Alice Lewisohn (1883–1972) was the founder of the

Neighborhood Playhouse A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural ar ...

with her sister

Irene Lewisohn Irene Lewisohn (September 5, 1886 – April 4, 1944) was the founder of the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Museum of Costume Art. Biography She was the daughter of Rosalie Jacobs and Leonard Lewisohn. In 1905 she and her sister, Alice Lewisohn, ...

. Alice was also an actress.

Biography

She was the daughter of Rosalie Jacobs and Leonard Lewisohn. In 1905 she and her sister,

, began classes and club work at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York. They produced performances with both dance and drama. In 1915, they opened the

on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets. There they offered training in both dance and drama to children and teenagers. Irene was in charge of the dance training and production, with the assistance of Blanche Talmud. Alice Lewisohn was in charge of the dramatic arts. In 1924 she married artist, cartoonist and designer Herbert E. Crowley. Her father is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

background. She resided in Zurich, Switzerland for many years and was part of the

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

inner circle, along with Crowley. The notion of a hermaphroditic God, drawn from

Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...

, was suggested to Jung by Alice Lewisohn, and commented on by Jung in a dream analysis seminar. In 1927 Lewisohn closed the Neighborhood Playhouse after a dozen years of success, including landmark productions such as 1925's

The Dybbuk ''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (russian: Меж двух миров �ибук}, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; yi, צווישן צוויי וועלטן - דער דִבּוּק, ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by ...

. After the Second World War, Lewisohn settled in Zurich with her husband. She died in Zurich 1972 as Alice Lewisohn Crowley.

Publications

Israel: A Symphony for Orchestra by Ernest BlochThe Neighborhood Playhouse
(1959)

Broadway

*Gertrude Kingston and a Visiting Company - The Queen's Enemies, performer: Alice Lewisohn as The Queen (1916) *Back to Methuselah, Part II (The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas), staged by Alice Lewisohn (1922) *The Dybbuk, staged in association with Alice Lewisohn (1925-1926) *Pinwheel, directed by Alice Lewisohn (1927)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewisohn, Alice 1883 births 1972 deaths American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish American philanthropists Lewisohn family 20th-century American philanthropists