Joseph Latins

Joseph Latiner (born September 1853 in Jassy , Romania , † 1935 ) is considered to be the first professional Yiddish theater writer to produce his literarily inferior plays on an assembly line. For many years he was one of the most successful and well-known figures in Yiddish theater in America .

Life

Joseph Latiner was born to poor parents, raised strictly Jewish, and proved to be an extremely talented Talmud student . Very early on, however, he was also interested in non-religious literature in the modern world languages, which he studied and which alienated him from traditional forms of law-abiding Jewish life.

While still in Romania (above all in Bucharest ) he wrote from around 1878 under the influence of Goldfadens and at the same time with this plays for the Yiddish theater, but by far did not achieve its - sometimes only low - level. After the collapse of the Yiddish theater in Romania, Latiner moved on to Odessa with an acting company , where he produced and performed various plays.

Latin came to New York City around 1885 , in 1902 he founded the Yiddish “Grand Theater” together with Sophia Karp and Jacob Fischel.

meaning

According to the theater critic Michael Weichert (in the corresponding article in the Jewish Lexicon , see below) Latiner's theater production, which comprises around 200 pieces, "mostly consisted of foreign pieces that were Jewish if necessary and that contained a loose mixture of maudlin backstairs romance and raw banality"; Salomon Wininger (see below) even speaks explicitly of "rubbish production" - however Latiner's rushed production and the showmanship of his pieces are partly explained by an unhealthy competitive situation, as he and his competitor Mosche Hurwitz had a poetic contest for supremacy over the months Yiddish stage and so was forced to submit new plays for the theater on a weekly basis.

Works (selection)

A year still the Chassene - A Korban of love - A mother's heart - Alexander or the Crown Prince of Yerushalayim - Bath Sheva or the Winschfingerl - Ben Jaacob or Goluth Spain - Blimale, the Pearl of Warsaw or Count and Jew - Chawa or the Schlang as a housewife - Chinke Pinke - Chochmath Schelomo or Rav Tanchuma and the Asmadai - Chorban Yeruschalayim - Chussen Kalleh - Daniel in the den of lions - Daniel or the daughter of Yerushulayim - The fifth commandment or Kibid ov - The Yidic heart - David b. Jischai (historical operetta) - David's violin - The American or the golden Chassene - The emesser Fraind - The defunct soldier - The Ganev - The Yid in Romania - The Yom Hachupa - The comedian or a blot on the mischpuche - The Mames daughter - The Man under the table - The traditional millionaire - The Ozer - The Satan in Gan Eden - The star of Prague - The false Zewua - The Huguenots - The Jewish world - The love of Yeruschalayim (for Israel Grodner's troops edited according to the corresponding template Mapus ) Die Schneiderin - Die Schöne Esther or Melech - Die Sedernacht or Bilbel Dam - Die Blondsete Neschume - Die Tzwei Schmil Schmelkes (his first play, based on the model of a gold thread operetta) - Dybuk (premiered in Odessa with huge success) - Dina or the guest from that world - Ephraim and Menasche or the love of Zijon - Escheth Chajil or the princess of Yehuda - Ester and Hamann - Ezra or the Eternal Jew - Gabriel or die Love from a Yidish woman - Galuth Russia - Goldale, Zion or Al Naharath Babel - Hallel or the Milchama with the Jezer hara - your Widde - Ischara - Yehuda Maccabi - Yehudith the second - Yehudith or the bleached shepherd - Yehudith and Holophernes - Jente Pipernuter (First performance Odessa) - Jidale or the Emeth and the Sheker - Josef and his brothers - Kiddosch Haschem or Yidic Minister - King and Peasant - Korach's Ozroth - Lumpacius-Vagabundus (based on a Romanian model, for Grodner) - Mammon the god of money - Man Wabs Fraind - man and woman - Mishke and Moshke or Europeans in America - Nathan Schlemiehl - Schloime Hamelech's mishpat (historical operetta) - fatherly love - four hundred years or the prince and the Chacham - tsar Ivan Grozni

Literature / sources

• David Pinski : Dos Yiddish drama. An overview of our development. New York 1909.
• Salman Reisen , Lekßikon fun der Yidischer literature un presse. Vol. II, Warsaw 1914.
• B. Gorin: History of fun Yiddish theater. Vol. II, New York 1923.
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Vol. III, Orient Printing House, Chernivtsi 1928.
• M. Weichert: Joseph Latin. In: Georg Herlitz (Hrsg.): Jüdisches Lexikon . Vol. III, Jewish publishing house, Berlin 1927.
• Jacob Adler: A Life on the Stage: A Memoir. New York 1999.
• Friederike v. Moellendorff: The music of the Yiddish theater. Munich 2008.