Kaminska, Esther Rachel, 1870-1925

This series contains documents from actors, singers, composers, directors, all members of the YAF in Poland. These documents include correspondence, convention delegate cards, photographs, certificates, questionnaire forms, reviews, and other materials relating to individuals.

The collection contains play manuscripts, programs, playbills, posters, photographs, correspondence, agreements, scrapbooks, clippings, printed ephemera, and memorabilia relating to Yiddish theater primarily in the early twentieth century, especially the interwar period. Also included are items of printed ephemera related to Yiddish film, Hebrew theater, and a broad range of Jewish performers, including cantors, singers and dancers. Geographically, the materials originate predominantly in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union; and, to a lesser extent, the United States, especially New York City. Also included are materials from Western Europe, Palestine (Eretz Israel), South America, and other regions around the world. Among the theater personalities represented in the collection with significant amounts of material are Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Joseph Winogradoff, Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Moyshe Lipman, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. The theater groups best represented include the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT; Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater), founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska; the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater / Nay Teater (Warsaw; Vilna), under the direction of Michael Weichert; the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (known by its Russian acronym "GOSET"); Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, of New York; and the Hebrew theater "Habimah." A wide variety of other professional as well as amateur theater groups are represented with smaller amounts of material.

The Music (Vilna Archives) collection comprises the music manuscripts of the Esther Rachel Kaminska Museum. This includes the instrument parts of various operettas, folk songs, and musical plays.

The Esther Rachel Kaminska Museum was established after the death of the artist in 1928 by her son-in-law Sigmund Turkow, and her daughter,Ida Kaminsky. Originally housed in the apartment of the deceasd in Warsaw, the Museum was transferred to the YIVO Institute in Vilna in 1927. In addition to the archives of the Kaminsky family, the Museum was augmented by music accessions of producer-playwright Nokhem Lipovsky, producer-director Elieser and Zina Rappel, and later by Norbert Glimer, M.L. Genfer, and others.

The materials in this collection document the activities of a wide range of organizations and individuals whose materials were donated to or collected by the YIVO Archives in Vilna before the war, and the activities of YIVO itself. They include documentation on Jewish communal and cultural life in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and in other communities around the world.

This subseries contains personal papers of Esther Rachel Kaminska, consisting mainly of correspondence, ephemera, clippings, and memorabilia, along with various materials collected by her family and others after her death. Included are collected clippings of Kaminska's serialized memoir "Derner un blumen: Der veg fun mayn lebn" (Thorns and Flowers: The path of my life), published in the Warsaw newspaper Der Moment, along with a partial typescript of the memoir; and materials related to celebrations of the 20th and 30th anniversaries of her stage career, including congratulatory correspondence, clippings, and memorabilia. One file consists of records of the Yidisher Artistn Fareyn (Yiddish Actors' Union), related to their organization of the celebration in Warsaw of her 30th anniversary, 1922.

Materials collected after Kaminska's death include condolence letters addressed to Ida Kaminska and Zygmunt Turkow; tributes and letters collected at a memorial event in Włocławek; one program and several clippings related to performances in her memory by the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT), 1926-1928; correspondence of Zygmunt Turkow related to the founding of the Theater Museum in Kaminska's name (later donated to the YIVO Institute in Vilna), 1926-1927; a variety of other clippings, 1909-1925, including theater notices, reviews, and other news, from localities in Poland, Russia, the United States, England, and France; and clippings of memoiristic pieces by others in her memory.

Invitation flier for a performance of Jacob Gordin's "Di shkhite," at the Jardin d'Hiver Theater, Warsaw, in a benefit for Brandesko, starring Esther Rachel Kaminska. The flier includes an image of Kaminska in her role as Esterke. 1 item.

Localities: Kutno, Lublin, St. Petersburg, Vilna, Vinnitsa (Vinnytsya), Warsaw

Programs for performances featuring Esther Rachel Kaminska, with other featured performers including Ida Kaminska and Zygmunt Turkow. The plays include: "Nora" and "Di gayster" by Ibsen; "Umshuldik shuldik" by A. N. Ostrovsky, translated by A. Lipshits; "Dos umfarshtendike meydl" by H. Bataille; "Madam Iks" by A. Bisson; "Di tsvey Kuni Leml" and "Bobe Yakhne" by A. Goldfaden; "Mirele Efros," "Kraytser sonata," "Di shkhite," and "Der umbakanter" by Jacob Gordin; "Tereza Raken" by Émile Zola; "Serkele" by Solomon Ettinger, with music by Yitskhok Schlossberg; "Der dorfs yung" by L. Kobrin; "Di muter" by David Pinski; and "Tevye der milkhiker" by Sholem Aleichem. Also includes one playbill advertising Kaminska's appearance in "Khasye di yesoyme" by J. Gordin in Lublin, in 1917 (no. 178642); and one program dating from after her death, related to the memorial event held at the Kaminksi Theater, Warsaw, on 5 January 1926 (no. 177431A). 24 items.

Localities: Lublin, Riga, Vilna, Warsaw, Włocławek

Playbills for Kaminska starring in "Dos dorfs meydl" by S. Libin and "Di 7 gehangene" by L. Andreyev. Other featured performers: Ida Kaminska and Zygmunt Turkow. One item is an invitation to her farewell performance in Ibsen's "Nora" (place not specified). One flier advertises a "Literarisher mishpet" (Literary Trial) on the role of "Esterke" in Gordin's drama "Di shkhite." Also included are programs related to two memorial events following Kaminska's death, one at the Kaminski Theatre in Warsaw, and the other in Włocławek; and three fliers for the film Tkies kaf. 8 items.

Includes one photo of Kaminska as the title character in "Mirele Efros" by Jacob Gordin. One photo shows Esther Rachel with her toddler granddaughter, Ruth Kaminska (1919-2005), in 1922. Two photos are by Kacyzne, Warsaw, 1914; one by Foto Modern, Lublin, 1917; and two by Taubkin, Riga, 1922. One item is a postcard by Farlag "Tsentral" (Verlag "Central"), Warsaw, printed in Germany. Two items are negatives with no associated print. 15 items. See also under: Brandesko, Jozef.

This subseries comprises approximately 1,000 oversize posters stored in map drawers. In Jonas Turkow's arrangement and cataloging of the items in the collection, oversize posters were fully integrated with the playbills found in Subseries 3; the item numbers they received fall within the same sequence as those of the playbills. Both types of items were categorized under the Yiddish heading "afishn" (posters, playbills; related to the French: affiche). The arrangement of the posters, therefore, mirrors that of the playbills in Subseries 3, with correponding folder titles and numbers (the folders containing posters are distinguished with the addition of a suffix "P" to the folder number).

Photo of two men, with an inscription dated Baden, 1922; according to a note on the verso, made by an archivist at YIVO Vilna, it depicts a nephew of Esther Rachel Kaminska. Photo by Knozer, Vienna-Baden. 3 items.