Joseph Lateiner (December 25, 1853 – February 23, 1935, birth surname: Finkelshteyn) was a playwright in the early years of

Yiddish theater 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 satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; na ...

, first in

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Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and later in

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, where he was a co-founder in 1903 with Sophia Karp of the Grand Theater, New York's first purpose-built

Yiddish language Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

theater building. Born in Iaşi,

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

, now

, Lateiner got his start writing for theater in Iaşi around the start of 1878, when

Israel Grodner Israel (Yisrol) Grodner (; ca. 1848 – 1887) was one of the founding performers in Yiddish theater. A Lithuanian Jew who moved at the age of 16 to Berdychiv, Ukraine, Russian Empire, the Broder singer and actor was in Iaşi, Romania in 1876 ...

, having left

Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in Yiddish and Hebrew languages and author of some 40 plays. Goldfad ...

's Bucharest company, needed a playwright. He added some topical material to a German-language comedy ''Nathan Schlemiel oder Orthodoxe und reformirte Juden'' by J. Rosenzweig (Ein Tendenz-Lustspiel in 3 Acten.

Pressburg Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, 1873Nathan Schlemiel oder Orthodoxe und reformirte Juden. Ein Tendenz-Lustspiel in 3 Akten
public domain, readable in Google Books), and came up with a play ''Die Tzwei Schmuel Schmelkes'' (''The Two Schmuel Schmelkes''). He translated and "Yiddishized" plays from Romanian and German; his more than 80 plays included '' Mishke and Moshke: Europeans in America (or The Greenhorns), " Satan in the Garden of Eden", and " The Jewish Heart"''.Nahma Sandrow, ''Vagabond Stars, a world history of Yiddish Theater'', pp. 106-107 By showing that Goldfaden was not the only person who could write a successful play in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

, he opened the floodgates for other Yiddish playwrights.

Notes

References

* Adler, Jacob, ''A Life on the Stage: A Memoir'', translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld,

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, New York, 1999, . 77 (commentary). 1853 births 1935 deaths Yiddish theatre Jewish Romanian writers Romanian emigrants to the United States Writers from Iași Jewish dramatists and playwrights {{Romania-writer-stub