Yehoshua Sobol on the play “Ghetto”, 2025 — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

In early March 2025, we met playwright Yehoshua Sobol at Beit Vilna. He spoke about the writing of his play “Ghetto”, inspired by events in the Vilna Ghetto during the Holocaust, about how scenes depicting impossible situations are born on stage, and about his encounter with Noam Semel and Omri Nitzan, which ultimately led to the play’s production at the Haifa Theatre.

“My Lithuanian grandmother was a devoted Yiddishist, and I grew up in Tel Mond surrounded by both Yiddish and Hebrew. As a child, I sensed that a great drama was unfolding ‘over there’ (in Europe), and in 1945 people were celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany.
In 1980, I was asked by Haim Halad to write about youth movements during the war. That’s when I came across Rozka Korczak’s book Flames in the Ashes and Herman Kruk’s diary of the Vilna Ghetto. Irena Lusky told me about the theatre in Vilna and referred me to the director Israel Segal — and that’s how I discovered the amazing cultural life that had flourished in the Vilna Ghetto…”