Association for Jewish Theatre

The Association for Jewish Theatre is a non-profit cultural/educational organization based in the United States and a worldwide alliance of theatres, performance groups, and independent theatre-makers dedicated to the creation and production of Jewish and Israeli theatre in all of its forms.

The organization changed its name to the Alliance for Jewish Theatre in late 2016, to better reflect its focus and the times.[1]

AJT’S mission is to develop, innovate, promote, and preserve theatre with a Jewish sensibility. As the leading organization for Jewish theatre worldwide, AJT:

  • Advocates for Jewish theatre and theatre-artists doing Jewish content
  • Provides an active online presence year-round to promote Jewish theatre
  • Hosts annual conferences in cities throughout the United States and the world
  • Provides education and networking to develop works with Jewish content
  • Develops pathways, formal and informal, to cooperatively develop new projects
  • Seeks collaborations with other like-minded organizations that share our mission[2]

Members include theatres, Artistic Directors of theatres, solo performers, playwrights, and any other theatre practitioners interested in Jewish content.

Organization

The Association held its first general meeting and first annual Jewish Theatre Festival at Marymount Manhattan College in June, 1980.[3] Norman Fedder and Steven Reisner are credited with being the prime movers behind AJT's founding.

The President of AJT is Hank Kimmel. Its Executive Director is Jeremy Aluma. The association sees itself as part of the ethnic theatre movement, inspired especially by the black and Latino theatre movements.[4]

According to The New York Times, the Association had “more than a score of members representing theater groups in the United States and Canada, from Phoenix, Ariz., to Winnipeg, Manitoba” by 1989 and was held to exemplify the “comeback” of explicitly Jewish theatre in America.[5]

Festival and conferences

The organization sponsors yearly conferences, which are at times accompanied by theatre festivals.[6]

Recent conferences:

  • 2017 – Boston
  • 2016 – St. Louis
  • 2014 – Washington, D.C.
  • 2013 – Minneapolis
  • 2012 – Los Angeles
  • 2010 – Chicago
  • 2009 – New York
  • 2007 – Vienna
  • 2006 – Phoenix
  • 2005 – New York
  • 2003 – Washington, D.C.
  • 2002 – St. Louis
  • 2001 – Sarasota, FL
  • 2000 – Montreal
  • 1999 – Atlanta
  • 1998 – Phoenix

Notes
  1. "AJT – the ALLIANCE for Jewish Theatre – Alliance for Jewish Theatre". alljewishtheatre.org. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  2. / Archived 2016-01-27 at the Wayback Machine http://alljewishtheatre.org/about/mission/
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-04-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Jewish Theatre Festival 1980," by Tina Margolis and Susan Weinacht, The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 24, No. 3, Jewish Theatre Issue (Sep., 1980), pp. 93-95
  5. “Jewish Theater Is Making a Comeback, by Richard Shepard, March 24, 1989, The New York Times
  6. "Conference – Alliance for Jewish Theatre". www.alljewishtheatre.org. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
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