RE: Der yidisher tam

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

On Fri, 6 Mar 1998 20:47:56 EST, Marvin 3809 wrote:

 An article by David Pinski on the Jewish theater is
too long to quote in full (5 1/2 pages), but I'll try to summarize it
accurately.  Pinski praises Goldfaden's work in Russia, but notes that the
Yioddish theater there didn't last long because the government shut it down.
Goldfaden's plays became the mainstay of the Yiddish theater in New York, "But
the new environment soon began to make inroads upon the old life and the old
habits, and this period of transition wrought havoc in the morale of the
Yiddish theater.  Both outlook and content became demorilized."  Tastes
changed.

Pinski continued, "The art of acting has made no progress simply because the
actors are afraid to venture farther.  They are afraid to move forward, and do
not realize that they are really moving backward.
_______

>From this quote, Marvin 3809, it's not clear to me whether you are trying
to corroborate my point, or oppose it. Obviously conditions in New York in
9  1917 were already very different from the Europe of Goldfaden's day, and
the conditions of today are a lot more different. I think everybody knows
that. But the needs and the resources of the Jewish community in America
in 1917 were also very different than what they are today. Furthermore,
it's not at all clear, on the face of it, just WHAT Pinski meant by
"moving forward." Forward to what? Finally, the point of view of Pinski,
great literary man that he was, is only one person's point of view -- well,
I'm sure there were others who agreed with him. 

Oh, one more thing. Goldfadebn, even in 1865 or so when he began his
theatrical activities, like nearly all the maskilim of his time, was
absolutely appalled at the tastes of the shtetl yidn that he was trying to
uplift. What is not stated in the quotation I cited, is that Goldfaden
was very familiar with the European opera of his day, and would have much
preferred to have been able to use that kind of music in his plays. He
also was ashamed of himself for having to write comedies like "Shmendrick's
Khasene", to write "down" to his audience. This was the irony of these
early _maskilim_, including Mendele Mokher Sforim -- they would have
preferred NOT to have to write in Yiddish, and not to have written such
"vulgar" stuff. They, of course, were somuch more "civilized".

Why do you think there's still practically no history of klezmer music
written? BECAUSE nOBODY THOUGHT IT WAS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO CARE ABOUT!
And the people who really liked it didn't write books. They were too busy
sowing patches on trousers/.
________

Then you write:
  New York City now has several gourmet restaurants to serve
Jews who observe Kashruth but won't eat the heavy traditional dishes.  (It is
hard to find those dishes in Israell, where restaurants that serve Middle
Eastern food far outnumber those that serve East European food.)

Exactly my point. They observe halakha, but the hell with the minhog, the
"yidisher tam'. " I have no objection to such restaurants, but I do think
it's interesting, at the same time, that there's scarecly one really
good, traditional eastern-European style kosher restaurant left even in
Manhattan! (2nd Avenue Deli is the only really good one I know of.) Bagels
are
 more popular than ever, but it's very hard to find a good, well-made bagel
even in New York! Am I the only Jew that finds it shameful that the
standards of all our melukhes (crafts) are declining so rapidly? It's the
same thing as with the music.
Itzik-Leyb