Messiahs of 1933How 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 unidentifi ed actor in We Live and Laugh, New York, 1936. Courtesy of the National Archives.

TEMPLE UNIVERSIT Y PRESS1601 North Broad StreetPhiladelphia PA 19122www.temple.edu/tempress

Copyright © 2008 by Temple UniversityAll rights reservedPublished 2008Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence 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, Yiddish—United States—History. 2. Satire, Yiddish—United States—History

and criticism. 3. Yiddish drama—United States—History and criticism. 4. Jewish actors—United States. I. Title.

PN3035.S32 2008792.089'92407—dc22 2007036744

2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1

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 1

2 Nadir’s Rivington Street: The Lower East Side Arises 37

3 Prayer Boxes as Precious as Diamonds: How Soviet Yiddish Satire Fared in America 57

4 The Federal Theatre Project in Yiddish: “The Society of the Sorely Perplexed” Takes the Stage 71

5 The Messiah of 1936: It Can’t Happen Here in Yiddish 105

6 Pinski’s Prelude to a Golden Age: The Tailor Becomes a Storekeeper 121

7 Menasha Skulnik Becomes a Bridegroom: Popular Yiddish Theatre Reconsidered 141

8 Prosperity’s Crisis on Stage: The Yiddish Puppetry of Maud and Cutler 157

9 Leo Fuchs, Yiddish Vaudevillian in “Trouble” 177

10 Yetta Zwerling’s Comic Dybbuk 193

11 Menachem Mendel’s False Profi ts: Sholem Aleichem and the Communists 203

12 The Anti-Milkhome Zamlung of 1937: The Yiddish Anti-War Catalogue Reconsidered 221

13 Conclusion: Still Waiting for the Messiah 231

Appendix 239

Acknowledgments 245

Notes 247

Bibliography 279

Index 287

vi / Contents