The influence most conducive to the rise of the Yiddish literature was the introduction of the Yiddish newspaper. The first successful newspaper in the language was established in 1863, when A. Zederbamn began to publish the Kol Meirasser, as a supplement to his weekly Ilanirliz. Since then many Yiddish peri odicals have appeared in various lands. The Jiidisehes Tageblatt,-the first Yiddish daily, ap peared in New York in 1885. under the manage ment of the editor of the weekly Jiidische Gazet ten. Numerous newspapers advocating various ideals of religion and sociology have appeared from time to time in America. and now there are more than twenty Yiddish newspapers issued in this country. The first Yiddish daily in Russia, Drr Freincl, made its appearance in January. 1903, at Saint Petersburg. In January, 1904, another daily, Der Tag, began publicatioa at the office of the Hebrew daily Ilameliz, Saint Petersburg. It is almost exclusively in con nection with the newspaper that Yiddish litera ture has developed in the United States. The Socialist press has counted among its contribu tors many men of high gifts and wide attain ments who have done excellent work in popu larizing the sciences and bringing some of the greatest works in foreign literatures within the reach of the Yiddish public. In belles-lettres they have shown but little originality, their work being plainly influenced by the popular• French and Russian realists. Prominent in the ranks of Yiddish journalism is Abraham Cahan, who has also written successfully in English (Time Imported Bridegroom, 1898; Yekl, 1899). J. Rombro, better known by his nom-de-plume of Philip Krantz, has gained reputation as an editor and writer on topics of general history. Z. Libin has shown iu his sketches of Ghetto life a finished art approaching that of the French masters. :Morris Winchevsky is in style probably the most original and effective of the group of Yiddish journalists. J. Goido, Leon Kobrin, and B. Feigenbaum may also be mentioned. Of writers not identified particularly with the lib eral movement, the best known are Alexander Harkavy, Abraham Tannenbaum, Selikowitsch, Seiffert, and A. Sharkansky. The last has produced much acceptable verse, in imitation largely of foreign models, but revealing a good sense of form. Eliokim Znnser, originally one of the class of badehens who, in their capacity as rhapsodists, moralists. and clowns, constitute a picturesque feature of orthodox Jewish wed dings, has gained wide note as the writer of songs whose fervent national spirit is made to atone for their utter lack of poetic art. Indis putably first, however, among writers of verse is Morris Rosenfeld. who has become known to the non-Yiddish public through translations of his poems into English ( Songs from. the Ghetto,
Boston, 1898). and into German (Metier ails dein Ghetto, Berlin, 1899). Rosenfeld was born in Russia in 1862. and came to the United States by way of England. Here he worked for a num ber of years as an operator in a clothing shop. From the sweatshop and the tenement he has drawn most of his themes, and the pervading tone in his verse is one of deep melancholy. His poems dealing with Jewish life specifically bear the same cast of despondency, often verging on despair. Yet at times he has shown himself capable of turning his fine lyric powers to the singing of the joys of life—nature, love, children. Ms language approaches closely to the German, and, transliterated, offers no very great diflieulties to one familiar with that language. his com plete works in Yiddish were published in 1903.
The Yiddish drama also received its fullest development in America. In the beginning of the eighteen:.h century two Yiddish plays. Thc Nab- of Joseph and the Ahasuerus Play, appeared in print. These were performed in private Jew ish homes, especially on the festival of Pnrim. In 1878 Goldladen, the father of the Jewish theatre, who had first performed in Rumania with an itinerant vompauy of actors. established the first Jewish theatre in Odessa. This met with great success and soon found imitators in other large towns of Russia. But the Govern ment ell,sed these theatres in 1g83 and the actors had to seek their audiences across the Atlantic, where in the same year Tomasehewski and Gobi bok started a .b-w•ish theatre in New York. Now there are four such theatres in New York, and the companies frequently make tours of the other large towns. The Yiddish drama, however, up to 1490 was of a very low order from the artistic point of view. Writers like Hurwitz, Lateiner, and others supplied the public with concoc tions of melodrama, comic opera, and fabu lous Jewish history, which were received with great favor. A great advance in artistic stand ards began with the work of Jamb Gordin (q.v.), \rho has dealt skillfully and in a thoroughly realistic manner with numerous phases of ,lew•ish life in Russia and America. Creditable work has been done by younger writers, of whom Z. Libin has been mentioned above.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Grfinbamn, "Die Bibliography. Grfinbamn, "Die deutsche Litteratnr," in Winter and Wfinselte, Jadisehe Littcratur, vol. iii. (Treves, 1S9(1) ; id.. dinliseh-deutsche Chrestontathic (Leipzig. 1882) ; Karpeles, Gesehichte der jadischen Litteratur, ii. (Berlin, 188(1) Wiener, The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1890) ; Harkavy, Dictionary of the Yiddish Language (ib., 1S9S) ; Gerzon, Die jii disch-deutsche Sprat-he (Frankfort. 1902).