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YOSHE KALB,
by I. J. Singer
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"YOSHE KALB"
Theatre scene
1932
Rappoport Studios, N. Y. |
I. J. Singer's "Yoshe
Kalb" was performed a number of times by Maurice
Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, bot domestically
and abroad. It first opened on 9 September 1932
at the Folks Theatre at 189 2nd Avenue (and 12th
Street.), then again in 1939.
The cast for the
1932 production included a very large cast,
including:
Maurice Schwartz,
Joseph Schwartzberg Saul Fruchter, Eli Mintz, M.
Schtrommer, Solomon Krause, Michael Rosenberg,
Michael Gibson, Anatole Winogradoff, Wolf
Goldfaden, Morris Silberkasten, Mark Jury, S.
Pincus, S. Lioff, Zelda Ludwig, Ida Garber, A.
Belov,L. Bergweiss, A. Margolies, Albert Stone,
Anna Appel, Sonya Gursky, Liza Varon, Judith
Abarbanel, Noach Nachbush, K. Urki, Rosetta
Bialis, Lazar Freed, S. Merkur, Leah Naomi,
Charlotte Goldstein, R. Schweid, A. Nemson, M.
Misich, F. Sherr, Morris Belavsky, Michael
Rosen, N. Steinfeld, Michael Gibson, Solomon
Krause, L. Eisenberg, Pincus Sherman, M.
Swerdloff, Uri Kagar, Rose Weiss, S. Berl,
Izidore Casher, Helen Zelinska, Leah Kauffman,
S. Lazar, R. Rose, Bergman, Gustav Schacht, L.
Weisberg, Zelda Gould, Hyman Buchwald, Isaac
Rothblum, H. Franko, Morris Strassberg.
"Yoshe Kalb" was
produced in two parts and twenty-six scenes.
Stage version and direction by Maurice Schwartz.
Dances by Lillien Shapero. Edwin A. Relkin &
Sigmund Weintraub, Personal Representatives for
Maurice Schwartz. Director: Maurice Schwartz;
Stage Manager: Ben Zion Katz; Librarian: Joseph
Schwartzberg; Musical Director: Leo Kutzen;
Master of Wardrobe: Ben Spitzer; Managers: Leon
Hoffman and Milton Weintraub; House Manager
Morris Lyons; Treasurer: Gertrude R. Wagner;
English Publicity: Joseph Brainin. Technical
Staff: Master Carpenter: Irving Levy; Master
Electrician: Morris Shapiro; Master of Props:
Sam Wolinsky; Scenic Designer: Alex Chertov.
CAST OF CHARACTERS FROM "YOSHE
KALB"
Top row, left
to right: Two poor men (Uri Kaner and Isaac
Swerdloff), Israel Avigdor (Morris Silberkasten),
Nyeveshe Rabbi (Maurice Schwartz), Motye Godol
(Wolf Goldfaden), and the three Young Men
(Joseph Schwartzberg, Eli Mintz, and Saul
Fruchter).
Bottom row,
left to right: The Nyeveshe Chasid (Michael
Rosenberg), The Katerinchik? (Michael Gibson),
The Krakow Rabbi (Isaac Rothblum), ...(Louis
Weisberg), and the Lizshaner Rabbi (Morris
Strassberg.)
"I direct myself. The actor in me taught the
director in me. The director gives me only parts
that I can do well. The play always comes first;
the cast comes next. In 'Yoshe Kalb' I gave
myself a role that only appeared in four scenes.
I am as disciplined to the director as I am to
myself. I'm a fanatic about the theatre." --
Maurice Schwartz
Music by Leo
Kutzen, settings by Alexander Chertov, and
dances by Lillian Shapiro Adapted by Maurice
Schwartz from the Novel by I. J. Singer.
From the New York
Times, 3 October 1932:
“The story it
unfolds is of a powerful Chasidic rabbi, whose
concerns are very much of this world. Having
already buried three wives, in his seventieth
year he sets eyes on a spirited young girl and
determines to make her No. 4. To satisfy the
proprieties, however, he must first marry off
his young daughter, a child of 15, and he
arranges a match between her and a boy who is so
deeply wrapped up in a Kabala that the marriage
cruelly wounds him. He in turn hurts his wife by
his coldness, and she is too unknowing to
overcome it. The girl whom the aged rabbi has
married, however, is a spitfire: she won’t have
the old man, but she falls in love with his
ascetic son-in-law and makes him return her
passion. When she dies in childbirth, the youth
turns to a life of wandering to expiate his sin."
So then, here is the
synopsis of Singer's "Yoshe Kalb". The
name of the actor or actress who portrayed a particular
role is indicated in parentheses:
SYNOPSIS
Introductory Note
The great mine of
Chassidic lore and legend, which has already
yielded such dramatic masterpieces as "The
Dybbuk" of S. An-sky and "The Saint's Journey"
of Harry Sackler, yields in the present play
another gem of "the purest ray serene." "Yoshe
Kalb" is the story of a lovable young mystic's
fall from grace, of his sin and suffering, of
his terrible meekness and resignation, of his
silence (by way of penance) under false
accusations, and the complications, including
that of dual personality, which this gives rise
to. All these and other strands are skillfully
woven together into a gorgeous tapestry, hung
against a background of Chassidic life with its
turbulence, coarseness, and superstition
relieved by felicitous touches of humor.2
The author of "Yoshe
Kalb," who with this work becomes one of the
most promising figures of Yiddish literature, is
I. J. Singer, Austrian correspondent of the
Jewish Daily Forward, where it originally
appeared as a novel. The dramatic version was
made by Maurice Schwartz, Director of the
Yiddish Art Theatre.
The reader should
bear in mind the difference between an ordinary
rabbi and a Chassidic Rabbi. Whereas the former
is merely the pastor of a single community or
congregation, the latter, by virtue of the
superior wisdom, saintliness, and miraculous
powers attributed to him, is the spiritual ruler
of a vast number of adherents in many cities and
towns, to whom his word is law. His followers
pay him princely honors and tribute, and he
lives in semi-regal state. His household
resembles a court, and like it is full of
intrigue. His office is hereditary. There are
many such rabbinical dynasties in Poland.
PART ONE
Reb Melech
(Maurice Schwartz), the coarse, greedy, and
domineering Chassidic Rabbi of Nyesheve, in
Austrian Poland, is desirous of marrying again,
although he is 68 years old and thrice a
widower. The object of his desire is the young
and beautiful Malkale (Charlotte Goldstein),
niece and ward of his follower, Mechele Hivnever
(Noach Nachbush). But before he can attain his
end, he must marry off his youngest daughter,
Serele (Judith Abarbanel)--beautiful, docile,
passive and only fifteen. The bridegroom he
chooses for her is the young, learned, pious,
dreamy, and mystically-inclined Nachumtche
(Lazar Freed), only son of the more sympathetic
and refined Chassidic Rabbi of Rachmanivke (Anatole
Winagradoff), in Russian Poland. He persuades
and bullies the boy's father until the latter
consents to the match.
Left photo:
Leah Naomi,
Charlotte Goldstein
and Roseta Bialis.
Right photo:
Liza Varon, Judith
Abarbanel, S. Gursky,
Anna Appel.
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The marriage is
celebrated in regal style, as befits the union
of two such illustrious houses. But Nachumtche
is more interested in his mystical studies than
in his bride and shows it by neglecting her on
their wedding night.
Having married off
his youngest daughter, Reb Melech proceeds with
the preparations for his own marriage to Malkele,
who is coaxed and cajoled into the match by her
guardians. But his triumph is short-lived.
Malkele is as spirited as a race horse; in her
veins there courses the fire of passion; and on
their wedding night she humbles his pride by
making him feel what he really is--a very old
man. Worse yet, she soon falls in love with
Nachumtche. Unlike Serele, she knows how to
awaken his love, and before long he, the ascetic
Cabalist, succumbs to her blandishments and
commits the mortal sin of adultery. Nine months
later she dies in childbirth. Thereupon,
although no one suspects his guilt, Nachumtche
is so overcome by remorse that he flees from his
home and becomes a wanderer like Cain.
PART TWO
For many years
Nachumtche, now calling himself Yoshe, wanders
all over the land undergoing every hardship and
submitting to every indignity at the hands of
his fellow vagabonds who, because of his
meekness and extreme piety, nickname him "Yoshe
Kalb" (i. e. Yoshe the Simpleton). Finally he
arrives in the town of Byalegure, where he
becomes assistant to Konoh the Sexton (Izadore
Casher), who takes him into his house as a
prospective husband for his motherless, lewd,
and moronic daughter Zivya (Helen Zelinska). A
plague breaks out, and the townspeople attribute
it to the prevalence of sin and vice in their
midst. A committee sets out in search of
sinners, and soon it is discovered that the
unmarried Zivva is big with child. She is haled
before the rabbinical court, but her father
defends her by saying that it is Yoshe Kalb who
has seduced the simple-minded girl.
"YOSHE KALB ACCUSED
BEFORE THE BIALYGORER RABBI"
Though wholly innocent, Yoshe Kalb neither
admits nor denies the charge, and is adjudged
guilty. Instead of punishing him, however, the
court decrees that he marry Zivya and that the
nuptials be held at the cemetery, the marriage
of two orphans in a graveyard being regarded as
an effective remedy against a plague. The whole
town turns out for the ceremony, and although
Yoshe Kalb does not pronounce the prescribed
formula which alone makes a marriage valid,
Konoh asserts he heard him say it. In the
general merry-making that ensues, Yoshe Kalb
disappears.
"THE WEDDING ON THE
CEMETERY OF YOSHE KALB"
Shortly afterwards
he returns to Nyesheve, where no one recognizes
him owing to his fifteen years' absence. He soon
convinces the aged Reb Melech and Serele that he
is the long missing Nachumtche. Reb Melech
rejoices over the return of his son-in-law and
declares his intention to make him his heir and
successor, his own sons having proven unworthy.
But word of Yoshe Kalb's pressence in Nyesheve
reaches Shachna (Gustave Schacht), a member of
the rabbinical court of Byalegure. He hurries to
Nyesheve and publicly denounces Nachumtche as an
imposter and bigamist. Reb Melech staunchly
defends his son-in-law and vows dire vengeance
on Shachna, but the latter holds his ground. A
great controversy ensues, which shakes Jewry
from center to circumference. Finally, a court
of seven eminent rabbis--a veritable synhedrin
--is convoked.
"THE SYNHEDRIN COURT
SCENE OF 'YOSHE KALB'"
The trial scene
that follows is one of the most effective in the
whole range of dramatic literature. As both
sides offer equally convincing testimony, and as
Nachumtche refuses to say who he really is, the
court is non-plussed. Finally the rabbi of
Lizhan (Morris Strassberg), a member of the
great court, takes over the questioning; and
after learning from both Serele and Zivya that
the defendant was in the habit of hiding from
them a good deal of the time and of frequenting
cemeteries at night, he declares that both sides
have told the truth, and pronounces the
defendant a gilgul--a lost and wandering
soul, drifting aimlessly to and fro in the
world, and bringing ruin and misfortune wherever
he appears. The shock of this pronouncement
kills the aged Reb Melech, and in the general
excitement that follows, Nachumtche flees and
becomes once more a wanderer like Cain.
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