MIKHL VAYKHERT (MICHAŁ WEICHERT)

MIKHL VAYKHERT (MICHAŁ WEICHERT) (May 5, 1890-March 11, 1967)

            He was born in Staremiasto, eastern Galicia.  At age three he moved with his parents to Stanislav (Stanislavov) and there studied in a “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school), a Polish public school, and later high school.  In 1908 he participated in the Czernowitz Yiddish Language Conference.  He studied the history of theater and art, literature, and law at the Universities of Lemberg and Vienna, and from the latter earned his doctor of law degree.  In 1916-1917, he audited lectures given by Max Reinhardt in the theater in Berlin, at the same time pursuing theatrical studies with Professor Max Herrmann at Berlin University.  In early 1918 he began to study Yiddish theater in occupied Warsaw, where he also, as an Austrian “emergency service fugitive,” worked for the “Newspaper Scientific Institute” of the German press management.  After WWI, he was (until 1933) a teacher in German, Polish, and speech at the Askola high school in Warsaw, and he was a legal advisor for the “United Committee for Matters of Jewish Craft” (of the Joint Distribution Committee, ORT [Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades], and artisans exchanges).  The entire time, he was tied to the Yiddish theater, in which he soon emerged as one of its innovators and distinctive directors.  In 1920 he staged with the Vilna Troupe Gerhart Hauptmann’s Führmann Henschel (Drayman Henschel), translated into Yiddish by H. D. Nomberg; in 1928 he presented his own adaptation for the stage of Sholem Asch’s Kidesh hashem (Sanctification of the name [Martyrdom]); in 1929 Shaylok (Shylock), adapted from William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Arn Tsaytlin’s Yidnshtot (City of Jews), and Moyshe Lifshits’s A mayse mit hershele ostropolyer (A tale of Hershele Ostropolyer); in 1930 Georg Büchner’s Dantons toyt (Danton’s death [original: Dantons Tod]; in 1931 Asch’s Revrend zilber (Reverend Zilber) and Kh. Gotesfeld’s Parnose (Livelihood); in 1935 Friedrich Wolf’s Di gele late (The yellow badge [original: Professor Mamlock]).  Vaykhert was the founder of the Jewish Drama School in 1922 and the Jewish Theatrical Studio in 1929, whose graduates created the experimental “Yung-teater” (Young theater), later known as “Yunge-bine” (Young stage) and “Nay-teater” (New theater), which were among the most daring endeavors in Yiddish theater.  Under his direction, “Yung teater” staged, among other works, the plays: Boston (Boston) about Sacco and Vanzetti, Goldfaden’s Trupe tanentsap (Pinecone Troupe), Sholem-Aleykhem’s Napoleons oytser (Napoleon’s treasure), Mendele’s Masoes benyomen hashlishi (The travels of Benjamin the Third), Leyb Malakh’s Misisipi (Mississippi), and Yankev Preger’s Simkhe plakhte (Simkhe Plakhte) and Meylekh freylekh (The happy king).  Vaykhert was also chairman of the Jewish artists’ union in Poland and vice-chairman of the Warsaw division of the Yiddish Pen Club.  At the time of the outbreak of WWII, he was the founder and chair of “Jewish Social Self-help” (YSA), which sought to help the Jews in ghettos and camps, to intervene on behalf of Jews under arrest, and the like.  In December 1942 the German authorities closed down YSA, but a short time later, in an agreement reached with the Germans, they reopened the organization under the title Jüdische Unterstützungsstelle (Jewish Aid Office, or JUS).  He was one of the leaders of the new organization as well.  In connection with Vaykhert’s activities in this organization under German rule, the illegal “Jewish Coordinating Committee” in Poland brought charges against him.  After the war, in 1945 a trial was held in Cracow over this in the Polish state court, which absolved him of these accusations.

He began his literary activities when he was still a student, debuting in print with critical articles in Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper).  He later published work in Polish and German theatrical periodicals.  He contributed to Der Jude (The Jew), edited by Martin Buber, the essays: “Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des jüdischen Theaters” (On the history of the development of Yiddish theater) 8 (1917), pp. 548-59; and “Jakob Gordin und das jüdische Theater” (Yankev Gordin and the Yiddish theater) 1 (1918), pp. 27-32, 2 (1918), pp. 88-96, 3 (1918), pp. 130-39, 4 (1918), pp. 180-91.  Starting in 1918 he published a large number of works of theater criticism in: Moment (Moment), Lebns-fragn (Life issues), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Khalyastre (Gang), Bikher-velt (Book world), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Ringen (Links), Teater (Theater), and Yidish teater (Yiddish theater)—in Warsaw.  He edited, together with Alter Katsizne (Kacyzne), Ringen—the volumes (ten in all) on literature, art, and criticism (Warsaw, 1921-1922); Yidish teater, organ of the Jewish artists’ union in Poland (Warsaw, 1925-1926), four issues; Teater, six issues; Yidish teater quarterly, issues 1-4 (Warsaw, 1927-1928).  His own books include: Teater un drame (Theater and drama), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1922), 184 pp.; Teater un drame in two volumes (Vilna, 1926), 186 pp.; Zikhroynes (Memoirs) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1960-1970), 4 vols.; Yidishe aleynhelf, 1939-1945 (Jewish self-help, 1939-1945) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1962), 420 pp.; Trupe tanentsap, a goldfaden shpil in a galitsish shtetl (Pinecone Troupe, a Goldfaden play in a Galician town) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1966), 82 pp.  His was living from 1958 in the state of Israel.  He taught voice lessons in courses run by the Histadrut and by the administration of drama circles of the Tel Aviv city administration.  He also placed pieces in Letste nayes (Latest news), Folk un tsien (People and Zion), Davar (Word), and Had hahinukh (Echo of education)—in Tel Aviv.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1; A. Gurshteyn, in Tsaytshrift (Minsk) 2-3 (1928); Y. Mestl, in Arkhiv far der geshikhte fun yidishn teater un drame (Archive for the history of Yiddish theater and drama), ed. Shatski, vol. 1 (Vilna and New York: YIVO, 1930), pp. 505-6; YIVO, ed., Di ershte yidishe shprakh-konferents (The first Yiddish language conference) (Vilna, 1931), see index; Gershon Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934); Dr. R. Feldshuh, Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish communal handbook) (Warsaw, 1939); Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), “Yidn B” (Paris, 1940); N. Mayzil, in Yidishe kultur (New York) 8-9 (1944); Mayzil, Geven amol a lebn (Once was a life) (Buenos Aires, 1951), pp. 337, 345-47, 358; B. Mark, Khurves dertseyln (Ruins recount) (Lodz, 1947); Al. Granakh, Ot geyt a mentsh (There goes a man) (New York, 1948); Yanos Turkov, Azoy iz es geven (That’s how it was) (Buenos Aires, 1948), p. 523; Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, Notitsn fun varshever geto (Notices from the Warsaw Ghetto) (Warsaw, 1952), see index; Dr. Y. Shatski, in Yivo-bleter (1954); M. Borvitsh, Arishe papirn (Aryan papers [false papers for a Jew to pass as Aryan during the Nazi period]), 3 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1955), see index; Sh. L. Shnayderman, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (March 4, 1956); M. Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon) (Montreal, 1947), vol. 1, pp. 220-23, vol. 3 (1958), p. 475.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 237.]