"Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" Museum Transliteration Project

The Museum is currently in the midst of a small project to transliterate (in this case exchange the Yiddish/Hebrew letters listed for the English) Zalmen Zylbercweig's six-volume "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre."

This is a bit of an undertaking as these volumes are rather large, but the project is at least halfway done. The names listed in volumes 3, 4 and 5 have been transliterated to date, and Volume 1 will be completed shortly.

Even though the transliterated names and associated page numbers for Volume 5 can be found on JewishGen by clicking here, the Museum's name listings are more complete. The Museum has corrected many errors and omissions that were found in the Volume 5 listing.

Also the Museum's own listings for each of the volumes, not only have surnames, given names and "alternate names" been included, but when listed, the individual's date of birth and death are given, as well as the town/city and country of their birth. The Museum has tried to use the YIVO orthographic standards in the spellings of the names, though there are no doubt errors here too.

You can now find Zylbercweig's six volumes online (for free) by clicking here. Simply search for these volumes by using the words "Leksikon fun Yidishn teater".

Also, not only are the actual page numbers listed for each entry as in the original Yiddish-language volume, but the pdf page number has been added too, so all you have to do is enter that page number where the individual's name (and most often photos) appears.

It might be interesting for those of you who have familial ties with European countries and towns to see what person associated with the Yiddish theatre in some way came from that town or city. It should be to no one's surprise that the towns/cities that are most associated with these many names are Warsaw, Lodz, Vilna and Lemberg(L'viv).

The Museum hopes to complete this project within the next two or three weeks. If you need any lookups, please let the Museum know by e-mail. Of course you might want to wait till the Museum is finished with all six volumes. I understand that Volume 7 has never been published, and that parts of it sit in various repositories, so it is unlikely that the Museum be able to transliterate the names in that volume unless the institution/person that has it makes it available.

The Museum is hoping to put this information, once completed, on a free, online searchable database.

Yiddish Theatres: Classic and Romantic Drama in East Side Jargon, 1900

For those of you who have at least a passing interest in the history of the Yiddish theatre, this next article may delight you--and at least educate you a bit.

For those of you who aren't interested, it still will be worthwhile to read this article because it paints a picture of what our parents or grandparents might have experienced, attending the performance of a Yiddish play after a long day's work.

Remember that in many of the towns in which our family members lived in Europe before World War II (and even World War I), Yiddish plays were frequently performed. Perhaps these Yiddish plays performed, in their native tongue where they now lived, served to remind them of their former home--their lives, their community--albeit bittersweetly.

In this New-York Daily Tribune article of January 1900, you can learn a bit about how a Yiddish theatre was generally run, as well as its appeal, especially to blue-collar Jewish families.

The article begins by talking about the unionization of Yiddish actors and then talks about the goings-on in the Yiddish theatre and those who attend the performances. Remember now that in 1900, Yiddish theatre was very popular (at least among Jews), with bona fide stars such as Boris Thomashefsky and Bertha Kalish.

The article says in part:

"To gain a correct idea of the Yiddish theatre one must see it, and that it may be thoroughly appreciated [by] other senses than that of sight must be drawn upon. The crowds in the lobby resemble those which are seen in the clothing district when a strike is on, and the air is thick with cigarette smoke. Inside, men and women are talking and visiting and paying little attention to the orchestra. Boys with trays of candy, cakes, fruit and "soft drinks" do a paying business, and sell their wares in the body of the house. The opening lines of the actors are usually lost, except to those people who sit far in front, and demands for silence come from all parts of the auditorium. Sometimes these are in the form of the hissing "Pst! pst! which one hears in all European theatres, and sometimes the more imperative "Ruhig," "'Smaul halten!" or "Still!" are heard. Then comes the play, and close attention on the part of the audience, frequent applause and boisterous laughter and sniffles are sure to reward the efforts of the actors."

The article can be found by clicking at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt-bs-nydt-01.htm.

The Yiddish Theatres of the Bowery, 1900

Let's take a Museum of Family History trip back in time to the Bowery of 1900.

Of course none of us were alive back then, so if we want to gain a sense of what life was like for the Jewish citizen of lower Manhattan, immigrant or not, we need to look at photographs taken during this time as well as read whatever we can about Jewish life then. This will properly feed our imagination.

One question we might wish to ask ourselves and imagine is how Jewish families spent what leisure time they might have had. It seems that for many, the Yiddish theatre was a welcome respite. Around the turn of the twentieth century, one could say that Boris Thomashefsky was the most well-known actor in the Yiddish theatre. Actresses such as Bertha Kalich also excelled on the Yiddish stage, mostly in New York City.

You might like to visit the Museum's single-page exhibition on this subject which will give you a glimpse into Jewish life at the turn of the twentieth century on the Lower East Side and Bowery, and how our families and our fellow Jews spent some of their leisure time.

Here are several excerpts from the exhibition:

The Russian immigrant on the East Side has the help of his family in his work, and his family usually shares his pleasures. He has little inclination in the direction of sprees, and while some of his countrymen frequent the coffee houses where they play games and smoke, and others go to the clubs of which there are many in the district, nearly all the toilers of the sweatshops go to the theatre; and they go not singly or in pairs, but in family groups...For that reason, a Yiddish theatre audience is unlike that of any other playhouse in the city.

The storekeepers close their places of business on Friday at sunset, and after coming from the synagogue they look for amusement. The strictest Sabbatarians see no wrong in going to the theatre.

The East Side pushcart man, the little shopkeeper and the prosperous merchant, the sweatshop worker and the Divisionist milliner, the jewel and gold bedecked wife of the successful ward politician, are all represented in their true colors in these plays; but behind all, pointing a moral and reminding them of their duties as citizens and men, is the rabbi or the religious teacher, pointing out the ills that follow sin, and in some of the popular plays laying particular stress on the crime of apostasy. The "bad man," the "scheming villain," is often an apostate, whose career in the part is made unusually burdensome by the hisses which greet him every time he appears.

The opening lines of the actors are usually lost, except to those people who sit far in front, and demands for silence come from all parts of the auditorium. Sometimes these are in the form of the hissing "Pst! pst!" which one hears in all European theatres, and sometimes the more imperative "Ruhig," " 'Smaul halten!" or "Still!" are heard. Then comes the play, and close attention on the part of the audience, frequent applause and boisterous laughter and sniffles are sure to reward the efforts of the actors.

This exhibition, entitled "The Yiddish Theatre: Classic and Romantic Drama in East Side Jargon," can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yw-yt-bowery-1900.htm .

If you have more than a fleeting interest in the Yiddish theatre of the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, you should consider visiting the Museum's exhibition about the posters or placards that were once used to advertise Yiddish theatrical productions on the Lower East Side and the Bowery. This exhibition, "Placards of the Yiddish Theatre," can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt-placard-toc.htm .