The Dramatic Theater from Poland — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

As part of the International Festival of Theater at the Cameri Theater, the play History of Yakuba by Tadeusz Slobodzianek, directed by Andrei Shpisak, was performed by the Dramatic Theater of Poland.

The History of Yakuba (Weksler) was produced by the Warsaw Dramatic Theater and will be staged at the Cameri theater.

Twelve years after he was ordained, the Polish Catholic priest, Yaakov Weksler-Waszkinel, discovered that his parents were Jewish and that his surname was Weksler. As soon as he made this discovery he resigned from the church and from his position as a lecturer at the Lublin University and migrated to Israel. The Israeli government does not recognize his Judaism so he did not come in as a new immigrant. Today he is an Israeli citizen, lives in Jerusalem and works in the archive at Yad Vashem.

The play deals with his attempts to reinvent his personality, which inevitably lead him repeatedly into unexpected adventures and tragic situations. It is a story of rescue and identities –the Jewish priest from Lithuania, the philosopher-priest who discovers that he is not who he thought he was and tries to find his true identity under the guise of laughter and a dynamic burlesque plot.