Weichert, Michał

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 Yidisher Artistn Fareyn, or Yiddish Actors' Union, advocated for actors' economic interests while striving to create a professionally run, artistically ambitious, Yiddish theatrical scene in Warsaw. From 1919-1938, its influence gradually increased until it included the majority of actors working in Poland, and collaborated with the most significant Polish Yiddish cultural figures and institutions, including E. R. Kaminska, YIVO, Literarishe Bleter, and the Landrat, or National Council of Class Trade Unions (Krajowa Rada Klasowych Związków Zawodowych). This collection contains records of annual conventions, Executive Committee meetings, correspondence with actors and theaters from Poland and around the world, and membership files on almost 600 actors.

The collection of Jacob Mestel consists of the general, professional and personal correspondence of Jacob Mestel, manuscripts of plays by other authors, manuscripts of poetry, essays and plays by Jacob Mestel, translations of plays into Yiddish, production material, clippings, theater programs, personal documents, and theater photographs.

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.

This collection contains articles by Michal Weichert, parts of his memoir, and testimonies submitted on his behalf during his trials following WWII. The articles and manuscripts of his memoir illustrate aspects of his life before WWII, where he was an active and important director in the Yiddish theater in Poland. The testimonies and court materials shed light on his struggles to clear himself from charges that he collaborated with the Nazi authorities during the Holocaust in the course of his work distributing aid to Jewish refugees.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of historian and bibliographer Philip Friedman. These materials include correspondence with individuals and with organizations, newspaper clippings, subject files, manuscripts of works by Friedman and by others, and some of Friedman’s personal documents. These materials relate to Friedman’s work on the histories of various Jewish communities, particularly those in Poland, and his work gathering source documents about the Holocaust.

This series contains materials related to performances and activities of theaters and theater troupes, organized by geographic location. Some files also pertain to a variety of local organizations that presented theatrical events and concerts, as well as organizations that promoted and supported Yiddish or Hebrew theater. The last subseries, Yiddish Theater (General) and Unidentified Materials, contains a small grouping of materials not related to specific localities, including manuscripts, clippings, and unidentified materials.

The materials in this series consist predominantly of theater programs; ephemera such as fliers, invitations, and tickets; and newspaper clippings (occasionally scrapbooks). The series contains, in all, an estimated 1700 to 1800 programs. The programs pertain to plays; revues; recitations; concerts, including cantorial concerts; dance performances; honorary evenings; and various special events of local organizations.

To a lesser extent, there are also publications and periodicals; and sometimes generic correspondence such as letters to supporters and fundraising letters, and, occasionally, manuscripts of articles about the given theater troupe, typically intended for publication in newspapers. (Some of the latter items were evidently donated by Zalman Reisen, editor of the Vilner Tog.)

The materials of the above types found under any given heading for a theater troupe, theater, or organization, are typically of mixed provenance, collected by various different individuals.

This series also occasionally includes small amounts of original records of theater troupes, such as correspondence and financial records.

Original letters from troupe members or leaders addressed to the literary historian and newspaper editor Zalman Reisen are found in the files for the Vilna Troupe (Folder 533); and "Ararat" (Folder 596). In the case of the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT), there is a small amount of original correspondence received by the troupe, including a letter from Richard Beer-Hofmann (Folder 500).

Fragmentary financial records are included for the Vilna Troupe, 1922 (Folder 538); and a ledger book for the "Baveglekher Yidisher Dramatisher Teater," 1921-1922, under the geographic heading for Warsaw (Folder 633). (According to an entry in Zylbercweig, VI: 4993, the latter troupe was founded by Jonas Turkow.)

Other notable provenance-based groupings of materials in the subseries for Poland are found under the following city headings:

Łuck (Lutsk, Ukraine): papers of the theater director Abraham Kolodny related to the "Yidishe Fraye Bine," 1910-1920 (Folders 621-622), along with theater programs likely collected by him.

Brześć nad Bugiem (Brest, Belarus): a scrapbook documenting performances of the Brisker Dramatishe Studye, 1927-1929, created by M. Sarwer (Sarver), the group's artistic director, along with programs evidently collected by him (Folders 696-697).

Częstochowa: receipts of impresario N. Zolotarew related to a tour of Lidia Potocka (Folder 668).

Also noteworthy is a scrapbook pertaining to a 1934 revival of the experimental Yiddish puppet theater "Khad Gadyo" in Łódź (founded in 1922, a collaboration between and Moyshe Broderzon and the artist Yitskhok Broyner); it contains the script of the performance, photographs and clippings (Folder 615).

Troupes represented with the most substantial amounts of materials include:

In Subseries 1. Poland, under the sub-heading "Poland by Theater Troupe": Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT); Varshever Nayer Yidisher Teater (VNYT); the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater/Nay Teater; and the "Kleynkunst," or revue theaters "Azazel," "Ararat," "Sambatyon," and "Yidishe bande."

In Subseries 4, United States, the Yiddish Art Theater, New York (directed by Maurice Schwartz).

In Subseries 6, Palestine (Eretz Israel), the Hebrew theaters Habimah and Ohel, respectively.

In the case of these major theater troupes, most of the material related to them is gathered under their name heading, found under the geographic locality with which they are primarily associated; however, the materials found there also include items pertaining to their tours in other parts of the country or region, and internationally.

On the other hand, files for specific towns, cities, or countries, in general contain many programs and clippings pertaining to guest appearances of individual performers, as well as smaller ensembles and troupes, who are based somewhere else.

Clippings are generally classified according to the main topic of the article (i.e. not necessarily according to the locality where it was published).

It should be noted that throughout the series, a distinction is usually made between professional theater and concerts, on the one hand, and amateur theater, or 'dramatic circles' on the other; when materials are related to amateur groups that distinction is typically specified in the heading. The distinction is especially clear in the subseries for Poland, which includes a separate sub-subseries for Amateur Theater (this follows the scheme established by Jonas Turkow during his preliminary organization of these materials at the YIVO Institute in New York).

Finally, as background, it should be noted that the programs that form the backbone of this series in representing the troupes, theaters, and localities, were among the materials that were organized and cataloged by Jonas Turkow at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. They bear stamped or handwritten item numbers (falling within the range 175167 to 177690) that Turkow assigned based on his initial sequencing of them in alphabetical order according to the names of the authors of plays (with concert programs grouped together at the end). Subequently, he selected certain programs to form groupings under peformer names (see Series II, subseries 1. Programs) and others to form groupings under the names of theater troupes and geographic headings (constituting the present series). The selection of the programs found in this series under general geographic headings, for particular towns, cities, and countries (as opposed to headings for the featured performer or director, as in Series II) thus reflects the arrangement devised by Turkow, documented in the cross-references he provided on his catalog cards for the programs. For further details, see the Scope and Content Note for Series I, Subseries 2, Programs.

- "Dantons toyt" in Warsaw. Translated, staged and directed by Michael Weichert. Music by Henech Kon. Featuring A. Samberg and A. Morewski.

Localities: Vilna, Warsaw, Włocławek

Fliers for lectures by Weichert. One advertises an event in Warsaw in 1939 under the rubric "Teater plebistsit" (Theater Plebiscite), with Weichert speaking on the topic of the social and artistic function of theater, and seeking to gather feedback from attendees. The other two lectures are: "Der veg tsum yidishn teater" and "Habimah." 3 items.

Theater-related articles by Weichert, including page proofs of an article, circa 1921, concerning David Herman's staging of "Der dibek" with the Vilna Troupe; and clippings of three other articles, a two-part letter to the editor, "Brief vegen yudishn teater" (in Der moment, Warsaw), 1919, and "Fir tkufes," circa 1920 (in a Łódź newspaper). The page proofs (pp. 34-46) have handwritten emendations. 4 items.

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).

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).