Henryk (Chaim) Ryba
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Born on 17 July 1889 in
Warsaw, Poland. His father was a contractor. A head of
the kehilah in Warsaw. He learned in a cheder, for a
short time in a shul, then he became an auto-didact. For
a profession a contractor. Had an interest in Jewish
culture, and a sentiment for Yiddish theatre. In 1916,
together with Avraham Bren, build the "Central" Theatre
in Warsaw on Leshne 1, and became a theatre director,
maintaining a troupe of shchirus (Leah Naomi,
Polia Keyzer, Sonia Vaynberg, Matilda St. Claire, Michal
Michalesko, Shoshana, Moshe and Tseshie Zandberg,
Leon Charaz, David Lederman, Philip Laskowsky, Herman
Fisher and Liza Fisher-Barska, Y. Lipinski, A. Guthartz
and Shmuel Vaynberg), and opened the theatre with
Dymow's "Yoshke muzikant." The troupe there, with a
certain changes, played for five years. Then the
repertoire of the theatre changed to a dramatic one,
beginning 'with the power of a dybbuk': later the
drama-comedy theatre with Ester Rokhl Kaminska, Zygmunt
Turkow, Ida Kaminska, I. Samberg, Sh. Landau, Until the
government bought the bar from the Jewish owner, and had
to close.
About R., in a conversation with a
co-worker at the "Literarishe bleter," he
denied the idea that he and his partner had rushed to
the burial of the theatre. They had two choices for
themselves: to abandon the theatre in May and fight a
certain compensation, or in August, when their right to
the theatre ended, and there was nothing to fight. They
turned to Jewish social leaders for advice, but no one
was interested in the matter. At first after an
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they met again with
society leaders, and they preferred not to wait
until the last moment. The compensation and the
promised credits may make it possible to build
another Yiddish theatre. R. explained further:
"Finally, I would
like to touch on another accusation that has
been thrown at us, that we want to exploit the
maximum scent of Jewish theatre and thereby
suffer the artistic side of our undertakings. I
must state for the truth: For the past nine
years, we've had better businesses (in the sense
of smell), like playing drama. We wiped out all
the tempting quotes because for us the question
of a Yiddish theatre is not only a community
undertaking. Otherwise, nothing would have
forced us to start building a new Yiddish
theatre. ... The first difficulty with this plan
is the place for a building. ... We already had
an owner of a place: the (Polish) education
ministry. It has a wonderful place in the Jewish
area. ...The proposal (for a Yiddish theatre)
was rejected. Money to buy the theatre is here.
We, the former owners of the 'Central,' (Bren
and Riba) united with the theatre entrepreneur
Tselmeister and stepped along to get work. Plans
have already been worked out (through the
architect Moshkovski). ...A large stage with a
large behind-the-scenes, a large auditorium
(1150 seats), a large corridor ... It will be an
excellent acoustic, from all places you will see
excellently. We will respond and get a place, a
proper place, Then we immediately step in to
build. (Here he points out the difficult
conditions) First of all, the press is
absolutely brilliant to us ... The press is
silent, and now we need a warm atmosphere around
us. We do not currently request a cash venture.
However, we want the world to give us courage to
work so that the necessary spirits of creation
will be created around us, we only want our
councilor in the state, and especially the
community, to help us ...We also want that the
society should take the word for it, and that it
should be a reminder to us."
R. let go of the 'Skala'
theatre on Jelne 1, which he had opened on 19
May 1926 with the following troupe: Barska-Fisher,
Chana Grosbard, H. Fenigsztein, Sh. Landau,
Chaim Sandler, Herman Fisher, Sh. Weinberg,
Tsila Rappel, Weintraub, Sam Bronetsky, Fishman
and Sh. Karnteyer, in the middle of 1926 joined
the 'Sambatyon' troupe (with the actors Nozyk,
Itzik Feld, Lola Shpilman, Gazel), in 1928 in
the theatre there guest-starred Rudolph
Zaslavsky, and until the outbreak of the Second
World War, the theatre had continuously changed
the repertoire of physiognomy, as well as the
social character of remunerated --by directors
-- troupes, until member troupes, which included
not only the actors, but all the skilled at the
theatre.
About R.'s tragic
end, according to Jonas Turkow, when the Germans
gave permission to open the Yiddish theatre "Eldorado"
in the Warsaw Ghetto (originally the "Skala"),
R. and Meir Vinder were the leaders of the
theatre. He (most of the time Turkow calls him
Simkha) worked in the "shop" on Lesno 27.
During the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, he,
together with his family, the family of Y. Baum,
and the family of Sandler held up in a bunker.
When they were thrown out of hiding and led to
death, the Germans turned to them with an Aryan
smile: "And you, filthy Jews, wanted to defeat
us, Germans?!".
M.E.
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B.T. -- Vegn a bnin far a
yidish teater in varshe, "Literarishe bleter,"
Warsaw, No. 58, 1925.
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Jonas Turkow --
"Extinguished Stars," Vol. 2, p. 60.
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