Berl Broder (1817–1868), born Berl Margulis, was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

born in Podkamen,https://archive.org/details/nybc207372 Dray doyres̀: lider fun Berl Broder (Margulies), feliṭonen fun Yom Hatsyoni (Yitsḥaḳ Margulies), poemen un lider fun Ber Margulies (1957) the most famous of the

Broder singer The ''Broderzinger'' () or Broder singers, from Brody in Ukraine, were Jewish itinerant performers in Austrian Galicia, Romania, and Russia, professional or semiprofessional songwriters and performers, who from at least the early 19th century sang ...

s (19th century Jewish singers comparable to the

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

s or

Minnesänger (; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who wr ...

) and reputed the first to be both a singer and an actor.Bercovici 1998. His nickname is the origin of the term ''Broder singer''.Roskies 1999, p. 94. Thirty of his songs survive; of these, 24 are in the form of dialogues, usually between craftsmen such as tailors or shoemakers; his songs are seen as a precursor to

Yiddish theater Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revu ...

. His childhood was taken up with religious studies at home, until his father's death when he was 16. A handsome, bright young man with a good voice, he taught himself the violin. He worked briefly as a brushmaker; his co-workers became his first audience, calling him "Berl der vertlzoger" - a man who always had a rhyme or a proverb. It was after he married, at the age of 25, that his predilection towards writing and singing emerged. From some time in his late teens or early twenties, he headed on the road as an itinerant performer, along with two other singers, one of whom was also a tailor who made costumes for the troupe. It is believed that many of his songs were improvised on the spot; only thirty survive in written form. In 1857, when economic crisis hit

Brody Brody ( uk, Броди; russian: Броды, Brodï; pl, Brody; german: Brody; yi, בראָד, Brod) is a city in Zolochiv Raion of Lviv Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately ...

, he created the Broder-singer troupe and left for Russia. His first book of poetry was published in 1860 in

Pressburg Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

, the second in

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

, and the third (1882) in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. He composed a tremendous number of songs and

couplets A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

which were never published, and would challenge his partners and competitors to rhyming duels, himself generally emerging the victor.Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book one, 221-227 After leaving Brody, he never settled in any one place; he was also known as a heavy drinker. He lived his last years in poverty. Zalmen Zylbercweig cites conflicting accounts of his last years: his son claimed he died in 1868 in Carlsbad, while a contemporary claimed he died in 1888 in Pliyeshtsh ( Ploieşti, Romania), a small town near Bucharest.

Notes

References

* Bercovici, Israil, ''O sută de ani de teatru evreiesc în România'' ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998), pages 31–36. . ''See the article on the author for further publication information.'' * Roskies, David G., ''The Jewish Search for a Usable Past'', Indiana University Press (1999), . p. 94–95. {{DEFAULTSORT:Broder, Berl Ukrainian Jews Yiddish theatre Badchens 1817 births 1868 deaths Broder singers