New York, NY – Yiddish theater may have faded since its heyday on the Lower East Side, but it still has enough pep to produce a pesky upstart repertory company, as well as a spirited rivalry between it and a veteran troupe.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
For years, the Folksbiene group was often the only show in town for fans of Yiddish theater. Ninety-five years old, it bills itself as the last survivor of the homespun “Broadway” that flowered along Second Avenue, where a dozen such theaters treated fatigued sweatshop workers and tenement dwellers to the diversions of melodrama and make-believe.
But two years ago, the New Yiddish Repertory Company arrived. It was founded by disgruntled Folksbiene actors who want to shelve old-school props like dramatic war horses and stage avant-garde productions for younger audiences who speak no Yiddish but want to connect to the world of their grandparents.
In turn, Folksbiene argues that it too has been appealing to younger audiences with against-the-grain productions. But dramatic approach, those familiar with this quarrel say, may be less at stake than the traditional theatrical demons of ego and power.
Whatever the truth, friends of Yiddish theater worry that these rivals will cannibalize the same small audience that Folksbiene now dominates, and are trying to patch things up. One peacemaker is Jack Lebewohl, whose family owns the Second Avenue Deli and who sits on the New Yiddish board. He has enlisted the help of Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, chairman of the Folksbiene board, who was an adviser to former Gov. George E. Pataki.
“I said to Jeff, ‘Why don’t you make peace!’ ” Mr. Lebewohl said. “It’s one of those situations when two plus two equals six. Why compete with each other when, together, each person learns from the other and takes advantage of each other’s strengths?”
So far, there has been one powwow between Zalmen Mlotek and David Mandelbaum, the artistic directors of Folksbiene and New Yiddish Rep, respectively. At that amicable meeting last month, the two traded ideas about promoting each other’s fare and Folksbiene was asked to consider financing New Yiddish Repertory as an offshoot.
These are the real old time kofrim , not many left of these, may g-d help these lost souls.
This reminds me of the arguments that frequently arise when a new kosher butcher or restaurant opens in a community that has historically supported only one and the immediate cry is “gevalt”, the will both go out of business. This is even worse since it involves freedom of expression. Let the market decide which on ebetter serves the needs of the heimeshe community.
I don’t know why people are complaining that they’re kofrim. First of all the guy in the picture is wearing a yarmulke. Secondly even though yiras shamayim may not necessarily be their strong point let’s be meilitz yoisher for these yidden in the derech of the sanegoiran shel yisroel, the holy Berdichever obm. Soif kol soif these heilige yidden have made the mussag of “sheloi shinu es leshoinam” their personal agenda. It should be a zechus for us to be nigal in this month of redemption!
instead of opening a school that teaches hebrew and israeli culture, open a school that teaches yiddish and jewish culture. i wanna learn yiddish, but there is no where in nyc to learn.
It is time for jews to stop arguing as in the 3 shuls on an island with one jew. This is the real reason why there is so much anti semitism – jews fight against each other. Where are the 33 concert ban ‘rabbis’ on this issue? Why are their big mouths so quiet on real and important issues? Are they too busy with Lipa?
There’s no real Yiddish. Yiddish was adapted originally from old-German and the language evolved into diff. versions depending on the era and area. For example Polish Jews had Polish words thrown into the cholent pot of Yiddish as did the Hungarians with Hungarian words. Dialects also changed over time and place.The original Yiddish probably resembled old-German much more than it did in pre-war Europe of the 20th century.
Also new inventions were constantly appearing and the names for them were taken from the language of the country were the people who spoke Yiddish lived in.
Yiddish today in America has English words thrown in (rough guess by me is that 20% of Yiddish words spoken today originate from English) However the English words are mostly unrecognizable by outsiders not speaking Yiddish, as the accent and pronunciation is usually changed.
I can see that many of the people who speak Yiddish don’t know it too well either. For instance, a window is a fenster, a corner is a “rog” or an “ek-gas”, steps are “trepn” or “treplekh” and few if any Yiddish words come from English. Many are the same as English (finger, magnet, nest, from German) and many words from Latin are real close (administraatyse=administration, organizatsye=organization, ekonomiye=economy).
13. As far as real Yiddish, you’re talking about Litvak Yiddish and that’s just as real as any other Yiddish.