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
 

Israel Goykhberg

Born on 1 January 1894 in Teleneshti, Bessarabia. Father -- a cantor. In 1903 he lived through a pogrom during which he lost a brother. He learned in a cheder, with a private teacher, and Hebrew in a cheder msukn. He completed the city school in Chotin. For several years he worked in a pharmacy.

In 1913 he arrived in America. He settled in Boston where he took up various trades. In 1917 he studied, and in 1921 he completed eyhava as a technological engineer. Here was founded one of the first Yiddish-Hebrew schools. From 1921 until 1926 he was a teacher in the school of "Sholem Aleichem's Folks Institute" in New York.

Still in his children's' years, he began to write Hebrew songs, and in 1914 he debuted in Yiddish [with] a song in "Fraye arbeter shtime", since then printing original creations and translations in the Yiddish periodical.

Yearlong he directed with the pedagogical commission for the Sholem Aleichem Folks Institute, and during the last years edited the "children's journals".

G. issued a number of song collections and a volume of folk and poet's poems/songs with notes for children.

On 9 June 1970, g. passed away in New York.

Music was composed for several of his songs, such as "Dray ingelekh" (music by L. N. Zaslavsky), "Amol un haynt" (cantata of Lazar Weiner), "Der mzldiker hoz" (music by Pinchas Yasinovsky, and music by Elihu Kanter).

G. also writes and stages children's plays, and from them were printed: "Klub khkhamim", "Khnukhh-muunus", "Di goldshpiners", "A din tirh mitn vint", "Di megilah".

G.'s brother was the composer Ben Yomin.

G.'s printed plays:

[1]   Y. Goykhberg -- Klub "Khkhmim"
       ["Kinder zhurnal", New York, April 1925]

[2]   same -- Di goldshpiners
       [same, October 1944]

[3]   Sholem Aleichem -- Di goldshpiners
       staged by Y. Goykhberg
       [same, December 1945]

[4]   I. L. Peretz -- A din surh mitn vint
       staged by Y. Goykhberg
       [same, May 1945]

[5]   Y. G. -- Di megilah
       [same, February 1954]

  • "Lexicon of Yiddish Literature", 1958, Vol. I, pp. 191-2.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 7, page 6212.
 

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