All About Jewish Theatre - The ABC Book for Studying Hebrew by August Strindberg

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) as a member of the executive committee of The International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR).and Chairman of Editorial Board of All About Jewish Theatre Email Address: rokem@post.tau.ac.il

When Strindberg planned the writing of "The Father", he asked to
meet with the Chief Rabbi of Stockholm at the time. The Jewish
community in Stockholm wasn't large, numbering only in the thousands.
Strindberg wanted to know how the Jews manage with the halachic
rule that the child receives their identity by matriarchal lineage,
and not via the father, who has no role in this matter. During the
same discussion, Strindberg asked the Rabbi to teach him Hebrew and
said that he is willing to dedicate a few weeks for this task. The Rabbi
declined and Strindberg's Hebrew studies were postponed until the last
years of his life, twenty years after he wrote "The Father."

As a result of a long line of Christian mystics, including Emanuel
Swedenborg, (1688-1772) who greatly influenced him, Strindberg believed that
because g-d created the world in Hebrew, and since this language was implanted in the world,

it's as if there are remnants of the Hebrew language since the creation. In fact,

he thought this language helps us decode and understand the world. Among Strindberg's teachers were Jewish Kabbalists.

The idea that g-d created the world in Hebrew, and therefore this language
will help understand the world, fascinated Strindberg, and at the end
of his life he found, in one of the suburbs of Stockholm, a Jew who
converted and became a Christian priest. He was willing to teach him
Hebrew. During his Hebrew studies, which Strindberg saw as the root
of all languages, he compiled long lists of words in Hebrew and in other
languages in order to "prove" that Hebrew was the origin of all of them.
The linguists with whom he consulted with gently wrote to him that his
interest in Hebrew has a poetic value, and not exactly a linguistic-scientific one.

Strindberg also published these lists of words as separate books via the Bonnier family publishers.

He even authored an instructional book on the Hebrew language, which ironically and absurdly is titled ABC Book for Studying Hebrew.

This book was never published and it existed only in handwriting, within the Royal Library of Stockholm, where all Strindberg's writings are kept. There are many reasons why Strindberg was so interested in Jewish culture generally and specifically with the Hebrew language. One fact clearly tipped the scales towards his love and fanfare of the Hebrew language: it's the fact that the first word in every Hebrew dictionary is the word Av = "father."

Translated from Hebrew by Noahm Sharon www.write2sell.com