Dramatists, Yiddish

This collection contains the records of Ben Gailing (1898-1999), a New York and Boston-based Yiddish theater actor and radio host. Collection includes two Yiddish playscripts, "Yo a Mame, Nit a Mame" by Ben Gailing, and "Oy iz dos a Yingel" by Hershel Glick; Gailing’s book, Git a Shmeykhl; Yiddish sheet music; Yiddish theater programs; and photographs of Ben and Frieda Gailing and other actors and actresses from the Yiddish theater.

This collection consists of copies of the plays Mountain Climbers, and Better Not to be Born, by Yiddish playwright, editor and author David Pinski (1872-1959). Collection also includes some programs and a stock prospectus.

This collection contains the prompt-books for numerous plays, both those originally written in Yiddish as well as Yiddish translations of well-known authors. There is also an original play by Boaz Young and notes for a study on female Jewish writers.

This collection contains handwritten and typed drafts of plays, a novel, and notes for plays and for a newspaper column by Yiddish writer Jacob Lazarus Snitzer (1874-1947). There is also correspondence and contracts relating to Snitzer's plays and five scrapbooks of newspaper articles.

This collection consists of typescripts and manuscripts of Yiddish radio plays written by Yiddish actor and director Mark Schweid (1891-1969). Also includes There are also four items of ephemera related to the Bronx Art Theatre.

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.

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 materials relating to the musical and theatrical career of Ludwig Satz and includes sheet music, concert programs, a play script, and publicity notices. There are also paintings, printing plates, a walking cane, and a plaster head cast in the Museum collections.

This collection contains manuscripts of plays, articles and other writings, correspondence, memoirs, photographs, theater programs, and personal materials of Yiddish playwright, novelist, journalist, travel writer, and theater director Peretz Hirschbein. The collection helps to illustrate Hirschbein’s importance and lasting impact upon the revival of Yiddish theater and literature in the early twentieth century.

This collection contains the administrative records of the Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU), the professional union of Yiddish theater performers, which was based in New York City. Materials include correspondence, membership materials, financial records and members’ dues information, meeting minutes, and a great deal of sheet music and play scripts of performances from the Yiddish theater. A majority of these performances were in New York City, but there are also materials from Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as various locations in Israel and South America.

This collection contains 331 Yiddish theater and film posters, mainly from the first half of the twentieth century, from North and South America.