Between Jerusalem and Athens
Israeli Theatre and the Classical Tradition
Nurit Yaari
Reviews and Awards
"Yaari's book opens a window to Israeli theater for nonspecialists in this field, without any need for prior familiarity with the Hebrew language. It is also a valuable contribution to the widening field of classical reception, showing how this discipline can be a catalyst for invigorating examinations of the politics of cultural and religious identities ... Yaari's research is an invitation to further study how modern Israeli culture identifies itself both within and in contrast to the Mediterranean space, broadly construed, with its European and Arab components coexisting in close proximity." -- Abigail Akavia, Classical Philology
"Yaari's monograph is not simply a significant addition for the field of Classical Reception, it is also a remarkable study in its effort to resolve the old tensions between 'Athens' and 'Jerusalem', those two ideological forces of influence in the Jewish national renaissance of modern times ... Yaari's book is a rich and well-written study, which presents Greek drama as a standing cultural apparatus for a post-Brechtian, post-humanist, and post-dramatic era, demonstrating that Israeli theatre treated 'Athens' as the cultural product of the Eros for democracy and transformation." -- George Sampatakakis, New Theatre Quarterly
"This well written and well researched work is highly recommended for classists, for historians and sociologists of Israel, and for those interested in the classical tradition and its reception, cross-cultural dialogue, Greek drama in general, and Israeli theater in particular. Yaari has made a truly worthwhile contribution to the field, opening many new trails that warrant further exploration." -- David B. Levy, Classical World
"Nurit Yaari's study of the 'clasical tradition' on Israeli stages, appropriately pulished in the Classical Presences series at Oxford University Press, is an exemplary study of a complex and multifaceted cultural encounter between the past and the present: the integration of the classical Greek and Roman legacies into the gradually emerging Israeli theatre culture." -- Freddie Rokem, Theatre Research International