Am_
48 Friday, August 20, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Romania Celebrates Yiddish Theater Centennial
NEW YORK — The
birth Of the world-wide
Jewish theater 100 years
ago is being celebrated in
Romania, the land of its
origin, with a series of
performances of the
great classics of Yiddish
drama:
The Teatrul Evreiesc de
Stat -- the State Jewish
Theater of Bucharest — is
:observing the centennial
with successive perfor-
mances of "Tevye the
Milkman" by Sholem
Aleichem, Ansky's "The
Dybbuk", . Lessing's
"Nathan the Wise" and
Israel Bercovici's "The
Golden Thread".
Bercovici is the literary
director and resident
playwright of the Teatrul
Evreiesc; and "The Gol-
den Thread", his latest
oted to the
production, is dev
life and work of Abraham
Goldfaden.
Goldfaden, known as
"the father of the Yiddish
theater", started the
movement in 1876, with a
performance of his own
play at Simon Marks'
Green Tree Inn, in Jassy,
capital of the province of
Moldavia.
The Broder Singers
were named for one Berl
Margolis Broder, who
had assumed his own last
ABRAHAM GOLDFADEN
name from Brody, his na-
tive town in Galicia.
Broder was a brush-
maker and traveling
salesman for his own
product who would regale
fellow-salesmen, at the
inns in which they
gathered, with songs of
his own composition.
Itinerant performers
picked up Broder's words
and music and used them
in their own appearances.
In time, they all become
known as Broder Singers.
Broder Singers were in
the tradition of the
"badhanim" — the He-
brew word for jesters or
merrymakers — who had
been entertaining at
Jewish weddings since the
Middle Ages. Patterned
after the wandering
troubadors of that period,
the "badhanim" would
amuse bride, groom and
guests with song and
dance, as a counterbalance
to • the serious, and
lengthy, discourse of the
officiating rabbi.
They were not only
comics but men of reli-
gious learning as well, for
many of their jests were
based upon a knowledge
of and allusion to the
Bible and the Talmud.
Frequently, these witti-
cisms were in rhymed
verse, so that the
"badhanim" qualified,
eventually, as card-
carrying, if minor, mem-
bers of the literary pro-
fession.
Abraham Goldfaden
was -born in the Russian
Ukraine in 1840 and
studied at a rabbinical
seminary in Zhitomir —
until he was offered, and
played, a leading role in
the school's annual
"Purimshpiel", the tra-
ditional entertainment
given at the Feast of
Esther.
The young man was so
taken with this stage ex-
perience that he gave up
his rabbinical career in
order to devote himself to
acting and to writing
poetry — first in Hebrew
and then in Yiddish. .
Although he could
neither read music nor
play a musical instru-
ment, Goldfaden com-
posed for his lyrics
melodies which were
based upon folk songs
popular in the "shtet-
lach", the tiny Jewish
communities which then
dotted Eastern Europe. (He
was later to adapt for his
romantic opera,
"Shulamis", the folk tune
which he made popular to
this day — "Rozhinkes mit
Mandlen" — "Raisins with
Almonds").
In 1876, the centennial
year which the Jewish
State Theater is now com-
memorating, Goldfaden
left the Ukraine and
moved to the Romanian
town of Jassy.
There he met a group of
"Broder Singers", young
men who were perform-
ing Yiddish songs — in-
cluding Goldfaden's own
— at weddings, in wine-
cellars and in such re-
staurant gardens as "The
Green Tree Inn".
It was in Jassy, with
just such a group of
"badhanim", or "Broder
Singers", as they had be-
come known, that Gold-
faden established firm
connections. He gave
structure to their infor-
mal repertoire of songs
and poems with connect-
ing prose dialogue and
with plots of sentimental,
melodramatic or topical
interest.
Goldfaden rehearsed
his troupe in a kind of
scenario, or play, which
he had written and put on
its first performance in
October of 1876, in the
garden of the Green Tree
Inn.
So well received were
the initial productions of
this evolving Yiddish the-
ater, as distinct from a
loosely organized and
Israeli News Centering on Capital
JERUSALEM — Al-
though virtually all He-
brew newspapers in the
country continue to be
published in Tel Aviv,
Jerusalem's emergence
as the country's major
news center has been
marked by the shifting of
the Government Press
Office headquarters to
the capital.
According to the
Jerusalem Post, the shift
reflects a steady growth
since the Six-Day War in
the number of foreign
correspondents who have
chosen to make
Jerusalem their base.
Ancient Hebrew Tablets Found
TEL AVIV (JTA) —
Two fragments of clay
tablets inscribed with
five lines of 80 Hebrew
letters were discovered
by Israeli archeologists
at Izbet Sarte, about,10
miles northeast of Tel
Aviv.
The tablets are be-
lieved to contain the old-
est Hebrew writing ever
found, even older than
the 10th Century BCE
Gezer calendar.
Dr. Moshe Kochavi of
Tel Aviv University and
Dr. Moshe Garsiel of
Bar-Ilan University, who
supervised the excava-
tions, said that the in-
scription on the two clay
tablets could not as yet be
deciphered because of the
very shallow print. They
said it will take scientists
some time to decipher the
writing
The new specimen was
discovered at the bottom
of a silo at Izbet Sarte. The
two archeologists iden-
tified the site with Even
Ha'Ezer, mentioned in
chapter four of the First
Book of Samuel, where the
Philistines defeated the
Israelites and captured
the Holy Ark.
A wall of a large build-
ing and some silos on the
eastern and northern
sides of Izbet Sarte also
were unearthed.
—
The majority of corre-
spondents were based in
Tel Aviv before 1967. A
current government list
of "mainline" corre-
spondents — those repre-
senting the more impor-
tant newspapers,
magazines or broadcast-
ing stations — show 45
based in Jerusalem and
30 in Tel Aviv.
In addition, eight network
television reporters are
based in Tel Aviv — mainly
because of proximity to
satellite relay facilities
and Ben-Gurion Airport.
The shift in GPO head-
quarters, long-sought by
Mayor Teddy Kollek, fol-
lowed a decision by Pre-
mier Yitzhak Rabin.
GPO Director Meron
Medzini said he will at-
tempt to have more gov-
ernment press confer-
ences held in Jerusalem
rather than Tel Aviv. "In
addition to our being a
technical channel for dis-
semination of informa-
tion T'd also like to see
our .ves
initiating
and
ser tars
ha, ,round briefings."
transient flock of casual
entertainers, that Gold
faden moved his company
on to Bucharest, the
Romanian capital, to the
permanent stage of the sa-
loon of Lazar the Cof-
feehousekeeper.
Goldfaden's success
emboldened other writ-
ers and producers to
establish similar com-
panies, both in Romania
and other countries.
Goldfaden came to New
York in 1887, but found he
could not compete with
the many producers who
had established them-
selves in the city only a
year or two before him.
He returned to Europe,
to continue his career
there, as the inspiration,
leading figure and pro-
lific writer (he composed
more than 60 plays) of the
movement he had
created.
Goldfaden spent his
final years in New York,
from 1903 until his death
in 1908. By then the Yid-
dish theater was in full
bloom — its base, Second
Avenue, the "Broadway"
of the Lower East Side. It
had such stars as Boris
Thomashefsky, the cigar-
maker and singer who
launched his own People's
Theater with a production
of Goldfaden's "The
Witch".
And there were David
Kessler and Jacob Adler,
the patriarch of three
generations of actors who
would emerge from the
Yiddish theater to lead-
ing roles on Broadway
and in Hollywood.
With the decline of the
Yiddish theater in New
York, the Jewish State
Theater of Bucharest
continues as the only
permanent Jewish reper-
Poster for Goldfaden's `Shulamis," 1881.
tory theater of profes-
Each of the 300 seats in
sional standing in the the theater is equipped
world, according to with earphones providing
Romanian authorities. simultaneous translation
Subsidized by the gov- from the Yiddish spoken
ernment, as are all 43 pro- or _sung on stage into
fessional theater com- Romanian, English and
panies in Romania, the French.
Jewish State Theater is
housed in its own build-
ing. -
According to the
Romanian government,
Its company is made up
the theater is one of the
of 90 directors, actors and
main elements in the
musicians, who are paid
at the same wage levels
preservation of the Yid-
as all other professional
dish language and cul-
ture for Romania's 80,000
theater people in the
Jewish citizens.
country.
Israel's Employment Record Envied
By HAIM SCHACHTER
World Zionist Organization
JERUSALEM — Ac-
cording to recent fi-
gures, the rate of un-
employment in Israel
today stands at 3.2 per-
cent of the total labor
force, and the number re-
ceiving unemployment
benefits is a fraction of 1
percent. If one compares
this picture with the fact
that one-third of the
world's adult population
is unemployed, it follows
that Israel is in a particu-
larly unique situation.
The astounding figure
concerning the world's
labor situation was given
at the International Con-
ference on Employment,
the Distribution of-In-
come and SArdial Ad-
vancement,/which re-
cently tool place in
Geneva sponsored by the
Internation,a1 Labor Or-
ganization (ILO).
Arye Goral, - director
general of the Ministry of
Labor? who headed the
Israeli delegation, said,
"It should be borne in
mind that Hitler came to
power in Germany in the
early 1930's chiefly owing
to the fact that 25 percent
of the labor force at that
time was unemployed and
was knocking at the doors
of the employment agen-
cies. At present, only one
in every six adults in cer-
tain African countries is
working. - -
In the past year there
were 18 million un-
employed in 23 of the most.
developed countries in
North America and
Europe, and one out of
every 20 workers had to
live on unemployment be-
nefits. From this ,point of
view, Israel's situation in-
sofar as employment is
concerned, is enviable.
Many of the 130 delega-
tions to the conference
evinced keen interest in
the basic concept of Is-
rael's economic policy,
which preferred a
marked degree of infla-
tion to unemployment.
Nu.merous delegations
asked-for details and pub-
licationpri the system
adopted by-,the Israel
Ministry of Labor and its
Labor Bureau in the pre-
paration of plans to avert
unemployment in ad-
vance.
In the last few months
there has been a slight
deterioration in Israel's
employment situation
but it amounts to margi-
nal fluctuations.
The daily average of
unemployed was 1,400 as
compared with 1,100 at
the beginning of the year,
so that at the present, 750
persons receive. un-
employment benefits as
compared with 650 half a
year ago.
In the past few months
there has also been a cer-
tain drop in requests for
workers — from 28,000 to
23,000 while there has
been a rise from 16,000 to
20,000 in the number of
people in search of work.
In the past three months
there has also been a re-
duction of about 3,500 in
the number of laborers
from the "occupied areas"
working in Israel.
All these, however, are
fluctuations of marginal
nature.
Goral says the
situation in the occupied
areas is at present better
than it is in Israel. There
is an unprecedented
boom in building ac-
tivities in Judaea and
Samaria. The situation in
the occupied areas and
the problems attending
the Israel-Arab conflict
41 not draw the atten-
tion of the conference.
And though it had the
participation of rep-
resentatives of the PLO
and of the Arab States, no
anti-Israel resolutions
were
proposed
or
adopted.