Landmark Yiddish Plays: A Critical Anthology (S U N Y Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture)

366 Pages·2006·1.26 MB·English

by  Jeremy Asher Dauber

Landmark
Yiddish Plays
A CRITICAL ANTHOLOGY
Edited, Translated, and
with an Introduction by
Joel Berkowitz and
Jeremy Dauber
1
Landmark Yiddish Plays
SUNY series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture
Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor
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Landmark Yiddish Plays
A Critical Anthology
Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by
Joel Berkowitz and Jeremy Dauber
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2006 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Landmark Yiddish plays : a critical anthology / edited, translated and with
an introduction by Joel Berkowitz and Jeremy Dauber.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in modern Jewish literature and culture.)
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents: Silliness and sanctimony / Aaron Halle Wolfssohn — Serkele,
or, in mourning for a brother / Shloyme Ettinger — The two kuni-lemls /
Avrom Goldfaden — Miriam / Peretz Hirschbein — The duke / Alter Kacyzne.
ISBN 0-7914-6779-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6780-5 (pbk. :
alk. paper) 1. Yiddish drama — Translations into English. I. Berkowitz, Joel,
1965– II. Dauber, Jeremy Asher. III. Series.
PJ5191.E5L34 2006
839'.12008—dc22 2005023939
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6779-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6780-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Translators’ Note 73
Silliness and Sanctimony 81
Aaron Halle Wolfssohn
Serkele, or, In Mourning for a Brother 113
Shloyme Ettinger
The Two Kuni-Lemls 201
Avrom Goldfaden
Appendix: Music to The Two Kuni-Lemls 247
Miriam 257
Peretz Hirschbein
The Duke 291
Alter Kacyzne
v

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Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude to a number of people who have
helped make the publication of this volume possible. Series editor Sarah
Blacher Cohen expressed enthusiasm for this project from the start, and
offered helpful suggestions that helped determine the contents of our
anthology. James Peltz, interim director of State University of New York
Press, was similarly encouraging, and we have enjoyed working with him
and his fine staff.
Before the manuscript found its way to SUNY Press, several friends
and colleagues asked questions and made suggestions that have helped
determine the final composition of the book. Thanks toEsther Berkowitz,
Charles Busch, Brad Sabin Hill, Dov-Ber Kerler, Judith Milhous, David
Roskies, Joseph Sherman, Barry Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Veidlinger, Ruth
Wisse, and Seth Wolitz for helpful feedback and assistance of various kinds.
We are grateful to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for pro-
viding us with both the cover image and the sheet music for this volume.
Those who participated in public readings of the plays helped us
hear as well as see the dialogue in new ways, and asked many questions
that led us to clarify the language of the plays. Bravo and thank you to
our original cast of this translation of Miriam: Tiffany Anne Carrin,
Stephanie Levine, Michael Rosenthal, Beth Saultz, Helene Scheck, Eileen
Schuyler, Harry Staley, Karen Williams, and Peter Zalizniak. Special thanks
to Ari Sholom Berkowitz and Noah Dauber, who took the time during
several idyllic summer days to play multiple roles in a four-man reading
of The Two Kuni-Lemls, and helped bring Goldfaden’s comedy to life.
Our colleagues at Oxford University, Columbia University, and
the University at Albany have provided great encouragement and helped
create working environments conducive to moving this project forward.
On the home front, our undying gratitude goes to both of our families
for all their love and support.
Finally, having first come to the study of Yiddish as young adults, we
are forever indebted to our Yiddish teachers, who inspired and enlight-
ened us. It is to all of them that we dedicate this book.
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Introduction
In the late nineteenth century, European Jewry began to experience a
sea change. Beginning with the activities of a handful of German Jewish
intellectuals, the Haskala, or Jewish Enlightenment, transformed the
way that Central and Western European Jews identified as Jews, prac-
ticed their religion, and interacted with the wider society. Within a
matter of decades, the Haskala made its way eastward into Poland and
the Russian empire, bringing its secular ideals to a deeply traditional
population. There was much resistance, to be sure, and a substantial
part of the Eastern European Jewish population would carry on their
traditional practices, or reinvent such practices in response to the Haskala
and other new social and political movements. Yet the Haskala also
effected profound changes in various facets of Jewish life, one of which
in particular concerns us here. By successfully calling upon a portion
of the Jewish population to embrace the intellectual and cultural achieve-
ments of the secular world, the Haskala opened up new areas of activity,
including the writing and production of drama. A small number of
maskilim (singular: maskil), or advocates of the Haskala, wrote plays that
articulated their vision in dramatic form. After the middle of the nine-
teenth century, as the idea of Jews producing and consuming secular
literature gained greater acceptance and an infrastructure of writers,
journals, and publishers established itself, modern Yiddish literature
began to flourish. It was in this atmosphere that the professional Yid-
dish theatre was born—a phenomenon that would quickly expand to
become a lively medium for both entertainment and the exchange of
ideas among Yiddish-speaking Jews everywhere, and one of the most
dynamic and popular forms of Jewish expression in the modern world.
The five plays in this anthology represent highlights in the develop-
ment of modern Yiddish drama, from its beginnings in late eighteenth-
century Germany to the remarkable professional scene that thrived in
interwar Poland. In between, we encounter satires written and performed
in Poland and Russia. Some of the plays in this volume were little known
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