Jacob Ben-Ami
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Moishe Rosenfeld |
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Being in the Yiddish theatre in my
early twenties gave me the opportunity to meet and befriend
legends. In 1970 I was cast as Yisroel-Yeshiye (Israel-Joshua)
Singer, the older brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer in Singer�s
�In My Father�s Court� ("In mayn tatns bes-din shtub") at the
Folksbiene Playhouse, which was on the second floor of the
Forward Building at 175 East Broadway near Essex on the Lower
East Side. What a wonderful, memorable cast.
My younger brother Yitzchok -- the
author as a little boy -- was played by Marilyn Gold. Our mother
was played by the long time Folksbiene actress Mina Kern (not
Bern, but Kern).
Other cast members were Sarah
Stabin, and an actor named [Ben] Feivelowitz, who played a
character named Bababa, so named because as an old man, he�d
finish every sentence with a memory lapse with �Ba ba ba ...�
Stabin and Feivelowitz had been members of the Folksbiene since
1915. Incredible, right? Other luminaries were Elias Patron who
played a gangster from Smocza Gasse (Smotshe Street) in Warsaw,
whose most memorable line was when he held a gun in someone�s
face and said �Kuk areyn un lakhl! Kuk areyn. Zeyst dort dem
malakh amoves? Zeyst im? Kuk areyn!� (Look into the hole. Look
in! Do you see the Angel of death in it? Do you see him? Look
in!). |
Joshua Zeldis, another Folksbiene
veteran, played Chaim Gorshkover, a Chassid of the Rebbe of
Gorshkov. Zypora Spaisman who would ultimately take over the
Folksbiene in the following decades as its �grande dame,� played
a chicken hocker. But the stars of the play, the stars of the
season, the stars of my experience were the aging former
superstars of the Yiddish theatre Jacob Ben-Ami and his
decades-long lover and super-star actress Berta Gersten who had
starred in the Yiddish film, "Mirele Efros" thirty-five years
earlier. Ben Ami and Berta had been married to other spouses as
they carried on their affair, and when they reached their late
seventies, they each became widowed and moved in together. At
the Folksbiene, they shared a dressing room, and she was so
caring and loving, serving him beverages and sandwiches and just
sitting with him , just being together. I was so drawn to them
and befriended them. And after a few weekends, Berta started to
bring extra sandwiches for me. We often spoke about life and the
old days. She shared that she had shingles. That as a young
actress she met the writer Sholem Ash, who touched her cheek in
a creepy way and said �a shayne maydele.� (a pretty girl) ...
Just hearing a personal memory of a legendary Yiddish writer
from an elderly friend was so special to me, a young Yiddishist.
And Ben-Ami, who played the father and Rabbi of a �bes-din�
(religious court) on Krochmalna Street in Warsaw, was
magnificent. He had an intense look. You could see that he had
been incredibly handsome as a younger man. When arbitrating
between various Warsaw characters, he would rarely raise his
voice -- only in a most dramatic moment now and then. When
saying the Kiddush over a Shabbes dinner he became a most pious
Chassid filled with emotion and reverence. It was that �Yom
hashshi� (sixth day) chant that has stayed with me all these
years. What a thrill and what an honor. Opening night was a
great thrill. The reception was at the Garden Cafeteria on the
corner of Essex and East Broadway -- one of my favorite
restaurants of all time. Seated at one of the first tables was
none other than the author himself, Isaac Bashevis Singer. I
went over to introduce myself. �A groyser koved, fraynd
Bashevis. Ikh hob geshpilt ayer bruder, Yisroel-Yeshiye� (It�s a
great honor, Mr. Bashevis. I played your brother I.J.) He looked
at me, and in an angry voice declared �Man tate hot nisht azoy
geshrign.� (My father never yelled like that.) Of course I never
repeated that review to Ben Ami, but now knew the quirky side of
a Nobel Prize-winning author.
The last time I saw the great
Jacob Ben-Ami was at the 92nd Street Y. It might have been in
1974 or 1975. It was after a performance of �The Wise Men of
Chelm,� a performance by the Yiddish Drama Group of Montreal led
by my dear friend Dora Wasserman. I had invited Ben-Ami, who
lived a few blocks from the Y. It was a lovely, exuberant
performance, full of humor, music, dancing. Following the show,
we gathered in the library right next to the Kaufman Auditorium,
where I introduced Ben-Ami to Dora embraced him and in a
heartbeat had forty young Yiddish actors from Montreal singing
and dancing around this legendary Yiddish star, accompanied by
the accordionist Sharon Chazin. The room was filled with joy and
the broadest smiles one can imagine ... Soon, as I walked
Ben-Ami out of the building he said to me, �Moishe, I never
thought that I would ever believe that the Yiddish theatre had a
future. Today, I truly believe it does.� A week later, he closed
his eyes for the last time. |