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XIV. PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881: IN AMERICA
Many years
before the great immigration of the Jews had begun, there was
a sufficiently
large community of Russian Jews resident in New York to
support a newspaper.
In the seventies there existed there a weekly, _The
Jewish Gazette_, and
there was at least one book store, that of the firm
of Kantrowitz, that
furnished the colony with Judeo-German reading
matter. The centre of that
Jewish quarter was then as now on Canal
Street, where there was also the
Jewish printing office of M.
Topolowsky, from which, in 1877, was issued a
small volume of
Judeo-German poetry by Jacob Zwi Sobel, probably the first of
the kind
in America. His few songs are all in the style of Goldfaden.
One,
entitled 'The Polish Scholar in America,' is especially interesting,
not
from a literary standpoint, but from the light it throws on
the
condition of the Jews before the eighties. Whether they wished so
or
not, they were rapidly being amalgamated, on the one side by the
German
Jews, on the other by the American people at large. Many tried to
hide
their nationality, and even their religion, since the Russian Jews
did
not stand in good repute then. The vernacular was only used as the
last
resort by those who had not succeeded in acquiring a ready use of
the
English language, and its approach to the literary German was
even
greater than that attempted by Dick at about the same time in
Russia.
However, English words had begun to creep in freely and to modify
the
Germanized dialect. It is evident that the seeds of the
American
Judeo-German, as it may now be found in the majority of works
printed in
New York, had been sown even then. The proneness to use a large
number
of German words is derived from the time when the smaller community
had
been laboring to pass into American Judaism by means of the
German
Jewish congregations.
Suddenly, in 1881, began the great forced
emigration of the Jews from
Russia, and in the same year the main stream of
the unfortunate
wanderers commenced to flood the city of New York, and from
there to
spread over the breadth and the length of the United States. At
present
there are, probably, not less than three hundred thousand Russian
Jews
to be found in New York alone. The aspect of the Jewish colony was
at
once changed. It was thrown back into conditions resembling those
in
congested Russian cities. There came misery, poverty, and squalor.
The
struggle for existence was even harder than it had been at home.
They
had exchanged the tyranny of the autocracy for the liberty of
the
republic, but they did not at the same time better their
material
well-being. It was then that the sweat-shop with all its horrors had
its
beginning, or at least found its most objectionable development.
And
they were not all laborers who were forced to tread the
sewing-machine,
or roll cigars and fill cigarettes. Many of them had seen
better days at
home, some had even been students at gymnasia and at
universities.
Without any previous training in their particular occupations,
forced to
do ten and twelve hours' work of the hardest labor, they had no
time to
think of any but the most sordid, more immediate physical needs.
Some
indeed succeeded in establishing themselves permanently, but
the
majority groaned under a heavy yoke. Only by degrees did more and
more
of them issue from the sweat-shops, to take up other occupations;
but
few of them ever forgot the horrors of their first years in America.
The
whole course of the Judeo-German literature is a reflex, on the
one
side, of their sufferings, on the other, of the greater liberty,
the
slowly increasing well-being.
With the large immigration came also
some of the literary men: Zunser,
Schaikewitsch, Seiffert, Goldfaden. They at
once set about to produce
books with the same vim that they had developed at
home. But the field
was not so profitable, and they had to turn to other
work. Schaikewitsch
and Zunser have become printers instead of writers of
books, and
Goldfaden gave up his attempt in despair and returned finally to
Europe.
However, in the short time that they have been active in America,
they
have succeeded in doing immeasurable harm not only to
Judeo-German
literature, but to the people for whom they wrote as well. They
have
corrupted the language in accord with the forms which they found
in
vogue among the Jews who had been here before them, and they started
out
to minister to the sensational tastes of the masses who received
their
nourishment from the lower English press of New York. The amount
of
many-volumed so-called novels that they have produced is
simply
appalling. These are mainly adaptations of the most sensational
novels
in whatsoever language they could lay their hands on. Goldfaden
also
started _The New York Illustrated Gazette_, the first of the kind
in
Judeo-German, but it lived only a short time. In spite of the mass
of
printed matter in the vernacular, literature did not pay in America,
and
Goldfaden left the country in disgust.
But the eighties were not
by any means devoid of interest and
far-reaching importance to Jewish
letters. During that time Judeo-German
journalism received its fullest
development. In Russia a daily press
could not exist at all, and the few
weeklies that had been issued from
time to time had to move in such closely
circumscribed limits that
journalism ever remained there in its infancy. But
on the other side of
the Atlantic, the first thing the Jews learned to value
and to make free
use of was the newspaper. A large number of these were
started in the
first ten years of the great immigration, but most of them
have been of
short duration. In the struggle for existence the oldest
newspaper, that
had had its beginning in 1874, came out victorious. It bought
out and
consolidated twenty Jewish dailies and weeklies and now appears in
the
form of _The Jewish Gazette_, as the representative of the
more
conservative faction of the Russian Jews of America. But the most
active
in that field of literature were those who at the end of the
eighties
clustered around the newspapers that were published in the interest
of
the Jewish laborers. Of these _Die Arbeiterzeitung_ was the
most
prominent.
A number of causes united in making the socialistic
propaganda strongest
among the Russian Jews. They had come from a country
where all the
elements of opposition naturally gathered around the political
parties
that stood in secret conflict with the Government and also the
social
order of things. In America, they came at once in contact with
the
sweat-shop and similar industrial oppressions, which only
sharpened
their dislike of the social structure. Intellectually they stood
higher
than those of their brethren who persevered with the conservatives,
for
they had at least come to think about their condition and the
affairs
of the world, while the others clung to old superstitions and
did
nothing to drag themselves out from the slough of ignorance into
which
they had fallen in Russia. At the same time the many intelligent men
who
had been driven to the United States nearly all had belonged to
the
opposition parties at home, and it was from them alone that the
masses
could be saved from the clutches of the sensational novelists.
This
struggle between Schaikewitsch and his tribe on the one side and
the
intelligent writers on the other began towards the end of the
last
decade, and the older men are being as surely driven to the wall here
as
they have been in Russia by Rabinowitsch and the newer school
of
writers. These younger men have, with but one exception, been driven
to
Judeo-German letters as their last resort. Some of them had never
before
published anything in any language, and none of them had ever
practised
writing in their vernacular. They all belonged to that class of
Jewish
young men who had received their instruction in Russian schools, or
who
had in any way identified themselves completely with their
Gentile
comrades. They had all reached their school age in the seventies,
when
everybody was as eager to become Russianized as two decades before
their
parents had been to oppose the new culture. Either as belonging to
the
Jewish race, or because of their sympathies with the Nihilists, they
had
to flee from the country. These form to a great extent the basis for
the
Russian intelligence in the United States.
They brought with them
the idea of the Narodniks, which was that their
energies ought to be devoted
to the uplifting of the masses. They could
not hope to become in any way
influential among the native population in
the American cities. They,
consequently, directed their attention to
their own race. One of the first to
arrive in America with the great
immigration, was Abraham Cahan. He was born
in the year 1860 in
Podberezhe, in the government of Wilna. His early years
had been passed
in a Jewish school perfecting himself in Jewish lore. At the
age of
fourteen he entered the Hebrew Teachers' Institute at Wilna, from
which
he graduated in 1881. He was appointed a teacher in a government
school
in a small town in the province of Witebsk, but he had soon to
flee,
having been discovered by the police as a participant in the
nihilistic
movement. The next year he arrived in New York penniless. He had a
hard
struggle for three or four years. Since that time he has been active
as
the founder of several excellent Judeo-German periodicals, as a
writer
in the dialect himself, as a contributor to the English press,
and,
finally, as a writer of English books. Of the latter, 'Yekl'
was
published a short time ago by Appleton & Co., and 'The
Imported
Bridegroom and Other Stories,' by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. He has
also
contributed to the _Cosmopolitan_, _Short Stories_, and the
_Atlantic
Monthly_.
His Judeo-German activity began with the
foundation of the
_Arbeiterzeitung_, devoted to the interest of socialism
and
enlightenment among the Jewish masses. To this gazette he
contributed
largely. Most of his articles are popularizations of sciences,
but he
has also written several books of stories, mostly from the life of
the
New York Ghetto. Like his English stories, they are composed in a
good
literary style, and present vivid pictures of Jewish life as it
is
modified under American conditions. It may be safely asserted that
his
English sketches are conceived by him first in the Judeo-German,
after
which they are adapted for an American public. While showing
great
merit, it cannot be said of his novels that they equal those of
the
writers in Russia. In fact, there has not arisen in America any
author
who has shown the same degree of originality as those of
the
mother-country, even though they frequently surpass them in
regularity
of structure, and in the fund of information they possess. Among
the
large number of writers in New York who have contributed to
the
literature, it can hardly be said that any individual style has
been
developed. They resemble each other very much, both in the manner
of
their compositions, and the subjects they treat. Nor could it
be
otherwise. They nearly all are busy popularizing science in one way
or
other, or they write novels from the life of the Jewish
community,
which, in the less than two decades of its existence, has not
developed,
as yet, many new characteristics. They imitate Russian models for
their
stories and novels, mainly Chekhov. They are all of them realists,
and
some have carried their realism to the utmost extent.
One of the
most fruitful popularizers of science has been Abner
Tannenbaum. His works
have all the merit of being based on real facts,
though these are presented
in the attractive form of novels, whether
original or translated. He is now
exerting an influence also on the Jews
of Russia, where his works are much
valued. He was born in 1847, and, up
to the year 1889, was a wholesale
druggist. In that year he arrived in
America, and, for the first time, began
writing in the vernacular. At
first, he translated novels from German and
French, especially the works
of Jules Verne. Later, he wrote some novels
after the fashion of the
German pedagogue, J. H. Campe, in his works
'Robinson the Younger' and
'The Discovery of America.' Since 1893, he has
been a permanent
contributor to _The Jewish Gazette_, where he has been
writing and
popularizing encyclopedic items.
The early history of J.
Rombro, who is writing under the pseudonym of
Philip Krantz, does not differ
much from that of Abraham Cahan, with
whom he has been active in the
publication of the same periodicals. He
had to flee from Russia about the
same time. He went to London and
Paris, from which place he contributed to
various Russian magazines. In
London he met Winchevsky, who, at that time,
had been editing a
Judeo-German newspaper, _The Polish Jew_. He was asked by
him to write a
description of the riots against the Jews. "It was a hard job
for me,"
so writes the author, "and it took me a long time to do it. I
never
thought of writing in the Jewish Jargon, but fate ordered
otherwise,
and, contrary to all my aspirations, I am now nothing more than a
poor
Jargon journalist." The author's evil plight has, however, been
the
people's gain, for to his untiring activity is due no small amount
of
the enlightenment that they have received in the last ten years. In
1885
he was invited by a group of Hebrew workingmen, rather anarchistic
than
social-democratic, to edit a socialistic monthly, _The Workers'
Friend_.
Against his will, for he was a social-democrat, he accepted the
offer.
This monthly became the next year a weekly. Later, he
translated
Lassale's 'Workingmen's Program' into Judeo-German. About that
time, in
1890, he was invited by the Jewish socialists of New York to come to
the
United States and edit a strictly social-democratic paper. He
gladly
accepted this invitation, and March 6, 1890, the first number of
the
_Arbeiterzeitung_ was issued; since 1894 it has been appearing under
the
name of the _Abend-Blatt_ as a daily, and it is now the official
Jewish
organ of the socialist labor party. He was also the first editor of
the
_Zukunft_, started by the Jewish socialist sections of the United
States
in 1892. Now he is contributing to the monthlies _Neuer Geist_ and
_Neue
Zeit_. His articles are all characterized by great earnestness, and by
a
good flowing style. He is far from being a blind partisan, and he
knows
how to treat impartially questions of a general import.
The
nineties have passed in the United States in the often-repeated
attempt to
establish permanent Judeo-German magazines. There have been a
large number of
them in existence, and one after the other has met with
financial failure.
Now, however, there are several that promise to last
a longer time. Never
before has the periodical press in Judeo-German
been brought to such a
perfection as regards its outward form and the
variety of subjects that it
has incorporated in its pages. The first of
the kind was the _Zukunft_ just
mentioned. It lasted until the year
1897, when it gave way to the _Neue
Zeit_, which is practically a
continuation of the first. It differs little
from similar popular
science magazines in other languages. We find in it such
articles as,
What is Socialism? Philosophy and Revolution; A Dog's Brain, by
John
Lubbock; Shakespeare, his Life and his Works; Pasteur and
his
Discoveries; and similar scientific articles. To these must be
added
many literary articles, stories, poems, reviews, and the like. Among
the
several good contributors of the latter class of literature we
shall
dwell at a greater length on B. Gorin and Leon Kobrin.
B. Gorin
is the pseudonym of J. Goido, of whose activity in Russia we
have spoken
before. After the failure of his undertaking in Wilna,
mainly through the
interference of the censor, who delayed his
publication in every possible
way, he went to Berlin to attend lectures
at the University. He soon went to
America, where shortly after, in
1895, he became the editor of a Philadelphia
Judeo-German newspaper.
From there he went to New York, where he published
the 'Jewish American
Popular Library,' a collection of short stories in the
manner of his
Wilna edition; but its life was cut short after the seventh
number. He
has since been the editor of the _Neuer Geist_. The most of his
sketches
were published in the _Arbeiterzeitung_ and in the _Abend-Blatt_,
when
it was still edited by A. Cahan. At first he confined
himself
exclusively to short sketches in the style of the Russian
writer,
Shchedrin, but soon he followed the example of all of those who
have
written in America, and has translated foreign authors, has
written
reviews, and popularized science. In Russia he had begun the
translation
of 'David Copperfield.' In America he has translated Chekhov, and
has in
one way or other introduced the Russian Jews to the works of
Daudet,
Maupassant, Sienkiewicz, Korolenko, Dostoyevski, Bourget,
Garshin,
Potapenko, and many German and English novelists.
One of the
most original writers of the realistic school in the manner
of the Russian
Chekhov is Leon Kobrin. He has lately started the
publication of a 'Realistic
Library,' of which the first number so far
issued contains several sketches
that have been written by him in the
last two years. One of the best in that
volume is the first, 'Jankel
Boile,' a story from the life of Jewish
fishermen. One is rather
inclined to doubt that his Jewish characters really
exist as he has
depicted them; it almost seems as if they were a transference
of Russian
men to Jewish surroundings, for they seem to do things that are
not met
with as peculiarities of the Jews in the many novels by
Judeo-German
writers. But it may be that he speaks from intimate acquaintance
with a
class of people that is not generally accessible to the average
writer.
Barring this, the story is very vividly told. It is a sketch of a
Jewish
boy who has grown up with the village boys, and who has but the
faintest
idea of his Jewish faith. He falls in love with one of the peasant
girls
of his acquaintance, whom he courts, and for whom he is about to give
up
the faith of his fathers. In the last moment, when out in the night on
a
fishing tour on the stormy lake, he is caught with remorse at
his
impending apostasy, and he commits suicide by jumping in the lake.
This
is but a bare outline of a most excellently developed story, in
which
realism has been carried to a _ne plus ultra_. His portrayal of
the
lower classes with their indomitable passions reminds one very much
of
the remarkable sketches of the Russian Gorki.
At this juncture
mention must be made of the many short sketches by
Gurewitsch, who writes
under the pseudonym of Z. Libin. They belong
among the best Ghetto stories
that have been written in New York, and
they display undoubted talent. Cahan,
Goido, Kobrin, and Libin are all
young men yet, and from them alone a
regeneration of the Jewish novel
may be expected.
In 1893 Krantz and
Sharkansky started a monthly magazine, _The City
Guide_, but only two numbers
of it appeared. Two years later Winchevsky
began issuing in Boston _The
Emeth_, a weekly family paper for
literature and culture. It is a pity it was
stopped before the year was
out, for of all the magazines that have seen
daylight in America, it was
by far the most ably edited. Among his
contributors of belles lettres
we find the names of the authors just
mentioned, and also several
others. Nearly everything else is from the pen of
the editor. While in
many of the leaders his socialistic bias is pronounced,
yet most of his
articles deal with subjects of a general interest. Of his
poetry we have
spoken before. His prose style is even better. It is smooth,
idiomatic,
and carefully balanced. He is one of the few authors who bestow
great
care on a good Judeo-German style, and file and finish it.
Most
interesting are his epigrams and philosophical reflections, and
his
satirical sketches, which he generally ascribes to the
'Insane
Philosopher.' Winchevsky has been very productive. Outside of his
many
original stories and sketches, his poetry, and sociological articles,
he
has translated a number of works, among others the Russian Korolenko
and
Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables.' His translations are the very best
in
the Judeo-German language. Few have equalled him in the art
of
translation. The distinguishing characteristics of all his
productions
are dignity and refinement. Although he frequently depicts Jewish
life,
the Jew is but an accident of his themes, for he has ever in mind
the
social questions at large, as they affect the whole world.
The
year before Schaikewitsch began the publication of the _Hebrew Puck_
in
imitation of the English _Puck_. Being of a humorous nature, that
magazine
does not show the glaring defects of his other works to any
great extent. In
the same year Alexander Harkavy started _The American
People's Calendar_,
which in addition to the matter that more strictly
belongs to an almanac
contains also several useful articles of a
literary value. Harkavy has
developed an untiring activity in the
publication of books by which his
countrymen should be introduced to
the English language and to a right
understanding of American
citizenship. He has written all kinds of
text-books, has translated the
Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence, and published _The
Hebrew American_, an English weekly with
footnotes in Judeo-German. He
has also written a large number of popular
articles on linguistic
subjects. Many of these contain valuable matter, but
it is often
difficult to disentangle the facts from his personal
speculations, which
are not always based on scientific truths. He lacks
training, and his
style is otherwise colorless. But for all that, his deserts
in the
education of the Russian Jews of New York must not be undervalued.
Of
his translations we might also mention the 'Don Quixote,' of which
so
far only the first part has appeared in Judeo-German. Among the
writers
of historical essays, the most promising is the Roumanian, D.
M.
Hermalin, whose 'Mohammed' and 'Jesus the Nazarene' are not only
fair
and unbiassed statements of the foreign religious teachings, but
also
belong among the very few books in Judeo-German that are supplied with
a
critical apparatus.
The best magazine now in existence is the _Neuer
Geist_, of which the
first seven numbers were edited by Harkavy, but which
now appears under
the editorship of Gorin. It is a periodical of science,
literature, and
art, and has no special political bias. We find here the
same
contributors as in former monthlies. To those mentioned before may
be
added the names of Budianov, Feigenbaum, and Solotkov, who have
written
many good articles on sociological and philosophical matters, and
Katz,
who is an astute critic. Here has also appeared the best translation
in
verse of one of Shakespeare's dramas, 'The Merchant of Venice,' from
the
pen of the poet Bovchover. Another, smaller magazine, _Die
Zeit_,[110]
is published by the Hebrew poet M. M. Dolizki. Another
well-conducted
monthly is the _Neue Zeit_, issued by the Jewish-speaking
sections of
the Socialist Labor Party of the United States. There is no
material
difference in the composition of the contributors' staff. A few
more
names might be added to the list of men who have been active
in
spreading information among the Russian Jews, such as
Feigenbaum,
Wiernik, Bukanski. Seiffert has written some interesting accounts
of the
Jewish stage in America, but his language is of the order of Dick
or
even worse; Rosenfeld and Sharkansky have at various times produced
some
sketches and even dramas, but they are more strictly poets, as
which
alone they will survive.
The time is not far away when there
will not be a Judeo-German press in
America. The younger generation never
looks inside of a Jewish paper
now, and the next following generation will no
longer speak the dialect,
unless something unforeseen happens by which the
existence of that
anomaly shall be made possible. Already _The Jewish
Gazette_, taking
time by the forelock, has begun issuing an English
supplement to its
Judeo-German weekly. It wants to secure its lease of life
by passing
over by successive steps to a periodical published entirely in
English,
without a violent loss of its subscribers. Several of the
intelligent
writers in the vernacular are at the same time contributing to
the
English press, while some have entirely abandoned their Judeo-German.
In
the meanwhile that literature is developing a feverish activity.
From
its ashes will rise new forces in the English literature of
America
that will add no small mite to its pages. In the short time of
the
existence of the Judeo-German in America, it has passed through
three
distinct stages: the first was the era of the sensational novel;
then
followed the socialistic propaganda, coupled with the evolution of
the
press, but particularly the magazine. Now, without abandoning
entirely
the social and political ideals, the writers are combining to
popularize
science and to produce a pure literature. The latter is more or
less
under the sway of the Russian writers Chekhov, Korolenko, and
Garshin.
What Russia has done for the Jews in the seventies is reaped by
the
masses in the nineties in America.
XV. THE JEWISH
THEATRE
In the beginning of the eighteenth century two plays written
in
Judeo-German appeared in print, 'The Sale of Joseph' and
the
'Ahasuerus-play.'[111] They were intended for scenic representation
on
the feast of Purim, which even before that time had been given to
mimic
performances. These mysteries, together with another written at
about
the same time, 'David and Goliath,' have held uninterrupted sway up
to
our own time wherever the Jargon has been spoken. Schudt has left us
in
his 'Judische Merkwurdigkeiten'[112] a detailed account of
the
popularity of one of these plays from the start, of the manner of
its
performance at the house of the Rabbi of Mannheim, of the formation
of
the first travelling company for the execution of the drama at
other
towns, and many other interesting facts connected with it.
These
mysteries differ little from the coarse comedies and burlesques
current
at the time among the Gentiles, from whom, no doubt, many of the
details
were borrowed. Soon many imitations of the original
'Ahasuerus-play'[113]
and 'The Sale of Joseph' came to rival the older plays
in popularity.
Of the first a form is known to me in which the Leckerlaufer
is
substituted for the original Pickleherring, the grotesque
harlequin,
while of the second I possess at least two widely different
versions,
not to speak of Zunser's large drama of the same subject.
Altogether,
this matter has not, as far as I know, been properly
investigated, so
that little can be said with certainty about the relations
that they
bear to each other. 'The Sale of Joseph,' or 'The Greatness of
Joseph,'
as it is frequently called, was translated at the end of the last or
the
beginning of this century into Judeo-German by Elieser Pawier from
the
original Hebrew under the title 'Milchomo be-Scholom.' It is a much
more
serious production than the older work, and this, rather than the
one
printed in 1710, has lain at the foundation of future adaptations.
At
least one, the versified drama under the name of 'Geschichte
vun
Mechiras Jōssef u-Gdulas Jōssef,' published in 1876 in
Jusefov,
distinctly claims to be a translation from the same Hebrew source.
How
many such plays have been actually performed it is not possible
to
determine now without a more careful inquiry among older men in
various
parts of Russia. There have just come to light a number of
mysteries
once popular in the Government of Kowno, while some have been
printed
within our own days. Such, for example, is 'The Book of the Wisdom
of
Solomon,' which is based on the Biblical story of Solomon's life,
but
which contains also Talmudical commentaries on certain facts
connected
with his reign. The latest, and by far the best, drama on the 'Sale
of
Joseph' comes from the pen of Zunser, who not only has given it
a
literary finish, but has perused all the sources that throw any light
on
several difficult points connected with the play, and has furnished
in
some perplexing problems solutions of his own, so as to make the
whole
uniform and historically correct. In his introduction he mentions a
few
important facts about the popularity of the subject, and the manner
of
its performance, or recitation. He says: "No other story from our
Holy
Scripture has made such an impression or has become so known to
the
masses of the Jews as the 'Sale of Joseph.' ... As far back as we
can
remember it has been played among us by beggar-students, or by
the
old-fashioned badchens at weddings."
It is not uncommon to see a
performance of this play given at the
present time in some small town. The
actors are generally the
beggar-students who have to play both the male and
female parts, as no
women are allowed to perform together with the men. Some
large
unoccupied room is furnished with benches on which the sexes
are
generally seated separately. The stage is of the most
primitive
character, without decorations of any kind; and the actors like
to
parade in fantastic clothes which have nothing in common with
the
historical truth. Either the whole of the play, or at least
certain
passages are sung according to traditional tunes. In the 'Sale
of
Joseph' it is always the monologue of Joseph before his mother's
grave
upon which the greatest care is bestowed, as it is the most
pathetic
part of the drama. It is probably the prototype of M. Gordon's
ballad of
'The Stepmother' and similar popular versions, for in them, as
in
Gordon's version, Joseph's mother sends up her consoling words to
her
son from her grave. An excellent description of such a performance
is
given in Dienesohn's 'Herschele,'[114] where the hero of the novel
plays
the part of Joseph.
These mysteries are not the only form of
histrionic art. On the Purim,
many masqueraders may be seen passing from
house to house, followed by a
curious crowd of children, anxious to catch a
glimpse of the strange
mummery of men and impossible animals. In some places
the children and
even grown persons manage to enter the house either by sheer
force, or
under the proverbial pretext that they are the "bear's brother."
The
actors begin in a chanting way: "Good evening, my good people, do
you
know what Purim means?" after which they proceed with the
explanation
and the performance of some grotesque scene. Each group has its
own
Purim play, which is generally some unrecognizable fragment of
the
'Ahasuerus-play,' but frequently also some original production which
is
jealously guarded from being imitated by rival boy performers. There
is
no merit in them, but an investigation even of this form of the
Purim
play might bring out some interesting points or bits of antiquity.
The
length of the burlesque is graded according to the expectation of
the
final monetary reward, to which they allude with the stereotyped
phrase:
"The play is out, give us a coin, and throw us out of
doors!"[115]
The possibility is not excluded that in addition to this
semi-religious
form of the drama, there may also have been given performances
of
profane plays at an early date in Russia. It is not known whether any
of
the dramas written by Aksenfeld, Gottlober, or Ettinger have been
played
by amateur actors, but we have at least one well-attested case of
a
performance of that kind in 1855,--twenty years before the
establishment
of the Judeo-German theatre by Goldfaden. In that year
the students of the
Zhitomir Rabbinical school celebrated the coronation
of Emperor Alexander II.
by a play in which the life of the Jewish
soldier and the kahal were
depicted. This drama is said to have been
written by one Kamrasch, but never
to have been printed. It is also
asserted that it served as the first impulse
to Goldfaden to create a
Jewish theatre, which, however, he realized only
much later.
There existed a dramatic literature long before Goldfaden. We
have had
occasion to mention the works of Ettinger, Aksenfeld,
Gottlober,
Abramowitsch, Falkowitsch, Levinsohn, Epstein. After the popular
poetry
a semi-dramatic style was better calculated to impress the people
with
the new culture than simple prose, which at that time had not been
well
worked out. Nearly all of the prose style of the early days is more
or
less affected by the drama, and even Abramowitsch has not entirely
got
away from it. Nearly all of his stories are introduced by
the
stereotyped words: "Says Mendele Mōcher Sforim," and there are
other
similar dramatic effects scattered through them. This, which is
an
imitation of Hebrew originals, has also been the usual way
of
introduction with other Judeo-German writers of the early days.
The
drama of Ettinger is entirely constructed after the manner of a
German
play, has five acts, and the laws of dramaturgy are carefully
carried
out. It really looks as though he had intended it for the stage.
In
Aksenfeld the adaptation to the stage is less apparent, while the
others
do not seem to have had the performance of their plays in mind at
all.
What is surprising is that Aksenfeld and Gottlober should
have
introduced in their dramas a number of couplets and songs which have
no
meaning unless they were meant to be sung by the actors. Possibly
they
followed the precedent of familiar German plays even in this
particular,
without any other purpose before them; or it may be that they
foresaw
the possibility of their future representation and thought it best
to
imitate the Purim plays, which had always some songs intermingled
with
the spoken dialogue of the actors.
In 1872 Goldfaden published
two of his comedies.[116] The first, 'The
Two Neighbors,' is a splendid
farce, in which two women are discussing
the prospective marriage of their
two babies playing on the floor. The
children get to fighting, and one of
them is hurt. This changes the tone
of their mothers, and they heap curses on
each other in the vilest
manner. The other, 'Aunt Sosie,' is the best he has
ever written. We do
not find in it the rant of his later dramas, and the
subject is taken
strictly from Jewish life. Aunt Sosie is a woman of the type
of Serkele.
She is anxious to get her sister married, and maltreats her
husband's
niece. Her husband is under her thumb. By the aid of his friend
Ispanski
he manages to cheat his wife and to get his niece married to his
wife's
brother. Sosie is about to marry her sister to a Lithuanian Jew,
a
cloak-maker, who is already married to another woman. His lawful
wife
comes in time to prevent the bigamy of her husband. It is easy to
see
that the whole is a close imitation of Ettinger's comedy.
During
the Turco-Russian War, in 1876 and 1877, the city of Bukarest in
Roumania
presented a lively spectacle. It was the seat of the Russian
staff, and all
the news from the field of war was carried there, and all
the contracts for
the commissariat were let there. The city swarmed with
Jews from Russia and
Galicia, who had come there to find, in one way or
another, some means to
earn a fortune. Bukarest became a Mecca of all
those who did not succeed at
home. And, indeed, as long as the war
lasted most of them managed to fill
their pockets. With the easily
gotten gains there came also a desire to be
amused, and coffee-houses
were crowded by Jews who came to them to listen to
the songs of some
local ballad singer. It was also not uncommon for such
singers to give
performances of their art in private houses to assembled
guests.
Goldfaden had also come there in the hope of bettering his condition.
It
occurred to him that he might widen the activity of the balladists
by
uniting several of them into a company for the sake of
theatrical
performances. This he did at once. Bearing in mind the fact that
Jews
had not been used to the regular drama, but that they were fond
of
music, he wrote hurriedly half a dozen light burlesques,
mostly
imitations of French originals, in which the songs written and set
to
music by him were the most important thing. There is no other
merit
whatsoever in the plays, as their Jewish setting is merely such in
name,
and as otherwise the plot is too trivial.[117] But the songs
have
survived in the form of popular ballads. It is interesting to note
that
this first Roumanian troupe consisted exclusively of men, who had
also
to take the women's parts.
After the conclusion of the war, in
1878, Goldfaden returned to Odessa,
where he established a regular Jewish
theatre.[118] Women were added to
the personnel, and a number of writers
began to write plays specially
adapted for the stage. Katzenellenbogen,
Lerner, Schaikewitsch,
Lilienblum, and the founder of the theatre were busy
increasing the
repertoire. Of these, Katzenellenbogen was the most original
and most
literary. It does not appear that his dramas have been printed, but
the
songs taken out of several of them and issued by him in a volume of
his
poetry attest a high merit in them. Lerner was satisfied
with
reproducing some of the best German plays in a Jewish garb. Of these
he
later published, 'Uncle Moses Mendelssohn,' a one-act drama;
a
translation of Gutzkow's 'Uriel Acosta'; a rearrangement of
Scribe's
'The Jewess'; and a historical drama, 'Chanuka,' of which the
original
is not mentioned by him. The dramas of the other two are quite weak,
but
they do not yet indicate that degree of platitude which they
have
reached later in America. The success of the theatre was complete.
The
original company divided in two, and one part began to
play
independently under the leadership of Lerner, while the other started
on
a tour through the Jewish cities of Russia, visiting Kharkov, Minsk,
and
even Moscow and St. Petersburg. In many towns they were received
with
open hands, in others the intelligent classes saw in the formation of
a
specifically Jewish theatre a menace to the higher intelligence
which
was trying to emancipate itself from the Judeo-German language and
all
its traditions. They went so far as to get the police's
prohibition
against the performances of Goldfaden's troupe.
This
procedure was only just in so far as it affected the character of
the plays,
for there was nothing in them to recommend them as means of
elevating or
educating the masses. They had had their origin at a time
when amusement was
the only watchword, and they had had no time to
evolve new phases. Seeing
that in order to succeed he would have to
furnish something more substantial
than his farces, Goldfaden produced
in succession three historical dramas:
'Doctor Almosado,' 'Sulamith,'
and 'Bar-Kochba,' to which at a later time
were added 'Rabbi Joselmann,
or the Persecution in Alsace,' 'King Ahasuerus,
or Queen Esther,' and
'The Sacrifice of Isaac,' and a fantastic opera, 'The
Tenth
Commandment.' None of these are, properly speaking, dramas, but
operas
or melodramas. They have at least the merit of being placed on
a
historical or Biblical basis and of following good German models.
Their
popularity has been very great, and the many songs which they
contain,
especially those from 'Sulamith' and 'Bar-Kochba,' rank among
the
author's best and most widely known. The latter two operas
were
translated into Polish, and given in a theatre in Warsaw. Just as
the
Jewish theatre was entering on its new course of the historical
drama,
the Government, by a rescript of September, 1883, closed them in
Russia,
and this was followed later by another prohibition of
Jewish
performances at Warsaw, where the first law had been obviated by
giving
them in the so-called German theatre.
About that time two young
men, Tomaschewski and Golubok, of New York,
started a theatre in New York.
The troupe consisted of actors who had
just arrived from London, where they
found it too difficult to establish
themselves. The first performance was
given in the Fourth Street Turner
Hall. As formerly in Russia, the Reformed
Jews of the city used their
utmost efforts to prevent the playing of a Jewish
comedy, but in vain.
It was given in spite of all remonstrances and threats.
After that the
theatre was permanently established in the Bowery Garden,
under the name
of the Oriental Theatre, which soon passed under the
directorship of J.
Lateiner. In 1886 another theatre, The Roumania Opera
House, was opened
in the old National Theatre, at 104-106 Bowery. It would
not be
profitable to enter into the further vicissitudes of the
companies,
their jealousies and ridiculous pretensions at equalling the
best
American troupes. Unfortunately, the authors upon whom they had
to
depend for their repertoires were Lateiner, Hurwitz, and other
worthy
followers of Schaikewitsch, who by rapid steps brought the Jewish
stage
down to the lowest degrees of insipidity. Not satisfied with
producing
dramas from a sphere they knew something about, they began to
imitate,
or rather corrupt, existing foreign plays, to give foolish versions
of
'Mary Stuart,' 'Don Carlos,' 'Trilby,' and similar popular dramas.
There
were, indeed, some men who might have saved the stage from its
frightful
degeneration, but the theatre managers would not listen to
them,
preferring to pander to the low taste of the masses by giving
them
worthless productions that bore some distant resemblance to
the
performances in the lower grades of American theatres.
Only during
a short period of time, early in the nineties, it looked as
though things
were going to be improved, for the managers accepted a
number of adaptations
and original plays by J. Gordin. Gordin belonged
to that class of educated
men who, though they had been carried across
the ocean with one of the waves
that bore the Jewish masses from Russia
to the shores of the United States,
had never stood in any relation
whatsoever to their fellow-emigrants. He had
been a Russian journalist,
and in America he was confronted with the
alternative of devoting
himself to Judeo-German literature or starving. He
naturally chose the
first. Although he had had a good literary training, he
had never before
written a word in the vernacular of his people. At first he
tried
himself in the composition of short sketches from the life of
the
Russian Jews, and finding that his articles found a ready
acceptance
with the Judeo-German press, he attempted dramatic compositions.
He has
translated, adapted, or composed in all more than thirty plays,
of
which, however, only one has been printed. As his large variety
of
dramas give a good idea of the condition of the stage during its
best
period, they will be shortly mentioned here. Among the translations
we
find Ibsen's 'Nora'; among the adaptations we have Victor Hugo's
'Ruy
Blas,' 'Hernani'; Lessing's 'Nathan the Wise'; Schiller's 'Kabale
und
Liebe,' under the name of 'Rōsele'; 'The Parnes-chōdesch,' from
Gogol's
'The Inspector'; 'Elischewa' and 'Dworele,' imitations of two
of
Ostrovski's comedies; Grillparzer's 'Medea'; and 'Meir Esofowitsch,'
on
a subject taken from Mrs. Orzeszko's novel of the same name. Several
of
his plays display more original creative power. Of these it
will
suffice to mention: 'The Wild Man,' treating of the degeneration
among
the Jews; 'The Jewish Priest,' illustrating the struggle between
the
progressive Jews and the old orthodox factions; 'The Russian Jew
in
America,' dealing with the condition of the Russian Jews in New
York;
'The Pogrom,' in which the late riots against the Jews in Russia
are
depicted.
Gordin and a few other men, such as Rosenfeld, Korbin,
Winchevsky, might
have introduced new blood and life into the Jewish drama,
but the
managers and the silly actors who in their pride permit their names
to
go down on the billboards as second Salvinis and Booths have
willed
otherwise. But then they are following in this the common course
pursued
by all dying literatures, and they are not, after all, to be blamed
more
than the public that permits such things, and the public in its turn
is
merely succumbing rapidly to the influence of American
institutions,
which before long will overwhelm peaceably, but none the less
surely,
the Jewish theatre and the Judeo-German language. Before the
inevitable
shall happen, they have attempted to cling to their old
traditions; but
it is only a very faint glimpse of their old life they are
getting now,
and in the very weak performances that one may still see on the
Jewish
stage there is already a great deal more of the reflex of their new
home
than the glow of their old. It is very doubtful whether the
Jewish
theatre can subsist in America another ten years.
Of late the
theatre has been revived in Galicia and Roumania; if I am
not mistaken, there
exists also a Jewish theatre in Warsaw. The plays
performed there are mainly
the productions of Goldfaden, Lerner, and a
few other writers of the older
period. Occasionally a play is given
there that has previously been played in
New York. If the theatre is to
survive in Europe, it will naturally develop
quite independently from
the American stage. It must remain more national if
it is at all to be
Jewish. And such we really find it to be. In addition to
the several
dramas mentioned throughout the book there might be added David
Sahik's
'A Rose between Thorns' and Sanwill Frumkis's 'A Faithful Love,'
which
are among the best comedies produced in Judeo-German.
Excepting
the peculiar development of the theatre in America, the
Judeo-German drama
has remained more or less a popular form of poetry.
In the form of
Goldfaden's farces we may see an evolution of the
farcical Purim plays, while
his historical dramas stand in very much the
same relation to our time that
the mysteries occupied two centuries ago.
Similarly the theatre, even at its
best, has remained of a primitive
nature.
XVI. OTHER
ASPECTS OF LITERATURE
In spite of the brilliant evolution of
Judeo-German literature in the
last fifty years, the older ethical works of
the preceding period
continue in power and are reprinted from time to time,
mostly in the
printing offices at Warsaw and Lublin. Among these we find a
large
number of biographies of famous Rabbis, testamentary instructions
of
wise men, essays on charity, faith, and other virtues, and an
endless
mass of commentaries on the Bible and other religious books. Most
of
these are translations from the Hebrew. Of late there have also begun
to
appear treatises on moral subjects written specially in the
vernacular.
We have had occasion to mention the works of Zweifel. There have
also
been written sermons of a more pretentious character in
Judeo-German,
and even the missionaries have used the dialect for the purpose
of
making propaganda among them: the first to attempt this were the
English
missionaries, the last have been emissaries from the Greek Church.
Of
course these have had no influence of any kind on the minds of
the
people. One of the most fruitful branches of the liturgical
literature
has been the Tchines, or Prayers. They are intended for women, and
there
is a vast variety of them for every occasion in life. Some of the
older
ones are quite poetical, being translations or imitations of
good
models. But many of the newer ones have been manufactured without
rhyme
or reason by young scholars in the Rabbinical seminaries of Wilna
and
Zhitomir. These were frequently in sore straits for a living,
and
knowing the proneness of women to purchase new, tearful prayers,
have
composed them to their tastes. They have hardly any merit, except
as
they form a sad chapter in the sad lives of Russian Jewish women.
The
old story-books and the prayers have been almost the only
consolation
they have had in their lives fraught with woe.
In one of
Abramowitsch's novels a woman, purchasing a prayer from an
itinerant
bookseller, gives the following reason for being so addicted
to them: "For us
poor women, the Tchines are the only remedy for hearts
full of sores and
wounds; they furnish us with the only means of weeping
to our hearts'
content, and of finding relief for our saddened spirits
in a warm stream of
tears.... It is truly aggravating and painful to see
men who do not
understand and who do not wish to understand our hearts
make light of women's
Tchines and begrudge us the only consolation we
have. Let them take a seat in
the women's synagogue on a Saturday or
some holiday, and let them watch the
many poor, unfortunate women who
have come away from their homes under
difficulties:--one suffering an
evil fate from her husband, another a forlorn
widow; one heavy with
child, another downhearted and exhausted from watching
long nights at
the bed of her sick, suckling babe; one with swollen,
blistered hands
from standing at the stove, and another with her face
careworn, and pale
from heavy slave's work, from walking eternally under a
yoke;--let them
watch all these sad, downtrodden women standing around the
Reader, let
them hear them wail and lament with eyes uplifted to their
merciful,
all-kind Father in heaven, bathing in tears and ready to tear
their
hearts out of their bosoms. If the men could see such a scene
with
their own eyes, they would, I am sure, never open their mouths again
to
ridicule the prayers of women."
Outside of these prayers and
ethical treatises the most popular books
since the middle of our century have
been two elementary works,--one on
arithmetic, teaching the rudiments of the
art, the other a letterwriter.
It is probably no exaggeration to say that a
hundred editions of the
latter book have appeared in print. It was composed
by Lewin Abraham
Liondor, and was intended as a guide for Judeo-German
spelling and
letter-writing by children and women. This has been almost the
only
text-book written in and for the vernacular. Liondor knew how to make
it
entertaining by having a series of connected stories in the form
of
letters and an occasional song interspersed in them. The book
begins
with an interesting dialogue in the form of letters between
the
letterwriter and the author, and ends with a number of letters from
and
to a schadchen, the go-between in marriage affairs. From the
dialogue
one can see what great popularity this humble work has had in its
time.
There have been issued in the last ten years a number of
similar
letterwriters, more in accord with the demands of the time, but
the
naivete of Liondor's book has all disappeared in them, and they
present
no interest to the reader.
It has never occurred to
Judeo-German writers to treat their language
grammatically. They all started
out with the idea that it was not a
language, but merely a corrupted dialect
which could not be brought
under any grammatical rules. In this opinion they
have persevered up to
the present. Where they felt it, nevertheless, their
duty to establish
some kind of system, they have dealt only with orthography,
and thus of
late a few pamphlets on that subject, but of no scientific value,
have
been produced by them. Much greater has been the attempt of
Judeo-German
authors to furnish their people with text-books for the study of
foreign
tongues. As early as 1824 a Polish grammar appeared in Warsaw.
Wherever
the conditions have been favorable for it, the Jews have tried to
learn
the languages of their Gentile fellow-citizens. If they have so
long
persevered in the use of their dialect in Russia and Poland, the
fault
is with the Government and not with them, as we shall soon see. In
the
seventies Jewish youths were admitted liberally to the gymnasia
and
universities, and they eagerly availed themselves of the privilege
and
threw themselves with ardor upon the study of the Russian language.
The
most encouraging time for them was from the year 1874 to 1875, when
all
seemed to presage better days for them. The schools were crowded
with
ambitious children, and there were many left at home who had to
get
their Russian education privately or through self-instruction. To
help
these, a number of excellent text-books were written. Such were
the
books of Skurchowitsch, Lifschitz, Zazkin, Chadak, Feigensohn. All
these
appeared within the short period of two years. Later a number of
other
similar productions followed. Lifschitz also published at the same
time
a Russian-Judeo-German and Judeo-German-Russian dictionary, which is
one
of the most valuable stores of Judeo-German that we possess.
Everything
was preparing the way for the extermination of the native dialect
in
favor of the literary language of the country, when
the
short-sightedness of the Government drove them once more back into
their
separate existence.
Previous to the seventies there could be
found only grammars for the
study of German, French, and even English, but no
works to make the
study of Russian easy. Since the year 1881, when the forced
emigration
began, new interests have taken hold of the minds of the Jews.
They have
been scattered to the four winds, have formed colonies in Germany
and
France, but more especially in England, South Africa, and the
United
States. Most of those who have gone to their new homes, and who
still
intend going there, hardly know any other language than
Judeo-German.
But they must learn the tongues of their adopted countries, and
we find
a large number of text-books of all descriptions prepared for them.
They
have been driven also to Spanish America, and we find Spanish
word-books
and grammars written for them. Sadder still, they have begun to
dream of
returning to their former home in Palestine, and Arabic word-books
have
become their latest necessity. It must not be forgotten that this
class
of publications has no claim to scientific recognition; though they
are
sometimes written by educated men, they are meant to serve only for
the
immediate needs of the wandering Jew. They consequently reflect,
like
the belles lettres, the conditions under which the Jews are
laboring.
At the dawn of the new era, in the first half of this century,
few
thought of the study of foreign languages. The masses were too
ignorant
in more essential things to be ready for that kind of instruction.
It
was more important that they be made acquainted with the most
obvious
facts around them. We saw how one of the most popular books of
those
days was 'The Discovery of America,' which also gave some facts
in
regard to physical geography. In the sixties, when books of
instruction
for the first time were being printed, history and geography were
the
first to receive the attention of those who wished to further
popular
instruction. Almost one of the very first to be issued then was
Resser's
'Universal History,' and this was followed not long after by a
primer on
geography. Only after the riots, a more direct attempt was begun at
the
education of the people from the standpoint of their vernacular,
and
since then geographies and histories of the best foreign authors
have
been adapted to their humble needs. We find then, among others,
a
translation of Graetz's 'Popular History of the
Jews.' |
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