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Abraham Goldfaden.

While on a visit to Jassy, Rumania, in 1876, his initial dramatic creation, "The Recruits," was put upon the first regularly organized modern Yiddish stage. It was entirely his own creation, for he himself built the stage, painted, the decorations, wrote the piece, composed the music, and instructed the actors. In 1878, when he already had a tolerably good troupe of actors, and a repertoire of fourteen pieces from his own pen, he carried his enterprise into Russia and at first established himself in the Maryinski Theater in Odessa. He conducted several very successful tours through Russia until it was forbidden by the government to continue Yiddish theaters (1883). After a few years in Rumania and Galicia he revived his theater in Warsaw for a short time, but in a German guise. In 1887 he went to New York, where he founded the "New Yorker Illustrate Zeitung," the first Yiddish illustrated periodical, and was also for some time connected with the Rumanian Opera-House of that city. He returned to Europe in 1889, and lived mostly in Paris. Since 1903 he has resided in New York.

Goldfaden's Hebrew poetry, most of which is contained in his "Zizim u-Ferahim" (Jitomir, 1865), possesses considerable merit, but it has been eclipsed by his Yiddish poetry, which, for strength of expression and for depth of true Jewish feeling, remains unrivaled. He is the most Jewish of all the Yiddish poets, and his songs, especially those contained in his popular plays, are sung by the Yiddish-speaking masses in all parts of the world. His earliest collection of Yiddish songs, "Das Yüdele," has been reprinted many times since its first appearance in 1866. But his fame rests on his dramatic productions, which number about twenty-five. The best of them, "Shulamit" and "Bar Kochba," are considered the most popular dramatic works in Yiddish. Of the others, "Shmendrik," "Die Kishufmacherin," "Die Zewei Kune Lemels," and "Dr. Almasada" deserve special mention. Most of them were reprinted many times, both in Russia and in the United States, and "Shulamit" was played with considerable success in Polish, German, and Hungarian translations.

Bibliography: Sefer Zikkaron, p. 18, Warsaw, 1890;
Ha-Meli?, No. 153;
Eisenstein, The Father of the Jewish Stage, in Jewish Comment, Nov. 1, 1901;
Hapgood, Spirit of the Ghetto, pp. 149 et seq., New York, 1902;
Wiernik, Abraham Goldfaden, in Minikes' Hebrew Holiday Papers, vol. iv., No. 33;
Jew. Chron. Oct. 13, 1899.J. P. Wi.

In 1866 Linetzki became a contributor to "?ol Mebasser," a Yiddish weekly published in Odessa, and in 1868 he began the publication of his famous novel "Das Polische Jüngel." The success of this work was unprecedented in Yiddish literature. Being a true account of the life of a ?asidic youth and entirely based upon actual experience, "Das Polische Jüngel" is, in the opinion of the most eminent critics, one of the best humoristic works in Yiddish (L. Wiener, "Hist. of Yiddish Literature," p. 165).

In 1875 Linetzki published at Lemberg conjointly with Goldfaden a Judæo-German weekly, "Yisrolik." In 1876-77 he published his "Pritshepe" and "Statek," and the first number of his calendar, which he continued to issue for a number of years. In the period between 1882 and 1888 he published several works, including "Amerika zi Erez Isroel"; a geography of Palestine; and translations of Lessing's "Nathan der Weise" and Grätz's "Gesch. der Juden." His "Worem Chrein," a sequel to "Das Polische Jüngel," was published as a serial in the "Jüdische Volksbibliotek" (1888, vol. i.). Shorter sketches from his pen have appeared in the "Familienfreund," in the "Hausfreund," and in the "Volksfreund."

Bibliography: Linetzki Yubileum, Odessa, 1891;
Wiener, Hist. of Yiddish Literature, New York, 1899;
Voskhod, 1884, No. 2.H. R. M. Z.