Der shtumer meshiekh

Act I. A large gate outside the city walls of Illyria. Two guards enjoy the fact that the Jews are being expelled. The gates open and Jews come out, wearing yellow patches, and crying. A blind man repeatedly says these are signs of the Messiah coming. Eventually, Rokhl emerges. The daughter of Menachem Pnini, one of the city’s leaders, she persuades the crowd to make its way to the Land of Israel, not to scatter among various Christian nations. Her father is later sent out too. He has been tortured, and his tongue has been cut out. He is pleased to learn what his daughter achieved, and asks her to be his tongue. The exiled Jews, singing, make their way toward the Land of Israel.

Act II. A campground near the seashore, which is visible in the background. The Beggar goes from one tent opening to another, and taunts one of the exiles, calling her a whore. When Rokhl comes out, he moves on. Rokhl eyes the tent across from her, and when Hillel emerges from it, they start talking, and before long, confess their love for one another. But she says she can’t marry him, because while her father was being tortured, he had a vision that told him he wouldn’t die, but would gather the Jews to go to Zion. Once they make it there, she and her father will wander throughout the Diaspora and gather the Jews—“He will be Moses; I, his Aaron.” When Pnini comes out of the tent, Hillel tells him that he and Rokhl love each other, and offers to go wherever she and Pnini go—and never to get in the way of their mission. Pnini gives them his blessing, saying that the wedding will take place in the Land of Israel. Then a stir in the camp: Meshulem, who at the last minute chose to stay behind in Illyria, arrives on horseback to announce that King Philip died in a hunting accident, and his son and successor King Louis has rescinded the expulsion order. Most of the exiles immediately change their plans and want to return to Illyria. Rokhl, on her father’s behalf, tries in vain to talk them out of it. Pnini is anguished by this turn of events.

Act III. Still in the camp. Rokhl feels she let her father down, but Hillel tries to convince her that nothing would have persuaded the exiles to stay the course. He wants her to return to Illyria with him, but she feels that she’ll have to go to the Land of Israel if that’s still the plan, particularly if her father really is the Messiah. The king’s messengers arrive. The news is delivered by a Count, who is baffled by the cool reception it receives. He assures them that the King’s invitation is real, and that he will not only protect them, but financially support them for the first year after their return. He gives the official notice to Pnini, who to everyone’s shock throws it to the ground. The Count says he has fulfilled his mission, and returns to Illyria. While the Jews start berating Pnini for potentially getting them in trouble—or maybe forcing them not to return—Leah exclaims that he is the Messiah. Rokhl tells Hillel this is the “wonder” they need to keep the Jews from returning to Illyria, and reveals to everyone the vision her father had. But just as it seems to be working, Leah punctures Rokhl’s exhortations by turning to various others and calling each of them “Messiah.” Laughter erupts in the crowd. Pnini throws himself into the sea. The crowd is stunned, while Leah dances in a circle and cries, “Messiah! Messiah! Messiah!”

Article Author(s)

Joel Berkowitz

Joel is Professor of English and Director of the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dos kol fun yisroel

Prologue. (The Book of the Diaspora) Israel’s historic enemies, beginning with Pharoah, appear one after another in their respective periods, and each briefly recites the story of his attempt to annihilate Israel.

Act I. The British Office of Criminal Investigation in Jerusalem. Barzilai, an underground fighter, is being questioned by Major Henderson as to the whereabouts and identity of the Haganah and Irgun leaders, and the heads of the unauthorized immigration in a section of the Plain of Sharon. Captain Galski, a spy, informs Major Henderson that an American-born Jew, Nathan Ometz and his sons, Gabriel and Joseph, are the leaders of the “illicit traffic.” The Major, whose life was saved by Gabriel Ometz, at the battle of El-Alamein, would like to prevent the arrest of his friends by his vicious superior, Colonel Howler. When the Colonel arrives and finds out, he demands that Galski secure proof which would destroy the ringleaders and the band. Howler employs cruel methods to wrest information from Barzilai, but only succeeds in enraging him.

Outside the house of Nathan Ometz in Miklat Yom (Refuge by the Sea), a settlement in Sharon. The deranged Malka, rescued from Hitler’s gas chambers, urges orphaned Galela, similarly rescued, to write down Malka’s tragic experiences in Poland under Hitler. Malka symbolizes the horror of the destruction of European Jewry and the tragedy of the remnant.

Nathan’s younger son Gabriel and his fiancée, Zamira, are depressed by the interminable Lake Success deliberations over the Palestine issue. Gabriel’s endless rescue work and his war experiences have badly affected his heart. He is about to go on a mission. Aware of the gravity of his ailment, Zamira seeks to restrain him and pleads that they marry without further delay. A representative of the Associated Press arrives to interview Ometz. Two decades before he had turned his textile plant in New Jersey over to his workers settled in Palestine with his four sons. He lost two sons in the struggle for independence, but unshaken he carried on. He is now the mayor of Miklat Yom. Nathan opposes political terrorism and strives to live in peace with his Arab neighbors; Sheikh Khalil and his son Ragheb are among Nathan’s best friends, but politics and British propaganda makes friendship between Arabs and Jews difficult. When the news arrives that the UN has voted for a partition leading to a Jewish state, the great tidings are too much for Gabriel’s ailing heart and he succumbs as he dances. Nathan covers Gabriel’s body with a flag, and, suppressing his sorrow, asks the young pioneers to honor the hero with a salvo of guns.

Act II. Arab bands attack Jewish settlements and Sheikh Khalil’s younger son Jamal, a follower of the Mufti, attacks Miklat Yom. The attack is repelled. Zamira mourns Gabriel, and in her dreams he urges her to marry his brother and jointly continue to fight for liberation. Nathan, who fears losing his last son, pleads with Zamira to marry Joseph so that he might see at least one of his sons get married. Zamira agrees. Miklat Yom is cut off from all the surrounding settlements, the roads are mined and the telephone wires cut, Sheikh Khalil and his son Ragheb manage to reach the settlement to seek protection from their unfriendly compatriots who threaten their lives. Nathan receives them with open arms. Through a secret radio, news reaches the settlement that England is beginning to evacuate the country and that Moshe Shertok has flown to Tel Aviv with an important message from Secretary of State Marshall. Nathan encourages the defenders to stand fast and arranges a hurried wedding ceremony for Zamira and Joseph before they set out to fight against the Arab bands. During the ceremony, Colonel Howler, Major Henderson and Captain Galski, as well as Sheikh Khalil’s son Jamal, burst in. Colonel Howler demands the surrender of the hidden arms. Nathan refuses. He accuses Howler of trying to expose them to utter destruction by rendering them defenseless. Captain Galski suggests the smashing-up of the colony. Kalman, a young defender whose parents perished in the gas chambers, shoots Galski. Jamal promptly shoots Kalman and Colonel Howler approves. Howler orders that the settlers be arrested and sent to Latrun. Major Henderson accuses Howler of sadism and of disgracing the British uniform. He maintains that Lord Balfour was sincere when he issued his declaration for a Jewish National Home but due to the evil policies of the British Colonial Office and its faithful Howlers, England must now abandon Palestine in disgrace. Howler orders Henderson’s arrest and tells the arrested settlers to raise their hands or be shot. When they do not obey the order, Nathan urges his son and the others to obey because they can still use those hands for the liberation of the Jews. At this moment the zooming of an airplane is heard and leaflets begin to fall, proclaiming the creation of the state of Israel.

Synopsis adapted from a Yiddish Art Theater program by Sonia Gollance.

Article Author(s)

Sonia Gollance

Sonia Gollance is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Yiddish at University College London.

Shabse Tsvi

Prologue. Set at the Western Wall on Tisha b’Av, second half of the seventeenth century. As old men read Lamentations and mourn the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Sabbatai preaches to his disciples about the coming Messianic Era and the prominent role he will play in it. After they leave, the old men discuss Sabbatai and continue their lamentations as night falls.

Act I. Royal Tombs in Jerusalem at dusk. Sabbatai’s ex-wives, Leye and Rokhl, sit at the entrance of a cavern. Sabbatai sings within the cavern, imploring his true bride, the Torah. Leye and Rokhl bemoan how Sabbatai refused to sleep with them when they were married and ultimately divorced them, despite their beauty and pedigree. They console each other for not being worthy of such a holy man (whom they still follow everywhere). Nehemiah Cohen, a prophet, comes to Sabbatai and tells him it is time to stop hiding in a hole. Nehemiah Cohen anoints Sabbatai Messiah. Sabbatai and his followers are overjoyed. Sabbatai dictates letters announcing his status and has his followers distribute them. Leye and Rokhl prostrate themselves before Sabbatai; although he does not initially recognize them, he decides they are worthy to be servants to his future, better wife.

A graveyard in a small Polish town, where Jews are hiding from Chmielnicki’s Cossacks. When they realize they are safe, they discuss the destruction of the massacres and how it is the fault of their sins. One young man questions where God is in all this suffering. Kabbalists predict the coming of the messiah. Nehemiah Cohen appears. He tells the curious onlookers that redemption is at hand. Suddenly Sore’s voice can be heard from the tombstones; she declares that she is destined to be the bride of the Messiah. Nehemiah Cohen disappears, and she tells the horrified assembly how she survived the massacres in a monastery. As she speaks of the Messiah and how she is to be his bride, the young man and other onlookers decide she is a prophet.

Act II. Cairo. Sabbatai is celebrating his wedding with the Torah, the daughter of God. Suddenly there is an uproar as Sore arrives with her many followers, eager for her own wedding to Sabbatai. She tells him she is destined for him as his opposite, “you are commandment, I am sin.” Sabbatai insists that the Torah is his bride, and that he has given up carnal desires in favor of holiness. He tries to placate the crowds, offering them purification in the form of the Torah, but the people remain loyal to Sore. Sabbatai decides to marry Sore (the daughter of earth) and to find redemption through sin.

Sabbatai and Sore with their followers at Gallipolli, in the fortress Migdal-Oz. Kabbalists dance around Sore. With Sore and the prophets’ encouragement, Sabbatai declares himself higher than earthly kings and proceeds to divide the Ottoman Empire between his followers. Soon after he expresses doubts about the correctness of his actions. Sore tries to console him with sensual promises from the Song of Songs. He is disconsolate about giving up his divine bride the Torah. Nehemiah Cohen appears and tells Sabbatai that he has been deprived of divine strength.

Act III. Field around Migdal-Oz. It is Rosh Hashanah. Jewish supporters of Sabbatai from many different countries are assembled. They celebrate the messianic age: women dance and a Polish Jewish envoy reads a letter from Lwów (Lviv) in the style of reading the Talmud. They declare that everything forbidden is now permitted. Nathan Azati declares that Sabbatai will soon overthrow the sultan. Envoys read a letter from Spanish Jews in Amsterdam. Sabbatai declares that he has nothing to say to the assembled people; he once had divine favor but he lost it, he had his bride the Torah, but she was taken from him. He can no longer recall the word of God. Sore tells him that she took the commandment from him and gave him sin, took life from him and gave him death, and now Satan has gathered many souls for him. The people dance and sing with joy, as if they have lost their senses. Nehemiah Cohen, dressed as a dervish, declares that Sabbatai no longer speaks for God. Turkish soldiers approach in the distance.

In the court of Sultan Mohammed IV. Hakim-Bashi Gvidam, the Sultan’s court physician and a Jewish convert to Islam, asks Sabbatai who he is and describes the miracles that occurred when the soldiers came to arrest him, until Sabbatai suddenly lost his strength like Samson after Delilah cut his hair. He implores Sabbatai to show his strength again, and says that if he does the Sultan will become his follower. Sabbatai addresses God and explains how he thinks God views sin and humanity. The Sultan arrives with his courtiers; they are all fearful. The Sultan asks Sabbatai who he is. At first he answers that he is the anointed one who has come to take the Sultan’s crown, but then loses his strength for the last time. He grovels before the Sultan and asks his mercy as a poor, unworthy Jew. Then he declares his adherence to Allah and converts to Islam. The Sultan decides to be merciful to him and to give him his most beautiful slave girl as his wife.

Epilogue. In the mountains. An old Jew speaks of the Messiah, as a wild crowd runs after Sore. The old Jew asks them if they have seen the Messiah, but he does not understand their idea that man is God. The old Jew goes to Nehemiah Cohen, who is sitting with a trumpet and a jar of oil. The prophet tells him that for their sins the Messiah is still in chains. The Messiah will only come when the Jews tear the chains from him. The old Jew declares his faith that the Messiah will come.

Article Author(s)

Sonia Gollance

Sonia Gollance is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Yiddish at University College London.

Grinbergs tekhter

Act I. Zalmon Greenberg is a prosperous butcher on the Lower East Side. His world consists of his unlettered, simple-minded, and devoted wife, Sarah; of his two children, Esther and Bessie, the former a shy, modest, dutiful homebody, the latter a jazz-baby and frequenter of cabarets and dancehalls; of his pious and learned uncle Aaron, and his shrewd, sharp-tongued, yet kindly aunt Hennie, whom he has brought over from Europe, given a home and set up in business in his own house; of his customers and neighbors and, finally, of his daughters’ lovers: Dave Levinson, who has been in love with Esther since childhood, to the great chagrin of his father, who keeps a dry-goods store across the street from the Greenbergs and ranks butchers rather low in the scale of social and matrimonial merit; and last, but not least, Bessie’s beau, Max Bernstein, a prize-fighter, who attributes his recent knockout at the hands of Kid Bushie to the fact that the trunks he wore for the fight did not have a Star of David sewn on them. Though somewhat Americanized, Zalmon retains the psychology and general views of the Old World. He refuses his daughters’ plea that the family join in the general exodus from the Lower East Side; and in order to silence their complaints, he takes advantage of their absence in the country, where they are spending their vacation, to beautify his house by having it painted and installing modern improvements and new furniture, including a radio, so as to surprise the girls upon their return. As the play opens, a painter is seen at work in the butcher-shop, while an expressman delivers new furniture. A letter arrives from Bessie in which she informs her parents that Esther has shed her customary shyness and modesty in the country and is carrying on “high and mighty” with a traveling salesman who is stopping at the same hotel; she even suggests that it would be advisable for her and Esther to return home at once. Bessie’s remarks fill Zalmon with indignation and attributes them to jealousy, but Sarah has some misgivings. At this point Aaron rushes in terror-stricken and reports that his bookstore is being raided by the police who are falsely charging him with being a bootlegger. While Zalmon and Aaron hasten to the latter’s store, Sarah asks Dave to come in. No sooner does he enter than Max Bernstein arrives. Sarah shows them a picture of her daughters that Bessie enclosed in her letter, and the two young men are discussing plans for spending the week-end with the girls, when the elder Levinson enters and summons his son back to his work at the dry-goods store. Left alone with Sarah, Max tells her that he is giving up pugilism and opening a poolroom. He has already invested a thousand dollars and needs a hundred dollars more. Sarah lends him a hundred and fifty, and he departs. Zalmon and Aaron return, the misunderstanding with the police having been satisfactorily cleared up, and the two go upstairs to try out Zalmon’s new radio, only to discover that a radio is not all it is cracked up to be. Max comes back to report that he has just signed a contract for a return match with Kid Bushie and so isn’t going into the poolroom business after all. He returns the money he borrowed from Sarah and declares his intention of going to Bessie in the country and establishing his training quarters there. No sooner does he leave than Bessie suddenly arrives–alone, Esther having eloped with the traveling salesman the day before.

Act II. Three weeks have passed and still no trace of Esther. From a conversation between Bessie and Max, we learn that the latter is through with prize-fights, Kid Bushie having knocked him out again, though this time he was careful to have a Star of David sewn on his fighting trunks. The two discuss plans for their forthcoming marriage and for settling in California, where Max is sure a fortune is awaiting him. He expresses surprise that so quiet and modest a girl as Esther should have yielded so soon to temptation. Bessie attributes her sister’s fall to the fact that she had never associated with men and so fallen an easy prey to the first one who whispered sweet lies into her ears. Aaron, Hennie and Sarah try to dissuade the two from getting married at this time, but they are adamant, and find an unexpected ally in Zalmon. The latter then sends for Dave and tells him the truth about Esther’s absence from him. Dave staggers out of the house, and Aaron and Hennie rush in to scold their nephew for what he has done. Presently a young woman enters and announces herself as Lena Becker, wife of Esther’s seducer. She relates the circumstances under which she found Esther, whom she absolves of all blame in the matter, and who, she says, bitterly repents her mistake and above all the wrong she has done to her by betraying his great trust in her. Mrs. Becker adds that she has brought Esther with her and left her at Aaron’s store. While Sarah and Hennie run to fetch her, Aaron pleads with Zalmon to be kind to his erring daughter, because a sinner who truly repents is, according to the Talmud, superior to a person who has never sinned. Esther is brought in and is greeted by her faltering father with: “How are you, Esther?”

Act III. Hennie remonstrates with Sarah for keeping the butcher-shop closed now that Esther is back home and Dave has given her an engagement ring. She threatens to take matters in her own hands and hire a butcher to run her nephew’s shop. Aaron comes in with the startling news that Zalmon has sold the house, and that he is now showing the premises to the new proprietor. Presently Zalmon and Mr. Lefkowitz, the new owner, enter and take an inventory of the contents of the house. Hennie shrewdly tries to frighten away Lefkowitz by telling him that Zalmon is insane; she also threatens to smack his face if he does not give up the idea of buying the house. Her brave threats are in vain; Zalmon insists on the sale. Esther and Dave return from a walk and learn of the sale of the house. Esther blames herself for her father’s action in thus uprooting his existence and undoing the work of a lifetime. Dave comforts her, vows his everlasting love for her, suggests an early marriage and urges her to talk the matter over with her father. Max and Bessie arrive and announce that they have just got married in court and that they are leaving forthwith for Atlantic City. When Esther pleads with Bessie not to go away like this and break their mother’s heart, Bessie, who has adopted a “holier-than-thou” attitude towards her unhappy sister, merely scoffs at her. Sarah is disconsolate, but Zalmon gives them his blessing. The latter tells his uncle why he has sold his house and given up his business. “A building,” he says, “holds fast as long as the foundation endures. Esther was the foundation that held me up.” Dave rushes in to tell them that his father has learned of his secret engagement to Esther. Presently the terrible Mr. Levinson himself comes in to voice his objection to the marriage of his only son to a butcher’s daughter; but Zalmon argues with him with such dignity, restraint, and sweet-reasonableness that he half wins him over to the match, and Dave and Esther prepare to leave at once for another city to get married there.

Adapted from Maximilian Hurwitz’s synopsis for the Yiddish Art Theater by Sonia Gollance

Article Author(s)

Sonia Gollance

Sonia Gollance is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Yiddish at University College London.