Deborah and Her Sisters: How One Nineteenth-Century Melodrama and a Host of Celebrated Actresses Put Judaism on the World Stage by Jonathan M. Hess

Abstract

Reviewed by: Deborah and Her Sisters: How One Nineteenth-Century Melodrama and a Host of Celebrated Actresses Put Judaism on the World Stage by Jonathan M. Hess Joseph R. D'Ambrosi Deborah and Her Sisters: How One Nineteenth-Century Melodrama and a Host of Celebrated Actresses Put Judaism on the World Stage. By Jonathan M. Hess. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. pp. 272. $49.95 cloth. Few nineteenth-century melodramas provide for us in the twenty-first century a window into the historical relationships between cultures or religions. S. H. Mosenthal's Deborah, a play about a Jewish woman eventually rejected by her Christian lover, inspired in Jewish and non-Jewish audience members an intense overflow of emotion that typically manifested through tears. Deborah and Her Sisters is the first full-length study that examines the history and legacy of Mosenthal's sensational melodrama, which premiered in Hamburg in 1849 and was performed and adapted around the Western world until the early twentieth century. In the book, the late Jonathan M. Hess argues that Deborah and its many adaptations invoked in audience members a compassion for Jewish suffering and, as such, functioned as "the epitome of and foundation for liberal feeling" (207). Deborah and Her Sisters offers an exposé into a dramatic work that illuminates the relationship between Jews and non-Jews almost two hundred years ago. Hess expands his study of the Deborah phenomenon over four chapters, each carefully constructed, deeply rooted in archival material, and supported with an impressive collection of images. The book's introduction contextualizes theatre practice and popular culture in the nineteenth century. Hess explains that Deborah's success in Germany became appealing to myriad theatrical giants including Augustin Daly, whose adaptation, Leah, made waves in the United States. Despite the generous artistic licenses taken within each adaptation, all of them made their audiences cry. Thus, argues Hess, "In an era that witnessed the rise of new forms of political and racial anti-Semitism, theatergoers often celebrated the pleasure taken in feeling the pain of the suffering Jewish woman as the ultimate litmus test for liberal feeling" (7). Deborah was, according to Hess, not simply a play that made people cry but one that bridged a divide between Jews and non-Jews through tears. In the first two chapters, Hess investigates the anatomy of the melodrama, traces how and why Deborah became an international sensation, and theorizes the meaning behind audiences' emotional reactions to the play. Chapter 1 analyzes Deborah's primary function as a tearjerker. By focusing on the text and reviews of several productions, Hess explains that when audience members came together to witness Deborah or one of the various adaptations, they "embrace[d] crying as a collective experience," a moment of community building despite differences in religious background (28). Arguing that the play is a "masterfully [End Page 211] constructed melodrama," Hess theorizes that the spectator's tears indicate a thrilling moment of identification with Jewish suffering, thereby deconstructing religious barriers for its audiences (35). Chapter 2 compares Deborah's many adaptations to Mosenthal's original text and production. Though producers were drawn to Deborah primarily for its commercial appeal, each adaptation had a personalized effect within the country where it was playing. Daly's Leah, for example, forced American Christians to "confront the brutality of their own past with its Puritan-like fanaticism and intolerance" (81). Hess shifts the focus of chapter 3 from the anatomy of Deborah's text to the function and impact of the actresses playing the title role. Deborah was an alluring part for both Jewish and non-Jewish actresses. This chapter asks, what does it mean to perform Jewishness and what are the intersections between theatricality and authenticity, particularly for a play that allegedly builds bridges between religions? Hess postulates that Jewish and non-Jewish audiences experienced the play as both a theatrical occurrence and an authentic representation of Jewishness, despite the religious background of the main performers. In his final chapter, Hess most closely engages with his major argument—that the Deborah phenomenon "probes the legacy of nineteenth-century liberal culture and its universalist aspirations" (9). Asserting that Deborah is an example of philo...