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A Tribute to the Yiddish Theater and “Di goldene kale” / “The Golden Bride”

9/11/2016

14 Comments

 
With the recent loss of some of Yiddish theater’s last surviving remnants, I decided that this would be the right time to write about the impact of the Yiddish theater even up until the present (c. 2016).  When I speak about this recent loss, I have in mind namely the late Fyvush Finkel (1922-2016), whom I saw perform live at a summer festival only a few years ago in New York City.  The relentless performer who began acting on the Yiddish stage in his native New York at the age of 9, ultimately transitioned to the world of American television by the 1990s.  He just died at the age of 93 on 14 August 2016.   ​
PictureFyvush Finkel (1922-2016) in his youth in a theatrical pose. (Courtesy of TheaterMania.com, accessed 8-26-16).
The other name that comes to mind is that of Nina (née Szulman) Rogow (1922-2016) whom I knew personally, as she was a regular and devoted volunteer at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research’s Archives Department, where I worked for several years.  Like Fyvush Finkel, Mrs. Rogow was born in 1922.  I was sad to learn of her passing in early July.  She, too, was a performer in the Yiddish theater, albeit, in Europe.  As a native of Minsk and a fluent speaker of Yiddish, she performed with the Belarus State Yiddish Theater in Novosibirsk.  After World War II, she and her husband, Yiddish actor, David Rogow (1915-2007), left the Soviet Union and went on to perform in the displaced persons camps of Germany, touring with the Munich Yiddish Theater.     

Also an actor in Yiddish theater, although most widely recognized for his role as Mr. Spock in the original “Star Trek” television series (1966-1969), was Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015).  He passed away in February of 2015.  Unlike Fyvush Finkel, who made his acting debut in Yiddish theater, Mr. Nimoy came to Yiddish-speaking roles already as an adult actor living in Los Angeles.  Having grown up with Yiddish at home in his native Boston, Nimoy often played juvenile roles when Yiddish theater troupes would visit the West Coast.  In that guise, he had the opportunity to perform alongside some of Yiddish theater’s leading stars, including Chaim Tauber (1901-1972) and Maurice Schwartz (1889-1960).  According to his own admission, Nimoy always retained a tender place in his heart for the Mame loshn (“mother tongue” – i.e., Yiddish), and as such, was an ardent supporter of the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.    

Picture
Nina (née Szulman) Rogow (1922-2016) in her youth performing in a theatrical role. (Courtesy of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York City, accessed 8-26-16).
Picture
Nina Rogow (1922-2016) as I knew her in her later years, busy at work in the YIVO Archives, c. 2014. (Courtesy of the YIVO Institute, New York City, accessed 8-26-16).
Picture
Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015) in his most widely recognized role as Mr. Spock on the cult following television series, “Star Trek.” (Courtesy of WCTV, accessed 8-26-16.)
This brings me to a more upbeat, but related topic and one of the major highlights of my summer.  After much ado, I had the opportunity to attend the award-winning Yiddish theater performance, “Di goldene kale” – perhaps better known as “The Golden Bride” – staged by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in New York City from 4 July-28 August 2016.  Although the actual performance was conducted entirely in Yiddish (short of a few words here and there in English or in Russian), there were simultaneous supertitles throughout the 2+ hour-long play to help clarify the Yiddish to the mostly non-Yiddish speaking audience.  For those in the audience who could follow the nuances of the Yiddish humor, though, this play was all-the-more a splendid treat.​
Picture
Scene from the present-day (c. 2016) production of “Di goldene kale” / “The Golden Bride.” (Courtesy of The Times of Israel , accessed 8-27-16.)
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Playbill of “Di goldene kale” / “The Golden Bride” performed by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. (Courtesy of Playbill, accessed 8-26-16.)
A bit more background about “Di goldene kale” / “The Golden Bride”: The music to the operetta or musical comedy was written by Joseph Rumshinsky (1881-1956), considered one of the leading powerhouses of the American Yiddish theater scene of his day, while the lyrics and a libretto were written respectively, by Louis Gilrod (1879-1930) and Frieda Freiman (1892-1962) in the name of her husband, playwright Louis Freiman (1891-1967).  The play debuted at David Kessler’s Second Avenue Theatre, in the Jewish Broadway district, on 9 February 1923.  According to the English language Forward, it ran for 18 weeks and filled its 2,000 seats before touring the greater United States and international sites, including Buenos Aires, Manchester, England, and Eastern Europe.

PictureJoseph Rumshinsky (1881-1956) as he appeared in his younger years, c. 1900 (accessed 8-27-16).

Picture
Joseph Rumshinsky (1881-1956) somewhat later on in life, in the role of conductor. (Courtesy of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, accessed 8-27-16.)
At the time of its run, on Saturday, 24 February 1923, the Yiddish language Forverts, whose article bore  the heading, “`The Golden Bride’ Has Won a Golden Medal Among All of the Mavens” had the following to  say about the play:
​
`The Golden Bride,' which is being played at the Kessler Second Avenue Theater, is so full of music, Rumshinsky’s music, beautiful, heart-felt music, which will long be sung in Jewish homes not only here, in America, but everywhere where there are Jews; so one may rightfully call it a Jewish opera.  The content of the musical comedy is very interesting, suspenseful, and also has a lot of jokes and dances.  It is enough to mention here that the best singers that the Yiddish stage has are now playing at the Second Avenue Theater … See `The Golden Bride' and enjoy a beautiful performance.
PictureAforementioned article from the Forverts, Saturday, 24 February 1923 (p. 12) entitled, “`The Golden Bride’ Has Won a Golden Medal Among All of the Mavens.” (Digitized article courtesy of Jewish Historical Press, accessed 8-26-16).
​Little did this newspaper article’s columnist realize it back in 1923, but nearly a century later, when “The Golden Bride” would play at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City during the summer of 2016, the wildly applauding audience would be comprised of far more than only Yiddish speaking Jews. 

In between its debut and contemporary-day performances, the only other time the play was staged was in 1948.  Unfortunately, from that point forward until now, it did not see the light of day.  Its revival was greatly due to the efforts of musicologist
Michael Ochs, who rediscovered the play’s libretto and lyrics and reconstructed the entire work.  Also aiding him in this process were the late Chana Mlotek (1922-2013), my former colleague at the YIVO Institute, and her son, Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the Folksbiene.      

I will not give away the entire plot of the play, should any of my readers have the opportunity to see it at some point in the future (I, for one, hope that it returns to the stage again soon, and that it is performed nationally – if not internationally).  But suffice it to say that it is part opera – replete with visually stunning scenery and costumes; melodrama in the “schmaltz” style of the early 20th century; and romantic comedy – part socio-economic commentary. 


​The plot itself opens in a quintessential unnamed shtetl in the land of “Mother Russia,” and ultimately winds its way westward to New York City, America – the land of “Uncle Sam.”  The story centers on the fate of protagonist Goldele – Yiddish for “Goldie” – from which the play evidently draws its title.  Goldele is a lovely orphan who hails from an impoverished background, but falls into the proverbial shmaltsgrub (i.e., Yiddish for “pit of chicken fat,” but loosely translated to connote, “strike it rich”), when she suddenly receives a large family inheritance.  This unexpected windfall prompts Goldele to set out to claim her inheritance in America, while also seeking out her long lost mother, and finding a worthy suitor in the process.   
​
Given its high success rate both in 1923 and in 2016 – 93 years later! – as a recipient of the New York Times and New Yorker Critic’s Pick and a two time Drama Desk Award nominee – it is hard to imagine that Joseph Rumshinsky initially feared that his operetta might turn out to be an utter disaster.  According to his autobiography, Klangen fun mayn lebn (i.e., Yiddish for “Sounds from/of my life”) (1944), during the rehearsals for “The Golden Bride,” nearly the entire acting company was unhappy with the play.  

PictureFront cover of Joseph Rumshinsky’s "Klangen fun mayn lebn" (“Sounds from/of my life”) (1944). (Courtesy of the National Yiddish Book Center, accessed 8-26-16.)
Rumshinsky even states on page 673 of his book that “I was desperate and afraid of a huge failure (when then am I not afraid?...).” Yet, he was ultimately thrilled by its overwhelmingly positive reception (as seen in the following):

And when `The Golden Bride' came before the court, before the judge and the jury, who had to give their verdict, I mean the esteemed audience, which has to decide whether the performance should continue to exist, or should limp along for a few weeks – in the case of `The Golden Bride,' the court, I mean the audience, immediately on the first night gave its verdict, that it is a huge success.  The laughter and the applause, and especially the packed houses, lasted for 18 weeks.

But perhaps the greatest litmus test for the play’s popularity and high success rate was the fact that the performance was visited one night in 1923 by two of the music and theater world’s leading figures of the day: composer and songwriter
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) and theater and film director Max Reinhardt (1873-1943).  On this subject Rumshinsky modestly takes little credit for the production’s triumph, remarking that “… the happiest person that night was the unknown playwright and provincial actor Louis Freiman, whose operetta `The Golden Bride’ was seen by two such major personalities the likes of Irving Berlin and Max Reinhardt” (p. 674).

Picture
Page 673 of Rumshinsky’s "Klangen fun mayn lebn," with sections that I have quoted and translated from the Yiddish above, in brackets. (Digitized page courtesy of the National Yiddish Book Center, accessed 8-26-16.)
Picture
Page 674 of Rumshinksy's "Klangen fun mayn lebn," with reference to Irving Berlin and Max Reinhardt, both of whom attended the play in 1923. My translation of this section is likewise included above. (Digitized page courtesy of the National Yiddish Book Center, accessed 8-26-16.)
My great hope for the future of Yiddish theater – especially after having read the biographical profiles of the multi-talented personalities mentioned here and having attended the recent production of “Di goldene kale” / “The Golden Bride” – is that it will continue to flourish and proliferate throughout the world.  I would like to see more generations of young Yiddish theater enthusiasts exposed to this once widespread form of entertainment – regardless of whether or not they are Jewish or fluent in the Mame loshn.  On the other hand, if Yiddish theater should serve as the conduit for the Yiddish language and its associated culture and literature, I am certainly a strong proponent of that.  What’s more, I would love to see a revival of other long-since-forgotten plays once featured on the Yiddish stage.  Ideally, though, we will not need to wait another long 93 years for the next such Yiddish theater revival.  

If you have any materials pertaining to the Yiddish theater – or otherwise, for that matter – that you would like translated, please feel free to contact me at:
 rivka@rivkasyiddish.com.
14 Comments
Peter Kubicek
9/11/2016 10:23:40 am

Dear Rivka,

I always enjoy your blog. I must tell you, though, that when I grew up in the Slovak town of Trenčin, I never heard a word of Yiddish. The first time I heard Yiddish spoken is when I was a prisoner in a German concentration camp. There I learned some Yiddish, as well as some Polish and some Russian.

So now you can see what what an educational experience the Nazi concentration camps were!

Peter Kubicek
Author of "Memories of Evil -- Recalling a W.W II Childhood"

Reply
Peter
9/11/2016 10:23:55 am

Wow! I wasn't aware that Fyvush Finkel got his start in the Yiddish Theatre! While in high school, he was my favorite TV teacher when he played the role of Harvey Lipschitz on the show, Boston Public.
He was a great actor and I would have liked to see him perform in the Yiddish Theatre. I do remember one Boston Public show where Finkel sang the song "If I was a rich man" from "Fiddler on the Roof."

As a Star Trek fan - I admit that I watched more television that I should have over the years - I always like Leonard Nimoy and although I knew he was Jewish, it is good to learn that he had a strong connection to the Yiddish Language.

Keep up the good work.

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
9/11/2016 10:48:45 am

Hi Peter,

Thank you very much for your kind remarks and for sharing your personal recollections of some of these very talented actors.

I am curious about that episode you mentioned of "Boston Public" where Finkel sang "If I was a rich man." Perhaps the clip is available somewhere on the Internet?

I, too, grew up watching many "Star Trek" episodes and certainly recall the memorable character of "Mr. Spock." But it wasn't until I was somewhat older that I learned of Leonard Nimoy's strong connection to Yiddish.

I was quite saddened to learn of Nimoy's passing, but at the same time, was glad to know that he had left his mark on viewers like me, the world over. I hope that his legacy will continue to live on for many years to come!

Kind regards,
Rivka



Reply
Rivka Schiller link
9/11/2016 10:25:14 am

Dear Peter,

Thank you very much for your kind words re: my blogs. I always appreciate hearing and learning from my readers.

I have definitely encountered many other cases of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, like you, who did not know Yiddish prior to WWII, but who received their Yiddish education once in the concentration camps. Language barriers must have been a huge barrier to survival (along with all the other hardships), so it makes sense that you would have acquired at least a rudimentary knowledge of Yiddish and some other languages, as well.

Incidentally, did you ever encounter any Yiddish theater being performed either before the war, during the war, or in its immediate aftermath, while still in Europe? I am most interested in learning more about that.

With much appreciation,
Rivka

Reply
Lisa
9/11/2016 11:35:20 am

Rivka!

What a delight to see F. featured, but then a reminder of ebb and flow of life to see mention of Rogow. Your research and expertise are so very full and deep.

Bless you,
Lisa

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
9/11/2016 02:00:01 pm

Hi, Lisa!

Thanks so much for your thoughtful remarks. You are so on-target when you refer to the "ebb and flow of life." How very true... But at the same time, it is comforting to know that these great minds and performers left their everlasting mark on generations to come.

Warm regards,
Rivka

Reply
Rivkah Blau
9/11/2016 12:29:17 pm

Rivka, it’s a pleasure to read your writing and to be inspired by your enthusiasm. You’re doing important work; you make research enjoyable.

Rivkah

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
9/11/2016 02:05:12 pm

Thank you very much, Rivkah, for your genuine words. I only wish that research were always so enjoyable! But I am glad if I am able to bring that kind of enthusiasm to the art of sifting through old documents, books, and in helping to make them more accessible to a larger public by rendering them into English.

With gratitude,
Rivka

Reply
Helena Schwarz
9/12/2016 08:41:07 am

Who knew that Leonard Nimoy spoke Yiddish! I'm so proud!

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
9/12/2016 08:43:09 am

Thank you, Helena, for your remarks on my blog re: Leonard Nimoy.

I knew that Leonard Nimoy had a warm place in his heart for Yiddish, but probably didn't learn that until I did an internship as an undergraduate at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. Nimoy did several readings and interviews for the Book Center.

I grew up watching Nimoy in his role as "Mr. Spock," so I, too, was quite delighted to learn of the strong ties he had to Yiddish.

Many thanks, again, for taking the time to read and comment!
Rivka

Reply
Leon
9/12/2016 11:55:00 am

Great article. I remember going to the Yiddish Theater for the first time after arriving in America shortly before the war. The Yiddish Theatre helped me in making the transition from shtetl Poland to America. I would have love to see the "Di goldene kale", except I retired, like many other New Yorkers, to southern Florida years ago. Any chance of this play being performed in the Miami area?

Reply
Rivka Schiller
9/12/2016 06:21:56 pm

Thank you, Leon, for your nice remarks.

I appreciate your sharing your recollections of Yiddish theater in America from the period just prior to World War II. Interesting how these performances helped you to transition to the American way of life.

I wish I could speak for the Folksbiene Theatre and say that they will be taking "Di goldene kale" to Miamia -- and elsewhere around the country -- but I don't know if that is in their plans. I simply know that a lot of people outside of NYC would also find the performance incredibly enjoyable and entertaining.

Friends of mine in Chicago even mentioned how jealous they were that I had gotten to see the performance, because they would like to see it come to Chicago, as well.

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog and to share your memories with others.

With all good wishes,
Rivka

Reply
Eugene Galen
9/12/2016 06:41:17 pm

Thank you so much, Rivka. I, of course, was too young for the yiddish theater, but I did see all the Yiddish movies from Poland and the USA. As far as Yiddish films are concerned, I saw them many years ago. I liked the one that was the prelude to the modern version of the fiddler on the roof. I made it an effort to see most every one available film.

Gene

Reply
Rivka Schiller
9/13/2016 03:29:51 pm

Dear Gene,

You're very welcome if I was able to bring back even a little taste of the Yiddish theater and Yiddish film -- a sort of offshoot of Yiddish theater -- for you.

If "Di goldene kale" or any other Yiddish performances should play in your area, I would strongly encourage you to attend. From the sound of things, you wouldn't even need the help of the super-titles!

Best wishes,
Rivka

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