Ohel Theatre
former Hebrew-language theatre in Tel Aviv
Ohel Theatre (Hebrew: תיאטרון אֹהל, Teat'ron 'Ohel) was a Hebrew-language theatre company, active between 1925–1969 in Mandate Palestine and Israel.
History
Ohel (Hebrew for "tent"), originally known as the Workers' Theatre of Palestine, was established in 1925 as a socialist theatre: members of the company combined acting with farming and industrial labour. The theatre, founded by Moshe Halevy, who had been a founding member of Habimah in Moscow, was organised as a collective.
The theatre's first production was a Hebrew adaptation of stories by the Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz. Peretz's Parties depicted the decadence of life in the Diaspora, compared to new Jewish life in the Land of Israel. In 1926 it hosted the Modern Artists' exhibition, the first show of modern art in Mandatory Palestine. In 1927, it staged Dayagim ("Fishermen"), a socialist play about the exploitation of fishermen by entrepreneurs.
Set designers who worked with the company in its early years were European-trained painters and architects, among them architect Aryeh Elhanani, expressionist painter Israel Paldi and Menachem Shemi, Yitzhak Frenkel a painter of the Paris school, as well as other important artists such as Reuven Rubin and Arie Aroch.
On a successful European tour in 1934, Ohel staged biblical and national plays. When the company returned to Palestine, it produced The Good Soldier Schweik (1935), one of its most successful offerings.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ohel Theatre” as former Hebrew-language theatre in Tel Aviv. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as former Hebrew-language theatre in Tel Aviv. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17012852. VIAF identifies the subject as 123709504. The Library of Congress control number is n88265716. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1969, 1926 and 1927.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Ohel Theatre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.