David Beigelman (1887 – February 1945), also known as Dawid Bajgelman and Dawid Beigelman, was a Polish

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist,

orchestra leader The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the most significant ...

, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satire, satiric or nostalgic revues; melodr ...

music and songs.

Biography

He was born in Ostrowiec,

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

Zalmen Zylbercweig. Leksikon fun Yidish theater, Book one, column 161. to a musical family in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

where he composed and performed in Yiddish theatres at a young age.SaveTheMusic.com
David Beigelman
Retrieved 2014-11-30. He became director of the Lodz Yiddish Theater in 1912. He wrote the music for Julius Adler's operettas ''Dos Skoytn-meydl'' and ''Di mume Gnendil'' and Yankev Vaksman's ''Di Sheyne Berta'', all of which were staged in

, and arranged the music for

S. Ansky Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport (1863 – November 8, 1920), also known by his pen name S. An-sky, was a Jewish author, playwright, researcher of Jewish folklore, polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play '' The ...

's ''

The Dybbuk ''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; , ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by S. An-sky, authored between 1913 and 1916. It was originally written in Russian and later translated into Yidd ...

''. In 1929 he was composer and music director for the Ararat Theater in Łódź. In 1940 he was forced to move to the

Ghetto Litzmannstadt A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

in Łódź, where he took part in the ghetto's cultural life as a conductor – the ghetto's first symphony concert was performed under his direction on 1 March 1941 – and as a composer of orchestral works and songs. Two well-known Beigelman songs that have survived and are performed to this day are ''Kinder yorn (the years of childhood)'' and ''Tsigaynerlid (Gypsy Song)'', dedicated to the

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

living in the ghetto. He wrote songs to lyrics by

Isaiah Spiegel Isaiah Spiegel (, ; January 14, 1906 – July 14, 1990) was Polish and Israeli poet, writer and essayist writing in Yiddish, a Holocaust survivor (Łódź Ghetto and Auschwitz II-Birkenau).Raisins and Almonds''). He also collaborated with

Moishe Broderzon Moishe Broderzon (; 23 November ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. 11 November1890 – 17 August 1956) was a Yiddish poet, theatre director, and the founder of the Łódź literary society, literary group ''Yung-yidish''. Personal life He w ...

writing well-known songs such as ''Nisim, nisim'' and ''Yidn, Shmidn''. He also collaborated with Moyshe Nudelman, David Herman, and Yakov Rotbaum.Fater, Isaschar (1970). Jewish Music in Poland between the Two World Wars, pp 53-58 In 1944, Beigelman was deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

, where he died in February 1945.

References

External links

Portrait photo
undated. From the collection of

Jonas Turkow Jonas Turkow (Warsaw, 15 February 1898 – Tel Aviv, 4 February 1988) was an actor, stage manager, director and writer. He received the Itzik Manger Prize for his contributions to Yiddish letters. He was the brother of the actor Zygmunt Turkow, ...

, archives of the

Ghetto Fighters' House The Ghetto Fighters' House ( ''Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot'', Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center) is a Holocaust museum founded in 1949 by members of Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot. It is loc ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beigelman, David 1887 births 1945 deaths Jewish cabaret performers Musicians from Łódź Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Polish cabaret performers Polish composers Jewish composers Jewish songwriters Yiddish theatre Polish male violinists Jewish violinists Łódź Ghetto inmates Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Polish civilians killed in World War II 20th-century Polish comedians 20th-century Polish violinists 20th-century Polish male musicians

Biography

See also

References

External links