GORDIN, gar'dyan. Jame M. (1853—). A Jewish playwright and journalist, born in the Government oflf 2o...ava, Russia. He was private ly educated, and after a number of years spent in teaching began to write short stories and general articles for newspapers in Saint Petersburg and Odessa. From 1886 to 1890 be was the editor of various publications at Odessa and Yelizavetgrad. In 1879 he founded at Yelizavetgrad the Society of Spiritunl Brethren of the Bible, whose 81111 was. to reconstruct religion upon the sole basis of prac tical ethics, to the exclusion of all rites and ceremonies. In 1891 the society was suppressed by the Russian Government, and Gordin came to New York. where lie began. almost initnedintely, to write for the Yiddish stage, his first play, Siberia, appearing in November, 1891. Within the next twelve years he had produced more than sixty plays, among them many adaptations and translations, dealing for the most part with Jew ish life in Russia and America. Ills adaptations
am sue!) in the sense only that the general out line of their plot is borrowed; the details of the action, the character-drawing, and the underlying meaning of the play are entirely original. Gott, Mensch and Teufel, one of his best plays, is the Job or Faust motive worked out in modern Jew ish life, and in the same category are, Der jiidische Honig Lear, Die jiidische Sapho, and Kreutzer Sonata. His plays in treatment belong to the school of robust realism, but the ethical import in them is always prominent. Others of his suc cessful dramatic works are: Mirela Efroth; Der wilde Mensch; Die Schechita (The Sacrifice) ; Die Schb'uo (The Vow) ; Medea; Schlome Cha chan; Der russische Jude in Amerika.