Landmark Yiddish Plays

Jeremy Dauber, Joel Berkowitz

Description

Offering snapshots of a pivotal era in which the Jews of Europe made the transition from a traditional to a more modern world, the Yiddish plays translated and collected here wrestle with issues that continue to concern us today: changing gender roles, generational conflict, class divisions, and religious persecution. In their introduction to the volume, Joel Berkowitz and Jeremy Dauber place the plays in the context of the development of modern drama and Yiddish drama and examine their treatment of social, political, and religious issues. The many ways in which the plays address these issues make them transcend their own time, exciting a new generation of readers and theatergoers.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Translators' Note

1. Silliness and Sanctimony
Aaron Halle Wolfssohn

2. Serkele, or, In Mourning for a Brother
Shloyme Ettinger

3. The Two Kuni-Lemls
Avrom Goldfaden

4. Miriam
Peretz Hirschbein

5. The Duke
Alter Kacyzne

Appendix

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 10 mars 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791481622
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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

1 Landmark Yiddish Plays A Critical Anthology

Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by Joel Berkowitz and Jeremy Dauber

S U N Y P TATE NIVERSITY OF EW ORK RESS

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

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

2005023939

Acknowledgments Introduction Translators’ Note

1 Contents

Silliness and Sanctimony Aaron Halle Wolfssohn Serkele, or, In Mourning for a Brother Shloyme Ettinger The Two KuniLemls Avrom Goldfaden Appendix: Music toThe Two KuniLemls Miriam Peretz Hirschbein The Duke Alter Kacyzne

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1 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 to Esther 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 ofMiriam: 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 ofThe 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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1 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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