Case file · Non-fiction & research literature
An-sky's expedition and the dybbuk
From 1912 to 1914 S. An-sky led the Jewish Ethnographic Expedition through the shtetls of Volhynia and Podolia, recording tales of dybbuks (possessing spirits), wonder-working rebbes, amulets and the dead; the material became his play 'The Dybbuk'.
1912 CE · 50.25, 28.66 · status: official
The account
The expedition collected thousands of songs, stories, photographs and objects, much of it now in Kyiv and St Petersburg. 'The Dybbuk', first staged in 1920, is the most famous work of Yiddish theatre. The location given is Zhytomyr, capital of Volhynia province, as a central point of the routes.