Part of the former Yiddish Theatre District, the theater was designed in the Moorish Revival style by Harrison Wiseman and built from 1925 to 1926 by Louis Jaffe.

[16] To the left (south) of the main entrance is a door to the upper office stories, topped by a lintel with the inscribed words "Jaffe Art Theatre Bldg".

[19] On the north wall of the 12th Street lobby, two curved staircases with wrought-iron railings lead up to a narrow promenade behind the balcony-level seating.

[32] The side walls of the auditorium are made of textured plaster and were initially painted in a buff color, though it was subsequently repainted blue-gray.

[52] The demolition of Madison Square Garden had forced the Yiddish Art Players to relocate to the Nora Bayes Theatre in the midtown Theater District.

[54]Wiseman filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) at the end of May 1925, shortly after Jaffe acquired the site.

The DOB initially objected to the project because of its location within a residential neighborhood, the lack of exits to the west, and the absence of a setback along Second Avenue.

[53][57] Playwright Herman Bernstein said that the event was "of magnitude for Jews in America", given the Yiddish Art Theatre's success in spite of early difficulties.

[57] Jaffe said he wanted the theater to be "a permanent monument to prove that the Jewish immigrant to [the United States] is a useful citizen and makes a definite contribution to the country", responding to anti-Semitic comments that Stuyvesant had made three centuries prior.

Schwartz then planned to open the theater on November 11 with The Tenth Commandment, his adaptation of Goldfaden's play Thou Shalt Not Covet.

[61][62] The opening-night visitors included theatrical personalities such as Daniel Frohman, Owen Davis, and Robert Milton, as well as non-theatrical notables such as Otto Kahn and Fannie Hurst.

[29] From 1926 to 1945, the Jaffe Art Theatre largely hosted Yiddish productions, though it changed names several times based on whichever company appeared there.

[65] For the rest of the 1926–1927 season, the Jaffe Art Theatre was occupied by limited runs of six productions: Mendele Spivak in 1926[66][67] and Her Crime, Reverend Doctor Silver, Yoske Musicanti, Wolves, and Menschen Shtoib in early 1927.

[66][70] Other plays of that season included The Gold Diggers and On Foreign Soil in late 1927, as well as Alexander Pushkin and American Chasidim in early 1928.

[77] Isaac Lipshitz acquired the theater in a foreclosure proceeding that August,[71][85] and the play The Girl of Yesterday opened the next month, starring Picon.

[77][91] Under the German family's ownership, the theater hosted at least four performances: One Woman in 1931[92][93] and In a Tenement House, Pioneers, and Wedding Chains in 1932.

Various reasons were cited for the decline, including a slowdown in the number of Jewish immigrants after World War I and the fact that younger Jews were blending in with American culture.

[112] By March 1937, just ten years after the Yiddish Folks Theatre had opened, independent film operators Weinstock and Hertzig planned to lease the theater for movies.

[115] The third and final Yiddish show of the season was A Favorn Vinkel ("The Forsaken Nook") in February 1941,[104] with a special performance in honor of Ludwig Satz.

[126][127] The bank then leased the Jaffe Art Theatre in January 1944 to Benjamin Benito, who planned to stage Italian opera and vaudeville there.

[129][130] Ben-Ami presented two shows, The Miracle of the Warsaw Ghetto by H. Leivick and We Will Live by David Bergelson, in what was the theater's last season as a Yiddish theatrical venue.

The group planned to charge a relatively cheap $1.20 to $3.00 per ticket; in return, performers would not be paid more than $100 per week, and each show would have a four-week limited run.

[135] Phoenix's first production was Sidney Howard's play Madam, Will You Walk?, which opened in December 1953 with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.

[143] During the 1955–1956 season, Phoenix presented plays from aspiring directors at the Jaffe Art Theatre as part of an experimental program.

[142] The regular season also included the plays Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Adding Machine, Miss Julie and The Stronger in repertory, and A Month in the Country.

[190][191] In early 1973, the theater also hosted a dance special by Larry Richardson[192] and the Broadway musical Smith,[193][194] the latter of which relocated to the Alvin Theatre.

[196][197] This was followed in the 1974–1975 season by another Aleichem play, Dos Groyse Gevins ("The Big Winner"),[198][199] as well as a short run of A Wedding in Shtetel.

[212] The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which later transferred to Broadway, opened at the Entermedia in 1981[213] and was so successful that its audience was allowed to use all the seats.

[65] The Second Avenue hosted Zalmen Mlotek and Moishe Rosenfeld's bilingual revue The Golden Land, which opened in November 1985[219][220] and ran for 277 regular performances.

[65][229][b] The failure of The Chosen had been particularly devastating for M Square, which had spent three years creating the play and could no longer afford to continue operating the Second Avenue Theater.