Among the various playhouses, vaudeville halls, and beer gardens on the immigrant-crammed Lower East Side, the Thalia Theatre was renowned for stellar "Daytshmerish," German-style Yiddish theatricals. A gala evening was hosted there in 1896 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Yiddish theater in America and to pay tribute to its founding father, Abraham Goldfaden. Moshe Isaac Halevy Horowitz became manager of the Tahlia the following year, and opened his first season with a series of lavish "great stars" productions that included King Solomon. This unusually large and elaborate poster was made for the theater's facade. Among those depicted are the three "prima donna's: Regina Prager, Bertha Kalish, and Dina (Adler) Feinman.

Yiddish theater developed out of archaic styles of drama resembling the medieval mystery and mummers' plays into modern theatrical forms exemplified by the plays of Ibsen, a major source and influence for Jacob Gordin. Abraham Goldfadn is acknowledged as the father of both "serious" and "popular" strands of Yiddish theater. He specialized in operetta and the creative reworking of plots and melodies from pre-existing sources.

Indeed, Yiddish theater reflects and absorbs a host of mutli-cultural influences. The majority could have been written about any other immigrant or ethnic group. Performance style and the inclusion of theater music underscored the recognizably "Jewish" nature of the written material. Popular Yiddish theater has remained true to these beginnings. Plot elements have been drawn directly or indirectly from European sources such as Plautus, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Viennese operetta--one of the plays is even called "The Merry Widower." Others are obvious adaptations of classic American melodramas such as "East Lynne," "Ten Nights in a Barroom," or the "You Dare Call Yourself Mother" outbursts of popular English dramatist Arthur Wing Pinero

The flowering of Yiddish theater in America was swift and sudden. Its decline was just as swift. Yiddish playwrights voiced the needs, anxieties, and aspirations of their people in a language which even they, perhaps, realized their grandchildren might never speak. Yet, while the Yiddish-speaking population has declined dramatically in recent decades, there are still some active Yiddish theater troupes in New York City, Montreal, Israel, Romania, and Poland, for example--that continue to entertain enthusiastic audiences.

Created/Published : Josef Kroger, New York, 1897

Creator : Yozef Kroger, lithographer

Part of the Theatrical Poster Collection housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

To learn more about Jewish history go to Haven to Home Exhibition

Availability: Usually ships in 1 week

Product #: var0881