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Shloyme Etinger (1803 - 1856)
Shloyme Etinger wrote tales, poems, and small stories in Yiddish but few of his
works survived to our time, but his sketches, poetry and songs were published
in various Yiddish-language periodicals of the time.
His only surviving dramas are fragments of two plays "Der Feter fun America"
(The Uncle from America) and "Freleche Yungeleut" (Carefree Youth) found after his death,
and the play that keeps his name alive and is still performed by Yiddish theaters around the world,
the Yiddish drama "Serkele" (Johannisberg, 1861; 2d ed., Warsaw, 1874) which,
while written when Ettinger was in his twenties, and performed during his lifetime,
was first published posthumously in 1861.
"Serkele" is one of the most renowned plays in the entire repertoire of the Yiddish theater
and owes its high reputation to its strong sense of form, sound and rhythm. The characters
are delineated in a masterful style comparable to that of the most esteemed dramatists and
its outlook remains alive and fresh after 180 years. The Yiddish linguistic stylization in
"Serkele" and the two fragmentary plays is crisp and self-assured, displaying a mastery of
the medium. Renowned Yiddish playwrights who flourished immediately after Ettinger,
such as Abraham Goldfaden and Jacob Gordin have written how much they were influenced by "Serkele". Y Mendele Moykher-Sforim (1835-1917) Mayn letzte nesie: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Mainlets.mp3 Hakdomas Mendele: הקדמת מענדעלע Abraham Goldfaden (1840 - 1908)
Goldfaden wrote about 60 plays: comedies, variety shows, operettas, such as,
Di tzvey Kuni-lemels, Di bobe mitn eynikl (see below), Schmendrik, Shulamis, Doktor Almasado
and Di kishufmakherin.
These were usually Jewish folk-inspired pieces but biblical subjects can be found in Shulamis,
and Jewish historical motives in Doktor Almasado (see below).
Among the later famous songs in his plays was:
Roshinkes mit Mandlen : (http://sites.google.com/site/kopjikinternational/yiddish-video )
The Two Kuni-Lemls (1880) is a farce by Abraham Goldfaden, the father of Yiddish theater. The play revolves around a well-to-do couple seeking to marry off their daughter, who calls herself Carolina. The traditional father wants to arrange a marriage via a matchmaker; the more modern wife is willing to let her daughter choose for herself. Although Carolina likes Max, a student, the matchmaker seeks to palm off on the father a one-eyed, limping, stuttering dodo named Kuni-Leml - a name that has entered the Yiddish lexicon as a byword for a pathetic dunce. The fun begins when Max dresses up as Kuni-Leml to deceive Carolina’s father and continues when the real Kuni-Leml arrives at the house (prompting shades). At the end, after much hilarity, everyone gets their destined mate. No wonder this merry comedy has played all over the world to appreciative audiences and had a renewed life in the mid-1960s in Israel in a Hebrew adaptation. Doktor Almasado: http://www.polona.pl/dlibra/doccontent2?id=6895 Y
Isaac Leib Peretz (1852-1915) Bontshe Shvayg: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Bontshes.mp3 Oyb nisht nokh hekher: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Oybnisht.mp3 Zibn gute yor: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Zibngute.mp3 צווישן צוויי בערג Y Samlbukh zum hunderdstn geboyrn-tog: Y. L. Perets far Yugnt: http://ia331430.us.archive.org/0/items/nybc205181/nybc205181.pdf Y Sholem Aleichem (1859 - 1916) בײַם דאָקטער Dreyfus in kasrilevke http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/DreyfusInKasrilevke.pdf דרײפֿוס אין כּתרילעװקע Kidalto vekidashto http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/KidaltoVekidashto.pdf קדלתּ וקדשתּ Nakhes fun kinder http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/NakhesFunKinder.pdf נחת פֿון קינדער די פאָן כתרילעווקער פּראָגרעס Abraham Cahan (1860 - 1951) Abraham Cahan wa a founder (1897) and editor of the Jewish Daily Forward for almost 50 years and the author of several classical books in Yiddish, among them A Providential Match (1895), Yekl - A tale of the New York Ghetto (1896), Rabbi Eliezer's Christmas and ... Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934) Abraham Reisen (1876 - 1953) Sholem Asch (1880 - 1957) A shtiler gortn http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/AshtilerGortn.pdf http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Ashtiler.mp3 אַ שטילער גאָרטן A dorf-tsadik http://www.anajnu.cl/aDorfTsadik%20SHALOM%20ASH.pdf אַ דאָרף- צדיק Itzik Manger (1901- 1969)
Jitchok Bashevis Singer (1902 - 1991) Y. Y. Singer ( ) A FRUME KATZ ... : http://www.algemeiner.com/generic.asp?id=4647
אַ פרומע קאַץ, וואָס האָט ליבע Leib Raskin (1905-1942)
Shmerke Katsherginsky Avrohom Sutzkever (1913 - 2010) Abstracts of the book In fayr-vogn (= In the Chariot of Fire) can be found at: "Der feygl iber Tzfat" by Avrohom Sutzkever 1949. "Dermondung" by Avrohom Sutzkever 1949. The Poetry of the Vilno Poet Abraham Sutzkever: Read in YiddishSamples can be listened to at: http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=27415 Moishe Kulbak (1896 - 1940) תשרי Joisef Tunkel der tunkeler "Joisef Tunkels works on the net.": http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d9vr2h4_3d4kcxv&invite=9mtmfr
Nakhes fun kinder – a monolog: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Nakhes_fun_kinder_a_monolog.mp3 http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/NakhesFunKinderTunkel.pdf נחת פֿון קינדער A teater fun kaptsonim: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/A_teater_fun_kaptsonim.mp3 http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/a_teater.pdf אַ טעאַטער פֿון קבצנים Di lamdonishe beratungen: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/di_landonishe_beratungen.mp3 http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/di_lamdonishe.pdf די למדנישע בעראַטונגען Josef Burg (1912 - 2009) Burg published his first professional writing in the Chernovitser Bleter, a Yiddish newspaper, in 1934. The Romanian government closed and banned the Chernovitser Bleter in 1938. In 1980 his "Dos leben geit waiter" ("Life goes on"), published in Moscow, marked the beginning of his second life as a writer with his works appearing in Germany, and invitations to read his work in Germany and Austria. His "Über Jiddische Dichter, Erinnerungen" ("About Yiddish Writers, Memories"), was published, in Germany, for his 95th birthday as part of a series of booklets called "Der Erzähler Josef Burg" ("The Storyteller Josef Burg") and translated from Yiddish. "In Irrfahrten: Ein ostjüdisches Leben", (2000, "Misguided Wanderings: An Eastern Jewish Life"), he revealed his disillusionment with life in the Soviet Union. The title, "Ein Stück trockenes Brot: Ausgewählte Erzählungen" ("A piece of dry bread: selected stories", 2008) says much about his life and why he was grateful to have lived into his 90s. It is about a survivor of the Babi Yar Massacre of over 33,000 Kiev Jews in 1941. Later, Gypsies and others were murdered there. Book archives:
Some classical Yiddish books are available from:
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