Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"

1931-1969
 

Dr. Yehuda Leib Landau

 

L. was born on 4 May 1866 in Założce, near Brody, Galicia. His father published his own Hebrew songs. He studied with R' Menachem Yitzhak Fishman, the author of "Kosher shbna" and "Mplt sisra", in a Lemberg kloyz,  with his grandparents (the Grabovitser rabbi) in [ishinh], by himself and in a Sadiguran kloyz. In 1891 he completed a gymnasium, and in 1898--from a university with the title of Dr. At the same time he also came [htrt hurah] of the Beit HaMedrah [lrbnim] under the rectorate of Arye Schwartz, Izak Hirsh Veys and Meir Ish-Sholom. In 1901 he became a rabbi in Manchester, and in1903 he was a rabbi in Johannesburg (South Africa).

 Since 1879 he has written songs, articles and skits in various Hebrew journals of his plays in Hebrew were published in print: "Bar Kochba" (Lemberg, Trm"d), "Akhrit yerushalayim" (Lemberg, Trm"u"), "Hurdus" (Lemberg, Trm"kh), "Ishtkuh" (Krakow, 1893), that was soon thereby staged in Brody, "Dm tkht dm" (Krakow, Trn"z),"Don itzhak abarbanel (New York, Tre"t), "Israel Besh't" (Johannesburg), Trp"g) and "Lpnim tsu lakhur" (Jerusalem) [1913?].

...he began to write as a youth, and under the impression of Goldfaden there was performed in Lemberg, an adaptation in Yiddish of his Hebrew play "Hurdus" under the name "Hurdus and Miriam", which in 1890 was performed by Gimpel's troupe in Lemberg (with Berta Kalich and Zelig Schorr in the title roles). The play -- according to Berta Kalich -- each time had great success

 

after "Shulmais" and it had been performed on the Yiddish stage in Galicia for an entire year. The play was also published in print "King Hurdus, a historical drama in five acts printed and published  in Hebrew, year 1887, and now translated in jargon by Dr. Y. L. Landau, London, 1901" [p. 49, 16°]. In a [tsveyt zeytl aiz nokh tsugeben: "Behandelt eyge] of the great period in Yiddish history in the time of the great king Hurdus. Published by the well-known poet-rabbi Dr. Y. L. Landau and issued by R. Mazin", with a letter by the author to publish as an introduction. The play also later was performed by "amateurs" in Cleveland, America.

  • Z. Reyzen -- "Lexicon of the Yiddish Literature", Vol. II, pp. 65-68.

  • Berta Kalich -- "History of Yiddish Theatre", Vol. II, p. 268.

  • Hrb Prog. Dr. Yehuda Leib Landau -- A bintel zkhrunut oys dem alten galitsien, "Der morgen", Lemberg, 750, 1929


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 2, page 958.
 

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