HIRSH-GDALYE BELUI (BELAU, BELLOW)

HIRSH-GDALYE BELUI (BELAU, BELLOW) (1818-1890)

He was the brother of Shloyme Belui.  In the second half of the nineteenth century, he lived in Warsaw.  He was the author of popular booklets which appeared between 1857 and 1867—among them: Fun shtern oder komet (From star or comet) (Warsaw, 1857), 32 pp.  He was a popular figure of the Jewish Enlightenment, a showman, a theatrical entrepreneur, and a pioneer of Yiddish theater in Warsaw.  He attempted in 1868 to establish a Yiddish theater—“Izraelitishes”—in Warsaw.  He published Mekhires yoysef-shpil in gramen, mit muzik un likht-efekt (The selling of Joseph, a play in rhyme with music and light effects); Di yidn in midber (The Jews in the desert); Yankev mit zayne zin, fir aktn mit gezang (Jacob and his sons, four acts with song); Dos shreklekhe fayer in zakrotshim (The terrifying fire in Zakroczym) (Warsaw, 1858); Bashraybung fun mis yuley pastrani fun der meksikanisher viste (Description of Miss Julie Pastrani of the Mexican vista) (Warsaw, 1859).  He also wrote reportage pieces on Warsaw Jewish life, translated works from Polish, and published popular novels in chapbooks.

Sources: Dr. Y. Shatski, Geshikhte fun yidn in varshe (History of the Jews in Warsaw), vol. 3 (New York, 1953); Shatski, “Yidisher teater in Varshe in der ershter helft 19tn yorhundert” (Yiddish theater in Warsaw in the first half of the nineteenth century), Yivo-bleter 14 (1939); Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun der yidishn teater (New York, 1931), vol. 1; N. Oyslender, in Mendele un zayn tsayt (Mendele and his times) (Moscow, 1940), pp. 197-220.