So too, although the characters in “Death of a Salesman” are thoroughly deracinated, critics have long identified them as Jews.

Making its characters speak Yiddish only intensified that effect - Vladimir and Estragon are survivors of some sort, and in Shane Baker’s Yiddish translation they were certainly Jewish ones. Although Beckett’s play takes place in an existential void, the author’s participation in the French Resistance, and his writing of the play in the aftermath of the Second World War, gives its post-apocalyptic atmosphere a post-war resonance. Both are landmark pieces of 20th-century theater, and both have murky, albeit potentially Jewish contexts. Superficially there are many similarities between the two productions. Like the New Yiddish Rep’s 2013 production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” the use of Yiddish raises new questions about the play, and offers new interpretative possibilities. Perhaps, if you grant that Willy Loman really is a Jewish character, he would have been a Yiddish speaking one as well. Now that version, titled “Toyt fun a seylsman,” is being produced by the New Yiddish Rep under the direction of Moshe Yassur, starring Avi Hoffman as Willy.

Shortly after the premiere of “Salesman” on Broadway, a translation was made by the actor Joseph Buloff, who performed it with his wife, Luba Kadison, first in Argentina and then, with Miller’s blessing, at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn. If Willy Loman was Jewish, did he speak Yiddish? The obvious answer, considering that the play was written and performed in English, is no. Now a new production of “Death of a Salesman” asks a further question. If Willy once had Jewish roots, they are long gone. Yet there is no sign in the script that the Lomans are Jews. He even based the play on his own uncle, a boastful salesman who struggled to make a living.

Loman’s precarious life was the fate of many Jews in the 20th century, and playwright Arthur Miller - whose centenary is being celebrated this month - was the son and grandson of Jewish immigrants. Is “Death of a Salesman” a Jewish play? Is Willy Loman, its main character, Jewish? The question has been asked almost since “Salesman” was first produced, in 1949.

A death of a salesman play script