Johnny and Pete Ginopolis
and the employees of

at as Ot;f

27815 Middlebelt at 12 Mile • Farmington Hills

Heartily Wish
Their Customers, Friends
And The Entire Community

The Gildenberg Family

and staff of

D1' 4,

Restaurant

At Sugar Tree
6263 Orchard Lake Rd., North of Maple

Wishing All
Our
Customers
and
Friends
A
Healthy & Happy
New Year

NEW

HWAS
CAFE

855-2800

Wishes Their Customers & Friends
A Healthy and Happy
New Year

Our Many Thanks To
Everyone For Their Great Support.

583 MONROE

961-5544

Go against the grain.
Cut down on salt.

Adding salt to your food
could subtract years from
your life. Because in some
people salt contributes to
high blood pressure, a con-
dition that increases your
risk of heart disease.

The Management and Staff of

Extends Wishes To Its
Customers and Friends
For A Very Healthy and

Happy New Year

565 E. Lamed

136

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1990

961-7766

V

American Heart Association

Yiddish Theater

Continued from Page 134

articulation and marrying a
Jewish girl.
For Bruce Adler, on the
other hand, a show business
career and Yiddish theater
are linked naturally, for he
was born to both, and he is
one of the last to be able to
say that he learned them
"by osmosis." He made his
debut on the Yiddish stage
at the age of three (he's close
to forty now), when he was
first taken to see his parents
perform their popular
vaudeville act.
When they invited the au-
dience to sing along, his pip-
ing soprano rose above the
rest, so they naturally in-
vited him up onstage to take
a bow. By the age of six,
Little Brucie had speaking
roles and was doing his
homework in the dressing
room. "I took my curtain
calls, and then I went home
for milk and cookies. And in
the morning I was in the
schoolyard. We did two or
three new shows a week.
That was an education."
When Bruce sings the old
show-stopper "Rumania,
Rumania," he sings it as he
learned it on the knee of
Aaron Lebedev, the star who
popularized it. Compact and
springy on his feet, buoyant
with controlled energy, he is
one of the few entertainers of
the younger generation who
can ease with zestful au-
thority into old- time soft-
shoe routines and pratfalls.
And though he works
mostly in English now, he
relishes opportunities like
Those Were the Days. "I
don't turn my back on my
heritage. When I do Yiddish
theater, I do it well. I feel I'm
paying a little bit of homage,
through my body, to my
family and their world."
Richard Carlow represents
the current youth movement
toward cultural revival.
Like his contemporaries who
are collecting Yiddish books
and learning to read them,
listening to Yiddish folk
tunes and learning to fiddle
them, Richard came sear-
ching for Yiddishkeit and
discovered Yiddish theater.
"I always meant to learn
Yiddish. My parents spoke it
to my grandparents, but I
didn't understand. Five
years ago I finally got
around to signing up for a
beginners' course at the
Workmen's Circle."
A full semester passed
before his teacher happened
to mention that such a thing
as Yiddish theater existed,
and by coincidence the semi-
professional Folksbiene
Theatre was holding audi-
tions. "I got the part. I left
the show I was in. I didn't

know if I could act in
Yiddish." He pauses, shyly.
He doesn't mean to sound
swashbuckling. "I took a
chance."
Since then Richard has
kept studying the language.
Now he feels comfortable
speaking it onstage, and he
has progressed to sweet,
earnest, tall and slightly'
awkward leading men. ThiE7,
year at the Folksbiene he ac-
tually got the girl! His living
comes part from acting and
part from other kinds of jobs,
but Yiddish theater is where
he has found his roots, as
well as the satisfaction c r
helping to preserve those
roots for the community.
Raquel Yossipon, trained
for the serious avant garde,
lent glamor to leading
Yiddish roles with her dee
voice and exotic Israeli
cent. Now she returns hors
summers to teach a course

The audience get
themselves there
even if the nursing
home has to
charter a bus.

Yiddish theater at the Uni-
versity of Tel Aviv. Ever
since professional secular
Yiddish theater began, just
over a hundred years ago,
cantors have eased back an
forth between the stage and
the synagogue, and to this
day almost every season br-
ings a cantor to the Yiddish
stage.
Some regulars are simply
amateurs whose knowledge
of Yiddish language admits
them to the fun of occasional
theatricals and what Sandy
Levitt, who began as a cho-
reographer, calls "crazy
Yiddish backstage humor."
Adrienne Cooper, who pun I
sued doctoral studies in
Yiddish literature at the
University of Chicago and
learned to perform Yiddish
art songs from their com-
posers who are no longer
alive, observes that "people
in Yiddish theater are quick
to feel anger and affection
for each other."
Intimacy is part of the
culture. It creates a bond that
holds them in orbit around
the institution.
If all these attitude
toward Yiddish theater can
be imagined as spectrum of a
generation, Moishe
Rosenfeld is at the extreme
end. Moishe may well be the

last person actually to set
out to make a professional

''

career in Yiddish theater.
His commitment began in
childhood. Moishe had a se-
Continued on Page 138

,