The directory «Plots»

Goldfaden (גאָלדפֿאַדען) Abraham
( (1840—1908)

Abraham Goldfaden was an Ukrainian-born Jewish poet, playwright. stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays. Goldfaden is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre.

In 1876 he founded in Romania what is generally credited as the world's first professional Yiddish-language theater troupe. He was the first important Yiddish playwright and a leading figure in Yiddish theater. In 1876 he combined some of his songs and poems to form his first plays, which were initially performed in Jassy, Romania. Russian authorities banned Yiddish theater in 1883, and Goldfaden and his followers founded Yiddish troupes in Paris, London, and New York City. Goldfaden settled in New York in 1903 and opened a drama school. Of his 40 plays the most famous is probably Shulamit (1880).

The Avram Goldfaden Festival of Iaşi, Romania, is named and held in his honour. Jacob Sternberg called him "the Prince Charming who woke up the lethargic Romanian Jewish culture". Israil Bercovici wrote that in his works "...we find points in common with what we now call 'total theater'. In many of his plays he alternates prose and verse, pantomime and dance, moments of acrobatics and some of jonglerie, and even of spiritualism..."

Israel, 2009, Abraham Goldfaden

Rumania, 2009, Abraham Goldfaden

Israel, 2009.11.26, Petah Tiqwa. Actors

Rumania, 2009.11.26, Bucharest. Theatre masks