage of depth, complexity and drama in the life of a “comfortably religious” Jew. As expressed in the fourth footnote of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man, “Religion is not, at the outset, a refuge of grace and mercy for the despondent and desperate, an enchanted stream for crushed spirits, but a raging clamorous torrent of man’s consciousness with all its crises, pangs, and torments… Out of the straits of inner oppositions and incongruities, spiritual doubts and uncertainties, out of the depths of a psyche rent with antinomies and contradictions, out of the bottomless pit of a soul that struggles with its own torments I have called, I have called unto Thee, O Lord.”
The existential condition that the Rav describes is not one embittered in resistance against Judaism; it is Judaism’s animating purpose — the conversation with God and with oneself in the context of the community. Art becomes an indispensable way to engage in this dialectical tension, deepening our connection with our Creator and with one another. Take, for example, the poetry of Yehoshua November, the paintings of Igal Fedida or the liturgically, biblically and talmudically inspired compositions of singer-songwriter Ishay Ribo. Each of these creators, in their own way, allow friction and faith to coexist, using the colors of the present to breathe new life into Jewish memory.
But telling stories about the internal life of Judaism isn’t only justifiable — it is, at the moment, imperative. Depictions of Jewish life, identity and religion have, for a long time, been sidelined in favor of the evergreen woes of antisemitism and Jewish victimhood. From The Diary of Anne Frank to Fiddler on the Roof, often the takeaway for non-Jewish audiences is that, “Jews deserve to live because they are just like us!” But our value does not lie in assimilation. Actually, no, we aren’t “just like” anyone. Jewish identity is so much more than the multivaried traumas and hatreds directed at us; it is a vibrant self-understanding and religious identity that has existed — and persisted — for millennia.
In a 2021 interview with The Atlantic about her book People Love Dead Jews, author Dara Horn iterates the point with resounding clarity: “I don’t think that Jews can solve the problem of anti-Semitism. I don’t think it’s our problem to solve. But I do think there’s an educational problem with the way that Judaism or Jewish culture is taught in broader society, and it can be addressed … If rather than ‘Here’s the Jews, we killed them and that’s bad,’ we were taught more about ‘Here’s this civilization that developed as a counterpart to these other civilizations, and that often exposes their flaws,’ that would really change the way that we think about Jews in a non-Jewish society.”
Jews and their ideals have always existed within non-Jewish societies, and they haven’t been confined to klezmer bands, the Yiddish opera, or Uncle Moishy. Jewish ideas have influenced “secular” art for centuries; the two are pretty much inextricable. In Dr. Shaina Trapedo’s Stern course “The Hebrew Bible on the World Stage,” she begins by teaching Northrop Frye’s The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, a work that examines how the Bible’s structure undergirds much of Western literature. Frye argues “that a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads: the most conscientious student will be continually misconstruing the implications, even the meaning.” From Milton’s Paradise Lost to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, much of the best that has been written would never have been written and would not have existed without the consideration of the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish ideas that have gone into shaping the way we think about morality, human relations, conflict and tension; the stuff of great art and great drama. Jewish thought is not simply a contributor to the Western literary canon — it is foundational to it. Jewish moral and philosophical ideas shape not only which stories are told, but how we understand meaning, conflict and humanity itself. Without them, much of what we call art might not just look different; it might not exist at all.
Yet these days, venues shrink from telling Jewish stories. Yes, even stories of secular, victim-based, reactionary Jewishness have fallen out of fashion. Now more than ever, it must be asked: who will honor our Jewish faith, practice and communal life? Jewish stories, told the right way, are important not only to the Jewish community, but also serve as a voice to society as a whole. Those stories need to be told, and who can tell our story better than ourselves?
Leah Gottfried, director of the comedy webseries Soon By You, which tells the stories of Modern Orthodox women living in New York City as they navigate the shidduch system, expounded in an interview: “Telling joyous Jewish stories is a way of taking our power back. We are not only defined by the tragic things that happen to us as a people, we are also filled with so much life and vibrancy and joy — and it’s so important to tell those stories too.” Comedy, Gottfried has noticed, can be a powerful tool to help audiences see into other worlds and relate to characters who are different, but whose lives are also filled with dynamism. Soon By You is not about trauma, nor is it about an archaic Jewish lifestyle that is hopeless in adapting to the times, but about Jews living in NYC, and the love that can foster there, whether the city is working with or against them. Just as Jews can see how NYC can serve them, so too can society see how Jews positively interact with society, and see that our way of life is not a torturous burden but a mode of living with constant awareness and connection.
Today, we should jump to create and partake of art that reflects our joy, humor, spirituality and complexity. This year, SCDS is proud to present Journey Through Ruth, a play written by Stern alumna Amy (Gordon) Guterson (SCW ‘86). Our production reflects possibility. We are harnessing the power of Jewish stories and projecting them onto the stage through well-developed characters. The story is not about trauma, not about antisemitism, but about the colors, contours and daily reckonings of Jews who each have vastly differing conversations with the same biblical text. It is a way for young Jews to see themselves take part in the artistic encounter — not as filtered through the labels or libels foisted upon us by the world, but by celebrating what makes us unique.
We hope to see you there!
SCDS will perform Journey Through Ruth in the Schottenstein Theater on December 7, 9 and 10. There will be a brief talkback with the playwright and director after the first show. Tickets can be purchased on Campus Groups.
Photo Credit: Stern College Dramatics Society
Editor’s Note: This article was updated for accuracy on November 26, 2025.