List of Jewish American playwrights explained

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

• David Adjmi^[1]
• Lynn Ahrens^[2]
• Sholom Aleichem^[3]
• Woody Allen (born 1935), film director, writer, actor, and comedian^[4]
• Jacob M. Appel^[5]
• George Axelrod^[6]
• Jeff Baron
• S. N. Behrman^[7]
• David Belasco^[8]
• Saul Bellow^[9]
• Leo Birinski
• Agnes Borinsky
• Mel Brooks^[10]
• Paddy Chayefsky^[11]
• Betty Comden & Adolph Green
• Norman Corwin^[12]
• Howard Dietz^[13]
• Edward Einhorn^[14]
• Eve Ensler^[15]
• Harvey Fierstein^[16]
• Edna Ferber^[17]
• Herb Gardner
• Larry Gelbart^[18]
• Joel Gersmann^[19]
• Josh Greenfeld^[20]
• Oscar Hammerstein II^[21]
• Otto Harbach
• Yip Harburg^[22]
• Moss Hart^[23]
• Ben Hecht^[24]
• Lillian Hellman^[25]
• Peretz Hirshbein^[26]
• Israel Horovitz^[27]
• George Jessel^[28]
• George S. Kaufman^[23]
• Sidney Kingsley^[29]
• Tony Kushner^[30]
• James Lapine^[31]
• Arthur Laurents^[32]
• H. Leivick^[33]
• Alan Jay Lerner^[34]
• Ira Levin^[35]
• Craig Lucas^[36]
• David Mamet^[37]
• Donald Margulies^[38]
• Arthur Miller^{[39] [40]}
• Cheryl Moch
• Becky Mode^[41]
• Itamar Moses
• Clifford Odets^{[42] [43]}
• Carl Reiner^[44]
• Elmer Rice^[45]
• Morrie Ryskind^[46]
• Peter Sagal^{[47] [48]}
• Rod Serling^[49]
• Irwin Shaw^[50]
• Wallace Shawn^[51]
• Sidney Sheldon^[52]
• Martin Sherman^[53]
• Neil Simon^[54]
• Isaac Bashevis Singer^[55]
• Joey Soloway, playwright, television writer^[56]
• Aaron Sorkin (born 1961), screenwriter, producer and playwright^[57]
• Gertrude Stein
• Joseph Stein^[58]
• Louise Stern^[59]
• Jeffrey Sweet^[60]
• Chaim Towber^[61]
• Alfred Uhry^[62]
• 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 Drama^[63]
• Jerome Weidman^[64]
• Franz Werfel^[65]
• Norman Wexler, screenwriter of Saturday Night Fever, Joe, Serpico, Mandingo

See also

• List of Jewish American authors
• List of Jewish American poets
• Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
• Before Columbus Foundation

Notes and References

1. Web site: David Adjmi's 'Stunning' Explores Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, at Duke on 42nd Street. Felicia R.. Lee. 16 June 2009. NYTimes.com.
2. Web site: Jewish-Composed Musicals. JINFO. www.jinfo.org.
3. Web site: Sholom-Aleichem . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20061026191140/http://www.odessaglobe.com/english/people/sholom-aleikhem.htm . 2006-10-26 . "Recognized as the best Jewish writer who ever lived in Russia and wrote in Yiddish..."
4. Encyclopedia: Motion Pictures . Encyclopaedia Judaica . Keter Publishing House . 1971–1972.
5. JM Appel Phoning Home University of South Carolina Press 2014
6. http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/031226/notable.shtml Notable Jewish deaths in 2003
7. Web site: Worcester Area Writers - S. N. Behrman - Bio . 2006-07-05 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060913101717/http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/behrman/bio.html . 2006-09-13 . "He was the third child of Joseph and Zelda Behrman, Jewish immigrants living on Worcester's East Side."
8. Web site: All About Jewish Theatre - News . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060512023153/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_list.aspx?articleGroupID=55 . 2006-05-12 . "It was staged by the young David Belasco, a Sephardic Jew..."
9. Web site: Saul Bellow . Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) . Petri . Liukkonen . Kuusankoski Public Library . Finland . https://web.archive.org/web/20060424052424/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bellow.htm . 24 April 2006 . dead .
10. Web site: All About Jewish Theatre - Mel Brooks take his musical "The Producers" to Germany . 2010-12-17 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161008/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=538 . 2011-05-19 . "as the 77-year-old Brooklyn-born Jewish comedian put it unrepentantly..."
11. http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm JewishAmThea
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20040816084342/http://www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=3183
13. Web site: Hebrew Melodies. JINFO. www.jinfo.org.
14. Web site: Edward Einhorn - Novelist, Playwright, Director. www.edwardeinhorn.com.
15. http://www.jwa.org/feminism/_html/timeline.htm
16. http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2003/11/26/3
17. Web site: Edna Ferber. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
18. Web site: The comic gift of Larry Gelbart . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060517124416/http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/021108/comic.shtml . 2006-05-17 . "Besides writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay "Oh, God!" the Jewish comedy screenwriter is famous..."
19. News: Peterson. Gary. Donna Peckett: a tap dancing fool. The Capital Times. November 4, 1982. Madison, Wisconsin. 6–7, Off Hours section.
20. https://web.archive.org/web/20050227221605/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,903557,00.html
21. http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2001/february28/jewishlit-228.html
22. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/JewishComposers.html
23. 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
24. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/BHecht.html
25. http://www.fau.edu/library/bro91.htm
26. Web site: National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
27. Web site: JewishAmThea . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060902103349/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm . 2006-09-02 . http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Horovitz_Miller.htm
28. Web site: This article is unavailable - HighBeam Research.
29. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1478295,00.html?gusrc=rss
30. http://www.barclayagency.com/kushner.html
31. Web site: JewishAmThea . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060902103349/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm . 2006-09-02 . "finest Jewish playwrights, including Elizabeth Swados, William Finn and James Lapine, Herb Gardner..."
32. http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/reviews/091800re.htm
33. Web site: MET's Past Productions: The Golem - Notes on the Play . 2006-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060511211641/http://www.met.com/golem/notes.html . 2006-05-11 . dead .
34. http://www.jinfo.org/Musicals.html
35. Web site: Celebrities . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110717191755/http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?id=82 . 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."
36. http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/Arts/content.html?oid=oid:95339
37. http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521894689&ss=exc
38. http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12291
39. http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Horovitz_Miller.htm
40. Book: Chametzky . Jules . Felstiner. John. Flanzbaum . Hilene . Hellerstein. Kathryn. Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. W.W. Norton & Company. 2001 . 558 . 9780393048094 .
41. Web site: Best Theater 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20071216014119/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,91443,00.html. dead. December 16, 2007. 17 May 2001. www.time.com.
42. Web site: National Yiddish Book Center - Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays Ellen Schiff, editor . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060524121530/http://yiddishbookcenter.org/story.php?n=10313 . 2006-05-24 . "...introduced the work of Jewish playwrights Aaron Hoffman, Clifford Odets, and Paddy Chayefsky to contemporary audiences..."
43. Book: Chametzky . Jules . Felstiner. John. Flanzbaum . Hilene . Hellerstein. Kathryn. Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. W.W. Norton & Company. 2001 . 451 . 9780393048094 .
44. http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/rob.htm
45. Web site: All About Jewish Theatre - Elmer Rice Revival Now Off-Broadway . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060512083354/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1236 . 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..."
46. http://www.sfsevents.org/juneFest05/timeline.htm
47. Web site: Kaplan. Ron. NJ native hosts game show with twist of the news. New Jersey Jewish News Life and Times Feature. New Jersey Jewish News. 7 February 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20130920204054/http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/071306/mwNJNativeHostsGame.html. 20 September 2013. dead.
48. Web site: Peter Sagal. Dramatic Publishing. 7 February 2017.
49. http://www.rodserling.com/presence.htm
50. Web site: JCR-UK - Amis and the Oriental in Swansea - Article by H. Pollins . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070530041950/http://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/Community/swansea-amis.htm . 2007-05-30 . "Amis and I often talked about Jewish matters, such as novels by American Jews, like Irwin Shaw – that dates it."
51. http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?ID=64 JUF : Tweens : Celebrities : Wallace Shawn
52. http://www.pbclibrary.org/story-jewishlit.htm Jewish Literature Month – Palm Beach County Library System
53. Web site: Martin Sherman . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050212022034/http://citypaper.net/articles/042700/cw.critpick.martin.shtml . 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.""
54. https://web.archive.org/web/20040825212037/http://www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=4571
55. Web site: Isaac Bashevis Singer. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
56. Soloway — 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"
57. Sorkin — http://www.atlantajewish.com/content/092006/falltv-peet.html "...says the Jewish Sorkin..."
58. Web site: 350th Play List.
59. Web site: Deaf writer shines at RADAR festival. Hearing Times. 26 September 2014.
60. http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=722 All About Jewish Theatre - The Sins of the Father, Another Holocaust Play
61. Web site: Lives in the Yiddish Theatre. Short biographies of those involved in the Yiddish theatre. . Zalmen . Zylbercweig . Museum of Family History . 2023-12-27.
62. Web site: PerformInk Online . 2006-05-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060319122629/https://www.performink.com/Archives/stagepersonae/2000/UrhyAlfred.html . 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."
63. Wasserstein — 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.”"
64. Web site: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood - Reference - Home. ABC-CLIO. www.greenwood.com.
65. Web site: Franz Werfel . Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) . Petri . Liukkonen . Kuusankoski Public Library . Finland . https://web.archive.org/web/20060424054430/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fwerfel.htm . 24 April 2006 . dead .