Jevel Katz

Jevel Katz (1902–1940) was born in Vilna and immigrated to Buenos Aires in 1930 where he became an immensely popular Jewish troubadour, famous for combining Yiddish and Spanish in humorous songs: tangos, rumbas, rancheras, and fox-trots.

He died at the peak of his career at age 38 in 1940. He was known posthumously as the "Jewish Gardel", named after the tango idol Carlos Gardel, who also died at the pinnacle of his career, in 1935.

Biography

Jevel Katz was born in Vilna (Vilnius), known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania", into a family with few resources. At a very young age he began working as a tool maker in the Rom brothers' printing press. He began singing his first parodies in the Vilnius graphic workers' union. At the age of 27, he decided to follow a brother of his who was already living in Buenos Aires. He quickly became one of the most popular Yiddish performers on the Yiddish stage in Argentina, with a combination of monologues, humoresques, couplets, parodies, nostalgic songs, and satires, while accompanying himself on guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and/or accordion.

Jevel Katz defined himself as a caberet singer (kleynkunst, in Yiddish); he would perform in a tuxedo or dressed as a gaucho or as a woman. Katz sang in Yiddish, mixed with Spanish. The Argentine Jewish poet and critic Eliahu Toker labeled this language mixture ''castídish''. Performing on radio stations in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, he toured the interior of Argentina, especially the Jewish colonies of Moisés Ville and Basavilbaso, and performed in Tucumán, Uruguay and Chile.

The keys to his success were his versatile performance style and themes of nostalgia, privation, and struggle tugged at his audiences’ heartstrings, combined with comic relief. For example, one of his songs “A rantshera (A ''ranchera''7'')'',” spoofs the travails of a recently arrived bachelor seeking to flee habits from the old country and establish roots in a new land. Appeals to local patriotism, celebrating the settlements in songs about Moises Ville, Basavilbaso, and Buenos Aires reassured them about the decision to uproot themselves and settle along the banks of the Río de la Plata. These “Argentine shtetl” songs also use a tongue-in cheek method, such as in Basivilbaso called “shtetele du mayns” (my little town)] is referred to as the “ Kasrilevka, Kasrilevke of Entre Ríos,” an affectionate reference to Sholem Aleichem’s fictional town of busybodies. Similarly, “Mosesville” called “mayn kleyn shtetele . . . mayn sheyn heymele” (my small town, my lovely home) is as “a yidishe medine . . . a shtolts far Argentine” (a Jewish state, the pride of Argentina).

In his short ten-year career, Jevel Katz, also called Jévele or Kétzele, wrote or set to music more than five hundred musical pieces of the most varied styles: vidalitas, rancheras, fox-trots, tangos and rumbas. He published one booklet of songs, “Argentiner glikn,” includes Yiddish tangos, rancheras, rumbas and foxtrots (without music)

Among his well-known creations are: "Zlate", "Tucumán", "Basavilbaso", and "Moisés Ville".

Katz's success extended beyond Buenos Aires to other cities and the Jewish agricultural colonies in Argentina and bordering countries. His comic persona is reflected in his reputation as "der freylekhster yid in Argentine" he happiest Jew in Argentina His fame even reached the North American Yiddish stage.

Jevel Katz died at the young age of 37 in Buenos Aires, on March 8, 1940, due to a complication of a tonsil operation that he underwent after receiving a job offer in the United States. According to Di Prese, one of the two main Yiddish-language daily newspapers of Argentina, about twenty thousand people paid their respects preceding the funeral, and about forty thousand people attended his funeral. He was buried in the Cementerio Israelita de Liniers.

Filmography

In 2005, Argentine filmmaker Alejandro Vagnenkos released the documentary ''Jevel Katz y sus paisanos'', which chronicles the comedian's life in Argentina.

References

External links

*Jevel Katz
Jevel Katz
*Pablo Palomino, "The Musical Worlds of Jewish Buenos Aires, 1910–1940," in ''Mazal Tov, Amigos! Jews and Popular Music in the Americas'', Amalia Ran and Moshe Morad, eds. (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016), 25–43.
*Ariel Svarch, ''Der freylekhster yid in Argentine: The Life and Death of Jevel Katz, Popular Artist of the 1930s'', pp 225–250 Chapter 10 in Splendor, Decline, and Rediscovery of Yiddish in Latin America. Brill pp. 225–250
*Eliahu Toker

*Patricia G. Nuriel ''Interview: Filmmaker Alejandro Vagnenkos on the Buenos Aires Yiddish Legend Jevel Katz.'
Interview: Filmmaker Alejandro…
*Patricia G. Nuriel, ''Jevel Katz: Representing Jewish Buenos Aires''
Jevel Katz: Representing Yiddish Buenos Aires

*Patricia G Nuriel, ''Singing the 1930s Doldrums: Jevel Katz's Argentine Yiddish Parodies'', Aus der Zeitschrift Latin American Jewish Studies. 2022 by Academic Studies Press
Singing the 1930s Doldrums: Jevel Katz’s Argentine Yiddish ParodiesJevel katz y sus paisanos 480p
*Judith Thissen, "''Gvald, Yidn, Buena Gente''": ''Jevel Katz'', ''Yiddish bard of the Rio de la Plata'' in Joel Berkowitz, Inventing the modern Yiddish stage: essays in drama, performance, and show business. Detroit, Mich : Wayne State University Press 2012
*Shmuel Rozhanski (Samuel Rollansky), "Dos idishe gedrukte vort un teater in Argentine," in ''Yoyvl-bukh: sakh-haklen fun 50 yohr idish leben in Argentine''; ''lekoved "Di idishe tsaytung" tsu ihr 25-yohrigen yubileum'' 'Cincuenta años de vida judía en la Argentina: homenaje a "El Diario Israelita" en su vigesimoquinto aniversario''(Buenos Aires: 1940), 327–418. Separately published as vol. 1 of the author's ''Gezamlte shrifn'' (Buenos Aires: 1941), which is accessible here
Dos Yidishe gedruḳṭe ṿorṭ un ṭeaṭer in Argenṭine , Yiddish Book Center
*Marcos Rosenzvaig, "El teatro ídisch en Buenos Aires," in ''Cuadernos de investigación teatral del San Martín'' 1 (Buenos Aires, 1994): 54–64.
*Zalmen Zylbercweig, "Katz, Khevel," in ''Leksikon fun yidishn teater'', vol. 7, 6163–6167.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Jevel
1902 births
1940 deaths
Lithuanian emigrants to Argentina
Jewish Argentine musicians
Yiddish-language singers
Jewish Argentine comedians
20th-century Lithuanian Jews
20th-century Argentine Jews
Yiddish comedians
20th-century Argentine musicians
20th-century Argentine comedians
20th-century Argentine songwriters
Argentine male songwriters
Argentine male musicians
Cabaret singers
Yiddish culture in Argentina
Argentine Ashkenazi Jews
Argentine people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent