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The Lexicon of the Yiddish
Theatre
1931-1969
Zalmen
Zylbercweig was the editor and main force behind the six-volume "Leksikon
fun yidishn teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish
Theatre)", a compendium of more than 2,800
Yiddish-language biographies and short histories of
those individuals and organizations once involved in some way with the Yiddish
theatre.
At the Museum of Family
History, we have undertaken a project that will
ultimately result in the translation of all six
volumes, as well as the unpublished seventh volume.
This translation project, i.e. from Yiddish to
English, is an ongoing project, though more than
sixty percent of the biographies have been
translated to date. The Museum's intent is to keep
the memory alive of those once involved in the
Yiddish theatre, and the translation of these many
biographies and histories goes a long way in
furthering this goal. It is hoped that these
translations will be of interest to you and help you
learn more about the Yiddish
theatre or about an individual or organization you
are keen about.
This exhibition is
part of the mission that the Museum
of Family History has undertaken, i.e. to keep alive the memory and
enhance the appreciation of Jewish culture, not only as it
once existed, but as it exists today. The Museum
also wishes to honor the memory of Lexicon editor
Zalmen Zylbercweig who remarkably had dedicated himself
wholeheartedly at great personal cost and sacrifice to the preservation of Jewish culture
and the history of the Yiddish theatre.
The first volume of
the Lexicon was published in New York in 1931,
the sixth in Mexico City in 1969. Zylbercweig
had completed work on a seventh volume, but due
to his untimely death in Los Angeles in 1972,
the final volume was never published; until this
point it has remained silent, so to speak, in galley form within
various repositories around the world. |
