The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language: Chamber Opera World Premiere
(New York, NY) – Experience the world premiere of The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, an original chamber opera featuring music by Pulitzer Prize finalist Alex Weiser and libretto by Ben Kaplan. This landmark production will take place at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011) on Thursday, September 18, 2025, at 7:00pm ET and Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 1:00pm ET as a part of its centennial celebration and the annual Nusakh Vilna event.
Presented in a collaboration with American Opera Projects, the League for Yiddish, and the American Society for Jewish Music, The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language tells the tragi-comic story of Yiddish linguist Yudel Mark’s unfinished quest to create a comprehensive Yiddish dictionary. The opera invites audiences to engage with the grand ambition of Yiddish culture in the shadow of its near erasure during the Holocaust and to reflect on the enduring power of language to shape identity and connect generations.
With a runtime of 50 minutes, the opera is performed by an ensemble of five singers, combining characters based on real historical figures — Yudel Mark and Max Weinreich — and those inspired by Jewish mystical themes. In the opera Yudel Mark is haunted by three ‘alefs,’ three divine emanations of the Yiddish language—played by three mezzo-sopranos. The three alefs compel him to breathe new life into Yiddish as he works to complete the dictionary.
“[A]n ambitious, larger-than-life spectacle befitting the dazzling ambitions of the creators of the Yiddish dictionary…” writes Ofer Dynes in In Geveb. “In recreating the Yiddishist polemics on stage, Kaplan and Weiser excel at capturing the paradoxical nature of postwar Yiddishism, which was simultaneously petty and visionary, cosmopolitan and parochial, messianic, but also highly pragmatic, lachrymose and uplifting, tragic and comic, and everything in between.” The Forward noted comments by, “Elye (Elliot) Palevsky, a well-known Yiddishist ‘It was just exceptional how they [Weiser and Kaplan] embodied Mark and Weinreich, along with their disputes, which were no mere trifles,’ he said.”
Directed by Rebecca Miller Kratzer, the production will feature tenor Jason Weisinger, baritone Gideon Dabi, and mezzo-sopranos Kristin Gornstein, Kate Maroney, and Kelly Guerra. An ensemble featuring clarinet, string quintet, and piano will be led by conductor David Bloom. The production will feature scenic design by Michael Bennett Lewis, projection design by Camilla Tassi, lighting design by Stacey Boggs, and costume design by Matsy Stinson.
The May 2024 concert premiere of The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language took place as a part of the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival in collaboration with American Opera Projects and The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life. Previous developmental workshops included a December 2022 piano vocal workshop supported by the 14th Street Y and LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, with additional support from Asylum Arts. Excerpts of the opera have also been performed live on the radio at Toronto 96.3FM as part of Jewish Music Week in June 2023.
What: The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
When: Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 7:00pm ET and Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 1:00pm ET
Where: Taking place in person at YIVO, Located in the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011)
Cost: Free
Reservations Available at: yivo.org/Great-Dictionary
Press material is available here.
For more information contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff
Alex Weiser
Director of Public Programs
Ben Kaplan
Director of Education
About the Creators
Alex Weiser’s debut album and all the days were purple, was named a 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. The album features songs in Yiddish and English sung by Eliza Bagg. A second album, in a dark blue night, features two song cycles which explore Jewish New York history sung by Annie Rosen. February 2024 saw the premiere of a clarinet concerto, Tfiles, commissioned by POLIN for clarinetist Andrzej Ciepliński and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. An active opera composer, Weiser is currently developing Tevye’s Daughters with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann (American Lyric Theater), and The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language with librettist Ben Kaplan (American Opera Projects). Weiser is the Director of Public Programs at the YIVO Institute where he curates programs that explore history with an eye to contemporary Jewish culture. At YIVO Weiser has commissioned over fifteen works from leading composers for feature in concerts he has curated.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, librettist Ben Kaplan studied literature and theater at Williams College. He currently serves as Director of Education at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where he directs programs that teach Jewish history and culture to a broad and diverse audience. These programs include the YIVO-Bard Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture and the YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization. As a librettist, he creates historically informed dramatic works that chronicle turning points in history lost to contemporary cultural discourse.
Rebecca Miller Kratzer is a New York-based theatre and opera director known for her innovative work at the intersection of opera, music, dance, and theatre. Her artistic practice embraces collaboration, joy, and ritual, resulting in deeply personal productions that challenge traditional boundaries. Committed to fostering inclusive storytelling, Rebecca creates immersive experiences that resonate with diverse audiences, inviting them to explore the transformative power of the performing arts.
About the Presenters
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, now in its Centennial year, is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story
American Opera Projects (AOP) is a home for lyric theater and the artists who make it. AOP is a non-profit organization that provides resources and opportunities to artists for the creation of new lyric theater. Based in Brooklyn, AOP has been at the forefront of the contemporary opera movement for over thirty years through the commissioning, developing, and producing of opera and lyric theater projects, training programs for student and emerging composers and librettists, and community engagement.
League for Yiddish, Inc., was founded in 1979 by prominent Yiddish linguist and professor Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter in order to provide organizational support for the modernization, standardization, and use of the Yiddish language in all spheres of daily life. With devoted members on six continents, the League for Yiddish is one of the few organizations in today's Yiddish cultural and linguistic world that conducts its activities almost entirely in mame-loshn. The goals of the League for Yiddish are: to encourage people to speak Yiddish in their everyday life; to enhance the prestige of Yiddish as a living language, both within and outside the Yiddish-speaking community; and to promote the modernization of Yiddish. Dr. Schaechter was privileged to serve as an associate editor for the Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language and his research was the basis for the Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary published by the League for Yiddish.
The American Society for Jewish Music (ASJM) enables the performance, scholarship and dissemination of Jewish music and sustains these initiatives through a variety of activities, including concerts, publications, seminars, conferences, and other projects. Through its website and on the Internet, the ASJM provides global access to Jewish music, research, and scholarship.