Shylock Gets Good Press
Shylock in Yiddish: New Yiddish Rep Presents Jacob Adler’s Historic “Shylock” at Center for Jewish History
By Masha Leon
Shylock in Yiddish: New Yiddish Rep Presents Jacob Adler’s Historic “Shylock” at Center for Jewish History
Not a single candy wrapper, cough nor cell phone interrupted the New Yiddish Repertory’s January 13 reading of “Shaylok, oder der Koyfman Fun Venedig,” a Yiddish adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” at the Center for Jewish History. The evening was, in Broadway speak — a smash hit. Nahma Sandrow, author of “Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater” (first issued in 1977 by Harper & Row; last published in 1995, by Syracuse University Press), presented a literary overview of Shylock’s transition from Elizabethan English to Yiddish, noting that Shylock was, in fact, “a comic relief minor character a ‘stage Jew’ in what in Shakespeare’s time was akin to early 20th-century American theatre ‘stage Irishman.’” Described in the program as “adapted by Jacob P. Adler from Yoseph Bovshover’s translation of ‘The Merchant of Venice’… collated by NYR founder and artistic director David Mandelbaum with further emanations by the cast,” the readers included Allen Lewis Rickman as Antonio. Yelena Shmulenson (Rickman’s real-life wife) grandstands as Portia, who saves Antonio from the agony of the excision of “a pound of flesh” to pay a debt to Shylock, however, this sets in motion the ensuing tragic consequences.
Bravos to the ensemble members, who, directed by Lester Thomas Shane, read the Yiddish text as though Yiddish was their native language: Boruch Thaler (Solanio), Naftali Ejdelman (Solarino), Alec Burko (Lorenzo), Hy Wolfe (Bassanio), Buzz Roddy (Graziano), Miryam-Khaye Seigel (Jessica), Eve Jochnowitz (Nerissa) and Shane Baker (Launcelot, Duke and Tubal).
This one-of-a-kind extraordinary evening was presented in association with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Congress for Jewish Culture, the Yiddish National Theatre (not to be confused with the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene) and the Central Yiddish Culture Organization — New York’s only bookstore dedicated solely to the Yiddish word.
The evening commemorated the 109th anniversary of Adler’s historic premiere of the Yiddish adaptation seen on Broadway in 1901. As stated in Shane’s program notes: “Adler shaped his Yiddish play ‘Shylock’ to appeal to Jewish audiences as one of their own living in the ghetto. His daughter steals away with his money to marry a goy. He loses his contractual bond by a legalistic loophole and is then condemned to lose everything — the rest of his estate, his dignity and finally his religion, when he is forced to convert. He is condemned by a Christian court in the name of mercy. Oy! Perfect for the stature and ego of Adler.” What was not in the program notes but was included in an advance notice about the reading was the following: “First translated into Yiddish in 1899 by the poet and furrier Joseph Bovshover (who, upon completion of the work, entered a mental hospital, where he remained for 15 years until his death), ‘Merchant’ proved to be one of Adler’s most celebrated vehicles…. Adler took the show to gentile audiences, playing Shylock in Yiddish while the rest of the cast spoke English.”
In thanking the ensemble, Shane noted that he wanted “to thank [the cast] for their kindness to me, who worked from the original Shakespeare text with only the barest knowledge of Yiddish, but with a love for the language and for Yiddish theatre. As a child, my father took me to see many productions. I acted in English versions — in one case, with him…. I dedicate this to his blessed memory.”