Lea Koenig and Miriam Zohar: Theater Actresses as Memory Agents

The art of theater takes place, as a rule, in the ‘here and now’ of the present, yet all participants in a theatrical production (first and foremost the actors) contribute their personal and professional ‘past’ to this ‘present.’ Both ‘first ladies’ of Israeli theater, Lea Koenig and Miriam Zohar, are Holocaust survivors and ninety years old. Throughout rich careers which span over seven decades, Lea Koenig and Miriam Zohar have been cast in ‘Holocaust Plays.’ This essay examines the way they incorporated personal biography in their theatrical performances and their interpretations of dramatic texts. An examination of the different projects in which they were involved reveals that each of them made use of a different strategy to address the memory of the Holocaust in Israel. Their personal cases can both teach us about the role of the artist as an agent of memory within the society in which he or she lives and performs and exemplify more general patterns in Israel’s memory of the Holocaust.