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Zalman Zylbercweig (Sept. 27, 1894 - [July 25, 1972])

From Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur, translated by Faith Jones, Dorot Jewish Division, NYPL

Born in Ozorkow, near Lodz, Poland, the son of the Yiddish and Hebrew writer Tsvi-Hirsh Zylbercweig and a descendant of [Rabbi Meir] Malbim. Aged three, he moved with his parents to Lodz, studied in a modernized traditional Jewish religious school, in the Lida [Belarus] yeshivah of Rabbi [Isaac Jacob] Reines, and in trade school. For a time, he managed an estate office, then went into business. From youth on he was a devotee of Yiddish theater. In 1912, he was involved in managing Hebrew and Yiddish theater groups and founding "LIDA" (Lodz Yiddish Dramatic Actors). In 1913 he was engaged as a translator of European theater repertoire at the Scala Theater in Lodz. From 1915-1918, during the German occupation, he managed a touring company in Lodz province, for which he wrote skits and one-act plays and adapted the works of European dramatists. In 1922, he began to collect materials for an intended volume on Yiddish actors and Yiddish theater, from which grew the biographical sketches in his later work, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater [Lexicon of Yiddish Theater]. In 1924, he left Lodz and settled in Palestine, travelling to America for three months in 1926, then returning to Palestine, and visiting America again in 1927. Later he traveled in connection with his lexicon to Jewish communities around the world. In 1936, he visited Argentina, Poland, France, England, and other countries. In 1937, he returned to America, settling in New York, and became an employee of the American branch of YIVO, a member of the national executive of the Jewish National Workers' Alliance, and president of the United Emergency Relief Committee for the City of Lodz. In 1948 he moved to Los Angeles, where he has continued to present (with his wife Celia) the "Zylbercweig Yiddish Radio Hour." He serves as chair of the Committee for Yiddish Education and the local YIVO committee and is active in other institutions there.

He began writing humorous sketches in his youth and in 1910 published in the Lodzer Tageblat [Lodz Daily News] a translation from Polish of a skit by Janusz Korczak. From 1909 to 1910 he published his translations of sketches and stories from European literature in A. Reisen's Warsaw periodical Eyropeishe Literatur [European Literature]. In 1912 he became a regular staff member of the daily paper Lodzer Tageblat, where, from 1915 to 1924, he was editor, and published feuilletons, political articles, reportage, humor, anecdotes, adaptations of novels, and translations of European belles-lettres, as well as criticism of books, music, and Yiddish theater. For many years he was the Lodz correspondent and contributor to the Warsaw newspaper Haynt [Today], the New York Forverts [Forward], the Buenos Aires Yidishe Tsaytung [Jewish Newspaper], and other publications. He also contributed to Fraye Erd [Free Soil], Teater un Kunst [Theater and Art], Teater un Kino [Theater and Film], Heftn far Literatur [Literary Notebooks], Der Yidisher Zhurnalist [The Jewish Journalist] (of these last four he was also co-editor), Literatur [Literature], Yugend [Youth], Di Yetstige Tsayt [Contemporary Times], and other literary journals published in Lodz since 1912. He has appeared also in Altnayland [Old-New Land], Literarishe Bleter [Literary Review] (Warsaw); Vilne Tog [The Vilna Day]; Dos Naye Leben [New Life] (Bialystock); Keneder Adler [Canada Eagle] (Montreal); Morgen-Zhurnal [Morning Journal], Amerikaner [The American], Tsukunft [The Future], Teater-Shtern [Theater Star], Pinkus fun Amopteyl [Reports from the American Section of YIVO], YIVO-Bleter [YIVO Review] (New York); Parizer Haynt [Paris Today], Undzer Vort [Our Word] (Paris); also in the Yiddish and Hebrew press in Israel. He was the editor of Der Amerikaner (New York, 1937-1948) and of the Lodzer Yisker-Bukh [Lodz Memorial Book] (New York, 1943) and was co-editor of Eliyahu Tenenholts's Yoyvl-Bukh [the Eliyahu Tenenholtz festschrift] (New York, 1955).

In book form he has published: Hintern Forhang [Behind the Scenes] (articles and anecdotes about Yiddish theater), Vilna, 1928, 207 pp.; Vos der Yidisher Aktyor Dertseylt [What the Jewish Actor Recounts] (curiosities and anecdotes), Vilna, 1928, 70 pp.; Teater-Zikhroynes [Theater Memoirs], Vilna, 1928, 106 pp.; Avram Goldfaden un Zigmunt Mogulesko [Abraham Goldfaden and Sigmund Mogulesco], Buenos Aires, 1936, 186 pp.; Teater-Figurn [Theater Personalities], Buenos Aires, 1936, 159 pp.; Albom fun Yidishn Teater [Album of Yiddish Theater], New York, 1937, 116 pp.; Avram Goldfaden [Abraham Goldfaden] (on the 100th anniversary of his birth), New York, 1940, 16 pp.; Teater-Mozaik [Theater Mosaic], New York, 1941, 320 pp.; Ahad Ha-am un Zayn Batsiung tsu Yidish [Ahad Haam and his Relationship to Yiddish], Los Angeles, 1956, 140 pp.; Teater-Heftn [Theater Notebooks], New York, 1943-1948 (partially reprinted in the third volume of the Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater); and the one-act plays Ir Shvester [Her Sister], Warsaw, 1920, 32 pp.; Kharote [Remorse] (a children’s musical), Lodz, 1921, 32 pp.; and more. He was the author of the topical comedy Poznanski un Kon [Posnanski and Cohn] (which played in Lodz, 1924); of the one-act plays Vide [Confession], Der Medalyon [The Locket], Piotrkow [Poland], 1920, 24 pp.; and of the melodramas, Der Yidisher Revolutsyoner [The Jewish Revolutionary], Mit Farmakhte Oygn [With Closed Eyes], Man un Vayb [Husband and Wife], Di Farbrecher [The Criminals], Di Shtoltse Froy [The Proud Woman], and others (produced in Lodz province in the years following World War I). He translated and adapted for the Yiddish stage plays by Alexandre Dumas, William Shakespeare, Hermann Sudermann, Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen, Herman Heijermans, Leonid Andreyev, Fiodor Dostoyevski, Arthur Schnitzler, Octave Mirbeau, and others.

Zylbercweig's most important contribution to Jewish literature is the Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater. Volume 1, New York, 1931; Volume 2, Warsaw, 1934; and Volume 3, New York, 1959 (the first three volumes were edited jointly with Jacob Mestel), comprise 2,416 columns, with over 700 entries on Yiddish actors, playwrights, translators, critics, directors, reviewers and theater organizations, which make up the history of Yiddish theater over the last 150 years. In this theater lexicon, there is also material about Jewish badkhonim [comics], Purim shpilers [carnival players], Broder singers [minstrels], and folk singers, as well as comprehensive monographs on Abraham Goldfaden, Jacob Gordin, I. L. Peretz, David Pinski, Sholem Aleichem, Zalman Rejzen, Peretz Hirschbein, Sholem Asch, Mendele Mokher Seforim, and others. [Volume 4 appeared in New York, 1963; Volume 5, Mexico City, 1967; Volume 6, Mexico City, 1969; the six volumes totaling 6,132 columns. Volume 5, subtitled "Kdoyshim band" (martyrs volume), is a memorial book for actors killed in the Holocaust; Volume 6 includes biographical information on the contributors to the Leksikon].