Dr. Nathan Birnbaum (Nakhum)
|
|
B. was born on 16 May 1864
in Vienna, Austria. He is descended from rabbis. As a [bn-ikhid]
he was educated in Yiddish, with an admixture of
education, he even learned a little Tenach, but in the
German school (elementary school, gymnasium and
university) and in the community of German Vienna, he
lost the little Yiddishkeit (Jewishness). In 1887 he
completed his juris doctorate, worked for four years
with a lawyer and then be rejected thereof and to fully
give himself to literature and societal activities. Yet
as a gymnasium he directed national Yiddish propaganda,
and after for Herzl when Zionistic nationalism came. In
1883 together with Dr. Reuben Birer and Moshe Schneider
he founded the Jewish Student Union "Kadima", that
performed thanks to the Jewish nation and his living in
Eretz Yisrael. Since 1902 B. agitated under his own name
and under the pseudonym "Matityahu Akhr" in his many
articles and [bore=fartragn] for Yiddish as one of the
main [isudus] of national life. In 1908 B. visited
America, where he also did [referant] about Yiddish
theatre. In the same year he was chairman of the
Czernowitz Conference, which had proclaimed Yiddish as
the national language. In 1909 B. founded in Czernowitz
he "Yiddish Theatre Union" with the purpose of raising
the status of the Yiddish stage. In wartime B. had
crystallized a new world demonstration, which broke
entirely over the contemporary attitude to the Jewish
national problem and he fully returned to "the [tsu der
alter yidisher amunh, tsu yidishkeyt un tsu yidishe
kdushh bashtrebungen]".
|
Later B. went
officially over to the camp of the "Agudas
Israel", for which he worked for a certain
period of time as a secretary, paid and a
delegate in America.
B. also had written
many accounts about the Yiddish theatre and had
published a play "Far di elterns zind" (zitnbild),
that in 1909 was staged. Also his one-acter in
German "Ikh bin salomo" is written by B. in
Yiddish.
-
Zalmen Reyzen
-- "Lexicon of Yiddish Literature", Vol. I,
pp. 280-9.
-
B. Gorin --
"History of the Jewish Theatre", Vol. II,
(List of plays).
-
Moshe Shalit
-- "Vegn dr. natan birnboym", "Literarishe
bleter", 78.
|
|