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The cast members
of this play included:
Jechiel Goldsmith,
Anna Appel, Morris Silberkasten, Bertha Gerstin,
Abraham Teitelbaum, Bina Abramowitz, Maurice
Schwartz, Wolf Goldfaden, Rebecca Lash,
Henrietta Schnitzer, Zvi Scooler, Lazar Freed,
Jacob Goldstein, Sam Lehrer, Pincus Sherman, B.
Mizbin, D. Stein, I. Berezin, Theodore Kaminker,
Morris Strassberg, Mordecai Gibson, Samuel Cohn
and Max Malinovsky.
Here is the
synopsis of Gottesfeld's "American
Chassidim". The
name of the actor or actress who portrayed a particular
role is indicated in parentheses:
SYNOPSIS
ACT ONE
Isaac Green (Jechiel
Goldsmith) and
Bernard Wise (Wolf Goldfaden), who came to America without the
proverbial shoestring and started out as street
peddlers on the lower East Side, are now
immensely rich realtors and props of the Jewish
community in an ocean resort near New York. They
are neighbors, and formerly were partners,
but there has been a break between the two, and
now they are mortal enemies and bitter rivals
for communal honors, a rivalry they carry to
ludicrous lengths. This hostility does not
extend to their respective spouses, Sarah (Anna
Appel) and
Fannie (Rebecca Lash), who are the best of friends, being
united by a common passion for playing cards and
a common disgust with the action of their
husbands in wasting good money on synagogues,
Hebrew schools, cemeteries, etc. There is
another bond of attachment between the two:
Jean (Henrietta Schnitzer), Fannie's daughter, and Milton
(Morris Silberkasten), Sarah's
son, are in love. The two mothers approve of the
match, while Sarah is equally pleased with the
love affair between her daughter Sadie (Berta
Gerstin) and a
likeable young fellow named Sam (Zvi Scooler). All these
youngsters are native Americans with the virtues
and vices characteristic of their class and
station in life.
But Isaac and
Bernard have other plans respecting their
daughters. Now that they are both prosperous and
middle-aged, the old Chassidic faith of their
youthful days in Europe has revived in them.
Accordingly, Bernard makes arrangements with
Charlie Flieh (Maurice Schwartz)--a shyster lawyer and clever
rogue, who is all things to all men, and who is
ever on the lookout for the main chance--to
import a young Tzaddik--a Chassidic rabbi,
supposed to be endowed with miraculous
powers--as husband for Jean, and it is his
intention to set the imported saint, whose name
is Reb Dovidel (Lazar Freed), up in a palace--all for the
greater glory of Bernard Wise and the confusion
of Isaac Green. Not to be outdone, Isaac sends
for the selfsame Charlie, who, ever ready to
oblige for a consideration, undertakes to
import a Tzaddik for Sadie who will cause
Bernard's saint to pale into insignificance.
Isaac is happy at the prospect and declares his
intention to turn over most of his fortune to
his prospective son-in-law, leaving for himself
only enough to live on, while cutting off
Milton, whose fondness for playing the races he
condemns, without a cent. Left alone with Sarah,
who is an old flame of his, Charlie promises,
likewise for a consideration, to frustrate her
husband's plans. After exchanging a few words
with Milton and Sam on the seriousness of the
situation, Charlie has a brilliant idea; namely,
that Sam, whose beard grows fast, and who still
remembers part of his Bar Mitzvah (Confirmation)
speech, should disguise himself as a Chassidic
rabbi and pose as the great Tzaddik imported by
Isaac Green for his daughter, Sadie.
ACT TWO
Reb Dovidel,
Bernard's Tzaddik, arrives aboard the Berengaria
and is at once set up in style by his
prospective father-in-law, much to the disgust
of Jean and Fannie. Presently, "Reb Hayimel,"
Isaac's Tzaddik, "arrives" aboard the Olympic,
and for several days remains in seclusion,
Charlie alone having access to him. After clever
coaching and press-agenting on the part of the
wily lawyer, Reb Hayimel makes his debut and
creates a sensation by delivering his maiden
address in perfect English.
ACT THREE
The fact that Reb
Hayimel was able to master the English so
quickly is taken as another proof of his
"greatness." The papers are full of "stories"
about him--all of them, of course, inspired by
Charlie and adorned with the latter's
pictures--while Reb Dovidel is left in the
shade, and Bernard Wise knows he is licked. At
Charlie's advice, Isaac now assigns
fifty-thousand dollars to his prospective
son-in-law, with promise of more by and by.
Sadie, who cannot understand Sam's sudden
disappearance and believes he has jilted her, is
smitten with Reb Hayimel, to the great delight
of her father. Unfortunately, there are
complications: Jean is also smitten with the
English-speaking rabbi and jilts Milton for him.
Fresh hostilities now break out between Isaac
and Bernard in which, for once, the wife and
daughter of each take sides with the respective
heads of their families. Things are suddenly
brought to a head when Milton, blaming Charlie
and Sam for the loss of both his patrimony and
his sweetheart, exposes the lawyer's ruse.
Thereupon Charlie, who is equal to every
emergency, admits the ruse, for which he takes
full responsibility, and declares that he
resorted to it solely in order to save Isaac and
Bernard from their own folly and to prevent them
from marring the happiness of their children. As
a result of his plea for peace and harmony, the
Greens and Wises arc reconciled and the young
lovers reunited.
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