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arrives on horseback to announce that King Philip died in a hunting accident, and his son and successor King Louis has rescinded the expulsion order.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.