For Christmas, the story of the Jewish-born Christian missionary who translated the New Testament to Yiddish
Mikhl Yashinsky and Josh Horowitz in The Gospel According to Chaim. Photo by QiXin Zhang
By PJ Grisar December 22, 2023
Nittel Nacht, or, as gentiles call it, Christmas Eve, has always had a paradox at its core. It is a time when, historically, Jews feared the violence of their Christian neighbors — or even the Christian deity — but at its heart the holiday is about a Jewish mother and her child.
In Mikhl Yashinsky’s The Gospel According to Chaim, believed to be the first new, full-length American Yiddish play in decades, the titular character seizes on the nativity story to argue for the essential Jewishness of the Christian faith. When Chaim “Henry” Einspruch — a real historical figure played wonderfully by Yashinsky in a natty pinstripe suit — enters a Baltimore printing shop, he tells the owner, Gabe, that he is named for the angel who whispered in the ear of Miriam, a “pious Jewish girl who is living with her mother and father in Nazareth.”
It’s Christmas Eve — and also Hanukkah — in 1940 and Einspruch is desperate to convince Gabe (Joshua Horowitz, charming, in a role he alternates with Sruli Rosenberg) to print his Yiddish translation of the New Testament. He almost does; the story reminds Gabe of his own mother, Miri, who is in Europe and whose fate is unknown. Then, someone throws an egg at the window of his Yiddish-lettered storefront. How could Gabe print the Gospel of the people who, even now, are terrorizing Jews in the name of dogma? What would his Yiddishe mama think?
Gabe’s mixed feelings about helping Einspruch, who is sincere and offering a good chunk of change, appall his regular client, the antifascist activist Sadie (Melissa Weisz, fiery in a red beret), who thinks this “goyishe Jew” is a dangerous apostate.
“He makes a blessing over the curse of our people,” she says, blaming Christianity for centuries of dead Jews and the current slaughter abroad. At the same time, Einspruch claims that his good news will free Jews from the “curse of the Torah, with its hundreds of laws.”
Einspruch’s Yiddish translation of the New Testament is still circulating in messianic missionary circles (and as a kind of gag gift, floating between certain audience members last Thursday evening). In Yashinsky’s play, which chronicles Einspruch’s failed efforts to get his gospels printed professionally, his apostasy is not simply vilified. Einspruch is not some Harold Hill huckster heretic, but a zealous believer who is equally enthusiastic about preserving Yiddish, which he calls a “holy language.”
The fictional Sadie is his foil, running off posters raising awareness of Nazi persecution in Europe. Her ambition is to save Jewish bodies, while Einspruch believes that he must do all he can to save Jewish souls, and makes his argument in a decidedly Jewish way, citing Jeremiah, paraphrasing Hillel and singing his Yiddish translation of “Silent Night” when he hears carolers outside. Later, he’ll alter the words of Ma’oz Tzur to be about Jesus.
Directed by Dmitri Barcomi, with supertitles and lively projections by QiXin Zhang that feature illustrated pages of Einspruch’s Di Bris Hadoshe (the New Covenant), Yashinsky’s well-made play is packed with Yiddish idioms and wordplay. But even for a monoglot like myself, the language enriches the action, which is as much about intra- and inter-religious strife as it is about the essential qualities of the Jewish lingua franca and its most taboo application.
The New Yiddish Rep, following their Yiddish Godot and a revival of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, has jolted the repertoire with a work that is both traditional and delightfully subversive. Setting it at the juncture of Christmas and Hanukkah, with an opening night scheduled for Christmas Eve, it’s the perfect way to spend a Jewish Christmas.
The play The Gospel According to Chaim (“Di psure loyt khaim) will have 21 performances in its world premiere engagement at the Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., New York City. Details and tickets are available on New Yiddish Rep’s website.
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