Osip Mikhailovich Lerner (13 January 1847 – 23 January 1907), also known as Y. Y. (Yosef Yehuda) Lerner, was a 19th-century

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

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 ...

ish intellectual, writer, and critic. Originally a ''maskil''—a propagator of the ''

Haskala The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...

'', or "Jewish Enlightenment"—he became a pioneer in the fields of Yiddish theater and folklore, as well as literary criticism.Gottesman, Itzik Nakhmen (2003). ''Defining the Yiddish Nation: The Jewish Folklorists of Poland''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. xvii. "Lerner ... was a pioneer in the fields of Yiddish theater, Yiddish folklore, and especially Yiddish literary criticism." In his later years, he converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and wrote a book denouncing Jews (Adler, 1999, p. 200).

Biography

Lerner was born in Berdichev (today

Berdychiv Berdychiv ( uk, Берди́чів, ; pl, Berdyczów; yi, באַרדיטשעװ, Barditshev; russian: Берди́чев, Berdichev) is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center ...

Kiev Governorate Kiev Governorate, r=Kievskaya guberniya; uk, Київська губернія, Kyivska huberniia (, ) was an administrative division of the Russian Empire from 1796 to 1919 and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1919 to 1925. It wa ...

, then in 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. ...

. After attending the Jewish school there, at age 13 he went to study at the gymnasium in nearby

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, a ...

. In 1866 he moved to

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

, where for one year he attended lectures in the law faculty of the recently founded

Odessa University Odesa I. I. Mechnykov National University ( uk, Одеський національний університет Iмені І. І. Мечникова, translit=Odeskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni I. I. Mechnykova), located in Odesa, Ukraine, i ...

, and thereafter began to devote himself entirely to literary pursuits (Reyzen, 1927, col. 269). In 1881, shortly after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, Lerner leased the Mariinsky Theater in

Kherson Governorate The Kherson Governorate (1802–1922; russian: Херсонская губерния, translit.: ''Khersonskaya guberniya''; uk, Херсонська губернія, translit=Khersonska huberniia), was an administrative territorial unit (als ...

(then part of

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, 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 th ...

) to present

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 ...

. He first presented plays by N.M. Sheikevitch and

Moshe Leib Lilienblum Moshe Leib Lilienblum ( yi, משה לייב לילינבלום; October 22, 1843 in Keidany, Kovno Governorate – February 12, 1910 in Odessa) was a Jewish scholar and author. He also used the pseudonym Zelaphchad Bar-Chuschim ( he, צלפח ...

, then was the first to present classic European theater 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 ...

, translating the material but not radically altering it or adding songs. He was the first to present Yiddish-language productions of

Karl Gutzkow Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow ( in Berlin – in Sachsenhausen) was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century. Life Gutzkow was born of an extremely poor family, not proletarian, but of the lowest and most meni ...

's ''

Uriel Acosta Uriel da Costa (; also Acosta or d'Acosta; c. 1585 – April 1640) was a Portuguese philosopher and skeptic who was born Christian, but returned to Judaism and ended up questioning the Catholic and Rabbinic Judaism, rabbinic institutions of his ti ...

'' and

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of ma ...

's ''La Juive''.

Jacob Adler Jacob Pavlovich Adler (Yiddish: יעקבֿ פּאַװלאָװיטש אַדלער; born Yankev P. Adler; February 12, 1855 – April 1, 1926)IMDB biography was a Jewish actor and star of Yiddish theater, first in Odessa, and later in London and ...

, in his memoir, remarks that "both were works on Jewish subjects and both were in the repertoire of every important European stage of the time" (Adler, 1999, p. 200). His daughter, Tina Lerner, because a noted pianist."Tina Lerner, a Gifted Pianist"
''Musical Courier'' (November 4, 1908): 16.

Notes

References

* Adler, Jacob, ''A Life on the Stage: A Memoir'', translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, . * Reyzen, Zalman (1927). "Lerner, Yosef Yehuda."
Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese un filologye
' exicon of Yiddish Literature, Press and Philology Vol. 2. Vilna: B. Kletskin. Columns 269-278. * Zylbercweig, Zalmen (1934). "Lerner, Yosef-Yehuda."
Leksikon fun yidishn teater
' exicon of the Yiddish Theatre Vol. 2. Warsaw: Farlag Elisheva. Columns 1162-1168. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Osip Mikhailovich Russian Jews Ukrainian Jews Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Judaism Yiddish-language writers Yiddish theatre 1847 births 1907 deaths People from Berdychiv