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A new play tells the true story of a former Hasid who translated the New Testament into Yiddish
(New York Jewish Week) — The true story of a formerly Hasidic Baltimore man who encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity during the Holocaust serves as the unlikely jumping-off point for a new, Yiddish-language play beginning previews this week in Manhattan.
“The Gospel According to Chaim” is based on the life of missionary Chaim Einspruch, who was born into a Szanzer Hasidic family in Poland and “found” Christianity before immigrating to the United States in 1913. Einspruch eventually translated the New Testament into Yiddish and self-published it in 1941 after a Yiddish print shop turned down the job.
A production of the New Yiddish Rep, a New York-based theater company dedicated to Yiddish-language theater, “Gospel” is being billed as the first new, full-length Yiddish drama written in the United States in 70 years. According to David Mandelbaum, the company’s artistic director, the last original Yiddish drama in this country was written in the 1950s by famed Yiddish writer Leivick Halpern, author of the dramatic poem “The Golem.”
“The Gospel According to Chaim” is also the first full-length Yiddish play by Mikhl Yashinsky, a 33-year-old who has made a name for himself in New York as Yiddish writer, actor, teacher and translator.
Yashinsky stumbled upon Einspruch’s story in 2016 when he was a fellow at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Fellows are required to conduct tours of the center and, as such, Yashinksy become familiar with the Yiddish printing type Einspruch’s widow donated to the institution, which is on display in a recreated but non-functional Yiddish print shop. Some of Einspruch’s printing type will be used as props in the play.
“It got me thinking about the irony inherent in this singular individual,” Yashinksky told the New York Jewish Week. “He was a Christian who believed in the divinity of Jesus but was also a very proud Jew culturally. It made me want to look further into this person.”
Yashinsky wrote the first act of “Gospel” while he was in Amherst, naming one of the characters in the play Sadie after a colleague there. He completed the play in 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, where he lived for a time during the pandemic before returning to New York more than a year ago.
Chaim Einspruch’s Yiddish translation of the New Testament. (Jon Kalish)
In the 1940s, Chaim “Henry” Einspruch drew the ire of Baltimore Jews by standing outside Orthodox synagogues and preaching about Christianity in Yiddish to Jews leaving Shabbat services. In addition to his translation of the New Testament, Einspruch also translated 100 Christian hymns into Yiddish in a collection titled “Hymns of Faith (Lider fun gloybn).”
Many Jews view efforts to encourage Jews to embrace Christianity as offensive and even antisemitic, with Jews for Jesus and other contemporary Messianic movements drawing particular scorn. But Yashinsky said he felt none of that as he sought to bring Einspruch to life.
“I wasn’t interested in just portraying him as a villain and having the play be a piece of propaganda against missionaries,” Yashinsky told the New York Jewish Week about his inspiration. “I really tried to understand why he was doing it. I don’t think Einspruch felt he was being malevolent in anything he did.”
Fascinatingly, Einspruch never formally converted to Christianity, “deeming his allegiance to evangelical Lutheranism a true fulfillment of his Judaism rather than apostasy or betrayal,” writes Naomi Seidman, a humanities professor at the University of Toronto whose scholarly article on translations of the New Testament into Yiddish was published in the Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology. After Einspruch immigrated to the United States he earned a doctor of divinity degree at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. (Seidman will deliver a lecture on Thursday at YIVO, “A Very Jewish Christmas: When Jesus Spoke Yiddish,” discussing Einspruch’s New Testament translation, among others.)
“His native language was Yiddish and he enjoyed Yiddish literature,” Yashinsky said of Einspruch. “His innovation was writing this [New Testament translation] in a truly refined, literary, poetic, idiomatic Yiddish. It reads beautifully.”
Indeed, as Einspruch declares in one scene of the play — which takes place during Hanukkah and Christmas in 1940 and continues into 1941: “The holy Yiddish language is very precious to me.”
Yashinsky plays Einspruch in the production but that was not his original intent. A would-be actor who grew up as a Lubavitcher Hasid was in rehearsals to play Einspruch in a reading done last March but wasn’t up to the task, Yashinsky said. So the playwright decided to take the part himself. “The role felt good to me,” he said.
The other two characters in the play are Gabe, a printer Einspruch approaches to print the Yiddish New Testament, and Sadie, a friend of the printer and an anti-fascist activist alerting Jews to the atrocities happening in the Holocaust in Europe. During the course of the play, Sadie, whose father converted to Christianity, urges Gabe to turn down the New Testament job; Gabe, meanwhile, needs the business but is reflexively repulsed by the idea of Jews converting to Christianity.
The role of Gabe the printer will be shared by actors Sruli Rosenberg and Joshua Horowitz. Rosenberg, 30, grew up as a Satmar Hasid in Williamsburg and now lives in Monsey, a different Hasidic community upstate. He describes himself as “reformed hasidische” and said most of the time he doesn’t he doesn’t wear a kippah but he continues to observe Shabbat — meaning that Horowitz will play the printer then.
In an effort to master the English language, Rosenberg stopped reading and writing Yiddish as a teenager. He had little contact with the Yiddish arts revival until the Spring of 2021 when he attended Generation J, a Yiddish arts program in Germany, thinking he may want to become a writer. While he was there, Rosenberg was baffled when other participants informed him of the Yiddish theater scene in New York. “I’m, like, ‘No there isn’t. I would’ve known of it,’” he recalled.
Inspired, Rosenberg returned to New York and got a job as the assistant to New Yiddish Rep’s Mandelbaum, helping him move sets around the office and driving him around town. When Rosenberg was feeding lines to actors auditioning for “The Gospel According to Chaim,” Yashinsky asked him why he didn’t audition himself. Now, Rosenberg makes his professional acting debut in the play.
Sadie, a fiery antifacist organizer is played by Melissa Weisz, 40. In the play, on Christmas Day, she asks Einspruch: “And what are you going to give him as a gift, your messiah, huh? It’s his birthday, after all. Maybe a barrel of Jewish blood? A fitting gift. Maybe the extermination of another shtetl of Jews in Europe? His followers have been giving him such gifts for thousands of years, and it seems he never gets tired of it.”
Weisz, too, grew up as a Satmar Hasid in Borough Park and made her acting debut in 2010 playing Juliet in the feature film “Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish,” which set the Shakespearean tale in Hasidic Brooklyn. She also had one of the leads in a New Yiddish Rep production of “God of Vengeance,” the Sholem Asch play about lesbian love.
“These two characters come from very different places but they’re both trying to figure out how to save people,” she said of the link between protagonists Sadie and Chaim.
Yashinsky said he sees a wide audience for the show, despite its niche topic and language.
“Many will come who are attracted to Yiddish and to the various dramas and emotions and curious personalities that are part of its tumultuous 20th-century history,” he said. “But I hope anyone also comes who may have ever wondered about the entanglements of opposing religions, the holiday wars in America, the confluence of ethnicity and faith and identity and human ambition.”
The recent Yiddish-language version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which had a revival last year after an initial run interrupted by the pandemic, introduced audiences to “supertitles” — English-language translations that are projected behind the actors. But Yashinsky said even people who do not know Yiddish will benefit from hearing it on stage.
“The language should not hold anyone back,” he said. “On the contrary, I hope it draws them in.”
A bigger question is whether native Yiddish speakers in the city are likely to see the show. Rosenberg acknowledged that his Hasidic mother was not crazy about his career path. “Isn’t that the universal quarrel that parents have with their children going into the arts?” he said. “She definitely did not take well to it. She doesn’t get it. I don’t blame her.”
And new Yiddish Rep’s Mandelbaum chuckled when asked whether there might be chartered buses bringing theatergoers from Borough Park to see the play. But he does think that Yiddish plays can appeal to the Hasidic Orthodox community, as well as a more secular one: During the 2019 Folksbiene production of Leon Kobrin’s classic Yiddish comedy “Di Next-Door’ike (The Lady Next Door),” Mandelbaum said there were shows filled with young Hasidic Jews who had played hooky from their yeshivas.
Well aware of the Yiddish music revival that’s going strong in New York and abroad, Mandelbaum concedes that Yiddish theater has not enjoyed that same kind of renaissance.
“If Yiddish theater is to really have a life, then it is essential that there be people who are going to write Yiddish plays,” he said during a rehearsal break. “Yiddish theater ought to be more than re-staging things from the past. We need to have young Yiddish writers writing plays.”
Then he declared, “May there be many Yashinskys.”
“The Gospel According to Chaim (Di psure loyt khaim)” is performed in Yiddish with English supertitles. Previews begin on Thursday, Dec. 21; the world premiere is on Sunday Dec. 24 at 7:30 p.m. There will be a total of 21 performances through Sunday Jan. 7 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave.).
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The post A new play tells the true story of a former Hasid who translated the New Testament into Yiddish appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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France Halts Visa Renewals for El Al Staff Amid Growing Airport Worker Protests Targeting Israel Flights
Illustrative: The Israeli flag carrier El Al’s airliner lands at Abu Dhabi International Airport, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 31, 2020. Photo: WAM/Handout via REUTERS
France has reportedly halted visa renewals for security personnel of the Israeli airline El Al amid rising diplomatic tensions, as airport workers in both France and Belgium escalate protests and boycotts against the airline’s flights.
After multiple media reports revealed a six-month delay in renewing stay permits for El Al security personnel in Paris, the Israeli embassy called on French authorities to address the problem, with both governments now engaged in talks to resolve the matter.
The affected staff are Israeli citizens working as ITAN personnel — security employees attached to Israel’s diplomatic missions — for the airline’s Paris operations.
The delays have left some agents in France without legal status, while others have sought temporary diplomatic visas through the Israeli embassy or returned to Israel.
In a separate incident on Monday, El Al made headlines once again after an air traffic controller at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” at one of the airline’s inbound flights during its final approach.
French authorities have launched an investigation into the incident, working closely with Israeli counterparts to ensure a swift and appropriate response.
“El Al takes very seriously the incident that occurred last night, in which a French air traffic controller addressed the company’s pilot in an unprofessional and inappropriate manner,” the Israeli airline said in a statement.
“El Al will continue to fly around the world with the Israeli flag proudly on the aircraft’s tail, while ensuring professionalism and the safety and security of passengers and crew,” the airline continued.
Last week, El Al’s Paris offices were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and pro-Palestinian slogans spray-painted on walls and doors, including messages such as “Palestine will live, Palestine will win,” “To hell with Zionism,” and “Genocidal airline El Al.”
The Israeli Embassy in France attributed the attack to “a climate of violent and unchecked incitement by some French elected officials,” though it did not specify any names.
France, which has experienced a record surge in antisemitic incidents amid the ongoing war in Gaza, has lambasted Israel for its military campaign against the terrorist group Hamas, announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state. Israeli officials have described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”
In another incident, airport staff at Brussels Airport are demanding a suspension of Brussels Airlines flights to Israel, citing the alleged “genocide” in Gaza, as the airline prepares to resume service to Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday.
Airport staff have pledged to boycott flights to Israel “until the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank comes to an end.” Local unions representing the workers have called on the airline to exempt employees from assignments involving Israel “for moral reasons.”
These latest incidents come amid a wave of reports across multiple airlines involving targeted harassment of Jewish passengers and coordinated efforts to boycott Israeli carriers.
This week, a Jewish passenger aboard a JetBlue flight was reportedly served a kosher meal labeled with the slur “Zionazi.”
In a press release, JetBlue confirmed it launched an investigation to determine which flight was involved, emphasizing that no complaints or reports have been filed by customers so far.
“We have zero tolerance for hate, bias, or discrimination,” the statement read. “If we determine that any individual associated with JetBlue or our catering partners was involved, we will take swift and appropriate action.”
In a similar incident last week, a Jewish passenger on an Iberia Airlines flight from Buenos Aires to Madrid discovered “Free Palestine” written on their kosher meal tray, prompting the Spanish airline to launch an investigation.
In a separate incident, Spanish airline Vueling faced backlash last month after forcibly removing a group of French Jewish teenagers from a flight from Valencia to Paris, allegedly for singing in Hebrew.
The forced removal of the group has triggered political outrage in France, after their group leader was handcuffed by Spanish police and a government minister insulted the teens as “Israeli brats.”
The Spanish low-cost airline denied the allegations, insisting the incident was not related to religion but rather that the group was removed because of its members’ “highly combative attitude that was putting the safety of the flight at risk.”
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‘Antisemitic Plan’: Over 100 Rabbis Call for Boycott of North Carolina Democratic Party Over Israel Arms Embargo
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, speaks after Democrat Josh Stein won the North Carolina governor’s race, in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, Nov. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
A coalition of more than 100 rabbis from across the US has issued a blistering public letter condemning the North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP) for its recent vote in favor of an arms embargo targeting Israel, urging others “not to support or collaborate with” the party’s leadership until they renounce their plan.
The letter, titled “Nationwide Rabbinic Protest Letter Against the NCDP’s Recent Vote for Arms Embargo,” was published as a full-page advertisement in the Charlotte Observer. The signatories, who represent synagogues, Jewish federations, and religious organizations from across the US, accused party leaders of taking a “biased” and “morally unsound” stance that singles out Israel while ignoring threats posed by its adversaries.
In late June, the state executive committee of the NCDP passed a resolution calling for an immediate arms embargo on Israel, claiming that weapons and other military aid that the US has provided Israel “have been used to commit the crime of genocide and other war crimes in Gaza.”
According to the coalition of rabbis, the resolution was a “morally unsound” measure and tantamount to declaring that Israel “is the only country that is not allowed to defend itself.” The letter described the move as an unprecedented “one-sided” action that “shocked us all to our core.”
“Your judgment to single Israel out in such an unprecedented, one-sided way rewards Israel’s adversaries,” the letter read, denouncing the call for an arms embargo as “simply a prejudice that we cannot live with.”
The rabbis called on the public to boycott the NCDP until it apologizes for singling out the world’s lone Jewish state, a staunch ally of the US.
“We call on all Jewish people, their allies, and any person who stands against hate not to support or collaborate with North Carolina’s Democratic Party leadership until they renounce their antisemitic plan of an arms embargo against America’s top ally in the Middle East and until they apologize for the cruel way in which they refused to meaningfully engage with vulnerable minority populations, our fellow Jewish North Carolinians,” the letter stated. “The state of North Carolina will not impact the efficacy of the Israel Defense Forces, but they will make North Carolina less hospitable by marginalizing Jewish people with a regression back to bigotry.”
The group, which includes leaders from Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregations, drew parallels to historic Jewish alliances with civil rights leaders such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They argued that cutting off military aid undermines Israel’s security, jeopardizes US strategic alliances, and fuels antisemitism by marginalizing Jewish voices in political spaces.
The rabbis urged allies to reject what they framed as the NCDP’s “hateful anti-Zionism” and to “stand against hate, not support or collaborate with it.”
The letter reflects growing tensions between segments of the Democratic Party and pro-Israel advocates, as some progressive activists push for restrictions on US military aid in response to Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the West Bank. While such measures have gained traction in local party bodies, they have also sparked backlash from Jewish leaders and more centrist Democrats who view them as undermining Israel’s right to self-defense.
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Iran Says Direct Nuclear Talks With US Possible Under Suitable Conditions
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting in Ilam, Iran, June 12, 2025. Photo: Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran could hold direct nuclear talks with the United States if conditions are suitable, first Vice President Mohammadreza Aref said on Tuesday, according to state media.
But he said US demands for Tehran to drop uranium enrichment entirely were “a joke.”
A sixth round of talks between Tehran and Washington was suspended following Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June.
Both powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran has rejected.
“Iran is ready for negotiations under equal conditions in order to safeguard its interests … The Islamic Republic’s stance is in the direction that people want and, should there be suitable conditions, we are even ready for direct talks,” Aref said.
Previous rounds of negotiations, which started in April, were indirect, mediated by Oman. Washington says uranium enrichment in Iran constitutes a pathway to developing nuclear weapons and should be dropped.
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made a controversial statement in favor of resuming negotiations with the US regardless of current levels of distrust.
“You don’t want to talk? Well then, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to war? … Going to talks does not mean we intend to surrender,” he said, adding that such issues should not be “approached emotionally.”
A senior commander of Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards, Aziz Ghazanfari, reacting to Pezeshkian’s comments on Monday, said foreign policy requires discretion, and careless statements by authorities can have serious consequences for the country.