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Abraham Goldfaden (イディッシュ語:אַבֿרהם גאָלדפֿאַדען); (born Avrum Goldnfoden; the Romanian spelling Avram Goldfaden is common; 24 July 1840 in Starokostiantyniv – 9 January 1908 in New York City) was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays. Goldfaden is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre. In 1876 he founded in Romania what is generally credited as the world's first professional Yiddish-language theater troupe. He was also responsible for the first Hebrew-language play performed in the United States. The Avram Goldfaden Festival of Iaşi, Romania, is named and held in his honour. Jacob Sternberg called him "the Prince Charming who woke up the lethargic Romanian Jewish culture."〔Bercovici, 1998, 118〕 Israil Bercovici wrote of his works: "we find points in common with what we now call 'total theater'. In many of his plays he alternates prose and verse, pantomime and dance, moments of acrobatics and some of ''jonglerie'', and even of spiritualism..."〔Bercovici, 1998, 237-238〕 == Early life == Goldfaden was born in Starokonstantinov (Russia; present day Ukraine). His birthdate is sometimes given as July 12, following the "Old Style" calendar in use at that time in the Russian Empire. He attended a Jewish religious school (a ''cheder''), but his middle-class family was strongly associated with the ''Haskalah'', the "Jewish Enlightenment," and his father, a watchmaker,〔Berkowitz, 2004, 12〕 arranged that he receive private lessons in German and Russian. As a child, he is said to have appreciated and imitated the performances of wedding jesters and Brody singers to the degree that he acquired the nickname ''Avromele Badkhen,'' "Abie the Jester."〔Sandrow, 2003〕 In 1857 he began studies at the government-run rabbinical school at Zhytomyr, from which he emerged in 1866 as a teacher and a poet (with some experience in amateur theater), but he never led a congregation. Goldfaden's first published poem was called "Progress"; his ''New York Times'' obituary described it as "a plea for Zionism years before that movement developed."〔"(Noted Jewish Bard Dead )" (January 10, 1908). ''New York Times''.〕 In 1865 he published his first book of poetry, ''Tzitzim u-Ferahim'' (in Hebrew); The ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901–1906) says that "Goldfaden's Hebrew poetry ... possesses considerable merit, but it has been eclipsed by his Yiddish poetry, which, for strength of expression and for depth of true Jewish feeling, remains unrivaled." The first book of verse in Yiddish was published in 1866, and in 1867 he took a job teaching in Simferopol. A year later, he moved on to Odessa (in Ukraine), where he lived initially in his uncle's house, where a cousin who was a good pianist helped him set some of his poems to music. In Odessa, Goldfaden renewed his acquaintance with fellow Yiddish-language writer Yitzkhok Yoel Linetzky, whom he knew from Zhytomyr〔 and met Hebrew-language poet Eliahu Mordechai Werbel (whose daughter Paulina would become Goldfaden's wife) and published poems in the newspaper ''Kol-Mevaser''. He also wrote his first two plays, ''Die Tzwei Sheines'' (''The Two Neighbors'') and ''Die Murneh Sosfeh'' (''Aunt Susie''), included with some verses in a modestly successful 1869 book ''Die Yidene'' (''The Jewish Woman''), which went through three editions in three years. At this time, he and Paulina were living mainly on his meagre teacher's salary of 18 rubles a year, supplemented by giving private lessons and taking a job as a cashier in a hat shop. In 1875, Goldfaden headed for Munich, intending to study medicine. This did not work out, and he headed for Lvov/Lemberg in Galicia, where he again met up with Linetsky, now editor of a weekly paper, ''Isrulik'' or ''Der Alter Yisrulik'' (which was well reputed, but was soon shut by the government). A year later, he moved on to Chernivtsi in Bukovina, where he edited the Yiddish-language daily ''Dos Bukoviner Israelitishe Folksblatt''. The limits of the economic sense of this enterprise can be gauged from his inability to pay a registration fee of 3000 ducats. He tried unsuccessfully to operate the paper under a different name, but soon moved on to Iaşi on the invitation of Isaac Librescu (1850–1930), a young wealthy communitary activist interested in theatre. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Abraham Goldfaden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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