Sholem Aleichem, 1859-1916

The Abraham Sutzkever-Szmerke Kaczerginski Historical Collection contains letters, manuscripts, and historical documents which were saved by the Yiddish poets Avraham Sutzkever and Szmerke Kaczerginski in the Vilna Ghetto. Sutzkever, Kaczerginski, and other members of the Paper Brigade, conscripted Jewish workers who were forced to work under the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, saved thousands of books, manuscripts and documents at great risk to their lives by hiding them in various places in the Vilna Ghetto. After the war the surviving members recovered many of the hidden items. Sutzkever sent many of these rescued materials to the YIVO Institute in New York from the period 1947 to 1956. The collection consists of 8 series and includes correspondence of writers, intellectuals, communal leaders, rabbinical figures; manuscripts of Yiddish and Hebrew writers; theater documents; folklore materials; rabbinical responsa and writings; historical and legal documents; pinkasim and Jewish communal records.

Der Gazlen Beim Telefon (Joseph Cherniavsky and Ludwig Satz); Ich Vill Nit Gehn In Cheder (Joseph Cherniavsky and Sholem Aleichem)

Standardized YIVO transliteration
Der gazlen baym telefon; Ikh vil nit geyn in kheyder

Performers
Ludwig Satz, voice

Instruments
voice and orchestra

Label (record company)
Columbia

Label catalog number
E7937

Matrix number
89052-1; 89053-3

Date of recording
1923 February

Place of recording
New York, NY

Genre
comedy

Show title
Gazlen (Der Gazlen Beim Telefon)

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.

This collection contains documents relating to David Pinski’s role as a Yiddish writer, playwright, essayist, translator, editor, literary critic, and author of novels, plays, short stories, essays, and poems. There is personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts of novels, plays, poems, essays, and articles, translations of Pinski’s works into English and Russian, lectures made on various occasions, personal documents and photographs, programs, notes, and newspaper clippings. These materials demonstrate Pinski’s important role in Yiddish drama and literature, Jewish community life and Yiddish cultural institutions.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Joseph Buloff and Luba Kadison, leading actors of the Vilna Troupe and of the Yiddish and English stage, both in the United States and internationally. Most of the information concerns their theatrical careers, including play manuscripts, drawings and photographs of plays and actors, reviews, flyers, and musical scores. There is also some personal biographical information about Buloff, including his memoirs and audio cassettes of interviews. These materials show the importance and influence of Buloff and Kadison for Yiddish and English theater for over sixty years.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Shmuel Niger, including correspondence with many important literary figures, as well as manuscripts by Niger, writings about Niger written by others, Niger’s speeches and lectures, selections from his published writings, and biographical materials. These materials serve to illustrate Niger’s great importance to Yiddish literary criticism and Jewish historical writing as well as his role as a writer on contemporary themes, a teacher and lecturer, editor and communal leader.

This collection contains the papers of Tashrak, the American Yiddish humorist and journalist. It consists primarily of clippings of Tashrak’s columns and about Tashrak, but also contains correspondence, including his correspondence with Sholem Aleichem, and manuscripts created when he adapted his works for performance.

- "Mazel tov," 2 items. In Shpikov, 1917, directed by B. Lerner, as part of a program dedicated to the memory of Sholem Aleichem. In Newark, N.J., 1930, Yiddish Lyceum at the "Y," as part of a program with artists of the Vilna Troupe, including Noach Nachbush, Khane Kadison, Leib Kadison, Lilian Blum, and Ida Garber.

- "S'fidelt nisht" in an unspecified locality. Idisher Teater, Fareyn "Fraternitas." Handwritten program.

- "Di asife" in New York, 1932, as part of a program entitled "Tsu-Lakh-Es Nakht: af tsu lehakhes ale tsores" (To-Laugh-About-It Night: In defiance of all troubles), arranged by Wolfe Barzell, Judah Bleich, and Michael Rosenberg.

- "A doktor" in Łódź, 1908. Grand musical-literary-dramatic jubilee evening for the benefit of Sholem Aleichem.

- Sholem Aleichem yahrzeit programs, or memorial events. 7 items. 1923, 1927-1929, 1934. Mostly in New York, arranged by the Shnorers' Association, the Arbeter Teater Farband (Artef; Workers' Theatrical Alliance), and the Yiddish Pen Club, respectively. One program for an event held in San Francisco, by the local branch of Paolei Zion.

Manuscript in Polish. Imperial Austria-Hungary censor's stamp ("K.u.k. Zivillandeskommissariat beim 6. A.E.K."), signed and dated, in Polish, Piotrkow, 22 April 1915 (last page). Accession no. 120/2368.

Polish translation by an unidentified author, of Sholem Aleichem's Yiddish-language play "Agentn."

Actor's role book for role of "Beni Ben." Refers to 4 acts. Typescript, with handwritten emendations. 6 leaves. See also: a role for "Bord" of the same play, in Folder 4265B; it is not known whether the two roles relate to the same production.

Actor's role book for role of "Bord," and two lists, labeled as pertaining to men's and women's costumes, respectively. The three items are all written in the same hand. The list for men's costumes has the character names in the right-hand column, and other columns filled out with specified items; the women's list is incomplete, with only the character names filled in. 8 leaves. See also: a role for "Beni Ben" of the same play, in Folder 4265A; it is not known whether the two roles are related to the same production.

Typescript with handwritten emendations. Lacks a title page. Approximately 124 leaves, numbered from 7 to 146, with gaps. On p. 31 is the beginning of Act II (scene 7); the extant pages have no further headings for acts or scenes.

Evidently a dramatic adaptation of Sholem Aleichem's Tevye stories, known collectively under the title "Tevye der milkhiker," or, in English, "Tevye and His Daughters." The characters include Ephraim, Tevye, Golde, Menakhem, Arontshik, Almone (widow), Shprintse, Beylke, Khave, Tsaytl, Starshina.

Russian censor's stamp, St. Petersburg, 24 February 1915, and stamp for tax, 18 February 1915 (title page), as well as red wax seal (last page). Also, Polish censor's stamp, 6 November 1919 (title page). Title page in Yiddish and in Russian, both dated from Vilna, with the Russian giving the year 1915, and the Yiddish, the Jewish year 5675 (1914/1915) in Hebrew characters. Accession no. 476/3737 (stamp).

Adapted for the stage ("oytorish instsenirt") by M. Karpinowicz, based on the novel by Sholem Aleichem.