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Mining the stories of our past to examine antisemitism today

Northwestern’s Crown Family Center helps bring context and perspective to a Broadway drama about history, identity and survival
April 14, 2025 | By Stephanie Kulke
prayer for the french republic
In 1944, a Jewish couple in Paris awaits news of their missing family. Seventy years later, their descendants face the same question: “Are we safe?” Spanning five generations, “Prayer for the French Republic” is a sweeping, darkly funny exploration of history, identity, and survival. Photo by Greg Inda

Northwestern’s Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies was tapped to program a series of nine CityTalk conversations designed to explore the themes of history, identity and survival in Joshua Harmon’s 2022 award-winning play “Prayer for the French Republic.” Fresh off a Broadway stretch, the play now is running through May 11 at Northlight Theatre in Skokie.

The talks will take place at various venues in Chicago during the run of the play.

Presenters include Northwestern’s David Shyovitz, an associate professor of history and director of the Crown Family Center. His talk, “Medieval Jewish Paris: A Virtual Tour,” will be held at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, on Wednesday, May 7. Daniel Greene, adjunct professor of history at Northwestern and a subject matter expert at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will present “American Jews, the Melting Pot, and Cultural Pluralism: Then and Now” at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, 303 Dodge Ave., Evanston, on Thursday, May 8.

A sweeping drama, punctuated with comedy, “Prayer for the French Republic” introduces audiences to a Jewish couple in mid-1940s Paris awaiting news of their missing family and spans five generations of the same family facing the same question — “Are we safe?”

The production is directed by Jeremy Wechsler, artistic director of Chicago’s Theater Wit, the company originating the CityTalk program.

Written by Joshua Harmon, the show premiered off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club. It won the 2022 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best New Off-Broadway Play. Following a sold-out run, it appeared on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre before wrapping in March.

  • Looking for more? Check out the CityTalk event list  >

“Plays are meant to contribute to our understanding of ourselves as humans,” Wechsler said. “But it’s not our job to angle the play to meet the demands of the daily news cycle, because the audience already brings the world in with them.”

At the same time, Wechsler said it is the theater’s responsibility to equip audiences with context and perspectives that will ready them to meet the production that has been prepared for them.

In framing the themes for the CityTalk conversations, David Shyovitz said the planning team focused on potential linkages between the substance of the play and the questions that people in the Jewish community are thinking very deeply about. Photo by Greg Inda.

Wechsler acknowledges that after Oct. 7 and the invasion of Gaza, the questions and discussion points around antisemitism grew beyond what the theater could tackle responsibly. That’s when they sought the expertise of Northwestern’s Jewish and Israel studies scholars to guide the planning and programming for the CityTalk series.

“I’m not sure that the playwright Joshua Harmon could have anticipated just how on the nose this play would be in 2025 for the kinds of conversations that we’re having now,” said Shyovitz.

“Right now, a lot of people inside and outside the Jewish community are talking searchingly about the boundaries of Jewish identity, about the different feeling of belonging of Jews who live as minorities as opposed to those who live in a Jewish majority state. And there are raging debates around what exactly we mean when we talk about antisemitism, both in France and in the U.S. and beyond. All those are questions that the play raises and treats in a sensitive and profound way,” Shyovitz said.

In framing the themes for the CityTalk conversations, Shyovitz said the planning team focused on potential linkages between the substance of the play and the questions that people in the Jewish community are thinking very deeply about.  

“It would be a missed opportunity not to put those things in direct dialogue with each other. And so, we, on the Northwestern Jewish Studies side, wanted to be sure that the conversations that were going to come out of this series would be enriched by the analytical depth and sophistication that historical scholarship can provide. Jewish Studies scholars work hard to try to understand these issues in a deep and nuanced way, and it's important that we make that work accessible to the broader public beyond Northwestern’s campus” Shyovitz said.

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