Abraham Goldfaden Founder of Yiddish Theater;
His Friendship and Association with Herzl and Nordau
By JOSEF FRAENKEL
Jewish News London Correspondent
One of the youngest members of
the theaters of the world is the
Yiddish stage, and its father was
Abraham Goldfaden.
Abraham Goldfaden (b.1840, in
Stara - Konstantinow, Woihynia,
d.1908, in New York) was a watch-
maker's son. First, he was to be-
come a craftsman, then a rabbi
and finally a merchant. In his
youth he wrote Hebrew and Yid-
dish poetry and later made an at-
tempt at publishing newspapers in
Yiddish. In Lemberg he edited,
together with Isaac Joel Linetzki,
the author of the novel "Dos
Poilishe Yingel" (The Polish Boy),
the "Jisroelik". Shortly afterwards
he set himself up independently
and became editor of the "Buko-
winaer Israelitisches Volksblatt,"
but the naper had to be discon-
tinued. From journalism he
turned to the theater.
In Jassy he came in contact with
the "Yiddish singers" and here he
founded the first Yiddish theater
(1876'). Goldfaden was a "Jack
of all trades" — he -was the heart
and soul of the establishment —
manager, actor, producer, com-
poser, playwright and cashier. In
Bucharest he discovered the first
great Yiddish actor, Mogalescu,
who, as a Jew, was not permitted
to the Romanian stage. The first
play produced was "Die Bobe mit
dem Einikel" ("grandmother and
granddaughter"). After that he
began to travel around with his
company. They came to Odessa,
but soon the Russian police ex-
pelled them and in the end they
dispersed.
Mogalescu and Kessler moved
to Romania, Zuckermann, Libre-
scu, Berger and Spivakowski
went to Germany, Adler and
Karp to England, Silbermann
and Heine to America, Axelrad
to Galicia, Mr. and Mrs. Grodner,
Charlotte Horowitz, Gruenberg,
Hermelin, Weinblatt and Lenard
to Vienna, and Goldfaden to
Paris. Everywhere they gave
performances, made the Yiddish
"Lied" popular and then mi-
grated further — to America.
Goldfaden wrote about 40 plays;
other early playwrights were
Joseph Latteiner, Jacob Gordin and
Moses Horovitz who produced about
100 plays. Goldfaden, who often
visited London, sold publishing and
production rights of his plays and
operas to R. Mazin, Booksellers,
Publishers and Printers of Old
Montague Street (London). Mazin,
who published some of the songs
and plays, used to print the text
of the agreement wtih Goldfaden
on_ the back cover.
The language of Goldfaden's ac-
tors was at that time called
"Jargon," then "German-Yiddish,"
and finally the vocabulary was
developed and purified and be-
came "Yiddish." From the original
"Jargon" to present day "Yiddish"
was one long struggle for the
recognition of the language and
the stage. By founding the theater,
Yiddish literature was enriched.
New poets and dramatists emerged,
inspired by the Yiddish theater.
Goldfaden was the embodiment
of the wandering Jewish poet
and actor. He was everywhere —
in America, Austria, Romania,
Russia, Galicia, England — and
he gathered around him actors,
trained them, and devoted him-
self to the Yiddish theater and
the Yiddish language.
Goldfaden, the playwright, began
in the "Haskalah" period of en-
. lightenment in Eastern Europe,
and he reached his peak at the
time Herzl and Nordau emerged
to found political Zionism. Gold-
faden became a national poet and
called himself a Zionist.
At the beginning of his Zionist
activities Theodor Herzl had no
understanding for the "Jargon,"
for "Yiddish-German" or "Jid.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
40—Friday, December 10, 1965
dendaitsch." Herzl, who had him-
self written about 30 plays and
was a frequent play-goer, was
at first disillusioned at the low
level of the theater, especially
after a performance at Con-
stantinople in October 1898, where
a Goldfaden play was produced.
But in time Herzl changed his
views on Hebrew, and Yiddish too.
Herzl realized that Yiddish was
the language of the masses and
that Hebrew would become the
language of the Jewish State. He
appreciated the works of Yiddish
and Hebrew writers and in his
paper, "Die Welt" (Vienna),
translations from Blank, Sholom
Aleichem, Peretz, Reisen, Rosen-
feld and Frug appeared. A circle
of journalists gathered around
Herzl, and, under his influence,
studied Yiddish and Hebrew. Thus
they were able to give to Western
Jewry the best of this literature.
Herzl met Goldfaden when the
latter was in Vienna in 1897,
and wanted to make the ac-
quaintance of the well-known
actor Ritter von Sonnenthal of
the Hofburgtheater.
Goldfaden asked Herzl to give
him a letter of introduction to the
famous actor. Until before the war,
it was to be found in the Viennese
theater collection to the "National-
bibliothek."
"June 9th, 1897.
Dear Sir,—Allow me to pre-
sent to you the writer and poet
Mr. A. Goldfaden. I am much
interested in him and should
like you to make his acquaint-
ance and if possible to be of
assistance to him in whatever he
may desire of you.
With most respectful greet-
ings, Yours,
Theodor Herzl."
Max Nordau, too, showed an in-
terest in the Yiddish theater and
in Goldfaden. When they once met
Nordau asked him whether he was
"musical". Goldfaden replied that
all "East-European Jews" were,
more or less, musical. A pious Jew
accompanies his prayers with song
and in every Jewish home there
must be singing on Friday evening
• . . And Goldfaden went on to
tell him how he himself had come
to Jewish folk-music. At first he
had "smuggled" light melodies
from Offenbach, Verdi, Meyerbeer
and even Wagner into his plays.
But his public would not tolerate_
this music. So he collected melodies
from the, synagogue or "borrowed"
them from a cantor .. .
Nearly 90 years have passed,
but the Yiddish theater — his
theater — still lives. His plays
(Sulamith, Bar Kochba, etc.) are
staged with continued success and
his sentimental songs have pen-
etrated deeply into the people's
hearts. They sing them unaware
that the words and the music are
Goldfaden's, the founder of the
Yiddish theater.
Israel's 'New Libel Law
By ELIAHU SALPETER
Chief JTA Correspondent in Israel
(Copyright, 1965, JTA, Inc.)
JERUSALEM — In its last days
before the elections, the outgoing
Knesset passed a new libel law.
Since then, the most important per-
son on any Israel newspaper is not
the star reporter nor the advertis-
ing manager and not even the
editor-in-chief, but the attorney
of the paper. Every newspaper is
now being snowed under by the
avalanche of letters from eager
lawyers claiming defamation on
behalf of their clients.
The new libel law differs from
the old legal situation in that the
wronged party can initiate criminal
proceedings and, on the basis of
the decision in the criminal case,
he can institute a civil suit for
damages without the need of a
trial going into the substance of
the matter, but based only on the
findings of the criminal proceed-
ings.
The law charges with respon-
sibility not only the responsible
editor or publisher but also the
reporter who wrote the story
and even the printer.
Israeli journalists and editors
reacted with outrage to the law
and, early in November, held a
one-day strike during which no
newspapers appeared in the coun-
try; nor was any news broadcast
over the radio. The governMent,
under broad pressure, has ap-
pointed a commission of inquiry
headed by Supreme Court Justice
Vitkon to hear complaints against
the law and propose amendments.
Witnesses so far — journalists,
editors, representatives of lawyers'
associations and of printers unions
— had all spoken out against the
law. And, on the very first day
that the new Knesset convened,
one of the opposition parties sub-
mitted a bill to amend the most
objectionable clauses of this leg-
islation.
The new law served as a good
occasion for many young lawyers
to urge damaged or allegedly dam-
aged parties to insist on bringing
their cases to court, instead of
settling for corrections and apolo-
gies in the papers when such cor-
rections and apologies are justified.
One gains the impression that
many of the claims come from
relatively unknown lawyers on be-
half of small firms or unimport-
ant individuals.
A typical example of what the
papers face now would be a let-
ter from a young lawyer, refer-
ring to a human interest story,
published somewhere in the in-
side pages, about a small village
in the backwoods, describing a
situation in which residents of
the place behaved as country
hicks. This, the lawyer would
write indignantly, represents
group defamation, exposing these
villagers to ridicule of their
neighbors, etc., and therefore
constitutes a case of libel under
the new law.
Or, another typical case would
be that of a young man appear-
ing in the editor's office and start-
ing a "friendly conversation" with
the sentence: "You know, I am
not the type of man who likes to
go to court, but . . ." He then pre-
sents himself as a functionary of
some obscure organization alleged-
ly libeled in the paper. On in-
vestigation, it turns out that what
he is referring to is a statement
by a public figure, printed in all
the papers and charging, without
mentioning any names, certain or-
ganizations with one kind of ob-
jectionable action or another. When
the question is put to the young
man — without going into the
matter whether the said statement
is libelous or not — as to where
does this concern his organization,
he would reply: "But, Sir, I know
it is obvious that he means us."
Then, he adds that he does not
want to sue the paper, all he
wants is the publication of a- few
lines of correction which he hap-
pened to prepare in advance. He
then pulls out of his pocket a two-
page letter tantamount to a public-
ity sheet about his organization,
with the vaguest reference to the
allegedly libelous statement refer-
red to.
It is highly probable that the
Vitkon Commission will recom-
mend changes in the most ob-
jectionable clauses of the new libel
law, and it may be assumed that
the Knesset will approve those
changes in due course. Meanwhile,
the publicity that has arisen in
connection with the issue of libel
whetted the appetite of many law-
yers, and it may be a long time
before editors of Israeli news-
papers can settle back to the
job of finding all the news fit
to print instead of scrutinizing
every line for the possibility that
it may result in a libel suit, dam-
aging and costly to the paper even
if ultimately the court finds the
publication innocent.
Weekday, Sabbath Torah Readings
By RABBI SAMUEL J. FOX
(Copyright, 1965, JTA, Inc.)
the place where the portion is
to be read before it is removed
from the ark?
This is done so that the con-
gregation would be spared the ex-
perience of having to wait until
the reader rolls the spindles while 7,
the Torah is on the reading table(
so that he can expose the section`,
which is to be read. General1
y_, \
speaking, Jewish tradition was —
very cautions about the respect
due to a congregation and its con-
venience. There was to be no oc-
casion when the congregation as
a whole should have to wait idly
until some mechanical perform-
ance was done, without the con-
gregation being involved. Practical-
ly, of course, this leads to better
decorum.
Why is the Torah read public-
ly in the synagogue every Mon-
day, Thursday and Saturday?
Basically, this arrangement made
it possible to be certain that never
would three days elapse without
the Torah being read to the Jew-
ish public. The sages felt this re-
quirement was derived from the
Biblical description of the Israelites
who were said to have wandered
"three days in the wilderness and
they did not find water" (Exodus
15:22). As a result of this, they
became disgruntled and temporar-
ily lost their faith. Likewise, say
the rabbis, as we compare Torah
to water, it is dangerous for a peo-
ple to go without the refreshing
spring of Torah for three days
lest the faith be lost. The selec- Hebrew Corner
tion of these particular three days
is both a practical choice as well
as a commemorative one. Natural-
ly, the Sabbath was the most like-
Once there was a ma'abara here.
ly day to have the Torah read Even today there are people living in
some
the miserable huts. This week
since people have more time on many of
luxury limousines drew up out
that day because they do not work. of which emerged some thirty ladies
dressed in the latest fashion. The
The choice of Monday and Thurs- people
of the ma'abara had evidently
day follows as the only logical never seen so many limousines at
once, and they clustered around the
selection of days that would pre- shiny cars to see why all the guests
vent any three days going by with- had come to the ma'abara, which is
situated in Jerusalem at a distance of
out having the Torah read. Further- 200
meters from the Jordan border.
They had come to take part in the
more, each of these three days is
laying of the cornerstone for the
in some way associated with the building of a hospital for . . . dogs
revelation at Mount Sinai, the oc- . . . cats, horses and mules which the
society for the protection of animals
casion when the Torah was given. is
setting up here.
This building will contain all the
The Revelation at which the 10 installations
necessary for providing
Commandments were given ocur- proper treatment
for animals: an op-
erating
theater,
X-ray room, post-op-
red on the Sabbath. Moses brought
erative, rest room, laboratory, kitchen
down the second tablets on a and . . . a beauty parlor where cats
and dogs will have hair dos and cos-
Thursday.
metic treatment. The building will
Why is the Torah read twice
also contain shelter for the animals
in case of air raids.
on the Sabbath (Once in the
The building will cost about 100,000
morning and once in the after-
pounds. Goodhearted Jews from Amer-
ica who love the animals of our
noon)?
country have saved up the money for
Tradition has it that Ezra, the cats and dogs: the Jews of Britain who
are famous for their love of horses
Scribe, ordained this practice for have
donated the money for stables.
the sake of those who were not
The guests said such wonderful
things about dogs, cruelty to animals
able to come to the synagogue on and
humaneness. But had these people
Mondays and Thursdays, so that glanced sideward for a moment at the
miserable
huts in which families with
they would at least be able to children live
they may have noticed
hear the Torah read a second that there are people here living a
dog's life though they are not dogs ...
time, i.e. on Saturday afternoon.
Translation of Hebrew column pub-
Why is it required to have the lished by Brit Ivrit Olamit and Memorial
Foundation for Jewish Culture, Jeru-
Sefer Torah rolled and set on salem
A Dog's Life
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