Israil Bercovici

Israil (Israel) Bercovici (1921–1988) served the State Jewish Theater of Romania as a dramaturg, playwright, director, and historian from 1955 to 1982; he also wrote Yiddish-language poetry.

Related Topics:
1921 - 1988 - State Jewish Theater - Romania - 1955 - 1982 - Yiddish-language

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Bercovici was born into a poor working-class family in Botoşani, Romania, and received a traditional Jewish education. During World War II he served time at hard labor until the arrival of the Soviet Army in Romania.

Related Topics:
Botoşani - World War II - Soviet

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After the war, he began his career in Yiddish-language newspapers and radio, notably the weekly IKUF-Bleter (1946–1953), and the Revista Cultului Mozaic din R.P.R. (Journal of Jewish Culture in the People's Republic of Romania, also known as Tsaytshrift). The Journal was launched in 1956 and had sections in Romanian, Yiddish and Hebrew. Bercovici edited the Yiddish section from 1970 to 1972.

Related Topics:
IKUF-Bleter - Journal of Jewish Culture in the People's Republic of Romania - Romanian - Hebrew

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As a literature student after the war at a secular secondary school in Bucharest, Bercovici published his first Yiddish-language poetry in IKUF-Bleter. Judging by theater reviews he wrote in the early 1950s, he appears to have been an ardent Communist, grateful for his liberation from the labor camp and for the opportunity to receive a secular education, advocating a socialist realist aesthetic for Yiddish-language theater.

Related Topics:
Bucharest - Socialist realist

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His affiliation with the State Jewish Theater began in 1955, initially as "literarischer Sekretär". He continued to be very aware of developments in theater beyond the Yiddish language: he drove the theater toward being a contemporary theater, rather than a mere museum of inherited plays. Elvira Groezinger compares his goals to those of New York City's Arbeter Teater Farband (ARTEF, "Workers' Theatre Society"), goals well-aligned with those of the Communist regime.

Related Topics:
New York City - Arbeter Teater Farband

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Bercovici translated works from world literature: Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Frank V (1964), Karl Gutzkow's Uriel Acosta (1968), and Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder (1972), and wrote his own Yiddish-language plays, including Der goldener fodem ("The Golden Thread", 1963), about Abraham Goldfaden (who in 1876 founded the world's first Yiddish-language theater, in Iaşi, Romania), and the musical revue A shnirl perl ("A Pearl Necklace", 1967). He also wrote books about Yiddish theater history.

Related Topics:
Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Karl Gutzkow - Uriel Acosta - Henrik Ibsen - The Master Builder - Abraham Goldfaden - 1876 - Iaşi

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Toward the end of Bercovici's career, in Romania, as elsewhere in Europe, Yiddish was a language in decline. The State Jewish Theater coped, in part, by installing headphones throughout the theater to allow simultaneous translation of the plays into Romanian; the system is still in use when the theater performs Yiddish-language plays today.

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Bercovici's 3000-volume Yiddish-language library is now part of the Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam.

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Israil Bercovici claims that the Danse Macabre originated among Sephardic Jews in 14th century Spain (Bercovici, 1992, p. 27).

Related Topics:
Danse Macabre - Sephardic Jews

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