Messiahs of 1933

How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity Through Satire

Joel Schechter

TEMPLE UNIVERSIT Y PRESS

Philadelphia

COVER ILLUSTRATION: The Wonder Horse with Litvak (Isidore Meltzer) on horse (Jack Goldman and Harry Bender) and unidentied actor in We Live and Laugh, New York, 1936. Courtesy of the National Archives.

TEM PL E UN I V ERSI T Y P RESS

1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright 2008 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schechter, Joel, 1947 Messiahs of 1933 : how American Yiddish theatre survived adversity through satire / Joel Schechter. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-59213-872-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-59213-872-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Theater, YiddishUnited StatesHistory. 2. Satire, YiddishUnited StatesHistory and criticism. 3. Yiddish dramaUnited StatesHistory and criticism. 4. Jewish actors United States. I. Title. PN3035.S32 2008 792.089'92407dc22 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 2007036744

Contents

1 Messiahs of 1933: How Playwright Moishe Nadir and Artef Led America Out of the Great Depression to a Future of Full Employment, Justice, and Yiddish Satire for All 2 Nadirs Rivington Street: The Lower East Side Arises 3 Prayer Boxes as Precious as Diamonds: How Soviet Yiddish Satire Fared in America 4 The Federal Theatre Project in Yiddish: The Society of the Sorely Perplexed Takes the Stage 5 The Messiah of 1936: It Cant Happen Here in Yiddish 6 Pinskis Prelude to a Golden Age: The Tailor Becomes a Storekeeper 7 Menasha Skulnik Becomes a Bridegroom: Popular Yiddish Theatre Reconsidered 8 Prosperitys Crisis on Stage: The Yiddish Puppetry of Maud and Cutler 9 Leo Fuchs, Yiddish Vaudevillian in Trouble

1 37 57 71 105 121 141 157 177

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10 Yetta Zwerlings Comic Dybbuk 11 Menachem Mendels False Prots: Sholem Aleichem and the Communists 12 The Anti-Milkhome Zamlung of 1937: The Yiddish Anti-War Catalogue Reconsidered 13 Conclusion: Still Waiting for the Messiah Appendix Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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