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“A True Jewish Jew:” Three Yiddish Shylocks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Joel Berkowitz
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Extract

“Of all of Shakespeare's works, The Merchant of Venice holds the greatest interest for Jews,” writes critic and theatre historian Bernard Gorin in 1911. Gorin's observation may seem so obvious today as to verge on the axiomatic, but Yiddish theatre practice in the 1890s, when Shakespeare's plays began being produced in Yiddish, would not in itself have led to such a conclusion. The only recorded Yiddish production of the play in New York during that decade ran for just one weekend in February 1894, and such a commercial failure would have been an unlikely export to other American cities.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , May 1996 , pp. 75 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1996

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References

1. Gorin, B., “Shylock,” Der amerikaner, 3 March 1911Google Scholar . All translations from Yiddish are the author's unless noted otherwise.

2. The American Yiddish theatre's only other nineteenth-century encounter with the play came in 1899, with the publication of poet Joseph Bovshover's translation.

3. See Berkowitz, Joel, “Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage” (Ph.D. diss., CUNY Graduate Center, 1995)Google Scholar.

4. In addition to The Jewish King Lear, examples of these “Judaized” adaptations include Gordin's Mirele Efros, or, the Jewish Queen Lear (1898); Isidore Zolatarevsky's The Yeshiva Boy (1899), which turns Hamlet into a rabbinical student; and Nakhum Rakov's The Oath on the Torah, or, the Jewish Romeo and Juliet (1903).

5. Kalish, Bertha, “A brodveyer kholem,” Der tog, 12 November 1925Google Scholar.

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7. Winter, William, Shakespeare on the Stage (New York [reprint]: Benjamin Blom, 1969), 1:175Google Scholar.

8. Quoted in Tyrrell, Henry, “Jacob Adler—The Bowery Garrick,” Theatre 2 (November 1902), 19Google Scholar.

9. Ibid.

10. “Mr. Adler's Shylock,” Jewish Exponent, 15 May 1903Google Scholar.

11. Ibid.

12. “Mr. Adler Scores in Shylock Role,” New York Herald, 15 May 1905Google Scholar.

13. “The True Shakespeare's Jew,” American Hebrew, 15 May 1903Google Scholar.

14. “Plays and Players,” Globe and Commercial Advertiser, 16 May 1905Google Scholar.

15. Gorin, Bernard, “The Yiddish Theatre in New York,” Theatre 2 (January 1902), 18Google Scholar.

16. Philadelphia's Jewish Exponent, writes Murray Friedman, was “created by the older elite in 1887 to help in the Americanizing process.” See the Introduction to Friedman, , ed., Jewish Life in Philadelphia, 1830–1940 (Philadelphia: ISHI Publications, 1983), 10Google Scholar.

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20. A review in the American Hebrew on 8 May 1903 claimed that Adler performed in the Joseph Bovshover translation [Shylock, oder, , venedig, der koyfman fun (New York: Katzenellenbogen, 1899)]Google Scholar , but descriptions provided by other reviews indicate that this could have been the case only if Bovshover's text were cut significantly. However, numerous cuts and stage directions in the typescript in the Jacob Adler Papers in the YIVO (Institute for Jewish Research) Archives match precisely the descriptions given in the reviews; this typescript undoubtedly was the text used for Adler's productions.

21. Odell, George C. D., Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving (New York [reprint]: Dover Publications, 1966), 2:423Google Scholar.

22. “Mr. Adler's Shylock,” Jewish Exponent, 15 May 1903.

23. Shylock, anonymous typescript, Jacob Adler Papers, YIVO Archives, 9. Subsequent quotations from this script will be documented within the text.

24. “Plays and Players,” Globe and Commercial Advertiser, 16 May 1905.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Quoted in Tyrrell, 19.

28. “The True Shakespeare's Jew,” American Hebrew, 15 May 1903.

29. Ibid.

30. Vintshevski, Morris, “Shylock, a idisher id,” Forverts, 28 December 1901Google Scholar.

31. “Mr. Adler's Shylock,” Jewish Exponent, 15 May 1903.

32. “Mr. Adler Scores in Shylock Role,” New York Herald, 15 May 1905.

33. Katz, Moyshe, “Shylock's tip revolutsyonirt,” Di idishe velt, 28 May 1903Google Scholar . Katz's reference to Yiddish presented “cleanly” is a critique of the use of a stage dialect known as daytshmerish, a bastardized combination of Yiddish and German that was common on the Yiddish stage at the time.

34. “Shylock der id,” Di yidishe gazeten, 15 May 1903.

35. Harkavy, Alexander, “Iz yidish a shprakh fir drame?,” Di fraye yidishe folksbine 1 (1897), 17Google Scholar.

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37. Gross, John, Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 240Google Scholar.

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43. Ibid.

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48. Ibid.

49. Epstein, A., “‘Shylock’ in nayem idishn teater,” Di varhayt, 18 March 1911Google Scholar.

50. Kobrin, “Schildkraut in Shylock.”

51. New York Mirror, 29 March 1911.

52. Quoted in Rathbun, Stephen, “New Apollo Theatre, Mary Nash and Ben Ami Start Their Season Next Week,” New York Sun, 13 November 1920Google Scholar.

53. Gorin, B., “Schildkraut als Shylock,” Der morgen zhurnal, 17 November 1920Google Scholar.

54. Ibid.

55. Ibid.

56. “Schwartz First Did Shylock Under Williamsburg Bridge,” New York Herald Tribune, 20 April 1930, VIII, 5Google Scholar.

57. Dank, David, Shvarts af vays (New York: n.p., 1963), 28Google Scholar.

58. Schwartz, Maurice, “Shylock in Vaudeville,” Der tog English supplement, 27 April 1930Google Scholar.

59. Ibid.

60. “Vaudeville,” New York World, 20 April 1930.

61. Chapman, John, “Maurice Schwartz Plays Shylock for Palace Fans,” New York Daily News, 22 April 1930Google Scholar.

62. “Maurice Schwartz a Fervid Shylock,” New York Times, 21 April 1930.

63. Cahan, Abraham, “Maurice Schwartz hot groysn erfolg af der amerikaner vodvil stage,” Forverts, 25 April 1930Google Scholar.

64. Zylbercweig, Zalmen, “Maurice Schwartz zogt ‘Shylocks tokhter hot groyse idish-natsyonale misye,’” Der morgen zhurnal, 25 July 1947Google Scholar.

65. “The Yiddish Shylock,” New York Times, 26 May 1903.

66. Gorin, “Schildkraut als Shylock.”

67. Watts, Richard Jr, “Yiddish Art Company Offers Shylock Play,” New York Post, 7 October 1947Google Scholar.

68. Buchwald, N., “‘Shylock un zayn tokhter' in idishn kunst-teater,” Morgen frayhayt, 10 October 1947Google Scholar.

69. Schwartz, Maurice, Shylock and His Daughter, Regelson, Abraham, trans. (New York: Yiddish Art Theatre, 1947), 27Google Scholar.

70. Schwartz, Shylock and His Daughter, 28.

71. Buchwald, “‘Shylock un zayn tokhter.’” Ibn Zahav certainly intended audiences to see this connection. In a short essay entitled “Shylock the Jew” that prefaces the English translation, he claims that “Paul IV's period was a small-scale precursor of Hitler's time, and the Nuremberg laws were practically a copy of Paul's Roman edicts against the Jews.” See Schwartz, Shylock and His Daughter, n.p.

72. Theatre program, Shylock un zayn tokhter, Israel Theatre Archive, Tel Aviv UniversityGoogle Scholar.

73. Edlin, William, “‘Shylock un zayn tokhter' efent sezon fun kunst teater,” Der log, 3 October 1947Google Scholar.

74. A genre of play usually based on events from biblical and post-biblical Jewish history and popular on the late nineteenth-century Yiddish stage.

75. Entin, Joel, “Der alter Shylock af a nayem untershlag,” Der idisher kemfer, 24 October 1947Google Scholar.

76. Gutman, C., “‘Shylock un zayn tokhter’ in idishn kunst teater,” Der morgen zhumal, 3 October 1947Google Scholar.

77. Yaffe, Richard A.,“‘Shylock and Daughter’ Sets Record Straight,” P.M., 6 October 1947Google Scholar.

78. Lifson, David, The Yiddish Theatre in America (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1965), 384Google Scholar . This wisecrack came from Amos Hirshbein, son of the eminent Yiddish playwright Peretz Hirshbein.

79. Schwartz, Shylock and His Daughter, 146.

80. Atkinson, Brooks, “On Second Avenue,” New York Times, 30 November 1947Google Scholar.

81 Wilken, Jeanette, “Schwartz an Authentic New ‘Shylock,’” New York Daily News, 1 October 1947Google Scholar.

82. Yaffe, “‘Shylock and Daughter’ Sets Record Straight.”

83. Buchwald, “‘Shylock un zayn tokhter.’”

84. Entin, “Der alter Shylock.”

85. Gutman, “‘Shylock un zayn tokhter.’”

86. Quoted in Zylbercweig, “Maurice Schwartz zogt.”

87. Quoted in Lifson, 320.