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  ERC > LEXICON OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE  >  VOLUME 5  >  BONTSHE


Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre
BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE WHO WERE ONCE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE;
aS FEATURED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S  "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"


VOLUME 5: THE KDOYSHIM (MARTYRS) EDITION, 1967, Mexico City

 

Bontshe
(Avrom Rozenfeld)


Born in 1884 in Opolye, Lublin region, Poland, into a Chasidic family. he learned in religious elementary schools, and on his own in synagogue study halls. He worked as a forester. In 1906 he arrived in Warsaw and debuted in 1909 in "Unzer leben (Our Lives)," then in other publications in both Yiddish and Hebrew. He published in satirical newspapers from time to time, as well as a series of holiday pages under the name of "Blumen (Flowers)." (1912)

Since 1911 he was a regular contributor to "Moment," for which he wrote stories, humoresques and feuilletons, and from 1926 he was editor of the magazine's section "The Crooked Mirror." In 1919 he edited the illustrated humoristic weekly periodical called "The Free Bird."

He published the booklet: "Inm rash (Amid the Noise)" in 1921, and "The Green Bridge" in 1924.

B. wrote the operetta, "Di froyn-gegner (The Women's Adversary)," which was staged in 1918 by Michalesko in Warsaw, then in Lodz, and in the Polish province, and the comedy, "Khoyves (Debt?)," which was staged in 1932 in Warsaw.

About the play, "Debt," Nakhum Meisel writes:

"I went to see 'Debt,' a comedy, written by a Warsaw writer (Bontshe--A. Rozenfeld) about the local life, stage director--Moshe Lipman. A regisseur who has behind him a fine artistic history. The play however is a weak one, a shoddy one. A bankrupt Warsaw Jew, he had saved some money in a bank 'Units,' and a beli-khubut came to him.  They arrived in the first act, they arrived in the second act, they arrived in the third act, and they screamed and quarreled about how the world stands. No one acted in the play, but they shouted the play, and without end. The fabric of the play--a  number in a revue theatre, is attractive by itself in the entirety of the three acts in which jokes were inserted, as well as songs, couplets, and in the play several fine actors performed, who would gekont and gemegt Latvian plays."

B. also wrote for the small Yiddish art theatres.

B. died in the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi Occupation.

Jonas Turkow remarked [at his burial]:

"On the Genscher Cemetery, which is already lying on the 'fresher side,' ...died a 'natural death' and found eternal rest in the literary alee of the Jewish cemetery."

  • "Lexicon of the New Yiddish Literature," New York, 1956, Vol. 1, p. 223.

  • N.M.-- In di varshever yidishe teatern, "Litbl't," Warsaw, N'6, 1932.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 5, page 4046.
 

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