In 1905, Sholem Asch debuted his first full-length play, a symbolist drama about the diverse and varying viewpoints about the future of Jewish life at the turn of the twentieth century in Poland. In it, a family gathers from across Europe to say goodbye to their octogenarian grandparents, who are moving to Palestine to live out their final years. The family includes the traditionally religious, capitalists, Germanophiles, a Zionist, a Socialist Democrat, a secular Yiddishist, a Polish nationalist, and an artist in search of himself— and everyone has a different idea about the future of Jewish life, identity and homeland. 

The 1905 Russian-language premiere of On the Road to Zion introduced the Russian intelligentsia to the existence of an exciting new literature in Yiddish. Produced by the grande dame of Russian theater, Vera Komissarzhevskaya—who played the original Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull—it was a sensation. Jacob and Sarah Adler starred in its Yiddish-language premiere, in New York City.