CHAPTER XLIII

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YIDDISH LITERATURE, DRAMA AND THE PRESS.

Yiddish poets of the United States equal, if they do not excell, the poets of the same tongue in other countries――Morris Rosenfeld――“Yehoash” and Sharkansky――Bovshoer and other radicals――Zunser――Old fashioned novelists――The sketch writers who are under the influence of the Russian realistic writers―― Abner Tannenbaum――Alexander Harkavy――“Krantz,” Hermalin, Zevin and others――Abraham Goldfaden and the playwrights who followed him――Jacob Gordin and the realists――Yiddish actors and actresses――The Yiddish Press――The high position attained by the dailies――Weekly and monthly publications.

Judeo-German or Yiddish literature has attained in this country a respectable state of development, and some of the better work done here compares favorably with the same kind of work in Russia. This is especially true of poetry and of the drama, though the first consists mostly of ballads or short lyrical songs, and the last rarely goes beyond adaptation. Morris Rosenfeld (b. in Russian-Poland, 1862; a. 1886) is considered the best Yiddish poet in the New World, and some of his works have been translated into English and several other European languages. Solomon Bloomgarden (“Yehoash,” b. in Wirballen, Russia, 1870; a. 1892) is hardly less gifted, and the songs of Abraham M. Sharkansky (1867–1907) rank with the best in the language. The late David Edelstadt, Morris Winchevsky (b. in Russia, 1856; a. 1893) and I. Bovshoer (b. in Russia, 1874; incapacitated by sickness 1899) are the radical poets, in whose songs the tendency often overshadows the art. The old, popular bard, Eliakim Zunser (b. in Wilna, Russia, about 1840; a. 1889), has written some excellent songs since he came to this country. The most Jewish, and in some respect the greatest, of all Yiddish song writers, Abraham Goldfaden (b. in Russia, 1840; d. in New York, 1908), belongs as a poet, even more than as a playwright, to the Old World.

Of the old-fashioned novelists Nahum Meyer Schaikewitz (“Shomer,” b. in Russia, 1849; d. in New York, 1905); Moses Seifert (b. in Wilkomir, Russia, about 1850; a. 1887) and the Hebrew poet, Dolitzki, are the best known representatives. Those who follow new methods are mostly sketch writers under the influence of the Russian realists, and they include, among others: Jacob Gordin (b. in Russia, 1853; a. 1890; d. in New York, 1909), Bernhard Gorin (“Goido,” b. in Lida, Russia, 1868; a. 1893), Leon Kobrin (b. in Russia, 1872; a. 1892), Z. Libin (b. in Russia, 1872; a. 1893), and David Pinski, all of whom have also written for the stage and for various periodicals. Of the numerous writers, or rather translators and adapters, of long sensational stories which appeared serially in _Heften_ or in newspapers, and later in bulky volumes, only one, the originator, deserves to be mentioned.

This one is Abner Tannenbaum (b. in Shirwint, Russia, 1848; a. 1887), the most useful Yiddish writer in America. His easy style made his writings intelligible to people who were not used to read at all, and he has thus helped to create the large audience whom he has been instructing for more than twenty years by his translations of stories containing much information about the physical and technical world, like those of Jules Verne, and by his innumerable articles on popular scientific and historical subjects.

Alexander Harkavy (b. in Novogrudek, Russia, 1863; a. 1882) has done much useful work for the Jewish immigrant from the Slavic countries in another direction, by writing a number of manuals of the English language, Yiddish-English, Russian-English, Hebrew-English, dictionaries, vocabularies, phrase-books, conversation books, letter writers, etc. He has also contributed much to Yiddish periodicals and edited several of them, including _The Hebrew-American Weekly_ (New York, 1894), in which the Yiddish text was translated into English line by line.

“Philip Krantz” (pen-name for Jacob Rombro, b. in Podolia, 1858; a. 1890) is the author of several instructive works, including a _History of Culture_ and an _English Teacher for Jews_. David M. Hermalin (b. in Vaslin, Roumania, 1865; a. 1886) has written and translated a number of works of a variegated character, from treatises on methaphysical subjects to extremely realistic stories. Israel J. Zevin (“Tashrak,” b. in Russia, 1872; a. 1889), who has developed a typically American-Jewish humor, has published a collection of his humorous stories and descriptions of life among the semi-Americanized Jewish immigrants. Similar collections by other humorists, like A. D. Ogus and D. Apotheker (d. 1911), have also appeared in the last few years. Benjamin Feigenbaum, Dr. Abraham Kaspe and other radical propagandists have written many books and pamphlets of a quasi-scientific nature, mostly with the object of expounding their theories to the masses. B. R. Robbins was the publisher of a “History of the Jews” in Yiddish, the only work of that nature compiled in America.

The popular orator, Hirsch Masliansky (b. in Sluzk, Russia, 1856; a. 1895), is in a class by himself as the author of a book of _Yiddish Sermons_ (1908).

The Yiddish drama, which grew less independently than any other part of its literature, attained its freest and highest development here. The melodramas and operettas of Abraham Goldfaden, several of which were written in this country, still remain the best pieces in the entire Yiddish repertoire, and bid fair to survive the more serious works of the later period. A large majority of the plays written or translated or adapted for the Yiddish stage in the United States belong to the same class as the Goldfaden plays, and in many of them his influence is clearly discernible. The most productive and successful playwrights of this class are, in order of their priority in this country: Joseph Lateiner (b. in Roumania about 1855; a. 1883), Moses Horwitz (b. in Stanislau, Galicia, 1844; a. 1884; d. in New York, 1910), and N. M. Schaikewitch and recently his son, Abraham S. Schomer. Rudolph Marks (Rodkinson), Feinman and Thomashefsky, the actors; Seifert, Sharkansky, Hermalin, Solaterevsky, Anshel Shor and others have written occasionally, with more or less success.

Jacob Gordin was at the head of a more serious school of Jewish dramatists in America, whose effort to introduce――also by translations and adaptations――the problem-play, the psychological play and the realistic play, on the Yiddish stage, began a new epoch, which is now practically ended. His good style and technique insured for some of his pieces a considerable popularity for a time, and they are now much played in the revived Yiddish theater of Russia. Z. Libin and L. Kobrin were for a time his most consistent followers, and several other literary men have attempted to follow in his footsteps. But aside from the temporary popularity of some plays, the school itself, which was founded on Russian ideals and conceptions, could not take root here. Bernhard Gorin and David Pinski have also written plays that possess literary merit, and so have several others who cannot be classed as followers of the new school.

The most talented actors and actresses of the original troupes which the founder of the Yiddish theater, Goldfaden, organized in Roumania, Russia and later in Austria, came to this country at various periods during the last three decades. They, together with other able players and managers who learned much from their American colleagues, have brought the Yiddish stage here to a higher state of development than it has reached in other countries. The most prominent among them are Jacob P. Adler (b. in Odessa, 1855; a. 1886) and his wife, Sarah; Sigmund Mogulesco (b. in Bessarabia, 1858), who arrived about the same time; Mrs. K. Lipzin; Mrs. Bertha Kalich, who has left the Yiddish for the American stage; Boris Thomashefsky (b. in Kiev, 1866; a. 1881) and his wife, Bessie; David Kessler, Regina Prager Mme. Lobel, Bernhard Bernstein, Moskovich, Thornberg (d. 1911), Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Abramowich, Blank, Glickman, Fishkind, Graf, Gold, Mr. and Mrs. Tobias, Mr. and Mrs. Tanzman, and others. Moritz Morrison, the German actor, occasionally appears on the Yiddish stage, and lately Rudolph Schildkraut, a native of Roumania, who was for some years prominent on the German stage in Europe, has settled as a Yiddish actor in New York.

Almost all the authors of Yiddish works mentioned above, and many of the playwrights, have written, or are still writing, for the Yiddish press, which has attained here its highest development, Influenced by the example of the American newspapers, the Yiddish press has in the last two decades, by the directness of its appeal, by the attention it pays to news and questions in which its readers may be interested, and by keeping in touch with the current of life, reached a height far above the level of Yiddish newspapers in countries where their potential audience is much larger. The _Jewish Gazette_ of New York is now the oldest periodical in the world which is printed in Hebrew characters, and the younger popular weekly, _Der Amerikaner_ (established 1904), has probably outdistanced all Jewish magazines of the past and the present. The Yiddish daily papers occupy the front rank among the foreign language newspapers in the United States in regard to circulation, probably because the sufferings of the Jews in the Slavic countries causes the immigrant Jew to remain interested in periodicals which bring the news and discuss the questions of his old home country, longer than is the case with non-Jewish immigrants. The oldest of the Yiddish dailies is the _Jewish Daily News_, now edited by Leon Zolotkoff, founder and for many years editor of the _Jewish Courier_ of Chicago (established as a weekly 1887; daily since 1891). The next in age is the _Volksadvokat_, which was established as a weekly in 1887, from which grew the _Daily Jewish Herald_ (1894), which in 1905 became the _Warheit_, edited by Louis Miller. The socialistic _Forward_, of which Abraham Cahan is the editor, was established in 1897, and, like the other two, appears in the afternoon. The _Jewish Morning Journal_, the fourth New York Yiddish daily, was founded in 1901 by Jacob Saphirstein (b. in Byelostok, Russia, 1853; a. 1887), its present managing editor; and it has also a Philadelphia namesake, under the direction of Jacob Ginsburg.

The _Jewish Press_ of Chicago, the _Jewish Daily Press_ of Cleveland, O., and the _Jewish Daily Eagle_ of Montreal, Canada, of which Reuben Brainin is the editor, complete the list of Yiddish daily papers in America. Of the weeklies, the _Freie Arbeiter Stimme_ (est. 1899) is mildly anarchistic; the Jewish _Labor World_ (est. 1909) is the organ of the Chicago radicals; _Der Kibetzer_ is the oldest of the humorous illustrated periodicals appearing in New York. There are also several trade papers, like the _Neue Post_ of the garment workers and _Der Yiddishe Backer_ of the bakers’ union, etc.

The conservative _Volksfreund_, edited by ♦Joseph Selig Glick, has appeared in Pittsburgh since 1889; _Das Yiddishe Folk_ is the Zionist organ, established in New York 1909 and now edited by Ab. Goldberg; and _Der Yiddisher Record_ of Chicago began to appear in 1910. The monthly _Zukunft_ has had a checkered career since 1892, while Ch. J. Minikes’ _Yom Tob Blätter_ has appeared several times each year since 1897.

A class of professional writers and editors, some of them specialists of marked ability, grew up to supply the needs of the Yiddish publications, especially of the daily newspapers. Besides those mentioned above it includes among others: Gedaliah Bublik, J. L. Dalidansky, William Edlin, L. Elbe, J. Entin, Jacob Fishman, Dr. Fornberg, Jos. Friedkin, Israel Friedman, J. Gonikman, Dr. B. Hoffman, S. Janowski, E. and N. Kaplan, Z. Kornblith, A. Liesin (Wald), Jacob Magidoff, Ch. Malitz, Abraham Reisen, Bernhard Shelvin, Joel Slonim, Nathan Sovrin, J. M. Wolfson, Dr. Ch. Zhitlovsky and Israel Ziony. Of those who departed this life, M. Bukansky (1841–1904) and John Paley (1871–1907) deserve to be mentioned among those who contributed to the advancement of Yiddish newspaperdom in America.

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