“Of the two the Jew is – (Curtain falls.)” Sammy Gronemann’s dramaturgy of the German–Jewish encounter in Palestine/Israel (1936–1952)

Abstract

This paper presents the latest research on Sammy Gronemann (1875–1952), a key figure of early German Zionism and Hebrew Theatre. His transition from Germany to the Mandate of Palestine in 1936 influenced his literary oeuvre and transformed its technique of inter-cultural mediation and its satirical humour. In Palestine/Israel Gronemann became a successful playwright, contributing to the emerging modern Hebrew culture by writing its first milestone in comedy, King Solomon and Shalmai, the Cobbler (1942). My reading focuses on its dramaturgical strategy, whose roots I analyse and describe as ‘dialectical empathy’ in a comedy of errors between the stock-characters of a Jew and a Nazi from 1937 (Jacob and Christian).