Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Israeli Community Theatre

Abstract

Community theatre in Israel emerged as a unique theatrical form at the beginning of the 1970s in several disadvantaged neighbourhoods inhabited by the Mizrahim (Jews originating from Arab countries). It has since developed into a vital and diverse cultural intervention within different groups and locations. The political community theatre of the Mizrahi ethnic group reflects the power relationships between the hegemonic establishment of the Ashkenazi (Jews originating from Western countries) and the Mizrahi minority. The socio-cultural categories of ethnicity, class and gender are applied to two community theatre performances as generators of an alternative identity processing.