Foreword.

The essays collected in this issue of Skenè deal with Jewish theatre at large – that is, theatre written and staged by Jews, about Jews, mostly (but not only) for Jews, in Hebrew or in other languages used by Jews in history. They show how much Jewish theatre diversified throughout the history and the cultures of the Jews,1 yet maintaining a quite distinctive character of a tradition within a tradition. They also show several instances of how the tensions, polarities, and contradictions that have marked Jewish societies and Jewish tradition since the Renaissance were referred to or openly denounced in Jewish theatre.