Lexicon of the
Yiddish Theatre
Volume 8
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE ONCE INVOLVED IN
THE Yiddish THEATRE
THE LATEST VOLUME OF INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHIES AND GROUP HISTORIES
COMPILED AND EDITED BY DR. STEVEN LASKY
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, MUSEUM OF FAMILY HISTORY
2112
Chayela Rosenthal
Chayela Rosenthal ( Khayele/
Chajele Rozental / Rosental)
was born on 28 April 1924 in Vilna (Vilnius),
Lithuania, to Fruma and Nochum Rozental. Her father
published the afternoon Yiddish daily newspaper, and her
brother, Leyb " Lolek” (Leib / Layb) was a prolific
Yiddish writer and poet, who published his first book of
poems at age fourteen. He was a member of the Young
Vilna Literary Group, and also the ensemble ‘Maydim,"
organizing shows…writing political plays, satires…with
puppets. Marionetten shpiele!
Chayela, her brother and sister, Mary,
were artistic and well-educated. Chayela attended
Epstein Gymnasium High School where she came top of her
class regularly, excelling in mathematics. She tutored
younger students and was an excellent sports player and
ice skater. Her passion was in the Arts and her dramatic
and singing talents triumphed and were recognized early
on. She did voiceovers in the Maydim puppet shows and
was singing her brother’s songs on radio as a mere
teenager. When she was sixteen she was chosen to
represent Soviet-occupied Vilna in the Festival of Songs
in Moscow.
On June 24th 1941, the German army
invaded Vilna, and the culturally rich Jewish world of
the "Jerusalem of Lithuania” as Vilna was known, was
destroyed forever.Chayela’s father was among the first to
be taken away, never to return, in the unexpected
roundups of men who were then murdered in Ponar, the
forest soon to be become a killing dumping ground
outside of Vilna. In September, the sixty thousand or so
Jews living in Vilna were ordered to leave their
comfortable homes and forced into an area of seven
streets in the old Jewish quarter, which then became
known as the Vilna Ghetto.
When Jacob Gens, the Vilna
ghetto chief, announced plans for a theatre company to
be formed inside the ghetto that would allow actors and
writers a permit to work and thus survive, many Jewish
intellectuals and rabbis objected vehemently, smearing
walls with posters claiming: "You don’t perform theatre
in a graveyard.”
Despite the opposition, Gens forged
ahead with the plans for a theatre. The young,
charismatic Chayela was a regular feature, singing in
jazz ensembles and eventually appearing in starring
roles in the musical productions, many written by her
brother, Leyb. Chayela was soon named the "Wunderkind
of the Vilna Ghetto Theatre”! Leyb Rozental, together
with other talented writers and musicians, created
"full-length” musicals, plays and satirical revues,
which depicted ghetto life with poignant humor. These
"shows” grew to be very popular as they served to
provide much needed relief and hope for the rapidly
dwindling, fear-filled population. For many, attending
the theatrical shows in the large auditorium gave them
the only opportunity to gather together as community.
Survivors today talk of the theatre as a "miracle.”
Nothing could keep audiences away, not even the presence
of German and Lithuanian soldiers in the audience, or
the grim reality of omnipresent random murders, imminent
death and starvation. At the end of the first year, the
group had given one hundred and eleven performances!
Seen by some as spiritual resistance against the evil of
the oppression and violence of the Nazis, this group of
artists and actors demonstrated that in the face of the
most depraved conditions, people could rise above their
horrific circumstances to work together and create and
present art. Thus culture and spirit were sustained and
nourished, and some of the songs written then are still
being sung and recorded today!
Chayela starred in many roles, most
notably as the young orphan girl "Peshe” in "Peshe fun
Reshe,” a comical satiric revue about the upheaval and
chaos of living in the Ghetto. Her rendition of the song
"Yisroilik," written by her brother about a typical
young ghetto street urchin, was sung throughout the
ghetto and is still a favorite in Yiddish circles today.
With her youthful vivaciousness, irrepressible humor,
and heartfelt singing, the petite Chayela soon became
adored and hailed as the "Wunderkind of the Vilna
Ghetto," and "Songstress of Hope."
In September of 1943, as the liquidation
and destruction of the Vilna Ghetto began, the shows
kept going until the end. Deportees attended
performances even as they knew that the next day would
probably bring death. The songs written by Leyb
Rosenthal: "Mir Leybn Eybek" (We live Forever), "Einz,
Tzvei, Drei" (One, Two, Three), and those from the final
musical, "Moyshe halt Zich" (Moses, Hold On!)
accompanied many Vilna Jews on their final destination
to extermination camps. Leyb’s songs are still being
sung around the world today by many artists, including
non-Jewish klezmer singers. After the war, Chayela too
continued to sing Leyb’s songs like "Yisroilik," "Ich
Benk Aheim," "Shotns," "Susie," "Vilna," "Veyn Nisht
Narele," "Pak Zich Eyn," "Bayrn Geto-Toyer"…..as did
both her daughters, continuing their family legacy of
song.
In 1943, the Vilna ghetto was liquidated,
and Chayela was separated from her beloved brother. Leyb
was deported to Klooga Camp in Estonia where he was
brutally murdered one day before the Soviet troops
liberated that camp. Chayela’s mother had been
separated from her in a selection and taken away to be
killed. Chayela, aged nineteen, and her sister Mary were
deported to the labor camp Kaiserwald, in Riga where
Chayela kept singing, giving hope and courage and
keeping alive the precious memories of their beloved
home, Vilna. Chayela was then sent to concentration
camps KL Stutthof, Sophienwald and Cottondorf.
For over two years, in the harshest
conditions, through the cold of winter, sickly,
exhausted, dehydrated and undernourished, Chayela was
forced into hard labor that included road building (Org.
Todt) and forest carving.
Chayela writes: "In
Sophienwald, a camp guard used to push us to run instead
of march to the work place, and I had the misfortune of
being beaten by her on my head several times……I once had
to spend six days in Krankentsubbe because of the open
wounds on my head and shoulders from when she beat me
with that stick that had nails on top."
In March 1945, Chayela and her sister
were liberated. Weak, thin and shaven-haired, the
sisters found their way to a house in the town of
Lembork in Poland, where Chayela met her future husband,
Israel Jutan. Israel Jutan, a journalist, now going by
his previous journalist nom de plume of Xavier Piatka,
had written about a young school-going Chayela many
years before, and he nursed her back to health from the
life-threatening Typhus fever. Xavier, having been
issued new identity documents by an old Polish
acquaintance who recognized him as a journalist from
before the war, soon began working as the editor of a
Polish newspaper. He married Chayela in June 1945 in the
town of Bydgoszcz. Chayela then joined the State
Yiddish Theatre group and gave many performances to
critical acclaim in Wroclaw, Warsaw, Lodz, and gave
concerts for hundreds of refugees in the DP ("displaced
persons") camps throughout Europe.
Chayela later learned that after the
Vilna Ghetto was liberated, her brother Leyb had been
sent to Klooga Camp of Estonia. On 21 September, 1944,
the Germans, upon hearing of Soviet troops arriving,
force-marched Leyb and others into the Ponar Forest,
There, the German Nazis, shot and killed Leyb and his
body was burned, along with many others, in between a
stack of wood pylons, …just one day before
liberation. In 1946, Chayela wrote down all her brother
Leyb’s songs in a small blue notebook, determined to
keep his memory and songs alive. His loss was so
heartfelt that she could hardly ever speak of him….but
the one photo she had of him was always with her.
In 1946, the renown actress, Molly Picon,
while visiting the refugee camps, saw Chayela perform in
the play "The Green Fields." So impressed by Chayela’s
talent was Molly Picon, that she arranged that Chayela
audition for the famous impresario, Sol Hurok, who was
visiting Warsaw to restore the ruined cultural sites.
Hurok was impressed enough to offer Chayela an
engagement in Paris, France with his agent who organized
the relevant papers, visas and travel documents.
Chayela and Xavier took their happy leave
of Poland, the country that now represented virulent
anti-Semitism, death and destruction for Jews. On a
one-way ticket, and with just a ten dollar banknote
which Chayela had hidden in her hair, they crossed the
frontier from Poland and set out for a life of true
liberation in the free western world.
In Paris, Chayela stepped into a
recording studio for the first time, and in 1948 she
recorded her songs on LP with the Ben Horris Orchetsre (
Disque Polyglotte 1023). She also appeared on radio and
television. She performed regularly in the Paris
nightclubs and other cabaret venues, regularly touring
major cities in Europe, singing her Yiddish songs. Often
she traveled with her then acting partner, Szeftel Zak,
to perform in Displaced Persons Camps in Germany and
other places. After a show at the ‘Entrepot’ Theatre,
Chayela joined a company of actors featuring the renown
Yiddish actors Etta Topel and Mark Markov. Chayela was a
featured artist in the 1949 New Years Eve Gala Variety
Show in Palais Chaillot, which landed her a contract for
nightly appearances at the Jewish night club ‘Habibi’ in
Montmartre, where she was joined on occasion by Danny
Kaye. Art Buchwald’s review in the Paris edition of the
New York Herald Tribune contributed to Chayela’s ongoing
fame and appearances on TV with Edith Piaf, Yves Montand
and other stars of the French variety acts.
Chayela had the opportunity to visit
South Africa with the African Consolidated Theatres by
invitation from Yiddish actress, Sarah Sylvia. In 1951,
Chayela and Xavier, now married, decided to make South
Africa their home, eventually settling in Cape Town,
where their daughters, Naava and Zola were born. Over
the years, Chayela still continued to travel abroad,
performing in clubs and theatres all over Europe and
Israel and on the cruise ship "Shalom” ( Israel to New
York.) In the USA, Chayela performed on Broadway at the
Billy Rose Theatre, appearing with Yiddish writer and
producer Jacob Jacobs in "The President’s Daughter”
(1970), and as leading lady in "Hello Charlie” (1965)
before that.
From 1951-1970, South Africans enjoyed
her performances in Yiddish plays, where she often
starred along with visiting actors from overseas, Max
Perlman and Henri Gerro. Also much enjoyed were her solo
shows in Muizenberg, concerts at The Alhambra, The Three
Arts, Broadway, The Labia and other national venues. In
South Africa, Chayela recorded her LP titled "Chayele
Rosenthal Stage Show” with Gallo Africa Ltd. /
Gallotone Record Company. (GALP 1048).
Chayela spoke seven languages and often
also performed in French, Hebrew and English productions
that included her memorable performances as Mrs.
Hollander in Woody Allen’s play "Don’t Drink The Water”
(at the Space and Market Theatres -1977), as Madame
Georges in Jean
Anouilh’s play "Colombe," which aired on SABC
Television (1978) and as the ultimate Yidishe mame,
"Golde” in "Fiddler on the Roof” (Nico Malan
Theatre-1979).
Juggling show business, travel,
mothering, entertaining, social dinners and yoga,
Chayela was also a keen card player, winning multiple
national Bridge tournaments. She deeply loved people of
all ages, was good fun to be around and was a loyal and
devoted friend. She was ready to help anyone and fight
for justice and fairness for all.
In
1979 Chayela was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Just two
months after major surgery, she stepped back on stage,
and through her failing health and the debilitating
chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Chayela performed
her final role as Fiddler on the Roof's "Golde” – with
strength, courage, humor and brilliance. She passed away
on 1 September, just one week after the show ended its
run.
She was just fifty-five years young when
the world lost her. She is remembered with love and
admiration by her friends, producers, directors, fellow
actors and many fans, as a smart and talented,
diminutive woman of huge presence, enormous courage and
delicious "chain” (charm) – always ready with a joke,
and a huge capacity for the joy of life.
Her credo was: "Chupp zich ein a tog!”
Grab the day!
Chayela’s life is written about in Naava
Piatka’s musical "Better Don’t Talk” and in her book "No
Goodbyes – A father Daughter Memoir about Love, War and
Resurrection."
The main character in Joshua Sobol’s play
"Ghetto” is based on Chayela’s life as songstress in the
Vilna Ghetto.
While Chayela was among the first to ever
sing her brother’s songs, today many of Leyb Rozental’s
songs are still being sung and recorded worldwide by
many artists and his songs are featured on iTunes and
YouTube.
The strong family genes
have been passed down to both Chayela’s daughters. Naava
(1952-2009) was a talented artist, author, actress and
playwright, and Zola ( http://www.zola.us)
is a Billboard award-winning songwriter, multiple CD
recording artist, performer, writer, teacher and
motivational speaker. She continues to sing her mother
and Uncle Leyb’s Yiddish songs.