Jonathan Garfinkel (born 1973 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

) is a Jewish-Canadian playwright and author. He gained prominence especially for his play ''The Trials of

John Demjanjuk John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk; uk, Іван Миколайович Дем'янюк; 3 April 1920 – 17 March 2012) was a Ukrainian-American who served as a Trawniki man and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, M ...

: A Holocaust Cabaret''.

Early life and education

Coming from a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

family, Garfinkel learned Hebrew and Yiddish. He attended the Bialik Hebrew Day School in

, graduating in 1987.

Career

As an adult, he left Zionism. Before he dedicated himself to writing, he worked as a waiter, carpenter and English literature teacher. He published his poetry collection, ''Glass Psalms'', in 2005. In 2007 he followed with his autobiographical work ''Ambivalence'', in which he describes how he broke away from Zionism, triggered by a trip to Israel. During his stay in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

he visited several Palestinian refugee camps. Jean Hannah Edelstein reviewed his book in

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

, saying: ”This is a book both painful and beautiful to read”. ''The Demjanjuk Trials'' premiered in Canada in 2004 and was staged in Germany at the

Theater Heidelberg Theater & Orchester Heidelberg is a theatre in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germa ...

by Catja Baumann in 2010. Discussing his play, Christian Gampert states on the

Deutschlandradio Kultur Deutschlandfunk Kultur (; abbreviated to ''DLF Kultur'' or ''DKultur'') is a culture-oriented radio station and part of Deutschlandradio, a set of national radio stations in Germany. Initially named ''DeutschlandRadio Berlin'', the station was re ...

:" Jonathan Garfinkel ��takes the liberty to say: Such trials are absurd and only scratch the surface. However, to unsettle his audience Garfinkel uses theatrical devices which have never been used before in this topic in Germany: sympathy for the perpetrators, vicious songs, courtroom skits, Holocaust jokes." His play ''House of Many Tongues'' was also staged in Germany by Kristo Šagor in the

Schauspielhaus Bochum The Schauspielhaus Bochum is one of the notable drama theatres in Germany. It is located on Königsallee in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. Eric de Vroedt Eric de Vroedt (Rotterdam, 1972) is a Dutch theater director, writer and actor. Caree ...

. Sven Westernströer wrote in Derwesten.de: "The playwright is jewish-canadian. This is important to know in order to understand why in his play Garfinkel approaches a highly sensitive and emotionally charged topic like the Middle East conflict in his play with respect, but also with a certain distance and liberating irony. His characters, whether Israeli or Palestinian, are all likeable characters ��. He writes articles for the '' Jüdische Allgemeine'', ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', and ''Walrus'', among other publications. He lives in Toronto,

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

.http://www.playwrightscanada.com/index.php/jonathan-garfinkel.html

Awards and honours

Garfinkel has received several awards, including the Toronto Arts Council Senior Writers scholarship in 2006, and the ''K.M. Hunter Award'' for best young playwright in 2008. In 2009, he received a scholarship from the

Akademie Schloss Solitude The Akademie Schloss Solitude is a foundation under public law. The main aspect of the Akademie is to promote mainly younger, particularly gifted artists and scientists by means of residency fellowships and also by organizing events and exhibitio ...

Books

* ''In a Land Without Dogs the Cats Learn to Bark''. House of Anansi Press, Toronto 2023, ISBN 978-1-5870-0416-3.

References

External links

''Holocaust-Cabaret'', Deutschlandradio Kultur

Jonathan Garfinkel at Pegasus Theatre and Publishing
* Jonathan Garfinkel
''Mein Schloss, meine Sauna, meine Steigung''
In: Jüdische Allgemeine online vom 18. Dezember 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Garfinkel, Jonathan 1973 births Living people Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Jewish Canadian writers Writers from Toronto