Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman

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Beyle "Beyltse" Schaechter-Gottesman , also Bella Schaechter-Gottesman (born August 7, 1920 in Vienna , † November 28, 2013 in New York City , New York ) was an Austro-American Yiddish poet and songwriter .

biography

She was born in Vienna into an Eastern European, Yiddish-speaking family; when Schaechter-Gottesman was a small child, her family went to Chernivtsi , Ukraine (later Cernăuți, Romania). She grew up in a multilingual environment where Yiddish, German, Romanian and Ukrainian were spoken; at school she also learned French and Latin. There was a lot of singing in her family and her mother, Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, was known for her broad repertoire of folk songs. Schaechter-Gottesman was sent to Vienna to take art lessons, but had to return to Czernowitz after the annexation of Austria in 1938. In 1941 she married the doctor Jonas (Yoyne) Gottesman, and together with her mother and several other family members they survived the war in the Chernivtsi ghetto.

After the war, Schaechter-Gottesman lived in Vienna for several years, where her husband worked as chief doctor in the DP camps in the region. Their daughter Taube was born there in 1950; In 1951 the family moved to New York, where the Gottesmans had two more children, Hyam and Itzik. In New York, the Gottesmans were part of an experimental Yiddish community centered on Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx. There, half a dozen Yiddish-speaking families bought houses in the neighborhood and revived the existing Sholem Aleichem Yiddish School. Schaechter-Gottesman became an important member of this community by writing teaching materials, plays and songs for the school and publishing a magazine for children, "קינדער-זשורנאַל". ("Kinderzhurnal") and a magazine for children's texts, "ענגע-בענגע". ("Narrow-Benge").

Schaechter-Gottesman's first volume of poetry "מיר פֿאָרן". ("Mir Forn", We drive) was published in 1963. Since then she has published a total of eight books, including poems for adults, children's books and hymn books, as well as three CDs with her songs and a recording of folk songs. Her work does not revolve around a single theme, but ranges from Eastern European themes to contemporary New York, from carefree children's stories to such gloomy reflections as "Di Balade Funem Eleventh September" (The Ballad of September 11th ). Her best-known single work is "Harbstlid" (autumn song). Schaechter-Gottesman's songs were performed by Theodore Bikel , Adrienne Cooper, Theresa Tova, Lucette van den Berg, Susan Leviton, Michael Alpert, Lorin Sklamberg, Sharon Jan Bernstein, Fabian Schnedler, Massel-Tov and others. A song written for her nephew, "Binyumele's Bar Mitsve", was arranged by Adrienne Cooper for her daughter as "Sorele's Bas Mitsve" and recorded on the Mikveh CD.

Schaechter-Gottesman continues to serve as a source for researchers of Yiddish folk and art music. She was interviewed several times and took part in cultural events such as KlezKamp, KlezKanada, Buffalo on the Roof, Ashkenaz Festival and Weimar KlezmerWochen. "Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman: Song of Autumn", a 72-minute film by Josh Waletsky, was released in summer 2007 as part of the League for Yiddish's series "Worlds Within a World: Conversations with Yiddish Writers". A new collection of her poems, דער צוויט פֿון טעג ("Der tsvit fun teg", "The Blossom of Days"), was published in autumn 2007.

Schaechter-Gottesman died on November 28, 2013 at the age of 93 in her home in the Bronx .

Awards

In 1998 Schaechter-Gottesman was inducted into the People's Hall of Fame at City Lore in New York. In 2005 she received the National Heritage Fellowship , the United States' highest honor in the fields of folk and traditional arts, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts . She was the first Yiddish poet or musician to receive this award.

family

The entire Schaechter-Gottesman family is productive in the field of Yiddish culture. Her mother, Lifshe Schaechter-Widman, published an autobiography, "Durkhgelebt a Velt" (A fulfilled life) in 1973, and served as a source for folk song researchers with her recording "Az Di Furst Avek" (When You Went Away). Her brother, Mordkhe Schaechter, was one of the world's leading Yiddish linguists. Her son, Itzik Gottesman, is an explorer of Yiddish folklore. Her niece, Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, is also a Yiddish poet; her nephew, Binyumen Schaechter is a composer and music director in Yiddish and English; and her niece Rukhl Schaechter works as a journalist for The Forward . Her granddaughter Esther Gottesman teaches children in Yiddish and sings on Schaechter-Gottesman's publication "Fli mayn flishlang" (Fly my dragon).

credentials

  1. ↑ A Poet's Life Spanning Shtetl and Subway - . Forward.com. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  2. ^ NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2005 . In: www.arts.gov . National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
  • Cassedy, Ellen. "Singer and Poet Gets Capitol Honor." The Forward Sep 30, 2005, p. 17th
  • Robinson, George. "A Real Yiddishe Mama." The New York Jewish Week Nov 18, 2005, p. 5
  • Afn Shvel Fall-Winter 2006. Contains several articles about Schaechter-Gottesman. In Yiddish.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schaechter-Gottesman, Beyle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schaechter-Gottesman, Beyltse (nickname); Schaechter Gottesman, Bella
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-American Yiddish poet and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 2013
Place of death New York City , New York