Monday 20 June 2016

Y. VELTSHER

Y. VELTSHER
            He was a wedding entertainer and author of folksongs.  He appears as the author of Mekhires yoysef (The sale of Joseph) (Lemberg, 1893), reissued several times, among them: (Vilna, 1908), 32 pp.  This was a play based on the selling of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible, written in verse and interspersed with the Hebrew text.  He would likely also have been the author of Akhashveyresh-shpil (Aḥashverosh play) (Vilna, 1926), 32 pp., as can be seen in the introductory poem which begins both plays: “The event of Joseph and his brother” (in the Joseph play) and “The event of Aḥashverosh and the two queens” (in the Aḥashverosh play); and ends in both: “With sweet words and splendid songs / To sing at Purim with a cup in one’s hand / In every city and in every land.”

Sources: Sh. Bostomski, Purim-shpiln (Purim plays) (Vilna, 1926); Dr. Y. Shiper, Geshikhte fun yidisher teater-kunst un drame (History of Yiddish theatrical art and drama), vol. 3 (Warsaw, 1928), p. 265.
Khayim Leyb Fuks


No comments:

Post a Comment