Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval-Editor.]

Through the resignation of Rabbi Zirelsohn from the Roumanian Senate, where he represented the Jewish population, Roumania has lost her chief argument which she used when charged with anti-Semitism, avers the “Day” of Dec. 4.

Rabbi Zirelsohn resigned last week when the government refused to publish in the official gazette his address before the Senate on the subject of Roumanian anti-Semitism.

“It was a wise step on the part of Rabbi Zirelsohn,” the paper declares, “because it deprives the government of the possibility to say that all’s well with the Jews in Roumania. With Zirelsohn in the Senate, the government had a ready excuse for the world: the Jewish representatives remain in the Parliament and do not complain. The Rabbi of Bessarabia understood the importance of depriving the Roumanian government of this argument with which she sought to conceal the true facts regarding the Jewish situation. He has now demolished this argument effectively.

“Rabbi Zirelsohn’s resignation has done more than that. It has served as a demonstration against the mistreatment of the Jews in the realm of King Ferdinand.”

SAYS POLAND AND ROUMIANIA WILL FOLLOW SOVIETS BY COLONIZING JEWS

The belief that the attempt of Soviet Russia to solve the problem of its Jews by colonization will serve as a compelling example that will have to be followed by Poland and Roumania, is voiced by the “American Israelite” of December 2.

Commenting especially on the statement made by Soviet President Kalinin before the recent land settlement conference in Moscow outlining the results so far attained in Jewish colonization and the plans for the future, the “American Israelite” observes:

“If the campaign for $25,000,000, so splendidly conducted by David A. Brown and his nation-wide army of able and eager workers, needed any further justification for the money they are raising to complete the work of salvaging the millions of our unfortunate people abroad, they would find it here. Nor must it be forgotten that this is only the beginning. With the example of the Soviet Government before their eyes such countries as Poland and Roumania will be compelled, by the force of public opinion alone, to align themselves with this human method of proving their right to be counted in the family of civilized nations.”

HABIMA, HEBREW PLAYERS, ARRRIVE IN U. S. TODAY

Arriving today on the steamer “Carmania” are the Habima players, members of the Moscow Hebrew Art Theatre. The troupe consists of forty persons.

The company is booked for a six months’ tour of the principal American cities, opening at the Mansfield Theatre in New York. It will present for the first time in the United States, Hebrew productions, including “Jacob’s Dream,” “The Wandering Jew,” “The Dybbuk” and “Golem.” These players have met with great success in Berlin, Hamburg, Breslau, Leipzig, and Paris.

The Habima Players is a name new in theatrical history. They interpret dramatic plays with the aid of music. They use the Hebrew language as their medium of expression. They utilize expressionistic scenery and use ritualistic music and traditional chants in all of the dramas and tragedies in which they appear.

“Habima” is the English synonym of the Hebrew word “Platform.” “Habima’s” history is a modern Odyssey; a tale of strife and struggle, of suffering and eventual victory. The nucleus of the troupe was a small company of provincial players organized by Zemach as far back as 1908. The players came from towns in Russia and Poland. Amid poverty and destitution, the small band worked arduously to broaden their artistic scope and their small resources. When the Bolshevik revolution broke out Zemach transferred the activities of his company to Moscow. A poor hall on the outskirts of Moscow, with a seating capacity of 125 people, saw Habima’s metropolitan debut. The reception exceeded Director Zemach’s wildest hopes.

Stanislavsky at once became interested in the new troupe and recommended to Zemach one of his best adepts; Wachtangow. But just as the collaboration of this gifted young stage director began to bear its fruits, the Bolshevist government forbade productions in foreign languages. Once more Zemach’s hopes seemed broken. Prominent artists came to the rescue. Men like Stanislavsky, Nemirovitch Dantchenko and Chaliapin affixed their signatures to a memorandum addressed to the Soviet Government, demanding freedom for the work of Habima. “Russian art is a debtor to Hebrew art,” their memorandum stated. The government order was withdrawn.

Rehearsals for “The Dybbuk” began in the summer of 1921. After seven long months of careful preparation, the productions were ready. The premiere, in January 1922, was the beginning of a great career both for Ansky’s play and for the Hebrew troupe Habima over night became a fixture in the the atrical life of Moscow, acclaimed by the Russian public no less than by the Jews. About this time Wachtangow died. Mtschedelow was the new stage director. He staged Pinski’s drama “The Wandering Jew.” Leiwik’s “The Golem” followed in 1924, and Stanislavsky supervised the production of “Jacob’s Dream,” the Biblical drama by Richard Beer Hofman, the Viennese poet.