The New Yiddish Rep’s production of Yosl Rakover Speaks to God (sometimes spelled “Yoel” or “Yosl”) is a stage adaptation of Zvi Kolitz’s powerful Holocaust-era text. The story is presented as the final testament of Yosl Rakover, a Jewish fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto, who, as the world collapses around him, addresses God in a raw, emotional monologue. Rakover’s speech is a mix of accusation and unwavering faith: he calls God to account for the suffering of the Jewish people, yet insists on his stubborn belief in God and the Torah, even when God’s actions seem incomprehensible or cruel. The New Yiddish Rep’s production emphasizes this emotional outcry and the existential struggle at the heart of the text, presenting it in its original Yiddish to preserve its authenticity and intensity12.

This work is notable for its exploration of faith under unimaginable duress, its refusal to offer easy answers, and its insistence on the enduring power of Jewish tradition and identity, even in the face of catastrophe