Goldfaden, Abraham, 1840-1908

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Celia Adler and Lazar Freed, including theatrical materials such as scripts, programs and sheet music, correspondence, newspaper clippings, assorted publications, and photographs of many of the members of the Adler family and their friends from the Yiddish theater. These materials reflect the wide scope of the Adler acting family and their immense influence on Yiddish theater, Broadway and motion pictures.

Die Schwie (Abraham Goldfaden); Von die Zweigen die Fidelach (Abraham Goldfaden)

Standardized YIVO transliteration
Di shvue; Fun di tsvaygn di fidelekh

Performers
Regina Prager, soprano voice
Kalmen Juvelier, bariton voice
Alperin, orchestra director

Instruments
soprano voice, baritone voice (duet) and orchestra

Label (record company)
Victor / Zonophone

Label catalog number
65156 / 50035

Matrix number
9688; 9687

Date of recording
1909 November

Place of recording
New York, NY

Genre
theater music

Show title
Shulamis

Length
2:39; 2:39

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 manuscripts of some of the earliest Yiddish plays, correspondence between playwright, poet, and director Abraham Goldfaden, the father of Yiddish theater, and various actors and writers, as well as some family correspondence, newspaper clippings on Goldfaden and his impact on Yiddish theater, articles by Goldfaden on a variety of topics, and various other theater materials, such as title pages of plays, programs and song sheets. The collection illustrates Goldfaden’s great and ongoing influence on Yiddish theater.

Ruzhinkes Mit Mondlen (Abraham Goldfaden); Bist Mir Mazeldig Ruchele (Alexander Olshanetsky)

Standardized YIVO transliteration
Rozhinkes mit mandlen; Bist mir mazeldik Rokhele

English translation
Raisins and Almonds; We're Lucky, Rachel

Performers
Seymour Rechtzeit, voice
Harry Lubin, conductor

Instruments
voice and orchestra

Label (record company)
Stinson / Asch

Label catalog number
H-6028

Matrix number
503; 501

Date of recording
unknown

Place of recording
unknown

Genre
theater music

Show title
Shulamis (Ruzhinkes Mit Mondlen)

Length
3:02; 3:02

Scrapbook of clippings about Abraham Goldfaden, identified on the front flyleaf as belonging to Jacob Shatzky, with a handwritten table of contents on the inside front cover, listing 31 items (three of the items listed, nos. 17, 20, and 21, appear to be missing), with dates ranging from 1916 to 1934. Included are articles by Shatzky, Zalmen Zylbercweig, Nachman Mayzel, B. Gorin, Shmuel Niger, and others; and a special Goldfaden issue of Literarishe bleter, February 1926. At the back of the volume are a few loose items not listed in the table of contents, including a typescript of an article by Zylbercweig, "Der ershter geshpilter teater-repertuar und di ershte yidishe aktyorn," and the articles "Goldfaden af der poylisher bine" (circa 1933) by Zylbercweig, "40 yor yidish teater in Belgye" by A. Dorf, and a reminiscence about Goldfaden by Gershom Bader, 1940 [?]. Two items in the scrapbook concern the Hebrew theater "Habimah" (articles by Sh. Posner and Sh. Bernstein, respectively, both 1927). In Yiddish, with occasional Hebrew and English.

Shoifer Shel Moshiach (Abraham Goldfaden); Shlof In Sisser Ruh (S. Golub and J. Rosenblatt)

Standardized YIVO transliteration
Shoyfer shel moshiekh; Shlof in ziser ru

English translation
The Messiah's shofar; Sleep In Sweet Repose

Performers
Joseph Rosenblatt, tenor voice
Nathaniel Shilkret, orchestra director

Instruments
tenor voice and orchestra

Label (record company)
Victor

Label catalog number
45425

Matrix number
B-30059-1; B-30057-2

Date of recording
1924 May 9

Place of recording
Camden, NJ

Genre
theater music

Length
3:11; 3:03

- "Kenig Akhashveyresh," 2 items. In Detroit, 1924, with Boris Thomashefsky, Regina Zuckerberg, and J. Weinstock. In Łódź.

- "Akeydes Yitskhok," 3 items. In Vilna, directed by D. Zayderman. In Lwów, guest performer Jacob Silbert. In Łódź.

- "Bar-Kokhba," 14 items. In Bobrynets, 1910, troupe led by A. Adler and B. Doktorov. In Łódź. In an unspecified locality in Poland, theater of K. M. Ebel, directed by Jacob Prizament. In the Bronx, New York, 1931, with Boris Thomashefsky and Regina Zuckerberg, in honor of the Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre. In Vilna, directed by M. Zayderman. In Vilna, directed by M. Zayderman, in honor of guests from Viennese sports club Hakoah. In Vilna, troupe of Moyshe Karpinowicz, featuring actor and strongman Gershon Breitbart, with Nekhama, Kadish, and Khash (Chasz). In Vilna, as part of evening in honor of strongman Zishe Breitbart. In Warsaw, 1927, program for 35th anniversary of B. Abelman. In Warsaw, 1926, directed by B. Abelman. In New York, 1927, with Misha Appelbaum, Zina Goldstein, and Leon Blank. In Grodzisk Mazowiecki, benefit performance for Menachem Rubin, directed by Liberovski. In New York, 1931, directed by Jacob Kalich, with Boris Thomashefsky, Jacob Silbert, and Regina Zuckerberg, as part of program in honor of the Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre. In Vilna, guest performer B. Abelman.

- "Di tsvey Kuni Leml," 2 items. In Philadelphia, 1931, directed by Joseph Dante, produced by Clara Young, Alexander Granach, and Michael Rosenberg, with Chana Hollander, in honor of the Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre. In Vilna, directed by L. Szryftzecer.

- "Shulamis," 5 items. In New York, 1932, produced by Sholom Secunda, staged by Solomon Kustin, with Boris Thomashefsky, Betty Simonoff, and Regina Zuckerberg, in honor of the Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre. In Łódź. In Vilna, directed by J. Strugacz. In Vilna, guest performer B. Abelman. In Chicago, 1932, production of the Chicago Junior Hadassah, directed by Isaac Van Grove.

- "Kishef-makhern," 3 items. In Warsaw, adapted by I. Manger, music by Henech Kon, directed by Jakub Rotbaum. In Vilna, adapted by Moyshe Lipman, directed by and starring Lipman. In Brooklyn, New York, produced by Misha German, in honor of the Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre, with speakers Jacob Berlin and Z. Zylbercweig.

Drawing, in a print by Crane Co., New York. 1 item.

Censor's copy, with handwritten note at back: "Genehmigt für" (approved for) Quarg's Vaudeville Theater, dated 25 September 1900; stamp of "Königl. Polizei-Praesidium, Berlin" (royal police headquarters, Berlin). Accession no. 139/2537.

German translation by an unidentified author.

Dated on last page: Kharkov, 21 December 1916. Russian-language stamp of N. S. Lipovski Theater, 6 February 1917. Accession no. 356/3017.

Contains 3 acts. Bound typescript.

Contains 3 acts. Lacks a title page; the title is given on a label on the cover, in Russian. Following the end of the play is additional text, possibly a role (no. 167912-167915). Cover has Russian-language labeling from an unidentified theater library. Accession no. 83/2331 (stamp).

Published copy of the play (Farlag "Bine," Warsaw, 1929), with uncut leaves. Polish censor's stamp, Grodno, Vilna district, 21 March 1931. Accession no. 452/3713 (stamp). Also has stamp of YIVO Vilna library, on cover. Please note that a digitized copy of the same edition, held by the library of the YIVO Institute, New York, is available online in the Internet Archive.

Correspondence, including copies of outgoing letters, and other materials related to Meisels leadership of a committee to establish a commemorative plaque at House "Wiesbaden," in Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně), where Abraham Goldfaden resided during a therapeutic stay in the town in 1897. The plaque was unveiled on 11 August 1929. 15 items.