Background
Goldfaden was born on July 24, 1840 in Starokostiantyniv, Russia.
Goldfaden was born on July 24, 1840 in Starokostiantyniv, Russia.
He received both a traditional religious and a secular Russian education. At the rabbinial academy of Zhitomir, he came under the influence of Abraham Baer Gottlober, a Hebrew and Yiddish writer, who stimulated him to write in both languages and to compose songs for musical evenings.
After graduating from the Zhitomir academy, he unsuccessfully tried to make a living as teacher, tradesman, and journalist. In the course of his wanderings and temporary sojourn in Odessa and Lemberg, he came in contact with the popular Broder Singers in the Rumanian town of Jassy. He was fascinated by their songs and dramatic monologues, impersonating various Jewish types and callings, which they acted out in wine cellars and restaurant gardens. By then, he himself had already written and published poetic booklets, whose lyrics were becoming known to folksingers, and in Jassy he heard his own songs sung and acted out in costume, to the hilarious applause of large audiences.
It occurred to him that their dramatic effect would be intensified if the songs were combined with prose dialogues between two actors and woven into an interesting plot or humorous situation. In October 1876, the first performances authored and directed by Goldfaden, took place in a wine cellar in Jassy and their success spurred him on to project an entire series of comedies with more than two actors. These additional actors were recruited from itinerant singers and cantors’ assistants, whom he trained for the stage. One of his daring innovations was to have the feminine roles played by women and not by men in disguise. Thus the Yiddish theater was born.
The Goldfaden troupe traveled throughout eastern Europe and soon found imitators. The various troupes flourished and increased from year to year until 1883, when catastrophe struck. The Russian government, fearing the possible revolutionary impact of this influential medium for stirring up the emotions of the masses, banned all Yiddish performances. The actors and theatrical entrepreneurs dispersed across Europe and to the United States. Goldfaden also moved on to London, Paris, and New York. His American experiences, from 1887 to 1889, were not happy and his theatrical ventures there were unsuccessful. He did not return to the United States until 1903 and spent his last years in New York.
The Goldfaden tradition continued to dominate Yiddish theater for generations because his texts, melodies, philosophy, and morality were in harmony with the spirit of Yiddish audiences.