Freddie Rokem is Professor of Theatre Studies at Tel Aviv University and has served as the Dean of the Faculty of the Arts (2002-2006). His book Performing History: Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre received the ATHE Prize for best book in theatre studies for 2001. His most recent book, Strindberg’s Secret Codes was published in 2004. He has also published numerous articles in scholarly journals and in books. Rokem is editor of Theatre Research International (2006-2009) and associate editor Theatre Journal and Assaph: Studies in the Theatre. He is a translator, a dramaturg, and serves as vice-president of Performance Studies International (PSi) and as a member of the executive committee of The International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR).

Email Address: rokem@post.tau.ac.il

JANET ARNOLD is the founder and producing director of the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, and has been an actress with various companies throughout the Valley for the past 16 years. Under her direction the Company has grown since 1988 from a small community theatre with a $20,000 annual budget, to become one of only 4 Equity (professional) companies in metropolitan Phoenix, with an annual budget over $300,000.

Janet is a past-president of the Association for Jewish Theatre, an international network of theatres and individuals dedicated to the enhancement of Jewish theatre, and serves as the current membership chair. On the community volunteer level, Janet is a past chapter and Regional president of ORT, served a number of years on the Adult BBYO Board, is a volunteer reader for Sun Sounds Radio for the print-handicapped, and is a member of Jewish Women International and Temple Beth Israel. Janet was named Creative Artist of the Year by the YWCA and honored at their Tribute to Women 2001 Luncheon.

Email Address: janet@azjewishtheatre.org

SHMUEL ATZMON - Founder and director of the Yiddishspeil Theatre in Tel Aviv. Was a student of the "Ohel" theatre, on the important actors and directors of the "Habima" National theatre, one of the founders of the "Zavit" Avangard theatre and its director during its existence. He won many awards and completed drama studies in the U.S.A., France and England. Atzmon performed in tens of plays and directed more than thirty plays in various theatres in Israel. He was one of the initiators and founder of "The Three Shmuliks" which performed "Die kleine Metchalach" with great success in Israel and abroad. In 1972 he founded and directed the workshop for original theatre. He won the Shaiber prize for literature and art in 1983, and in 1984 won the Meir Margalit Prize.

Email Address: atzmons@netvision.net.il

SHLOMO BAR-SHAVIT was born in Jerusalem. He was a member of the popular Chizbatron entertainment troupe during Israel's War of Independence, and graduated from the Habima National Theatre's drama school.

He has been a member of the Habima Theatre Company since 1949, playing some 200 roles in classic, Jewish, contemporary and original productions. He served on Habima's board of directors between 1958 and 1960, and as the theatre's Artistic Director between 1976 and 1978.

Over the years, Shlomo Bar-Shavit has appeared in various musicals and productions of non-repertory theatres. More recently, he has played a variety of roles at the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, the Beit Lessin Theatre and the Beersheba Municipal Theatre.

He has written and directed dozens of children's plays and appeared on numerous radio and television programs. Shlomo Bar-Shavit has given interviews and delivered lectures at educational institutions, community centers, and at cultural and literary evenings on The Art of Theatre and the Life of an Actor.

He was chosen to light the theatre torch on Mount Herzl at the Independence Day ceremony in 1987 - Israel's Year of the Arts.

Shlomo Bar-Shavit has been awarded several prizes and awards, including the honorary title Yakir Tel Aviv (Worthy of Tel Aviv), and the Israel Theatre Prize for the year 2000 for his life's achievement.

He is the executor of the estate of the late Hanna Rovina, the "First Lady of Israeli Theatre". Shlomo Bar-Shavit served as a professional consultant in the production of the Habima Theatre's Jubilee Book marking the theatre's seventieth and eightieth anniversaries.

Zmora-Bitan Publishers has published his biography, "The Ninth Soul".

DEBORAH BAER MOZES, founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Ariel, has given life to over 42 new plays and directed the mainstage productions of THE ROSE OF CONTENTION, DIVIDENDS, TEIBELE AND HER DEMON and 36.

Deborah conceived 10 x 10 Theatre Ariel's ten-minute play festivals, the first ten-minute play festival devoted to Jewish themes, and directs Theatre Ariel's extensive touring repertoire. Deborah has created and directed Theatre Ariel's museum theatre productions, A MUSE in the MUSEum: Journeys in American Jewish History and HEART and HISTORY, in partnership with the National Museum of American Jewish History.

Mozes was Literary Manager and dramaturg for the Walnut Street Theatre (Philadelphia), America's oldest theatre, and directed their critically acclaimed productions of WAITING FOR THE PARADE, WITH ALBERT EINSTEIN, and T BONE 'N WEASEL. She is a long-standing instructor for the Walnut Street Theatre School.

In Canada, Deborah was the Artistic Director of the Manitoba Theatre Workshop, directing scores of new Canadian plays works including SATURDAY NIGHT, STORIES MY GRANDPARENTS TOLD ME, MORE OF A FAMILY and WHAT'S MY BID? She co-created the award winning Canadian children's television series LET'S GO! (CTV).

Deborah has served on the faculties of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rowan State University, University of Winnipeg, The Actor's Studio of Toronto, and the Institute of Contemporary Midrash. In 1997/98, Deborah was an Artist-in-Residence with the Arad Arts Project in Israel, directing and teaching in Arad, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.

Deborah is co-editor with Julianne Bernstein of VOICES FROM ARIEL: Ten-minute plays exploring the Jewish experience, published by Dramatic Publishing (August 1999)

Email Address: dbm@netreach.net

Joel Berkowitz is Associate Professor and Chair of the Judaic Studies Department at the University at Albany, SUNY. He received a Ph.D. in Theatre at the City University of New York Graduate Center, served as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow in Jerusalem, and previous taught in the City University of New York system and at Oxford University. He is the author of Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage (2002), editor of Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches (2003), co-editor (with Jeremy Dauber) of Landmark Yiddish Plays: A Critical Anthology (2006), and founding editor of the online newsletter, the Yiddish Theatre Forum. He teaches courses on modern Jewish literature, history, theatre, and film. .

Email Address: yankl@albany.edu

PAOLA BERTOLONE is professor of History of theatre at the University of Rome La Sapienza, she also is the author of several articles and two books on Goldfaden's Theatre and Eleonora Duse.

Email Address: p.bertolone@tiscalinet.it

LEON BOTSTEIN was recently called by The New York Times a "salutary force" in music, whose performances offer "something beyond an evening of well-heeled entertainment." As Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra for the past 11 seasons, Mr. Botstein conducts the Orchestra's main subscription season at Avery Fisher Hall as part of Lincoln Center Presents Great Performers, and also leads the Orchestra in the popular Classics Declassified, an educational concert series for adult listeners at Miller Theatre. He also recently became Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel.

Last season saw the opening of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. This is, among other things, the new home of the Bard Music Festival, of which Mr. Botstein is the founder and Co-Artistic Director, and of a new winter concert series for the American Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Botstein is also Music Director of the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra.

Leon Botstein is also a prominent scholar of music history, an editor of Musical Quarterly, and the author of numerous articles and books. For his contributions to music he has received Harvard University's prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class from the government of Austria. Since 1975, he has been president of Bard College in New York and also holds the Leon Levy Chair in Arts and Humanities.

Web: http://www.americansymphony.org/

MIKE BURSTYN The acclaimed American/Israeli actor & entertainer is celebrating his 53rd Anniversary in Show Business, having started his career in the Yiddish theatre at the age of seven. He starred on Broadway in "Barnum," "The Megilla," "Inquest" & "Ain't Broadway Grand" (Outer Critics Circle nomination) and in the revival of "The Rothschilds" (Drama Desk award nomination). He received rave reviews as Al Jolson in the Musical "Jolson". He is one of Israel's most beloved artists, winner of two Israeli "Oscars" for his legendary films "Kuni Leml" & "Hershele." Mike just completed the National Tour of "The Tale Of The Allergist's Wife" opposite Valerie Harper. "The Komediant" - winner of the Israeli "Oscar" for Best Documentary - about Mike, his sister and his legendary parents Pesach'ke Burstein & Lillian Lux in the Yiddish Theatre - has just been released on DVD & video.

Mike's homepage is located at: www.mikeburstyn.com

Email Address: MikeBurst@aol.com

David Y. Chack has been a Jewish culture maven and creator of performing arts for over twenty five years. His passion is in the exploration of culture and its impact/intersection with all the arts - film, writing, performance, graphic and fine arts, virtual, and more. He is a consultant on arts, culture, and education -- currently doing Special Projects for Hillels Around Chicago with arts colleges in the Chicago Loop; and Project Development for the Israeli based global website All About Jewish Theatre www.jewish-theatre.com He is a playwright, theatre director, writer, teacher, and producer. He was a founding member of the Boston Jewish Arts Coalition; arts editor and president of Genesis2 - a Boston-based Jewish political and cultural journal; founder and director of the Louisville Jewish Film Festival; and Interim Executive Director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. His many teaching credits in Jewish Culture and Performing Arts include: Emerson College, Tufts University, Boston University, The University of Virginia, Louisville Melton School, and the Morasha Program in Northbrook, IL. He did doctoral work on the Integration of Judaism and the Performing Arts at Boston University with folklorist Anthony Barrand and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.

Website: http://www.historybox.com/throughline/index1.htm

Email Address: chack@iglou.com

BRIGITTE DALINGER is currently working on an study about Jewish Drama in Vienna (1890 to 1938), supported by an APART [Austrian Programme for Advanced Research and Technology] sholarship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. D. Also gives lectures at the University in Vienna, at the department of "theatre-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft" about the History of Jewish (and Yiddish) Theatre and Drama.

In 1998 ‚Verloschene Sterne'. Geschichte des jüdischen theatres in Wien (Extinguished Stars. History of the Jewish Theatre in Vienna) was published. In 2001 D. and Thomas Soxberger edited Abisch Meisels' Von Sechistow bis Amerika. Fun ssechistow biz amerika. A rewi in 15 bilder, in Yiddish and German.

Just out is the Quellenedition zur Geschichte des jüdischen theatres in Wien at the Max Niemeyer publishing house in Tübingen, Germany.

Email Address: brigitte.dalinger@univie.ac.at

JERRY FAIVISH is a lawyer who practices international law in Toronto, Canada. He also archives Jewish Posters and his collection presently consists of over six thousand relating to all kinds of Jewish topics. He has a unique insight into the world of Jewish theatre as one major subsection of the collection relates to Jewish theatre around the world. His posters have been exhibited throughout Canada and the United States and most recently in an exhibition at the Hebrew University in conjunction with the Steven Spielberg Archives. He works with different museums, academic institutions, community and cultural organizations to further the project and preserve Jewish history. We are happy to have Jerry Faivish on the Board and to having him help us with our endeavors.

Email Address: faivishlaw@on.aibn.com

For her work on the New York Stage, from "YENTL" to "SARAVA" to "LEND ME A TENOR," Tovah Feldshuh has won: 4 Tony Nominations for Best Actress, 4 Drama Desk Awards, 4 Outer Critics Circle Awards, The Obie, and the Theatre World Awards just closed on Broadway at The Helen Hayes Theatre as Prime Minister Golda Meir in William Gibson's "Golda's Balcony" for which she was just awarded the Drama Desk for best Solo Performance and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress off-Broadway. 'Golda's Balcony' became the longest running one woman show in Broadway history under Feldshuh's care . UPI has called it "an inspired performance", and The New York Times says, "She does more than just resurrect Meir: she embodies an entire country." Some of her other New York credits include the title roles in the Roundabout Theatre's "She Stoops to Conquer" and "Mistress of the Inn", BAM's "Three Sisters" with Rosemary Harris and Ellen Burstyn, the long-running hit "The Vagina Monologues", and roles on Broadway in "Cyrano" with Christopher Plummer, "Rodgers and Hart", and "Dreyfus in Rehearsal." She starred off-Broadway as Tallulah Bankhead in a piece she wrote entitled "Tallulah Hallelujah!", which was chosen as one of the ten Best Plays of the Year by USA Today. Among other roles, Ms. Feldshuh has portrayed: Diana Vreeland in "Full Gallop", Jean Brodie in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", Sarah Bernhardt, Stella Adler, Sophie Tucker, Katharine Hepburn, three queens of Henry VIII, and nine Jews from birth to death in off-Broadway's "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh."

For her television work, she received the Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Helena the Czech freedom fighter in "Holocaust." She has starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in "The Amazing Howard Hughes", James Woods in "Citizen Cohn", and Bill Cosby on "The Cosby Mysteries" and "The Cosby Show", to name a few. She has a recurring role as Danielle Melnick on "Law and Order", played Richard Dreyfus' younger sister Sharon in "The Education of Max Bickford", and Robert Loggia's love interest in "Queens Supreme." Feature films include: the recently released Fox Searchlight picture "Kissing Jessica Stein" for which she won the Golden Satellite Award as Best Supporting Actress; "A Walk on the Moon" ("Tovah Feldshuh is regal in a way almost no other actress can do" - Jeffrey Lyons, NBC-TV) , "Happy Accidents" with Marisa Tomei, "Friends and Family", "3 Little Wolffs", "Toll Booth", and "Old Love." She also appeared in "The Corruptor" with Mark Wahlberg, "Nunzio", "Cheaper to Keep Her", "Daniel", "Brewster's Millions", "The Idolmaker", "The Blue Iguana", "A Day in October", and "The Believer." Tovah Feldshuh made her cabaret debut at the famed Algonquin Oak Room in her act, "Tovah: Crossovah! From Broadway to Cabaret," followed by 8 sold-out weeks off-Broadway of her one-woman show "Tovah: Out of Her Mind!". In April 1999, she opened at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia and has sung in Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Sydney, Australia, among others. In New York, she performed for "Lyrics and Lyricists" with Liza Minnelli, and in Washington, D.C. was Mistress of Ceremonies for the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. The Boston Globe selected her as best Cabaret Artist of 2000. She made her London West End debut with "Tovah: Out of Her Mind!" October 27 at the Duke of York's Theatre and just completed a concert engagement with Billy Crystal in Los Angeles' Royce Hall.

Ms. Feldshuh is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the winner of the McKnight Fellowship in Acting to the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre where she started her career under British director Michael Langham. For her charity work, she is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award, Hadassah's Myrtle Wreath and the Israel Peace Medal. The National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored her with the 2002 Jewish Image Award. She is married to New York attorney Andrew Harris Levy, and they have two children: Garson Brandon and Amanda Claire. She is the sister of Pulitzer finalist playwright and director Dr. David Feldshuh ("Miss Evers' Boys").

Web: http://www.tovahfeldshuh.com/

KAYLA GORDON is from Winnipeg, Canada and trained at the University of Winnipeg and Banff Centre, she has performed and directed in theatres in Winnipeg as well as other Canadian and US cities. Kayla was the Artistic Director of Winnipeg Jewish Theatre for over 10 years where she produced and directed over forty productions including many new works. She now teaches part-time at the University of Winnipeg Theatre Department and works as a freelance director.

She is currently the Executive Director of the Association for Jewish Theatre. AJT is dedicated to promoting the interests of its members in North America and Worldwide whose primary mission is the development and production of plays relevant to Jewish life and values. Ms Gordon received the Young Leadership Award from the University of Jerusalem and she was nominated for the John Hirsch Young Directors award.

Email Address: k-gordon@shaw.ca

MICHAL GOVRIN is an Israeli writer, poet and theatre director. She was born in Tel Aviv. Her father was one of Israel's first pioneers, and her mother survived the Holocaust.

Govrin has published eight books of poetry and fiction. Among them, the novel, The Name (HaShem, 1995), which was the recipient of the Kugel Literary prize in Israel, and in its English translation (1998) was nominated for the Koret Jewish Book Award. Govrin's other books include Hold on to the Sun, Stories and Legends (84), three books of poetry, That Very Hour (81), That Night's Seder (89), and Words' Bodies (91), all largely anthologized in Hebrew and several other languages. Her book of prose poetry The Making of the Sea, a Chronicle of Interpretation (2000), was published with original etchings of the Israeli great painter, Liliane Klapish. Most recently Body of Prayer, by David Shapiro, Michal Govrin and Jacques Derrida was published at The Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York. In April and Mai 2002 a exhibit of the etchings, the author's drawings and drafts and the final lay-out, was held in Jerusalem's prestigious artists' center, Mishkenot Sha'ananim. In 2002 Michal Govrin's most recent novel, Snapshots (Hevzekim) was published, and it is the recipient of the 2003 Ashman Prize for the best year's novel.

Among Michal Govrin's acclaimed and award recipients theatre creations are directing of contemporary theatre. Including a world-premier of Samuel Beckett's novel, Mercier and Camier, at the Jerusalem Khan theatre, Beckett's Happy Days, at the Kameri theatre, Jean Claude Grumberg's The Work Room at the Habimah National Theatre, or Slavimir Mrojek's The Emigrants, at the Khan, which gained The Margalit Award for directing and acting.

Michal Govrin has created groundbreaking works of Experimental Jewish theatre. The Harvest of Folly, based on Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav's tales, with La Companie des Sept Mendiants, in Paris, At The Bloom of Her Days, based on Agnon's novella, in Jerusalem, Variations on the Theme of Morning, The Journey of the Year, That Night's Seder and Gog and Magog, based on M. Buber Hassidic novel and created for the 1994 Israel festival. Govrin has adapted her literary works to language and mix media performance, with The Making of the Sea, and The Name to the stage.

Govrin received her PhD. At the University of Paris for a study of Jewish Ritual and theatre. Her thesis, "Contemporary Sacred theatre (Theatre sacre contemporain) is forthcoming in Hebrew translation. Her articles and personal essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies in several languages.

Govrin is married and has two daughters. Her home is in Jerusalem, where she is teaching at The School of Visual theatre. She is the academic chairman of the theatre Department at Emunah College, and for seven weeks a year she is a Writer in Residence at Rutgers University NJ.

Email Address: mgovrin@bezeqint.net

ROBBIE GRINGRAS lives on the top of a hill in the Galilee, creating, performing, directing and teaching things about theatre and being Jewish. His solo shows have performed throughout Israel, UK, and the US in English and in Hebrew. In a former incarnation he was co-founder director of Besht Tellers Theatre Company until 1996, writing, directing, and acting in productions on London's West End and throughout the world. A graduate of the prestigious Jerusalem Fellows programme, Robbie also lectures at Haifa University, and is writing "The Act of Judaism". Recently directed "Telling About Love" for Mar'a Theatre in Kiryat Shemona, and currently creating a new solo show about life in 21st century Israel called "Exploding with Laughter". Robbie is director of the Jewish Agency's Global Arts Initiative at the People to People Center.

Email Address: robbie@gringras.com

MIRA HIRSCH - As founder of Jewish Theatre of the South, Mira established the theater’s mission to produce regional premieres and seldom-produced plays, which contain both Jewish cultural content and universal themes. As Artistic Director, she has produced over thirty productions during the theater’s 10 years history and has developed and facilitated the theater’s outreach programs - Project Impact Theatre, and The Senior Ensemble. After earning her BA in Theatre from the University of Denver, Mira returned to her home city of Atlanta where she worked as an actor, teacher and arts administrator. She served as the Academy Theatre’s PR and Marketing Director before working as a freelance arts publicist for a number of Atlanta’s performing arts groups. She was the recipient of the 1998-99 MJCCA Staff Leadership Award. She presently serves as President of the Association for Jewish Theatre (AJT), an international organization dedicated to the development and production of plays of Jewish interest, and on the Advisory Board of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund.

Web: www.atlantajcc.org
Email Address: Mira.Hirsch@atlantajcc.org

IOAN HOLBAN was born in 1954 in Falticeni, Romania. He has published many volumes of literary analysis, including Contemporary Epic Structures (1987), The Parlour of the Refused Ones (1993), and Contemporary Literary Portraits: An Introduction to the History of Literature Today (2003). In addition, he has published two journals, The Subjective Literature: Intimate Journal, Literary Autobiography (1989) and World's Gate: Intimate Journal from China (1999.)

Since 1996 he has been General Manager of the "V Alecsandri" National Theatre, and he is also Director of the International "Avram Goldfaden" Festival.

His doctorate is in philology (1998) and he has been knighted into Romania's Faithful Service Order (2001). Email Address: tniasi@yahoo.com

BARBARA KIRSHENBLATT-GIMBLETT is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at New York University, where she is also Affiliated Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Her many awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, Getty Research Institute fellowship, Winston Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University, and resident research fellowship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She was designated Distinguished Humanist for 2003 by the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at Ohio State University.

She is currently co-convening the Working Group on Jews, Religion, and Media at New York University’s Center for Religion and Media, New York University, with Jeffrey Shandler, and the Jews and Performance colloquium, jointly sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary and New York University, with Edna Nahshon.

She is an advisor to several research projects, including "Assessing the Impact of Culture and the Arts on Jewish Identity Building," for the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal of the UJA-Federation of New York, and "Reboot Poll." She is also advising the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw). Professor Kirshenblatt-Gimblett serves on many editorial boards, including Jews in Eastern Europe: The YIVO Encyclopedia. Her books include Image Before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland, 1864-1939 (with Lucjan Dobroszycki) and Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums and Heritage. The Art of Being Jewish in Modern Times, which she co-edited with Jonathan Karp, is being published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, to appear 2006. Her most recent project, Painted Memories: A Jewish Childhood in Poland before the Holocaust, in collaboration with her father, is being published by University of California Press, to appear in 2007.

Email Address: bkg@nyu.edu

Website: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/web/

VOLKER KUHN entered radio and TV by way of journalism. He spent four years in the USA, and in Frankfurt while editor at the Hessischer Rundfunk he wrote and produced a satirical program for more than 10 years. Since 1970 Volker Kuhn has been a freelance author and director, responsible for many radio plays and features, stage plays, cabaret programs, musicals, TV shows. He wrote five volumes and a TV documentary (ZDF) on "100 Years of German Cabaret." Some of his other documentaries explore entertainment under the Third Reich, and cabaret in concentration camps. He has published record collections as well as countless books on cabaret and satire, among them several books on Friedrich Hollaender. His play "Marlene," about Marlene Dietrich, has had more than 500 performances.

Volker Kuhn is a member of PEN and the recipient of several prizes for his work. He lives in Berlin.

Volker's website is located at: http://www.vauka-berlin.de

Email Address: vauka-berlin@berlin.sireco.net

STEWART F. LANE , President & CEO of Stewart F. Lane Productions Int’l Inc., is a three-time Tony Award winner, as Producer, for “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, “The Will Rogers Follies”, and “La Cage Aux Folles”.He is currently producing “Legally Blonde-the Musical” at the Palace Theatre.Other Tony Nominations: “Fiddler on the Roof (Revival)”, “Gypsy (Revival)”, “1776 (Revival)”, “The Goodbye Girl” and “Woman of the Year”.Other Broadway Shows produced: “Jay Johnson: The Two & Only”,“Minnelli on Minnelli”, “Wait until Dark”, “Can-Can, Frankenstein”, “Teaneck Tanzi”, “The Grand Tour”, “Lone Stars/Private Wars” and “A Change in Heir”.

Off- Broadway productions: “The Two & Only”, “If It Was Easy” “Fortune’s Fools”,” Eating Raoul- the Musical”.

Films for ‘07 Release: Show Business The Road To Broadway (documentary) and Brooklyn Rules starring Alec Baldwin & Freddie Prince Jr.Mr. Lane has written: His new book “Let’s Put On A Show” (will be published this Spring by Heinemann Publishers). In the Wings, (to be published by Performing Books Spring ‘07), “If It Was Easy” (published by Performing Books),

He is the co-owner & operator of the Palace Theatre in NY, and partners in The Tribeca Grill Restaurant with Robert DeNiro.

Mr. Lane is a member of The League of American Theatres and Producers. He sits on The Board of Advisors for The American Theater Wing, The Times Square Group and is the Chairmen of the Board of Directors of The Theatre Museum. Mr. Lane was honored with the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award, and The Child Development Center of the Hamptons Reach for the Stars Award, and The Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award, among other prestigious awards.

He resides in NYC with his wife Bonnie and five children : Eliana, Harlyn, Leah, Leonard & Franklin.

Website: www.mrbroadway.com

JEANETTE R. MALKIN is Senior Lecturer and former Chair of the Theatre Studies Department at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. She is the author of Memory-Theater and Postmodern Drama, published at the University of Michigan Press; and of Verbal Violence in Contemporary Drama: From Handke to Shepard, published by Cambridge University Press. Her articles on contemporary German and Austrian theatre, on Beckett, Handke, Heiner Muller, Robert Wilson, and on Postmodernism have appeared in many academic journals and edited books.

In recent years, Malkin has organized and participated in a series of conferences on the theme of German-Jewish performance culture, and the centralily of German-Jewish artists in the creation of modern theatre. She is currently co-editing a book on Jews and the Emergence of Modern German Theater, to be published at the Wisconsin University Press.

Email Address: jmalkin@mscc.huji.ac.il

SHMUEL MOREH is Emeritus Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Institute of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University of Ramat-Gan. Fellow, Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA, Visiting Professor of Arabic Literature at UC Berkeley, Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA, and the Universities of Bonn (Germany), London University (SOAS), Manchester (UK), Life Member of Clare Hall (Cambridge-England), Helsinki University (Finland), Leiden University (The Neitherlands), Oxford-Yarnton (England), Maryland (USA). He was Israel Prize Laureate in 1999, and has received fellwships and grants from the Israel Acedemy for Scientific Research (Jerusalem), The British Council, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), The German Israeli Foundation (GIF), The National Center for Scienticic Research (CNRS), France), and Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Yarnton-Oxford (England).

As Chairman of the Israel-Findland Friendship Association, Prof. Moreh was awarded the Insignia of the Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 1986. He is the founder and Chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq in Israel, Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, Or-Yehuda- Israel; Chairman of the International Advicory Committee of al-Jabarti's Project, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

He is the author of Modern Arabic Poetry 1800-1970 (Leiden, Brill, 1975), Studies in Modern Arabic Prose and Poetry (Leiden, 1988), The Jewish Contributio to Nineteenth-Century Arabic Theatre (with P.C. Sadgrove, Manchester-Oxford, 1996), Hatred of Jews and the Farhud in Iraq (eds. S. Moreh and Z. Yehuda)(The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, 1992). Author of several article in the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, Brill) and Encyclopadia of Arabic Literature (England), including Arab and Jewish playwrights and theatre. Prof. Moreh is the translator and editor of Al-Jabarti's Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation of Egypt (1975), Napoleon in Egypt (1993); The Book of Strangers: Medieval Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia (With Prof. Patricia Crone, 2000).

He published several articles in English, Hebrew and Arabic on Arabic Theatre in the Arab World.

Email Address: Moreh@h2.hum.huji.ac.il

EDNA NAHSHON is assistant professor of Hebrew at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is the author of Yiddish Proletarian Theatre: The Art and Politics of the Artef, 1925-1940 (Greenwood, 1998) and of From the Ghetto to the Melting Pot: Israel Zangwill's Jewish Plays, (forthcoming).

Dr. Nahshon has contributed entries to the American National Biography, a milestone publication sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies; written the entry on theater in Israel for the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and the entry on Yiddish theater for Jewish American History and Culture. Her work was included in Yiddish Language and Culture, Then and Now, The Politics of Yiddish, Jewish Studies in a New Europe and Di Froyen: Women and Yiddish. Professor Nahshon has delivered academic papers at over twenty conferences and congresses. Her most recent paper, "The Performance of Justice: Yiddish Mock Trials" was delivered in July 1999 at the International Academic Workshop on Yiddish Drama, Theatre, and Performing Arts organized by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University and the European Science Foundation.

Her impressive academic credentials have afforded her a YIVO Fellowship, the International Fellowship in Jewish Studies of the Memorial Foundation and a grant given by the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1999 she received a Skirball Visiting Fellowship from Oxford University's Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and JTS's Stroock Fellowship.

From 1990 to 1998, Professor Nahshon was chair of JTS's Hebrew department. She is currently the historical adviser to the television project, "The Life and Death of the Federal Theatre" produced by the Educational Film Center and Multi-Media Consultants.

Dr. Nahshon studied at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University.

Email Address: ednahshon@jtsa.edu

Michael Posnick has served as Director of the Department of Dance & Theatre at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, since 1994. He has taught and directed at Yale University, Hunter College, the National Theatre of the Deaf, the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center and The Lincoln Center Institute.

He was Artistic Director of The Mosaic Theatre at the 92nd Street Y. Mr. Posnick’s theatrical and musical productions have been produced at The Manhattan Theatre Club, Yale Rep, 92nd St. Y, Playwrights Horizons, Theatre for the New City, Carnegie Hall and with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Lincoln Center. He collaborated with Pilobolus Dance Theatre and the Klezmatics on “Davenen” which premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the Joyce Theatre in NY.

He has been Theatre Consultant for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture since 1982, and is primary reader and panel member for the Foundation’s Annual New Play Commission. He is co-editor with Ellen Schiff of Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays, published by University of Texas Press in 2005. He served as Director of the Teacher Retreat Program of the Melton Center of the Jewish Theological Seminary and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Mosaic Colony for the Arts. Mr. Posnick has been a faculty member at the School of Practical Philosophy since 1979. He holds an MFA from Yale Drama School and a BA and MS in Education from Yeshiva University

Email Address: MEJPOS@aol.com

Canadian-born HOWARD RYPP, 46, is a Theatre graduate from Toronto's York University.

In 1978, along with playwright and lawyer Gabriel Emanuel, Rypp founded the Nephesh Theatre Company, the first professional Jewish theatre in Canada. In its initial six years, the Company staged over 40 productions, all of which toured around Canada and the US.

In 1984, after making aliya to Israel, and relocating the company base to that country, Rypp directed Emanuel's play, Einstein, the company's first Hebrew production. Co-produced with Israel's Habimah National Theatre, the one-man play met with great success, running for four consecutive seasons.

As Nephesh theatre artistic director, Rypp has produced and directed over 90 productions. The Theatre's current varied repertory comprises 14 plays, exploring Jewish themes and vital local and universal social, educational and environmental issues.

As an actor, Rypp has starred in numerous full-length feature films shot in Israel. He lectures on diverse facets of theatre--acting, directing, Jewish theatre, etc.--at numerous institutions of higher education, including Tel Aviv University, the Kibbutz Seminar and Sha'ar Hanegev College.

Thirty years ago, while still in Canada, Rypp began working on community theatre within the Native Indian community there. He is still highly active in this field, which is his great love, working with a broad range of communities and age groups in Israel. Rypp's work with young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Jaffa and the southern development towns of Netivot and Sderot, has yielded highly successful productions. These have won recognition at national festivals and on tours, in Europe and in North America.

In addition to "It Sounds Better in Amharic," Rypp has translated a variety of Hebrew plays and films into English. He has also done the simultaneous translation, for director Rina Yerushalmi's VaYomar Vayelech. The play, based on Biblical stories, has won worldwide acclaim.

Email Address: nephesh@inter.net.il

NAHMA SANDROW is the author of Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater and has written two published and recorded musicals, Vagabond Stars and Kuni-Leml. Another book of hers is God, Man, and Devil: Yiddish Plays in Translation. She has contributed to The New York Times, to Modern Drama, and to such references as Cambridge Guide to World Theatre, American Popular Entertainment, and Encyclopedia of New York City. She has lectured under the auspices of the American Society for Theatre Research, Modern Language Association, Smithsonian Institution, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Brown University, Harvard University, etc.

Email Address: nahmas@verizon.net

ELLEN SCHIFF holds the Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; she is professor emerita at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She is the author of several books and dozens of chapters in books, essays, articles, reviews, and reference book entries in publications that range from the New York Times to the just published Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature. She edited the first-ever two-volume anthology of American Jewish plays; a new edition of the collection will appear from Applause Theatre Books in 2003. Schiff lectures nationally and internationally. She serves as advisor to the Jewish Theatre of Austria and as a consultant on theatre to the National Foundation of Jewish Culture in New York.

Email Address: EFSCHIFF@AOL.COM

RICHARD SIEGEL is the Executive Director of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, an organization dedicated to enhancing Jewish identity in America through the arts and humanities. Under his leadership, the NFJC has expanded its programs and services on the local, national and international levels, through such initiatives as the Jewish Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the Jewish Cultural Achievement Awards, and the sponsorship of publications and conferences on a wide range of contemporary cultural issues.

Mr. Siegel is the editor of the best-selling Jewish Catalog (JPS), as well as The Jewish Almanac (Bantam Books) and several NFJC-related publications including The Writer in the Jewish Community and the Commission Report on the Future of Jewish Culture in America (2002).

Email Address: rsiegel@jewishculture.org

National Foundation for Jewish Culture Website : http://www.jewishculture.org

JOSHUA SOBOL - Playwright, author and director. Wrote more than forty plays. Some of his plays have been translated into many languages, and performed worldwide. His play GHETTO has been performed in leading theatres throughout the world and won many awards, including The Evening Standard and The London Critics Theatre Award for Best Play of the Year. It also won three Best Play Awards in Japan.

In Israel Sobol received five times the David's Harp Award for "Playwright of the Year".

Sobol directed productions in Israel, Germany, Switzerland and the USA. He has been teaching and conducting Drama Workshops at the universities of Tel Aviv and Beer Shiva in Israel, and at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. His first novel "SILENCE" appeared in Israel in 2000, in Germany in 2001 and in Holland in 2002.

Email Address: josobol@netvision.net.il

LENA STANLEY-CLAMP is the founder Director of the European Association for Jewish Culture, London, which commissions and promotes new work in the performing and visual arts in Europe. She is also Director for Public Activities at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR). Born in Prague, she was educated in Warsaw and graduated in History and Slavonic Languages from Brussels University. She has been a contributor to Jewish Renaissance and Encyclopaedia Judaica Yearbooks and is editor of EAJC Review. She programmed and organized a number of international conferences Planning for the Future of European Jewry, Prague 1995; Strengthening Jewish Life in Europe, Strasbourg 1997; Jewish Culture for the 21st Century, Paris 1999; Jewish Identities in post-Communist Europe, Budapest 2000; Jewish Spaces in European Theatre, Prague 2003. She collaborated on The Future of Jewish Heritage in Europe conference, 2004. She is a Council Member of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies, Oxford and a member of the International Council on Museums, UK.

Web: www.jewishcultureineurope.org
Web: www.jpr.org.uk
Email Address: lstanley-clamp@jpr.org.uk

Dov Winer is a psychologist (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) that specialized in Online Education and Training (University of London). He is the founder and board member of the Israel Internet Association (http://www.isoc.org.il).

In 1988 he proposed the establishment of the Global Jewish Information Network; having obtained the support of the Knesset and the Ministry of Communication he carried out the detailed planning of the network (1991/92). Later he lead several initiatives in this area: the Observatory of Jewish Resources in the Internet; the Virtual Zionist Congress; the Seminar "Israel 2020 - Israel/Diaspora Relations and Strategic Planning for Israel" (Master Plan for Israel in the 21st Century - The Technion and the Jewish Agency).

At the request of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, he became, in July 2001, director of the eJewish.info project for Developing Jewish Networking Infrastructures (http://www.ejewish.info/reka).

Dov is active in several initiatives of the European Commission: EUMEDIS Focal Point for the development of the Information Society in the Mediterranean (http://eumedis.org.il); NCP for Israel in the EUN (European Schoolnet - http://www.eun.org) and related projects: ETB - European Learning Resources (http://etb.eun.org); CELEBRATE, creating a market for Learning Objects (http://celebrate.eun.org ); eSchola (http://eschola.org.il ) and Netdays Europe in Israel (http://netdays.org.il ).

Email Address: dovw@jazo.org.il

SETH WOLITZ Professor of French and Slavic, and Gale Professor of Jewish Studies. Graduate work at Yale.

Languages: French, Spanish, Provennal, Portuguese, Yiddish, and German. Periods: 19th-20th century Modernism, Belle Epoque. Genres: novel, theater, poetry. Approaches: anthropology, poetics, sociology, comp. media, music, art, and literature.

Recently published: "Bifocality in Jewish Identity in the Texas-Jewish Experience"; "From Parody to Redemption: George Tabori's ?Weisman and Rotgesicht?"; "Performing a Holocaust Play in Warsaw in 1963"; "Der Yid fun Bovl: Variants and Meanings"; "E.M. Lilien and 'Zionist art'"; Monograph: The Renaissance in Kosher Cuisine: from ethnicity to universality.

Current research: Modernism and Minorities: The Yiddish Case. Current work: Catalogues of Russian-Jewish Art (Jerusalem/New York), shows in New York City, Jerusalem, and Amsterdam.

Email Address: slwolitz@mail.utexas.edue-mail