Award-Winning Broadway Shows: Stories Of Painful Jewish History Resonate Amid Rising Hatred Of Jews

During the early 1900s, discrimination against American Jews was endemic across society, reflecting a broader climate of bigotry, racism and intolerance. Jews faced various forms of discrimination, including social exclusion, limited employment opportunities and harmful stereotypes.

While the overt antisemitism of 1913 has somewhat diminished, it is resurgent across America. It was on display in 2023 when a small group of neo-Nazis staged a rally outside the Broadway theater showing “Parade,” an ironic display of hate underscoring the importance of these portrayals. Ben Platt, the Jewish actor playing Leo Frank, described the scene as “definitely very ugly and scary, but a wonderful reminder of why we’re telling this particular story, and how special and powerful art and particularly theater can be.”

In a somber tribute, “Parade” cast members gather before almost every performance, stand in a circle and say the Mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. “It is an expression of community as we tell this hard story,” wrote Diamond, who plays Lucille Frank, the wife of Jewish lynching victim Leo Frank.

“Leopoldstadt” reveals the devastating consequences of anti-Jewish hatred against individuals and communities. The play by Tom Stoppard is based in part on the experience of his own family. It portrays the lives of a prosperous Jewish family in Vienna and spans the late 19th century to the aftermath of the Holocaust.

The extended family fled pogroms in Eastern Europe and largely assimilated into the local culture; two of them served in World War I against the Allies. None of this mattered when the Nazis took control of Austria to implement Hitler’s Final Solution. Many Austrians enthusiastically supported Nazi Germany and cheered its annexation of Austria.