Great Songs of the Yiddish Theatre to be Highlighted Sept. 12 at the JCC

By Eileen Wingard

LA JOLLA, California — Treasures from the Jewish Music Collection of the Astor Judaica Library will present a three-part series, “Jews on Stage,” beginning with The Yiddish Theater, at 2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 12. As curator and moderator of these programs, I am pleased to have as my guest the outstanding scholar of the Yiddish Theater, Ron Robboy, who will share in the introductions of the 14-selection playlist.

On the program will be the voices of two of the greatest stars of that era, Molly Picon, in her original song, “Die Velt Iz a Teater,” and Boris Thomashefsky, in “Kaddish,” from Der Yeshiva Bokher, which he adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  Registration is available via this link.

Opening the program will be “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen,” sung by local songstress, Elisheva Edelson. The famous Yiddish lullaby was written by Abraham Goldfaden in 1880 as part of his operetta, Shulamis.  Goldfaden is credited with having founded the Yiddish Theater four years earlier in Iasi, Rumania. Music by other luminaries of the Yiddish Theater in America will include “Yos’l, Yos’l,” and “Shein Vi Di L’vone,” by Joseph Rumshinsky, “Mayn Yidishe Meydle,” and “Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn,” by Sholom Secunda, “Unter beymer,” by Alexander Olshanetsky and “Yidl Mitn Fidl,” by Abraham Ellstein. Other local voices to be heard will be Deborah Davis with the Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble singing “Yos’l, Yos’l,” and Elizabeth Schwartz with Hot P’stromi singing “Papirossen. ”

Ron Robboy, who played cello in the San Diego Symphony Orchestra from 1970-2016, was the leading local force in the klezmer revival of the 70s, founding A Big Jewish Band and its later incarnations, The Big Jewish Band and Robboy’s Jewish Orchestra. Robboy’s groups helped spawn the klezmer bands of Yale Strom and Robert Zelickman and Deborah Davis’s Second Ave. Klezmer Ensemble.

The cellist’s interest in Jewish music was inspired by his mother, Rosalie Robboy, z’l, a gifted harpist who worked as a choir director, vocal soloist, keyboardist and music teacher at various synagogues, JCCs and other Jewish organizations in Cleveland, Los Angeles and San Diego.

When he founded A Big Jewish Band, Robboy not only immersed himself in klezmer music, but he began reading about Yiddish literature and culture in depth and began studying the Yiddish language. Much of this study took place in the Astor Judaica Library of the old JCC, with the assistance of its knowledgeable librarian, Mollie Harris.

With the death of his mother in 1979, Robboy inherited her large music collection and his interest in Yiddish theater and film music grew. He composed several scores for Yiddish videos and films and was asked to teach a  class in UCSD’s Literature Department on Yiddish literature. This was followed by a fellowship at the YIVO Institute, the world’s premiere Yiddish archive, in New York City.  There, he was invited to deliver the Vivian Lefsky Hort Memorial Lecture. He also began research on Boris and Bessie Thomashefsy, stars of the Yiddish Theater and grandparents of symphony conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas.

Robboy was named Senior Researcher for Thomas’ Thomashefsky Project and was instrumental in developing the musical numbers from the Yiddish operettas that Tilson Thomas used at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and in his 2012 PBS special about his grandparents.

Subsequently, Robboy presented a paper at Oxford University at the first International Workshop on Yiddish Drama, Theatre and Performing Arts and delivered papers at the universities of Washington, Wisconsin, and McGill in Montreal.  He has given lectures at the annual KlezKamp retreats in the Catskills,  and he taught entire classes under YIVO auspices on Abraham Goldfaden’s opera, Shulamis, and on the parody songs of Mickey Katz and Allan Sherman.

Carnegie Hall, in partnership with YIVO, invited him to lecture on Molly Picon for their year-long series, Women in Music. He also led a team in the reconstruction of Joseph Rumshinsky’s Yiddish operetta, Shir hashirim. He contributed to YIVO’s online course on the History of Jews and Comedy in America and has contributed to Encyclopaedia Judaica, and other academic anthologies, journals and magazines.

We are fortunate to have Ron Robboy as special guest for the Treasures from the Music Collection of the Astor Judaica Library program as we listen to selections from The Yiddish Theater.

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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.