136-681: The Yiddish Art Theatre was a Yiddish theatre company of the 20th century in New York City. The organization was founded in 1918 by actor and impresario Maurice Schwartz , to present serious Yiddish drama and works from world literature in Yiddish . At its opening on August 30, 1918, Schwartz's company was housed at the Irving Place Theatre in Union Square, Manhattan . It performed there for three theater seasons. For
272-523: A revival of Hebrew for use in secular life, which resulted in an increase in Hebrew found in print. Concurrently, it strove for an optimal integration in surrounding societies. Practitioners promoted the study of exogenous culture, style, and vernacular, and the adoption of modern values. At the same time, economic production, and the taking up of new occupations was pursued. The Haskalah promoted rationalism , liberalism , relativism , and enquiry , and
408-408: A soubrette , a comic, a lover, a villain , a villainess (or "intriguer"), an older man and woman for character roles, and one or two more for spares as the plot might require," and a musical component that might range from a single fiddler to an orchestra. This was very convenient for a repertory company, especially a traveling one. Both at the start and well into the great years of Yiddish theatre,
544-759: A Yiddish theatre at Odessa, which for several years became the capital of Yiddish theatre. Russia offered a more sophisticated audience than rural Romania: many Russian Jews were regular attendees of Russian-language theatre, and Odessa was a first-rate theatre city. In this context, serious melodramatic operettas, and even straight plays, took their place in the repertoire among the lighter vaudevilles and comedies that had thus far predominated. All three major troupes in Odessa did their own productions of Karl Gutzkow 's play Uriel Acosta (with Goldfaden's production being an operetta). However, even this increased sophistication could not compare to later, more ambitious efforts of
680-701: A Yiddish theatre at the Pavilion Theatre in 1906 marked a new era for the Yiddish theatre in London, providing a permanent home for the theatre for almost three decades. The theatre was home to a number of actor-managers throughout its history, the first being Sigmund Feinman, a Yiddish actor and playwright who grew to prominence on the American Yiddish stage. Feinman staged plays such as Gordin 's The Jewish King Lear , for which Adler returned for
816-587: A change in Jewish tradition, in particular, regarding rituals like circumcision. Another non-Orthodox group was the Conservative Jews, who emphasized the importance of traditions but viewed with a historical perspective. The Orthodox Jews were actively against these reformers because they viewed changing Jewish tradition as an insult to God and believed that fulfillment in life could be found in serving God and keeping his commandments. The effect of Haskalah
952-418: A common theme in maskilic autobiographies. Having imbibed the image of European bourgeoisie family values, many of them sought to challenge the semi-matriarchal order of rabbinic families – which combined a lack of Jewish education for women with granting them the status of providers – early marriage, and rigid modesty. Instead, they insisted that men become economically productive while confining their wives to
1088-693: A common theme in Haskalah literature – the use of anathema to enforce community will and the concentration on virtually only religious studies. Maskilic reforms included educational efforts. In 1778, partisans of the movement were among the founders of the Berlin Jewish Free School, or Hevrat Hinuch Ne'arim (Society for the Education of Boys), the first institution in Ashkenazi Jewry that taught general studies in addition to
1224-416: A corrupt dialect and another symptom of Jewish destitution – the movement pioneered the negative attitude to Yiddish which persisted many years later among the educated – though often its activists had to resort to it for lack of better medium to address the masses. Aaron Halle-Wolfssohn , for example, authored the first modern Judaeo-German play, Leichtsinn und Frömmelei (Rashness and Sanctimony) in 1796. On
1360-558: A crucial role in providing a forum for theater professionals to discuss these issues and try new solutions, such as collectively run theaters. Theatrical performances themselves also addressed social issues. Michal Weichert's Yung-teater was particularly known for political engagement, staging an attention-getting avant-garde performance of the play Boston, by Bernhard Blum, about the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti , in 1933. The 1883 Russian ban on Yiddish theatre (lifted in 1904) effectively pushed it to Western Europe and then to America. Over
1496-624: A guest appearance in the lead role. The Pavilion Theatre closed as a Yiddish theatre in 1935. It was succeeded by the Grand Palais Theatre and the New Yiddish Theatre Company at the Adler Hall, Whitechapel. Poland was an important center of Yiddish theatrical activity, with more than 400 Yiddish theatrical companies performing in the country during the interwar period. One of the most important companies,
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#17327910268471632-606: A progressive into an adversary of more radical elements within a generation. In the Maghreb , the few local maskilim were more concerned with the rapid assimilation of local Jews into the colonial French culture than with the ills of traditional society. Likewise, those who abandoned the optimistic, liberal vision of the Jews (albeit as a cohesive community) integrating into wider society in favour of full-blown Jewish nationalism or radical, revolutionary ideologies which strove to uproot
1768-768: A religion, because of the degree to which different sects desired to be integrated, and in turn, integrate their religious traditions. The effects of the Enlightenment were already present in Jewish religious music, and in opinion on the tension between traditionalist and modernist tendencies. Groups of Reform Jews, including the Society of the Friends of Reform and the Association for the Reform of Judaism were formed, because such groups wanted, and actively advocated for,
1904-492: A sanitized manner. On the other hand, the curriculum was augmented by general studies like math, vernacular language, and so forth. In the linguistic field, the maskilim wished to replace the dualism which characterized the traditional Ashkenazi community, which spoke Judaeo-German and its formal literary language was Hebrew, with another: a refined Hebrew for internal usage and the local vernacular for external ones. They almost universally abhorred Judaeo-German, regarding it as
2040-569: A stable financial base, and they required patrons, whether affluent Jews or the state's institutions. This triplice – the authorities, the Jewish communal elite, and the maskilim – was united only in the ambition of thoroughly reforming Jewish society. The government had no interest in the visions of renaissance which the Enlightened so fervently cherished. It demanded the Jews to turn into productive, loyal subjects with rudimentary secular education, and no more. The rich Jews were sometimes open to
2176-458: A standard self-appellation in 1860, when it was taken as the motto of the Odessa -based newspaper Ha-Melitz , but derivatives and the title Maskil for activists were already common in the first edition of Ha-Meassef from 1 October 1783: its publishers described themselves as Maskilim . While Maskilic centres sometimes had loose institutions around which their members operated, the movement as
2312-642: A tragedy drawn from life, and you shall also cry — while my heart shall be glad." B. Nathansohn, correspondent of the Warsaw -based Jewish newspaper Hamelitz visited Romania in the summer of 1878 and wrote, "When a Jew enters a Yiddish theatre in Bucharest he is thunderstruck hearing the Yiddish language in all its splendor and radiance", and called upon Goldfaden to create similar theatres in Warsaw, Lublin , Vilna , Berdichev, and Balta . While Yiddish theatre
2448-579: A whole lacked any such. In spite of that diversity, the Maskilim shared a sense of common identity and self-consciousness. They were anchored in the existence of a shared literary canon, which began to be formulated in the first Maskilic locus at Berlin . Its members, like Moses Mendelssohn , Naphtali Hirz Wessely , Isaac Satanow and Isaac Euchel , authored tracts in various genres that were further disseminated and re-read among other Maskilim. Each generation, in turn, elaborated and added its own works to
2584-1138: A year or two of Goldfaden's founding the first professional Yiddish theatre troupe, there were multiple troupes, multiple playwrights, and more than a few serious Yiddish theatre critics and theoreticians. Abraham Goldfaden is generally considered the founder of the first professional Yiddish theatre troupe, which he founded in Iaşi , Romania in 1876, and later moved to Bucharest . His own career also took him to Imperial Russia , Lemberg in Habsburg Galicia (today Lviv in Ukraine ), and New York City. Within two years of Goldfaden's founding of his troupe, there were several rival troupes in Bucharest, mostly founded by former members of Goldfaden's troupe. Most of these troupes followed Goldfaden's original formula of musical vaudeville and light comedy, while Goldfaden himself turned more toward relatively serious operettas about biblical and historical subjects, especially after his own company left Bucharest for an extended tour of
2720-492: Is a common theme in the movement's literature. The term Haskalah became synonymous, among friends and foes alike and in much of early Jewish historiography , with the sweeping changes that engulfed Jewish society (mostly in Europe) from the late 18th century to the late 19th century. It was depicted by its partisans, adversaries and historians like Heinrich Graetz as a major factor in those; Feiner noted that "every modern Jew
2856-458: Is a secondary Jewish stage ... just making people laugh and cry is an evil for us Jews in Romania." Goldfaden himself agreed with such sentiments; later recalling his views at the time, he wrote: "If I have arrived at having a stage, I want it to be a school for you ... Laugh heartily if I amuse you with my jokes, while I, watching you, feel my heart crying. Then, brothers, I'll give you a drama,
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#17327910268472992-585: Is largely perceived as the Jewish variant of the general Age of Enlightenment . The movement encompassed a wide spectrum ranging from moderates, who hoped for maximal compromise, to radicals, who sought sweeping changes. In its various changes, the Haskalah fulfilled an important, though limited, part in the modernization of Central and Eastern European Jews. Its activists, the Maskilim , exhorted and implemented communal, educational and cultural reforms in both
3128-435: Is now Ukraine . Israel Rosenberg 's troupe (which later had a series of managers, including Goldfaden's brother Tulya, and which at one point split in two, with one half led by actor Jacob Adler ) gave Russia's first professional Yiddish theatre performance in Odessa in 1878. Goldfaden himself soon came to Odessa, pushing Rosenberg's troupe into the provinces, and Osip Mikhailovich Lerner and N.M. Sheikevitch also founded
3264-512: Is often traced to Passion Plays and other religious pageants, similar in some ways to the Purim plays. In the Middle Ages , few Jews would have seen these: they were often performed in the courtyards of Christian churches (few of which were near the Jewish ghettos), on Christian holidays, and they often had significant antisemitic elements in their plots and dialogue. However, in later times,
3400-672: The Berlin Haskalah influenced multiple Jewish communities who were interested in non-religious scholarly texts and insight to worlds beyond their Jewish enclaves. Haskalah did not stay restricted to Germany, however, and the movement quickly spread throughout Europe. Poland–Lithuania was the heartland of Rabbinic Judaism, with its two streams of Misnagdic Talmudism centred primarily in Lithuania and Belarus , and Hasidic mysticism popular in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Russia. In
3536-573: The Haskalah in its entirety. His most famous work was the 1876 epic Qotzo shel Yodh (Tittle of a Jot). Mendele Mocher Sforim was during his youth a Maskilic writer but from his 1886 Beseter ra'am ( Hebrew : בסתר רעם ), (Hidden in Thunder), he abandoned its strict conventions in favour of a mixed, facile and common style. His career marked the end of the Maskilic period in Hebrew literature and
3672-460: The Haskalah was dualistic in nature. The Jewish Enlighteners pursued two parallel agendas: they exhorted the Jews to acculturate and harmonize with the modern state, and demanded that the Jews remain a distinct group with its own culture and identity. Theirs was a middle position between Jewish community and surrounding society, received mores and modernity. Sliding away from this precarious equilibrium, in any direction, signified also one's break with
3808-918: The Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (1714), a collection by Johann Jakob Schudt (1664–1722). Another similar current in Jewish culture was a tradition of masked dancers performing after weddings. The most elaborate form of this was the Dance of Death , a pageant depicting all layers of a society, which had originated among Sephardic Jews in Spain in the 14th century and had spread through Europe among both Jews and Gentiles. 16th-century Italian Jews had taken music and dance to an even more refined level of art: at that time in Italy there were Jewish virtuosi and dancing masters in Mantua , Ferrara , and Rome, and
3944-598: The Moravian and Galician Haskalah . That function was later fulfilled by the Prague -based Kerem Hemed from 1834 to 1857, and to a lesser degree by Kokhvei Yizhak , published in the same city from 1845 to 1870. The Russian Haskalah was robust enough to lack any single platform. Its members published several large magazines, including the Vilnius -based Ha-Karmel (1860–1880), Ha-Tsefirah in Warsaw and more, though
4080-542: The Romanian Orthodox Christmas tradition of Irozii — minstrel shows centered around the figure of Herod the Great (Rom: Irod ), which were the origin of Romanian-language theatre — definitely influenced Purim plays and vice versa . Jews had far more exposure to secular European theatre once that developed. Meistersinger Hans Sachs ' many plays on Old Testament topics were widely admired by
4216-696: The Sephardi pronunciation , considered more prestigious, to the Ashkenazi one , which was linked with the Jews of Poland , who were deemed backward. The movement's literary canon is defined by a grandiloquent, archaic register copying the Biblical one and often combining lengthy allusions or direct quotes from verses in the prose. During a century of activity, the Maskilim produced a massive contribution, forming
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4352-851: The Yiddish Theatre District which Brooklyn developer and prominent Jewish community leader Louis Jaffe had built in 1925–1926 to house the company. Shows produced by Maurice Schwartz at this new venue included a production of "Yoshe Kalb" which ran for 300 performances. The Yiddish Art Theatre operated for approximately 32 years from its founding, finally disbanding in 1950. Over that time it performed classics of Yiddish, European and English theater, ranging from works by Sholem Aleichem to William Shakespeare. Yiddish theatre Hebrew Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Arabic Other Jewish diaspora languages Jewish folklore Jewish poetry Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish ,
4488-719: The Young Theater , founded by Michal Weichert in 1932. In addition to the serious artistic efforts of the art theaters, cabaret flourished in Poland during the interwar period, combining musical performances with standup comedy. The most celebrated practitioners of this kind of performance were Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Shumacher , who began their lifelong Yiddish comedy career at the theater Ararat in Łódź in 1927. Puppet and marionette theater also attained great artistic significance, often staging satirical shows on contemporary social issues. Yiddish theater in Poland reflected
4624-535: The ghetto ", not just physically but also mentally and spiritually, in order to assimilate among gentile nations. The example of Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), a Prussian Jew, served to lead this movement, which was also shaped by Aaron Halle-Wolfssohn (1754–1835) and Joseph Perl (1773–1839). Mendelssohn's extraordinary success as a popular philosopher and man of letters revealed hitherto unsuspected possibilities of integration and acceptance of Jews among non-Jews. Mendelssohn also provided methods for Jews to enter
4760-436: The maskilim were raised in the rabbinic elite, in which (unlike among the poor Jewish masses or the rich communal wardens) the males were immersed in traditional studies and their wives supported them financially, mostly by running business. Many of the Jewish enlightened were traumatized by their own experiences, either of assertive mothers or early marriage, often conducted at the age of thirteen. Bitter memories from those are
4896-445: The troubadours or Minnesänger , apparently growing out of the music associated with Jewish weddings, and often involving singers who also functioned as cantors in synagogues. The first records of the early Brodersänger or Broder singers are the remarks of Jews passing through Brody , which was on a major route of travel, generally disapproving of the singing of songs when no particular occasion called for music. The most famous of
5032-924: The "Russian Mendelssohn". Joseph Perl 's (1773–1839) satire of the Hasidic movement, "Revealer of Secrets" (Megalleh Temirim), is said to be the first modern novel in Hebrew. It was published in Vienna in 1819 under the pseudonym "Obadiah ben Pethahiah". The Haskalah's message of integration into non-Jewish society was subsequently counteracted by alternative secular Jewish political movements advocating Folkish, Socialist or Nationalist secular Jewish identities in Eastern Europe. While Haskalah advocated Hebrew and sought to remove Yiddish, these subsequent developments advocated Yiddish Renaissance among Maskilim. Writers of Yiddish literature variously satirised or sentimentalised Hasidic mysticism. The Haskalah also resulted in
5168-409: The 1770s, and its last stage ended around 1881, with the rise of Jewish nationalism . The movement advocated against Jewish reclusiveness, encouraged the adoption of prevalent attire over traditional dress, while also working to diminish the authority of traditional community institutions such as rabbinic courts and boards of elders. It pursued a set of projects of cultural and moral renewal, including
5304-436: The 1830s, there was also, according to one contemporary source, a professional company that in 1838 performed before a receptive audience of both Jews and Gentiles a five-act drama Moses , by a certain A. Schertspierer of Vienna , with "well-drawn characters and good dramatic situations and language." The same source relates that this theatre had among its patrons a number of Russian military officers, including one general who
5440-533: The 1880s, playing in small theatre clubs "on a stage the size of a cadaver", not daring to play on a Friday night or to light a fire on stage on a Saturday afternoon (both because of the Jewish Sabbath ), forced to use a cardboard ram's horn when playing Uriel Acosta so as not to blaspheme , Yiddish theatre nonetheless took on much of what was best in European theatrical tradition. In this period,
5576-490: The 18th and 19th centuries and cast them in their own particular mold. This intellectual upheaval was accompanied by the desire to practically change Jewish society. Even the moderate maskilim viewed the contemporary state of Jews as deplorable and in dire need of rejuvenation, whether in matters of morals, cultural creativity or economic productivity. They argued that such conditions were rightfully scorned by others and untenable from both practical and idealistic perspectives. It
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5712-558: The 19th century, Haskalah sought dissemination and transformation of traditional education and inward pious life in Eastern Europe. It adapted its message to these different environments, working with the Russian government of the Pale of Settlement to influence secular educational methods, while its writers satirised Hasidic mysticism, in favour of solely Rationalist interpretation of Judaism. Isaac Baer Levinsohn (1788–1860) became known as
5848-651: The Bowery Garden, the National and the Thalia, with unknowns such as Boris Thomashefsky emerging as stars. The Thalia Theatre sought to change the material of the Yiddish stage to better reform the material that was being produced. “The reformers of the Yiddish stage, Jacob Gordin later explained, wanted to “utilize the theatre for higher purposes; to derive from it not only amusement, but education.” Jacob Gordin himself had numerous times tried to get his plays onto
5984-463: The Gentiles who would come to Yiddish theatre would not be the antisemites, they would be those who already knew and liked Jews, and that they would recognize satire for what it was, adding that these criticisms were "nothing" when weighed against the education that Yiddish theatre was bringing to the lower classes. Writing of Sigmund Mogulesko 's troupe in Romania in 1884, and probably referring to
6120-536: The Haskalah was a widespread cultural adaptation, as those Jews who participated in the enlightenment began, in varying degrees, to participate in the cultural practices of the surrounding gentile population. Connected with this was the birth of the Reform movement , whose founders (such as Israel Jacobson and Leopold Zunz ) rejected the continuing observance of those aspects of Jewish law which they classified as ritual—as opposed to moral or ethical. Even within orthodoxy,
6256-742: The Haskalah was felt through the appearance, in response, of the Mussar Movement in Lithuania, and Torah im Derech Eretz in Germany. "Enlightened" Jews sided with gentile governments, in plans to increase secular education and assimilation among the Jewish masses, which brought them into acute conflict with the orthodox, who believed this threatened the traditional Jewish lifestyle – which had up until that point been maintained through segregation from their gentile neighbors – and Jewish identity itself. The spread of Haskalah affected Judaism, as
6392-538: The Jew plays a degrading role." Goldfaden's plays ultimately formed a canon of Yiddish theater, and were performed continuously for over fifty years; in the theatre world they were reverently regarded as a kind of "Torah from Sinai", and the characters of the plays permeated Jewish cultural life over several generations. If Yiddish theatre was born in Romania, its youth occurred in Imperial Russia, largely in what
6528-489: The Jewish Enlightenment. Virtually all maskilim received old-style, secluded education, and were young Torah scholars before they were first exposed to outside knowledge (from a gender perspective, the movement was almost totally male-dominated; women did not receive sufficient tutoring to master Hebrew). For generations, Mendelssohn's Bible translation to German was employed by such young initiates to bridge
6664-538: The Jewish community. In addition to being a religious scholar and "clergy", a rabbi also acted as a civil judge in all cases in which both parties were Jews. Rabbis sometimes had other important administrative powers, together with the community elders. The rabbinate was the highest aim of many Jewish boys, and the study of the Talmud was the means of obtaining that coveted position, or one of many other important communal distinctions. Haskalah followers advocated "coming out of
6800-608: The Jewish literary culture that had grown in the wake of the Jewish enlightenment ( Haskalah ). Israil Bercovici wrote that it is through Yiddish theatre that "Jewish culture entered in dialogue with the outside world," both by putting itself on display and by importing theatrical pieces from other cultures. Themes such as immigration, poverty, integration, and strong ancestral ties can be found in many Yiddish theatre productions. Noah Prilutski (1882–1941) noted that Yiddish theatre did not arise simultaneously with theatre in other European "national" languages; he conjectured that this
6936-590: The Jews of the German ghettos, and from the 16th century through the 18th, the biblical story of Esther was the most popular theatrical theme in Christian Europe, often under the Latin name Acta Ahasuerus . Professional Yiddish theatre is generally dated from 1876, although there is scattered evidence of earlier efforts. Besides some 19 amateur Yiddish-language theatrical troupes in and around Warsaw in
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#17327910268477072-475: The Jews to introduce general subjects, like science and vernacular language, into their children's curriculum; this "Teaching of Man" was necessarily linked with the "Teaching ( Torah ) of God", and the latter, though superior, could not be pursued and was useless without the former. Historian Shmuel Feiner discerned that Wessely insinuated (consciously or not) a direct challenge to the supremacy of sacred teachings, comparing them with general subjects and implying
7208-802: The Medieval Grammarians' – such as Jonah ibn Janah and Judah ben David Hayyuj – distaste of Mishnaic Hebrew and preference of the Biblical one as pristine and correct. They turned to the Bible as a source and standard, emphatically advocating what they termed "Pure Hebrew Tongue" ( S'fat E'ver tzacha ) and lambasting the Rabbinic style of letters, which mixed it with Aramaic as a single " Holy Tongue " and often employed loanwords from other languages. Some activists, however, were not averse to using Mishnaic and Rabbinic forms. They also preferred
7344-459: The Pentateuch and prayers and thus better identify with their heritage; ignorance of Hebrew was often lamented by maskilim as breeding apathy towards Judaism. Far less Talmud, considered cumbersome and ill-suited for children, was taught; elements considered superstitious, like midrashim , were also removed. Matters of faith were taught in rationalistic spirit, and in radical circles also in
7480-669: The United States and Eastern Europe during this period. Haskalah The Haskalah ( Hebrew : הַשְׂכָּלָה ; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment , was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe , with a certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world . It arose as a defined ideological worldview during
7616-824: The United States. At many times, a dozen Yiddish theatre groups existed in New York City alone, with the Yiddish Theater District , sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Rialto ", centered on Second Avenue in what is now the East Village , but was then considered part of the Jewish Lower East Side , which often rivaled Broadway in scale and quality. At the time the U.S. entered World War I , there were 22 Yiddish theaters and two Yiddish vaudeville houses in New York City alone. Original plays, musicals, and even translations of Hamlet and Richard Wagner 's operas were performed, both in
7752-718: The Windsor stage without luck. “Gordin successfully challenged Lateiner and Hurwitz in 1891–1892 when he entered the Yiddish theatre with an avowed purpose of reforming Yiddish drama.” Rather than “pandering to the public's taste for cheap shund (trash) plays, he sought to secure goodwill of the East Side’s intelligentsia with literature and increasingly incorporated the concepts of “true art” and “serious drama” into their public image.” Professional companies soon developed and flourished, so that between 1890 and 1940, there were over 200 Yiddish theaters or touring Yiddish theatre troupes in
7888-478: The Yiddish theater. Looking back on this period, although acknowledging certain of Goldfaden's plays from this era as "masterpieces", Jacob Adler saw this as a period of relative mediocrity compared to what came later. "For three years I... wandered in the cave of the Witch and the motley of Shmendrick and what did I really know of my trade?" he describes himself as thinking in 1883. "If someday I return to Yiddish theater let me at least not be so ignorant." Much of
8024-411: The ancientness of the Zohar , were extremely controversial in traditional society; apart from that, the maskilim had little in common. On the right-wing were conservative members of the rabbinic elite who merely wanted a rationalist approach, and on the extreme left some ventured far beyond the pale of orthodoxy towards Deism . Another aspect was the movement's attitude to gender relations. Many of
8160-430: The archaic I'vri-Taitsch (medieval Yiddish) translation and an exclusive focus on the Talmud as a subject of higher learning, all presided over by old-school tutors, melamdim , who were particularly reviled in maskilic circles. Those were replaced by teachers trained in modern methods, among others in the spirit of German philanthropinism , who sought to acquaint their pupils with refined Hebrew so they may understand
8296-474: The avant-garde Vilna Troupe (Vilner trupe), formed in Vilna , as its name suggests, but moved to Warsaw in 1917. The Vilna Troupe employed some of the most accomplished actors on the Yiddish stage, including Avrom Morevski , who played the Miropolyer tsaddik in the first performance of The Dybbuk , and Joseph Buloff , who was the lead actor of the Vilna Troupe and went on to further accomplishments with Maurice Schwartz ’s Yiddish Art Theater in New York. It
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#17327910268478432-416: The beginning of the Era of Renaissance . The writers of the latter period lambasted their Maskilic predecessors for their didactic and florid style, more or less paralleling the Romantics' criticism of Enlightenment literature. The central platforms of the Maskilic "Republic of Letters" were its great periodicals, each serving as a locus for contributors and readers during the time it was published. The first
8568-574: The beginning of the 1921/1922 theater season the company moved to the Garden Theatre at Madison Avenue and 27th Street, where they remained on and off for the next four seasons, through spring 1925. It was at the Garden Theatre that Schwartz first billed the company as the Yiddish Art Theatre. Over these first years the company presented works by playwrights including Leonid Andreyev , S. Ansky , Sholem Aleichem , Jacob Gordin , Maxim Gorky , Peretz Hirschbein , David Pinski , Arthur Schnitzler , George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde . The Garden Theatre
8704-415: The choir, or between the choir and the leader of the ritual (Hebrew menatseach ). Also, traditional dances were associated with certain holidays, such as Sukkot . Purim plays – the skits performed by amateur companies around the time of the Purim holiday – were a significant early form of theatrical expression. Often satiric and topical, Purim plays were traditionally performed in
8840-419: The cities of Imperial Russia . Goldfaden's troupe began as all-male; while they soon acquired actresses, as well, it remained relatively common in Yiddish theatre for female roles, especially comic roles, to be played by men. (Women also sometimes played men's roles: Molly Picon was a famous Shmendrick .) Many early Yiddish theatre pieces were constructed around a very standard set of roles: "a prima donna ,
8976-412: The coronation"; he acquired the costumes for the Romanian National Theatre , which he headed at the time. Both the nature and aspirations of early professional Yiddish theatre are reflected in Moses Schwarzfeld 's 1877 remarks calling for serious and "educational" Jewish theatre: "If we write only comedies or if we only imitate German, Romanian and French pieces translated into Yiddish, all we will have
9112-453: The courtyard of the synagogue , because they were considered too profane to be performed inside the building. These made heavy use of masks and other theatrical devices; the masquerade (and the singing and dancing) generally extended to the whole congregation, not just a small set of players. While many Purim plays told the story in the Book of Esther commemorated by the Purim holiday, others used other stories from Jewish scripture, such as
9248-519: The creation of a secular Jewish culture , with an emphasis on Jewish history and Jewish identity , rather than on religion. This, in turn, resulted in the political engagement of Jews in a variety of competing ways within the countries where they lived on issues that included One commentator describes these effects as "The emancipation of the Jews brought forth two opposed movements: the cultural assimilation, begun by Moses Mendelssohn , and Zionism , founded by Theodor Herzl in 1896." One facet of
9384-403: The demise of Jewish Enlightenment in Eastern Europe, authors abandoned the maskilic paradigm not toward assimilation but in favour of exclusive use of Hebrew and Yiddish. The political vision of the Haskalah was predicated on a similar approach. It opposed the reclusive community of the past but sought a maintenance of a strong Jewish framework (with themselves as leaders and intercessors with
9520-428: The economic front, the maskilim preached productivization and abandonment of traditional Jewish occupations in favour of agriculture, trades and liberal professions. In matters of faith (which were being cordoned off into a distinct sphere of "religion" by modernization pressures) the movement's partisans, from moderates to radicals, lacked any uniform coherent agenda. The main standard through which they judged Judaism
9656-457: The end of the 19th century. Solomon Löwisohn was the first to translate Shakespeare into Hebrew, and an abridged form of the "Are at this hour asleep!" monologue in Henry IV, Part 2 was included in his 1816 lyrical compilation Melitzat Yeshurun (Eloquence of Jeshurun ). Joseph Perl pioneered satirist writings in his biting, mocking critique of Hasidic Judaism , Megaleh Tmirin "Revealer of Secrets" from 1819. Avraham Dov Ber Lebensohn
9792-508: The entire number of written dramas of which there is any record hardly exceeds five hundred. Of these at least nine-tenths are translations or adaptations." Yiddish Theater in the United States has been described as "a keepsake of home, and yet also a means of acculturation" for the 2.5 million Jews who immigrated from 1881 to 1924. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, amateur theatrical companies presented Yiddish productions in New York City, leading to regular weekend performances at theatres such as
9928-518: The established order like Socialism , also broke with the Haskalah . The Jewish national movements of Eastern Europe, founded by disillusioned maskilim , derisively regarded it – in a manner similar to other romantic-nationalist movements' understanding of the general Enlightenment – as a naive, liberal and assimilationist ideology which induced foreign cultural influences, gnawed at the Jewish national consciousness and promised false hopes of equality in exchange for spiritual enslavement. This hostile view
10064-574: The first known troupes of Jewish performers in Europe. Less refined versions of the same also occurred in 18th-century Germany. Additionally, there was a rich tradition of dialogues in the Jewish poetry known as Tahkemoni , dating back at least to Yehuda al-Harizi in 12th-century Spain. Al-Harizi's work contained dialogues between believer and heretic, man and wife, day and night, land and ocean, wisdom and foolishness, avarice and generosity. Such dialogues figured prominently in early Yiddish theatre. In
10200-412: The first phase of modern Hebrew literature. In 1755, Moses Mendelssohn began publishing Qohelet Musar "The Moralist", regarded as the beginning of modern writing in Hebrew and the first journal in the language. Between 1789 and his death, Naphtali Hirz Wessely compiled Shirei Tif'eret "Poems of Glory", an eighteen-part epic cycle concerning Moses that exerted influence on all neo-Hebraic poets in
10336-446: The following generations. Joseph ha-Efrati Troplowitz [ he ] was the Haskalah's pioneering playwright, best known for his 1794 epic drama Melukhat Sha'ul "Reign of Saul ", which was printed in twelve editions by 1888. Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev was the first modern Hebrew grammarian, and beginning with his 1796 manual of the language, he authored books which explored it and were vital reading material for young Maskilim until
10472-543: The formal advent of Yiddish theatre. Bercovici suggests that, as with ancient Greek drama , elements of dramatic performance arose in Jewish life as an artistic refinement of religious practice; he highlights references in the Bible to dance, music, or song, especially in the Psalms (Hebrew tehillim , or songs of praise), where some of the headings refer to musical instruments, or to singing in dialogue, either between parts of
10608-557: The founder of the first professional Yiddish theatre troupe, attended that same rabbinical school, and while there is known to have played (in 1862) a woman's role in a play, Serkele , by Solomon Ettinger . Shortly after that (1869, according to one source), Goldfaden wrote a dialogue Tsvey Shkheynes ( Two Neighbors ), apparently intended for the stage, and published with moderate success. A short-lived Yiddish theater in Odessa in 1864 performed dramas Esther and Athalia . Abraham Baer Gottlober 's Decktuch , like Ettinger's Serkele ,
10744-691: The freedom to perform. The Moscow Yiddish Theater , or Jewish Kamerny Theatre in Moscow , or new Yiddish Chamber Theater, directed by Aleksey Granovsky , and with contributors including Marc Chagall , was founded in Petrograd in June 1919 as an experimental workshop then became the Moscow State Jewish Theatre . Of the next era of Yiddish theatre, Adler, who arrived in London with his wife Sonya in 1883, wrote, "...if Yiddish theater
10880-485: The general society of Germany. A good knowledge of the German language was necessary to secure entrance into cultured German circles, and an excellent means of acquiring it was provided by Mendelssohn in his German translation of the Torah . This work became a bridge over which ambitious young Jews could pass to the great world of secular knowledge. The Biur , or grammatical commentary, prepared under Mendelssohn's supervision,
11016-429: The growing body. The emergence of the Maskilic canon reflected the movement's central and defining enterprise, the revival of Hebrew as a literary language for secular purposes (its restoration as a spoken tongue occurred only much later). The Maskilim researched and standardized grammar, minted countless neologisms and composed poetry, magazines, theatrical works and literature of all sorts in Hebrew. Historians described
11152-498: The heavily Jewish areas of Eastern and East Central Europe , but also in Berlin, London, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York City. Yiddish theatre's roots include the often satiric plays traditionally performed during religious holiday of Purim (known as Purimshpils ); the singing of cantors in the synagogues ; Jewish secular song and dramatic improvisation; exposure to the theatre traditions of various European countries, and
11288-401: The home environment but also granting them proper religious education, reversing Jewish custom and copying contemporary Christian attitudes. The Haskalah was also mainly a movement of transformation, straddling both the declining traditional Jewish society of autonomous community and cultural seclusion and the beginnings of a modern Jewish public. As noted by Feiner, everything connected with
11424-722: The journal Nostalgia in Jewish-American Theatre and Film, 1979-2004 , Ben Furnish establishes the deep roots of nostalgia based on Jewish history. Many of these origins are based in stories like that of the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BCE) of Jews from the Holy Land. Shows up to present day productions pull influence from these experiences, creating a concrete picture of Yiddish themes and tenets seen in Jewish theatre. The origin of theatre in Christian societies in Europe
11560-407: The jurisdiction of traditional community institutions – the rabbinic courts , empowered to rule on numerous civic matters, and the board of elders, which served as lay leadership. The maskilim perceived those as remnants of medieval discrimination. They criticized various traits of Jewish society, such as child marriage – traumatized memories from unions entered at the age of thirteen or fourteen are
11696-469: The language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta , musical comedy , and satiric or nostalgic revues ; melodrama ; naturalist drama; expressionist and modernist plays. At its height, its geographical scope was comparably broad: from the late 19th century until just before World War II , professional Yiddish theatre could be found throughout
11832-507: The languages of the countries in which they settled, providing another gateway for integration. Berlin was the city of origin for the movement. The capital city of Prussia and, later, the German Empire , Berlin became known as a secular, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic center, a fertile environment for conversations and radical movements. This move by the Maskilim away from religious study, into much more critical and worldly studies
11968-420: The latter had an intrinsic rather than merely instrumental value. He therefore also contested the authority of the rabbinical establishment, which stemmed from its function as interpreters of the holy teachings and their status as the only truly worthy field of study. Though secular subjects could be and were easily tolerated, their elevation to the same level as sacred ones was a severe threat, and indeed mobilized
12104-529: The liberating influence of reason and progress. The reconstituted Jews, these radical maskilim believed, would be able to take their place as equals in an enlightened world. But all, including the moderate and disillusioned, stated that adjustment to the changing world was both unavoidable and positive in itself. Haskalah ideals were converted into practical steps via numerous reform programs initiated locally and independently by its activists, acting in small groups or even alone at every time and area. Members of
12240-461: The linguistic gap and learn a foreign language, having been raised on Hebrew and Yiddish only. The experience of abandoning one's sheltered community and struggle with tradition was a ubiquitous trait of maskilic biographies. The children of these activists almost never followed their parents; they rather went forward in the path of acculturation and assimilation. While their fathers learned the vernaculars late and still consumed much Hebrew literature,
12376-481: The little available material in the language did not attract their offspring, who often lacked a grasp of Hebrew due to not sharing their parents' traditional education. Haskalah was, by and large, a unigenerational experience. In the linguistic field, this transitory nature was well attested. The traditional Jewish community in Europe inhabited two separate spheres of communication: one internal, where Hebrew served as written high language and Yiddish as vernacular for
12512-477: The maintenance of both spheres. When acculturation far exceeded the movement's plans, Central European Jews turned almost solely to the vernacular. David Sorkin demonstrated this with the two great journals of German Jewry: the maskilic Ha-Me'assef was written in Hebrew and supported the study of German; the post-maskilic Sulamith (published since 1806) was written almost entirely in German, befitting its editors' agenda of linguistic assimilation. Likewise, upon
12648-490: The masses, and one external, where Latin and the like were used for apologetic and intercessory purposes toward the Christian world. A tiny minority of writers was concerned with the latter. The Haskalah sought to introduce a different bilingualism: renovated, refined Hebrew for internal matters, while Yiddish was to be eliminated; and national vernaculars, to be taught to all Jews, for external ones. However, they insisted on
12784-413: The monopoly of the rabbinic elite over the intellectual sphere of Jewish life, contesting its role as spiritual leadership. In his 1782 circular Divrei Shalom v'Emeth (Words of Peace and Truth), Hartwig Wessely , one of the most traditional and moderate maskilim , quoted the passage from Leviticus Rabbah stating that a Torah scholar who lacked wisdom was inferior to an animal's carcass. He called upon
12920-413: The movement completely in propelling such processes as acculturation, secularization, religious reform from moderate to extreme, adoption of native patriotism and so forth. In many regions the Haskalah had no effect at all. As long as the Jews lived in segregated communities, and as long as all social interaction with their gentile neighbors was limited, the rabbi was the most influential member of
13056-484: The movement largely as a Republic of Letters , an intellectual community based on printing houses and reading societies. The Maskilim's attitude toward Hebrew, as noted by Moses Pelli, was derived from Enlightenment perceptions of language as reflecting both individual and collective character. To them, a corrupt tongue mirrored the inadequate condition of the Jews which they sought to ameliorate. They turned to Hebrew as their primary creative medium. The Maskilim inherited
13192-404: The movement sought to acquaint their people with European culture, have them adopt the vernacular language of their lands, and integrate them into larger society. They opposed Jewish reclusiveness and self-segregation, called upon Jews to discard traditional dress in favour of the prevalent one, and preached patriotism and loyalty to the new centralized governments. They acted to weaken and limit
13328-456: The movement's agenda, but mostly practical, hoping for a betterment of their people that would result in emancipation and equal rights. Indeed, the great cultural transformation which occurred among the Parnassim (affluent communal wardens) class – they were always more open to outside society, and had to tutor their children in secular subjects, thus inviting general Enlightenment influences –
13464-460: The next few decades, successive waves of Yiddish performers arrived in New York (and, to a lesser extent, in Berlin, London, Vienna , and Paris), some simply as artists seeking an audience, but many as a result of persecutions, pogroms and economic crises in Eastern Europe. Professional Yiddish theatre in London began in 1884, and flourished until the mid-1930s. By 1896, Kalman Juvelier 's troupe
13600-460: The plays of Moses Horowitz and Joseph Lateiner , Moses Gaster wrote that Yiddish theatre "represents scenes from our history known by only a tiny minority, refreshing, therefore, secular memory" and "shows us our defects, which we have like all men, but not with a tendency to strike at our own immorality with a tendency towards ill will, but only with an ironic spirit that does not wound us, as we are wounded by representations on other stages, where
13736-660: The plays of Schiller first entered the repertoire of Yiddish theatre, beginning with The Robbers , the start of a vogue that would last a quarter of a century. Adler records that, like Shakespeare , Schiller was "revered" by the broad Jewish public, not just by intellectuals, admired for his "almost socialist view of society", although his plays were often radically adapted for the Yiddish stage, shortening them and dropping Christian, antisemitic , and classical mythological references There were several smaller Jewish theatre groups in Manchester and Glasgow . The opening of
13872-498: The political preoccupations of its time. They struggled financially, like all Jewish cultural institutions during that period, even while flourishing for a time during a more liberal political atmosphere. Actors and directors, just like others during that period, were highly aware of labor relations, and tried to create egalitarian working relationships. Organizations such as the Yiddish Actors’ Union , based in Warsaw, played
14008-415: The probably most influential of them all was Ha-Melitz , launched in 1860 at Odessa by Aleksander Zederbaum . While the partisans of the Haskalah were much immersed in the study of sciences and Hebrew grammar, this was not a profoundly new phenomenon, and their creativity was a continuation of a long, centuries-old trend among educated Jews. What truly marked the movement was the challenge it laid to
14144-471: The public and the private spheres. Owing to its dual policies, it collided both with the traditionalist rabbinic elite, which attempted to preserve old Jewish values and norms in their entirety, and with the radical assimilationists who wished to eliminate or minimize the existence of the Jews as a defined collective. The Haskalah was multifaceted, with many loci which rose and dwindled at different times and across vast territories. The name Haskalah became
14280-446: The rabbis against the nascent Haskalah . The potential of "Words of Peace and Truth" was fully realized later, by the second generation of the movement in Berlin and other radical maskilim , who openly and vehemently denounced the traditional authorities. The appropriate intellectual and moral leadership needed by the Jewish public in modern times was, according to the maskilim , that of their own. Feiner noted that in their usurpation of
14416-460: The radical universalists who broke off the late Berlin Haskalah or the Russified intelligentsia in Eastern Europe a century later, were castigated and derided no less than the old rabbinic authorities which the movement confronted. It was not uncommon for its partisans to become a conservative element, combating against further dilution of tradition: in Vilnius , Samuel Joseph Fuenn turned from
14552-516: The reformulated and reduced traditional curriculum. This model, with different stresses, was applied elsewhere. Joseph Perl opened the first modern Jewish school in Galicia at Tarnopol in 1813, and Eastern European maskilim opened similar institutes in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland . They all abandoned the received methods of Ashkenazi education: study of the Pentateuch with
14688-474: The singers from Brody was the itinerant Berl Margulis (1815–1868), known as Berl Broder , "Berl from Brody"; 24 of his 30 surviving songs are in the form of dialogues. Another influential performer in this style was Benjamin Wolf Ehrenkrantz (1826–1883), known as Velvel Zbarjer . Bercovici describes his work as "mini-melodramas in song". Such performers, who performed at weddings, in the salons of
14824-443: The state authorities); the Enlightened were not even fully agreeable to civic emancipation, and many of them viewed it with reserve, sometimes anxiety. In their writings, they drew a sharp line between themselves and whom they termed "pseudo- maskilim " – those who embraced the Enlightenment values and secular knowledge but did not seek to balance these with their Jewishness, but rather strove for full assimilation. Such elements, whether
14960-462: The story of Joseph sold by his brothers or the sacrifice of Isaac . Over time, these well-known stories became less a subject matter than a pretext for topical and satiric theatre. Mordechai became a standard role for a clown . Purim plays were published as early as the early 18th century. At least eight Purim plays were published between 1708 and 1720; most of these do not survive (at least some were burned in autos da fe ), but one survives in
15096-490: The sway held by the rabbis and the traditional values over Jewish society. Combined with many other factors, they laid the path to all modern Jewish movements and philosophies, either those critical, hostile or supportive to themselves. The maskilim sought to replace the framework of values held by the Ashkenazim of Central and Eastern Europe with their own philosophy, which embraced the liberal, rationalistic notions of
15232-579: The theater performed during this period was later referred to as shund, or trash, though critics such as Itsik Manger felt it possessed a naive energy and was unfairly maligned. What seemed, for a time, a boundless future in Russia was cut short by the anti-Jewish reaction following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II ; Yiddish theatre was banned, under an order effective September 14, 1883. This ban caused an exodus of Yiddish actors and playwrights to other countries – Poland, in particular – where they had
15368-460: The title of spiritual elite, unprecedented in Jewish history since the dawn of Rabbinic Judaism (various contestants before the Enlightened were branded as schismatics and cast out), they very much emulated the manner in which secular intellectuals dethroned and replaced the Church from the same status among Christians. Thus the maskilim generated an upheaval which – though by no means alone – broke
15504-404: The troupes were often in one or another degree family affairs, with a husband, wife, and often their offspring playing in the same troupe. At its high end, early Yiddish theatre was noted for its pageantry. A pageant about the coronation of Solomon , presented on the occasion of the 1881 coronation of Carol I of Romania was described by Ion Ghica as "among the most imposing things that paraded
15640-500: The two main criticisms from this quarter were (1) that the Yiddish "jargon" was being promoted to the detriment of "proper" Hebrew and (2) that satire against Hasidim and others would not necessarily be understood as satire and would make Jews look ridiculous. Bercovici quotes an anonymous 1885 article as responding to these criticisms by saying (1) that all Jews speak some modern language and why should Yiddish be any more detrimental to Hebrew than Romanian, Russian, or German; and (2) that
15776-581: The wealthy, in the summer gardens, and in other secular gathering places of the Eastern European Jews, were not mere singers. They often used costumes and often improvised spoken material between songs, especially when working in groups. Israel Grodner , later Goldfaden's first actor, participated in an outdoor concert in Odessa in 1873 with dialogues between songs comparable to much of what was in Goldfaden's earliest plays. Goldfaden himself
15912-479: Was a precondition of Haskalah . The state and the elite required the maskilim as interlocutors and specialists in their efforts for reform, especially as educators, and the latter used this as leverage to benefit their ideology. However, the activists were much more dependent on the former than vice versa; frustration from one's inability to further the maskilic agenda and being surrounded by apathetic Jews, either conservative "fanatics" or parvenu "assimilationists",
16048-416: Was already a noted poet, and many of his poems had been set to music and had become popular songs, some of which were used in that 1873 performance. Finally, around this time Yiddish was establishing itself as a literary language, and some Jews with secular interests were familiar with the dominant theatrical traditions of their respective countries; given this burgeoning literary intellectual culture, within
16184-402: Was an immediate hit with the broad masses of Jews, was generally liked and admired by Jewish intellectuals and many Gentile intellectuals, a small but socially powerful portion of the Jewish community, centered among Orthodox and Hasidic Jews , remained opposed to it. Besides complaints about the mingling of men and women in public and about the use of music and dance outside of sacred contexts,
16320-403: Was at least in part because the Jewish sense of nationality favored Hebrew over Yiddish as a "national" language, but few Jews of the period were actually comfortable using Hebrew outside of a religious/liturgical context. Nonetheless, various types of performances, including those of cantors, preachers, jesters, and instrumental musicians, were a part of Eastern European Jewish life long before
16456-586: Was considered a "protector" of it – a circumstance that suggests the difficulties it faced. Around the same time, there are indications of a traveling Yiddish-language theatre troupe in Galicia , organized along the lines of an English or Italian theatre troupe. In 1854, two rabbinical students from Zhytomyr put on a play in Berdichev . Shortly afterward, the Ukrainian Jew Abraham Goldfaden , generally considered
16592-581: Was designed to counteract the influence of traditional rabbinical methods of exegesis . Together with the translation, it became, as it were, the primer of Haskalah. Language played a key role in the haskalah movement, as Mendelssohn and others called for a revival of Hebrew and a reduction in the use of Yiddish . The result was an outpouring of new, secular literature, as well as critical studies of religious texts . Julius Fürst along with other German-Jewish scholars compiled Hebrew and Aramaic dictionaries and grammars. Jews also began to study and communicate in
16728-642: Was destined to go through its infancy in Russia, and in America grew to manhood and success, then London was its school." The arrival of Adler and his troupe beckoned the era of professional Yiddish theatre in London, and as word of the troupe's arrival started to spread throughout the East End, they began to receive financial assistance from the local community which allowed them to form the Russian Jewish Operatic Company. In London in
16864-439: Was identified as a maskil and every change in traditional religious patterns was dubbed Haskalah ". Later research greatly narrowed the scope of the phenomenon and limited its importance: while Haskalah undoubtedly played a part, the contemporary historical consensus portrays it as much humbler. Other transformation agents, from state-imposed schools to new economic opportunities, were demonstrated to have rivaled or overshadowed
17000-674: Was in Warsaw that the Vilna Troupe staged the first performance of The Dybbuk in 1920, a play that made a profound and lasting impression on Yiddish theater and world culture. The Vilna Troupe inspired the creation of more avant-garde and ambitious Yiddish theatrical companies, including the Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater , founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kamińska in 1924, the Warsaw New Yiddish Theater , founded by Jonas Turkow in 1929, and
17136-608: Was made possible by this German city of modern and progressive thought. It was a city in which the rising middle class Jews and intellectual elites not only lived among, but were exposed to previous Age of Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire , Diderot , and Rousseau . The movement is often referred to as the Berlin Haskalah . Reference to Berlin in relation to the Haskalah movement is necessary because it provides context for this episode of Jewish history. Subsequently, having left Germany and spreading across Eastern Europe,
17272-410: Was not intended for the stage. Hersh Leib Sigheter (1829–1930) wrote satirical Purim plays on an annual basis and hired boys to play in them. Although often objected to by rabbis, these plays were popular, and were performed not only on Purim but for as much as a week afterwards in various locations. Another current that led equally to professional Yiddish theatre was a tradition resembling that of
17408-591: Was part of the second Madison Square Garden complex , and in the face of plans to demolish the complex the Yiddish Art Theatre moved to the Nora Bayes Theater on West 44th Street in fall 1925. Their tenancy there was brief, as the next year the Yiddish Art Theatre moved to its own purpose-built theatre: the Louis N. Jaffe Theater , a Moorish Revival theatre on Second Avenue in the heart of
17544-498: Was primarily a leading metricist, with his 1842 Shirei S'fat haQodesh "Verses in the Holy Tongue" considered a milestone in Hebrew poetry , and also authored biblical exegesis and educational handbooks. Abraham Mapu authored the first Hebrew full-length novel, Ahavat Zion "Love of Zion", which was published in 1853 after twenty-three years of work. Judah Leib Gordon was the most eminent poet of his generation and arguably of
17680-466: Was promulgated by nationalist thinkers and historians, from Peretz Smolenskin , Ahad Ha'am , Simon Dubnow and onwards. It was once common in Israeli historiography. A major factor which always characterized the movement was its weakness and its dependence of much more powerful elements. Its partisans were mostly impoverished intellectuals, who eked out a living as private tutors and the like; few had
17816-414: Was that it gave a voice to plurality of views, while the orthodoxy preserved the tradition, even to the point of insisting on dividing between sects. Another important facet of the Haskalah was its interest in non-Jewish religions, and for some the desire to synchronize or appreciate Christian and Islamic traditions and history. Moses Mendelssohn criticized some aspects of Christianity, but depicted Jesus as
17952-566: Was that of rationalism. Their most important contribution was the revival of Jewish philosophy , rather dormant since the Italian Renaissance , as an alternative to mysticist Kabbalah which served as almost the sole system of thought among Ashkenazim and an explanatory system for observance. Rather than complex allegorical exegesis , the Haskalah sought a literal understanding of scripture and sacred literature. The rejection of Kabbalah , often accompanied with attempts to refute
18088-630: Was the Königsberg (and later Berlin )-based Ha-Meassef , launched by Isaac Abraham Euchel in 1783 and printed with growing intervals until 1797. The magazine had several dozen writers and 272 subscribers at its zenith, from Shklow in the east to London in the west, making it the sounding board of the Berlin Haskalah . The movement lacked an equivalent until the appearance of Bikurei ha-I'tim in Vienna between 1820 until 1831, serving
18224-436: Was the only one that remained in Romania, where Yiddish theatre had started, although Mogulesko sparked a revival there in 1906. There was also some activity in Warsaw and Lvov , which were under Austrian rather than Russian rule. In this era, Yiddish theatre existed almost entirely on stage, rather than in texts. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901–1906 reported, "There are probably less than fifty printed Yiddish dramas, and
18360-449: Was to be remedied by the shedding of the base and corrupt elements of Jewish existence and retention of only the true, positive ones; indeed, the question what those were, exactly, loomed as the greatest challenge of Jewish modernity. The more extreme and ideologically bent came close to the universalist aspirations of the radical Enlightenment , of a world freed of superstition and backwardness in which all humans will come together under
18496-462: Was written between 1830 and 1840, but published much later; Israel Aksenfeld (died c. 1868) wrote several dramas in Yiddish, which were probably not staged in his lifetime. Another early Yiddish dramatist was Joel Baer Falkovich ( Reb Chaimele der Koẓin , Odessa, 1866; Rochel die Singerin , Zhytomyr, 1868). Solomon Jacob Abramowitsch 's Die Takse (1869) has the form of a drama, but, like Eliakim Zunser 's later Mekirat Yosef (Vilnius, 1893), it
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