, 1912. Between 1912 and 1913,
S. An-sky headed the
Jewish Ethnographic Expedition, financed by Baron Vladimir Günzburg and named in honor of his father
Horace Günzburg, which traveled through
Podolia and
Volhynia in the
Pale of Settlement. They documented the oral traditions and customs of the native Jews, whose culture was slowly disintegrating under the pressure of modernity. According to his assistant
Shmuel Shrira, An-sky was particularly impressed by the stories he heard in
Miropol of a local sage, the
hasidic rebbe Samuel of Kaminka-Miropol (1778 – May 10, 1843), who was reputed to have been a master exorcist of
dybbuk spirits. Samuel served as the prototype for the character Azriel, who is also said to reside in that town. Historian
Nathaniel Deutsch suggested he also drew inspiration from the
Maiden of Ludmir, who was also rumored to have been possessed, thus explaining her perceived inappropriate manly behavior. Craig Stephen Cravens deduced that An-sky began writing the play in late 1913. It was first mentioned in a reply to him from Baron Günzburg, on 12 February 1914, who commented he read a draft and found it compelling. The original was in Russian; shortly after completing it, the author was advised by friends to translate it into Yiddish. In the summer, he started promoting
The Dybbuk, hoping it would be staged by a major Russian theater. He was rebuffed by
Semyon Vengerov of the
Alexandrinsky Theatre, who explained they could not perform another play by a Jew after the negative reaction to
Semyon Yushkevich's
Mendel Spivak. An-sky then contacted the managers of the
Moscow Art Theatre. He failed to secure a meeting with
Constantin Stanislavski himself, but director
Leopold Sulerzhitsky read the play during the autumn, and replied much further work was required. Guided by him via correspondence, the author rewrote his piece through 1915. When he accepted the revised version in September, Sulerzhitsky regarded it as much better, but not satisfactory. At that time, An-sky's publisher Zinovy Grzhebin submitted it to the state censorship in
St. Petersburg. Censor Nikolai von Osten-Driesen commented the banishment of the spirit resembled the
Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, and An-sky rewrote the scene using subtler terms. This version was approved by Driesen on 10 October, after removing another minor reference to angels. The play was still undergoing modifications: on 21 October, An-sky propositioned to Sulerzhitsky they add a prologue, epilogue and a long scene of Leah's wedding day. He agreed, and the censor approved the expanded edition on 30 November. Both copies submitted by An-sky were found in 2001 at the
Russian Academy of Theatre Arts. They were considerably different from the known stage version: most notably, the Messenger was not yet conceived. Stanislavski agreed to review the play, though not thoroughly, on 30 December. Though many accounts link him with
The Dybbuk, Cravens commented this is the only actual documentation in the matter. He never even watched
The Dybbuk fully. He and the rest of the management continued to request revisions. On 25 November 1916, An-sky wrote in his diary that Stanislavski was almost pleased, asking but for only minor changes in the ending. On 8 January 1917, the press reported the Moscow Art Theatre accepted
The Dybbuk and was preparing to stage it. At the very same time, Stanislavski was supporting the incipient
Habima Theater, a Hebrew-language venture headed by . An-sky read his play to Hillel Zlatopolsky, a patron of Habima, who purchased the rights to translate it to Hebrew. The author set but one condition, demanding it would be handed over to
Hayim Nahman Bialik. The latter accepted the task in February and completed it in July. Bialik's translation was the first version of the play to be published: it was released in the Hebrew literary magazine ''Ha'tkufa'' in February 1918. Meanwhile, the Moscow Art Theatre's planned production of
The Dybbuk encountered severe hardships.
Michael Chekhov, cast as Azriel, had a severe nervous breakdown due to the use of extreme acting techniques; Stanislavski fell ill with
typhus. On 7 March 1918, Boris Suskevich notified An-sky his play was not to be included in that season's repertoire. The author left the city to
Vilnius, losing his original copy on the way, but eventually receiving another from
Shmuel Niger. He read his renewed edition before David Herman, director of the
Vilna Troupe, but did not live to see it performed. He died on November 8, 1920. == Stage productions ==