The Yiddish theater developed as a uniquely American form in the Eastern European Jewish immigrant community in New York City, and other urban centers, during the early twentieth century. The 77 unpublished manuscripts presented here include light comedies and dramas, and have been selected from the more than 1,290 playscripts in the Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays, housed in the Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division.

An annotated bibliography of the entire collection (with multiple indices) was created in 2004 by Zachary M. Baker, Reinhard Family curator Emeritus of Judaica and Hebraica Collections, Stanford University.

This content was originally digitized and made available through the web presentation "The American Variety Stage", a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings.