David Beigelman (1887 – February 1945), also known as Dawid Bajgelman and Dawid Beigelman, was a Polish

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist,

orchestra leader The concertmaster (from the German language, German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the Conducting, conductor, the concertmaste ...

, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Yiddish theatre 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 revues ...

music and songs.

Biography

He was born in Ostrowiec,

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

Zalmen Zylbercweig. Leksikon fun Yidish theater, Book one, column 161. to a musical family in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

where he composed and performed in Yiddish theatres at a young age.SaveTheMusic.com
David Beigelman
Retrieved 2014-11-30. He became director of the Lodz Yiddish Theater in 1912. He wrote the music for Julius Adler's operettas ''Dos Skoytn-meydl'' and ''Di mume Gnendil'' and Yankev Vaksman's ''Di Sheyne Berta'', all of which were staged in

, and arranged the music for

S. Ansky Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport (1863 – November 8, 1920), known by his pseudonym S. Ansky (or An-sky), was a Jewish author, playwright, researcher of Jewish folklore, polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play ' ...

's ''

The Dybbuk ''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (russian: Меж двух миров �ибук}, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; yi, צווישן צוויי וועלטן - דער דִבּוּק, ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by ...

''. In 1929 he was composer and music director for the Ararat Theater in Łódź. In 1940 he was forced to move to the

Ghetto Litzmannstadt A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

in Łódź, where he took part in the ghetto's cultural life as a conductor – the ghetto's first symphony concert was performed under his direction on 1 March 1941 – and as a composer of orchestral works and songs. Two well-known Beigelman songs that have survived and are performed to this day are ''Kinder yorn (the years of childhood)'' and ''Tsigaynerlid (Gypsy Song)'', dedicated to the

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

living in the ghetto. He wrote songs to lyrics by Isaiah Spiegel including ''Makh tsu di eygelekh (Close Your Little Eyes)'' and ''Nisht keyn rozhinkes, nisht keyn mandlen (No raisins, no almonds)''. He also collaborated with

Moishe Broderzon Moishe Broderzon ( yi, משה בראדערזאן, November 23, 1890 — August 17, 1956) was a Yiddish poet, theatre director, and the founder of the Łódź literary society, literary group ''Yung-yidish''. He was born 1890 in Moscow, but his f ...

writing well-known songs such as ''Nisim, nisim'' and ''Yidn, Shmidn''. He also collaborated with Moyshe Nudelman, David Herman, and Yakov Rotbaum.Fater, Isaschar (1970). Jewish Music in Poland between the Two World Wars, pp 53-58 In 1944, Beigelman was deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, where he died in February 1945.

References

External links

Portrait photo
undated. From the collection of

Jonas Turkow Jonas Turkow (Warsaw, 15 February 1898 – Tel Aviv, 1 December 1988) was an actor, stage manager, director and writer. He received the Itzik Manger Prize for his contributions to Yiddish letters. He was the brother of the actor Zygmunt Turkow, ...

, archives of the

Ghetto Fighters' House The Ghetto Fighters' House ( he, בית לוחמי הגטאות, ''Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot''), full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of Kibbut ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beigelman, David 1887 births 1945 deaths Jewish cabaret performers Musicians from Łódź Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Polish cabaret performers Polish composers Jewish composers Jewish songwriters Yiddish theatre Polish violinists Male violinists Jewish violinists Łódź Ghetto inmates Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Polish civilians killed in World War II 20th-century comedians 20th-century violinists 20th-century male musicians

Biography

See also

References

External links