pat/jacob

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

Jacob Pat

Born on 10 July 1890 in Bialystok, Poland, into a working family. He learned in a cheder and in the yeshivas of Slutsk and Slobodke. Later he took Haskalah and was expelled from the yeshivas and became an extern in Bialystok, and joined in the Jewish Workers' Movement. For a certain time he was a Hebrew teacher, then a director of the Yiddish secular school movement.

In 1922, he settled in Warsaw, where he was one of the leaders of the "Bund", editorial member of the Bundist "Folks-tseytung", lecturer and often a delegate of the "Tsysho" across Western Europe and America.

At the age of seventeen, he composed a theatre play "Leydn un shafn", which was staged by Mark Arnstein during the opening of the "Yiddish Art" society in Bialystok, when P. later also became one of its directors. P. also published two children's plays, "Shlmhles khlum" and "Tsum veytn land", which was performed in many Yiddish shuls around the world.

In December 1926 in "Warsaw's Yiddish Art Theatre" [VIKT], there was staged under the direction of Zygmunt Turkow, P.'s play, "In goldn land", music according to Gustav Mahler and folks-motif, adaptation by Joseph Kaminski, settings by Manny Katz.

Boruch Lumet also dramatized P.'s story under the title "Groy un grin, a play in 3 scenes, which he published in his book "Theatre for Children", and it was staged in "Kinder velt."

In 1931 and 1937, P. visited America as a courier for "Tsysho", and in 1939 he visited America, where he was the Executive Director of the "Yiddish Arbeter Committee".

P.'s printed plays were:

[1]. Jacob Pat. Shlmhles khlum, a children's opera in 3 scenes, music created, adapted by D. Portnoy, publisher "Kinder", hoyptfarkoyf "Culture League", Bialystok 1920 [180 pp., 10 pp. music].

[1a]. Publisher A. Gitlin, Warsaw, 1920 [full reprint by the matritsn].

[2]. Jacob Pat. Tsum veytn land, a children's play in 2 acts, Vilna 1921 [18 pp., 16°].

[3]. Groy un grin, a play in 3 scenes, according to a story by Jacob Pat. Freely dramatized by Boruch Lumet. Illustrated by Note Kozlovski. ["Theatre for Children" by Boruch Lumet, New York 1932, pp. 79-97].

M. E.

Zalmen Reyzen -- "Lexicon of Yiddish Literature", Vol. II, pp. 850-854.
N. Meizel -- Yakov pat's "in golden land" in vikt, "Literarishe bleter", Warsaw, Num' 139, 1926.
Einer [A. Einhorn] -- "In golden land", "Haynt", Warsaw, 27 December 1926.
M. P. [Perenson] -- "In golden land", "Yungt-verker", Warsaw, 15 January 1927.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 3, page 1614.