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. 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