page_title: The Dybbuk
section_title: Writing
hierarchical_section_title: The Dybbuk / Writing
caption_attribution_description: English: w:S. An-sky in the w:Pale of Settlement, 1912.
context_page_description: The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds is a play by S. Ansky, authored between 1913 and 1916. It was originally written in Russian and later translated into Yiddish by Ansky himself. The Dybbuk had its world premiere in that language, performed by the Vilna Troupe at Warsaw in 1920. A Hebrew version was prepared by Hayim Nahman Bialik and staged in Moscow at Habima Theater in 1922.
  The play, which depicts the possession of a young woman by the malicious spirit – known as Dybbuk in Jewish folklore – of her dead beloved, became a canonical work of both Hebrew and Yiddish theatre, being further translated and performed around the world.
context_section_description: Between 1912 and 1913, S. Ansky headed an ethnographic commission, financed by Baron Vladimir Günzburg and named in honor of his father Horace Günzburg, which traveled through Podolia and Volhynia in the Pale of Settlement. They documented the oral traditions and customs of the native Jews, whose culture was slowly disintegrating under the pressure of modernity. According to his assistant Samuel Schreier-Shrira, Ansky was particularly impressed by the stories he heard in Miropol of a local sage, the hasidic rebbe Samuel of Kaminka-Miropol (1778 – May 10, 1843), who was reputed to have been a master exorcist of dybbuk spirits. Samuel served as the prototype for the character Azriel, who is also said to reside in that town. Historian Nathaniel Deutsch suggested he also drew inspiration from the Maiden of Ludmir, who was also rumored to have been possessed, thus explaining her perceived inappropriate manly behavior.
  Craig Stephen Cravens deduced that Ansky began writing the play in late 1913. It was first mentioned in a reply to him from Baron Günzburg, on 12 February 1914, who commented he read a draft and found it compelling. The original was in Russian; shortly after completing it, the author was advised by friends to translate it into Yiddish. In the summer, he started promoting The Dybbuk, hoping it would be staged by a major Russian theater. He was rebuffed by Semyon Vengerov of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, who explained they could not perform another play by a Jew after the negative reaction to Semyon Yushkevich's Mendel Spivak. Ansky then contacted the managers of the Moscow Art Theatre. He failed to secure a meeting with Constantin Stanislavski himself, but director Leopold Sulerzhitsky read the play during the autumn, and replied much further work was required. Guided by him via correspondence, the author rewrote his piece through 1915. When he accepted the revised version in September, Sulerzhitsky regarded it as much better, but not satisfactory. At that time, Ansky's publisher Zinovy Grzhebin submitted it to the state censorship in St. Petersburg. Censor Nikolai von Osten-Driesen commented the banishment of the spirit resembled the Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, and Ansky rewrote the scene using subtler terms. This version was approved by Driesen on 10 October, after removing another minor reference to angels. The play was still undergoing modifications: on 21 October, Ansky propositioned to Sulerzhitsky they add a prologue, epilogue and a long scene of Leah's wedding day. He agreed, and the censor approved the expanded edition on 30 November. Both copies submitted by Ansky were found in 2001 at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts. They were considerably different from the known stage version: most notably, the Messenger was not yet conceived.
  Stanislavski agreed to review the play, though not thoroughly, on 30 December. Though many accounts link him with The Dybbuk, Cravens commented this is the only actual documentation in the matter. He never even watched The Dybbuk fully. He and the rest of the management continued to request revisions. On 25 November 1916, Ansky wrote in his diary that Stanislavski was almost pleased, asking but for only minor changes in the ending. On 8 January 1917, the press reported the Moscow Art Theatre accepted The Dybbuk and was preparing to stage it.
  At the very same time, Stanislavski was supporting the incipient Habima Theater, a Hebrew-language venture headed by Nachum Tzemach. Ansky read his play to Hillel Zlatopolsky, a patron of Habima, who purchased the rights to translate it to Hebrew. The author set but one condition, demanding it would be handed over to Hayim Nahman Bialik. The latter accepted the task in February and completed it in July. Bialik's translation was the first version of the play to be published: it was released in the Hebrew literary magazine Ha'tkufa in February 1918. Meanwhile, the Moscow Art Theatre's planned production of The Dybbuk encountered severe hardships. Michael Chekhov, cast as Azriel, had a severe nervous breakdown due to the use of extreme
caption: Ansky interviewing two community elders in the Pale of Settlement, 1912.
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