ULRIKH (ULRICH) KALMUS

ULRIKH (ULRICH) KALMUS

            He lived in Odessa.  He began writing for Kol mevaser (Herald) in 1866 (p. 466), contributing to it notices, articles, and feature pieces.  In the last years of the serial, he wrote editorials under the pen name U. K., and in Linetski’s Yisroelik he published his feature Yekele (German Jew).  Of his dramatic and fictional work, the following were published: A zeltiner bris un a ginarte khasene (A rare circumcision and a disappointed marriage) (Odessa: Ulrikh un Shultse, 1871), newer edition under the title Gishikhte fun azeltnim bris (Story of a rare circumcision) (Warsaw, 1882), 72 pp.—a farce with an anti-Hassidic bent; Der komissyoner velvele tareramtshik, teater in finf akten (The Commissioner Velvele Tareramtshik, a drama in five acts) (Vilna, 1871), 112 pp., second edition (Vilna, 1880), 112 pp.; Der lebediger yosem (The living orphan) (Odessa, 1876), 56 pp.; Der mezinikel, ertseylung (The youngest son, a story) (Warsaw, 1880), 11 pp., second printing with Mit shabes nokh tish (After eating on the Sabbath) (1883); Shmerele trestinitser, teater in dray akten (Shmerele Trestinitser, a play in three acts) (Warsaw, 1883), 50 pp., newer editions (1894, 1902); A vayb an arure un a mann a malekh (A shrew for a wife and an angel for a husband), supplement to Yudishes folksblat (Jewish people’s newspaper) (St. Petersburg, 1887); Der groyser treffer oder der gevins fun di 200,000 rubl (The great fortuneteller or 200,000 rubles in winnings), a play in four acts, supplement to Yudishes folksblat 6-12 (1888), unfinished; Mendele mit genendele (Mendele and Genendele) (Warsaw: Y. L. Morgenshtern, 1901/1902), 16 pp.; Der frehlikher marshelik (The happy jester) (Warsaw: Y. L. Morgenshtern, 1901/1902), 17 pp.; Di farbitene kale (The bitter bride) (Warsaw: Y. L. Morgenshtern, 1901/1902), 16 pp.; Dos yunge por folk fun finf un akhtsig yohr (The young couple, eighty-five years old) (Warsaw: Y. L. Morgenshtern, 1901/1902), 24 pp.  Sholem-Aleichem fiercely criticized Kalmus’s Der groyser treffer—in his Shomers mishpet (Shomer’s trial)—with his “lovely language with which he might heat Shomer’s furnace.”  Nokhum Shtif wrote that Sholem-Aleichem was “not, it seems to me, entirely right” about this.  Moyshe-Leyb Lilienblum, using the pen name M. L., wrote a favorable review of Kalmus’s A zeltiner bris in Kol mevaser 22 (1871).  And, Leo Wiener argued that “Kalmus had a number of witty stories, but the majority of them were spoiled by his vulgar jokes.”

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 6 (Mexico City, 1969); Bal-Dimyon (Nokhum Shtif), in Pinkes (Vilna, 1931), p. 343; Sh. L. Tsitron, Di geshikhte fun der yidisher prese, fun yor 1863 biz 1889 (The history of the Yiddish press, from 1863 to 1889) (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1923), p. 164; B. Gorin, Di geshikhte fun idishn teater, tsvey toyzent yor teater bay idn (The history of Jewish theater: 2000 years of theater among the Jews), vol. 2 (New York, 1923), p. 273; Y. Dobrushin, in Tsaytshrift (Minsk) 2-3 (1928); Leo Wiener, The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1899), p. 167.

Berl Cohen