Nathaniel Buchwald (1890–1956) was a 20th-century, left-leaning Jewish-American theater critic, writer, and scholar of

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 ...

who wrote in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

and English and translated from Yiddish and Russian into English.

Background

Nathaniel Buchwald was born Naftoli Bukhvald on April 14, 1890, in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

(then, party of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

). He studied at a religious primary school and then a public school. In 1910, Buchwald emigrated to America. He studied at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

, and in 1918 obtained a BS in Chemistry from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Career

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Buchwald worked for ''

Forverts ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...

'' by translating its editorials from Yiddish into English as required by wartime security regulations regarding foreign-language publications in the US. In the 1920s, Buchwald began publishing articles appeared in ''Di naye velt'' (''The New World''), after which he wrote for this and other Yiddish labor publications. Following the founding of ''Frayhayt'' (''Freedom''–later the ''

Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a American Jews, Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialis ...

'') in New York City in 1922, Buchwald joined its editorial board and contributed as theater critic. Later, he wrote for ''Morgn Frayhayt'' (''Morning Freedom'') and '' Jewish Life'', also in New York. In 1925, Buchwald helped found the Artef Players Collective, a Yiddish theater group in New York City. (The name "Artef" came from ''Arbeter teater-farband'' or "workers' theatrical alliance." ) Members included: Moyshe Olgin,

David Pinski David Pinski (Yiddish: דוד פּינסקי; April 5, 1872 – August 11, 1959) was a Yiddish language writer, probably best known as a playwright. At a time when Eastern Europe was only beginning to experience the industrial revolution, Pinsk ...

, David Abrams, Melech Marmur, Kalman Marmur, Shachno Epstein, Moyshe Nadir. Regarding Artef's aims, Buchwald wrote: " Life pulled in one direction, to world upheavals, to Revolution, to Soviet Russia, to collective consciousness and collective action,

hile Hile ( ne, हिले) is a hill town located in the Eastern Part of Nepal, 13 km north of the regional center of Dhankuta Bazar. At an elevation of 1948 meters, it is the main route to other hilly districts like Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabh ...

the theatre still busied itself with bygone idylls, Hassidic legends, all kinds of tall tales, or with the routine of bourgeois life, family drama and romantic complication." They staged their first performance in 1927 but slowed during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and even took a hiatus from 1937 to 1939. In 1940, the group resumed performances with '' Clinton Street'' by

Louis Miller Louis E. Miller (1866–1927), born Efim Samuilovich Bandes, was a Russian-Jewish political activist who emigrated to the United States of America in 1884. A trade union organizer and newspaper editor, Miller is best remembered as a founding edit ...

. The group disbanded in the 1940s. Up to September 1933, Buchwald served as Moscow correspondent for the publications like the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

's official newspaper ''The

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'';

Vern Smith (journalist) Vern Ralph Smith (8 May 1891 - 27 Oct 1978) was an American left wing journalist who served in an editorial capacity for several publications of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Smith is best remembered as th ...

replaced him.

Communist allegations

During the 1930s, Buchwald came to the attention of the

Dies Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

of the US House of Representatives for his contributions to

Agitprop Agitprop (; from rus, агитпроп, r=agitpróp, portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in Soviet Russia where it referred to ...

theater and again in the 1950s for his theater criticism that appeared in ''The Daily Worker''.

Personal life and death

Buchwald married Stella Buchwald, also a writer. Buchwald wrote under several

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

s including: B. Tulin, B. Brand, N. Poloner, and Bert Toulens (in English). Buchwald's friends and letter correspondents include

Abraham Cahan Abraham "Abe" Cahan (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם קאַהאַן; July 7, 1860 – August 31, 1951) was a Lithuanian-born Jewish American socialist newspaper editor, novelist, and politician. Cahan was one of the founders of ''The Forward'' (), a ...

. Buchwald died on June 7, 1956, in New York.

Works

Books: * ''Folks-bildung in Sovet-Rusland'' (1925?) * ''From peasant to collective farmer'' (1933) * ''Farvos men hot gemishpet di 21 in moskve'' (''Why the twenty-one were sentenced in Moscow'') (New York: Idbyuro, 1938) * ''Alts--far unzer land Amerike'' (1942) * ''Di dek̜laratsye fun zelbsht̜endigk̜eyt̜'' (1943) * ''Teater'' (''Theater'') (1943) * ''Pogromshtshikes farfleytsn amerike, faktn vegn der aynvanderung fun natsis, fashistn un gorgl-shnayder'' (''Pogromists invade America, facts about the immigration of Nazis, fascists, and cut-throats'') (1952) * ''Omanut ha-teatron'' (1953) Translations to Yiddish: * Alfonz Goldshmidt, ''Dos lebn un shtrebn in sovet-rusland'' (''Life and aspiration in Soviet Russia'') (New York, 1921) *

Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...

, ''Kunst un sotzyalizm'' (''Art and socialism'') *

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

, ''Teorye un praktik fun revolutsye'' (''The theory and practice of revolution'') *

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...

, ''Reform oder revolutsye'' (''Reform or revolution'') *

Hallie Flanagan Hallie Flanagan Davis (August 27, 1889 in Redfield, South Dakota – June 23, 1969 in Old Tappan, New Jersey) was an American theatrical producer and director, playwright, and author, best known as director of the Federal Theatre Project, a pa ...

and Margaret Ellen Clifford, ''Trikenish'' ("''Drought''"), translation of ''

Can You Hear Their Voices? ''Can You Hear Their Voices? A Play of Our Time'' is a 1931 play by Hallie Flanagan and her former student Margaret Ellen Clifford, based on the short story "Can You Make Out Their Voices" by Whittaker Chambers. The play premiered at Vassar Colle ...

'' a play from a short story by

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

) (1931) * ''Der Regnboygn'' (1944) Articles: * "Yiddish", ''Cambridge History of American Literature'' (NY: Putnam, 1921) * "A Visit with 'Tarbut Laam'," ''Jewish Life'' (1956)

References

External sources

YIVO Archives: Nathaniel Buchwald
Translation of ''Teatr''
Beit Hatfutsot Databases - Buchwald

Yiddish Song
"In dem vaytn land Sibir" {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchwald, Nathaniel 1890 births 1956 deaths