FRANKLY SPEAKING
Zev Amiti
Yiddish Play Premieres in Wilmington!
It was the first of its kind ever in the 50 year history of the Wilmington Drama League; and without doubt, the first of its kind ever, outside of the Jewish community in Delaware.
A one act play with a strictly Jewish theme, written and directed by a Jewish resident of our state was presented Feb. 3 and 4 in the Drama League near 40th and Market Street before enthusiastic audiences but I suspect it was seen by not more than a half dozen Jewish residents of our city.
“So? What’s all this about?” you may ask.
So — I’ll tell you. It’s basically about my nephew, Moishe, whom many of you know better as Morris Levenberg, known more formally as His Honor, Justice of the Peace Morris Levenberg.
I know, it’s not always kosher to write about one’s kith and kin but believe me, this is different.
Here is a Jewish resident of our state and city — a native, too; actually born on the second floor of a house that stood at Second and Shipley Streets many years ago — who has taken on a hobby of writing, directing, and participating in plays.
Maybe you remember when Reb Morris Levenberg used to direct plays in the old Jewish Community Center that used to be on French Street, between Fifth and Sixth, just below the old Adas Kodesch synagogue?
And I recall once when he staged a play on the bimah of Beth Emeth. Yes, right there on the bimah on a Friday night! It was the dramatized story of Bontche Schweig and what happened to him when he appeared before the throne of the Almighty.
Well, getting back now to my story:
The Drama League had decided to enter a play in the national one act play contest and so it offered four one act plays on Feb. 3 and 4 with the audience helping officials of the Drama League to select the one to be entered in the national contest.
So Reb Morris Levenberg wrote a one act play, based on a story by Isaac Mordecai. He helped to cast it and he also directed it. It was named “Strike of the Poor People” and it involved an old Yiddish legend that once upon a time a wealthy man decided to marry off his daughter and in accordance with Galitzianer tradition (you see, Reb Levenberg’s grandparents and mother came from Galicia), the father had to invite the poor people to the wedding.
And according to tradition, if the poor people of the village did not attend the wedding and participate in the festivities, there just could not be a wedding.
However, on this occasion, the poor people of this particular village in Galicia, went on strike. They sent a negotiator to inform the father of the bride-to-be that they would not “honor” the wedding until they were assured of a raise in donations of money, their own selection of the food, served by caterers of their own choosing.
At first, the father, Reb Yitzchock, refused to agree to the demands but finally he had to give in. Here was the point of the play: Rabbi Menasha who was scheduled to perform the wedding ceremony, advised Chaim, the negotiator for the beggars’ union that according to Talmud and Jewish law, any one who receives charity is bound to share that charity with others, particularly with the shul.
The role of the father, Reb Yitzchok, was played with great skill by Joe Halloran, a veteran member of the Drama League, whose Yiddish mannerisms and accent were superb, thanks to the direction of Reb Levenberg.
Others in the play were Clyde Hess as Rabbi Menasha; Victoria Prober as the bride and Steve Porno as the negotiator for the beggars.
The acting was so wonderful, with add due respect to Reb. Levenberg, you would have thought it had all been directed by Menasha Skulnick or Boris Thomashevsky.
Anyway, the play did direct the audiences to a fundamental Jewish law!
Even beggars who receive charity are required to share that charity with the less fortunate.
Maybe someone can persuade Reb Moishe Levenberg to restage his play in the Jewish Community Center or even in a shul.
This article by columnist William P. Frank appeared in the Jewish Voice on February 24, 1984.
Handsome, outgoing and popular, Artie Blatman was a well-known member of the Jewish community and the Second Street neighborhood where his mother, Lena, ran the family’s bakery. Joseph Blatman, Arthur’s father, had died December 26, 1938, at the age of 54.
Here are some pictures of Arthur Blatman from the 1930s
Arthur Blatman enlisted on April 29, 1941. He was 24 years old.
One of the first letters published in The “Y” Recorder column, “Word from the Front,” later renamed, “Dear Mollye” was this one from Artie.
Word From the Front column in The Y Recorder, December 12, 1941.
Dear Mollye:
Fort Bragg, at last, after four and one-half days walking from Troy, N. C. some 75 to 80 miles away, and what pleasant sight these sand hills are. After grooming our four legged pets, we heard a familiar, and long awaited word, DISMISS. We then started our own stampede to the barracks and showers. Hot water to bathe in, the first hot shower we took since leaving Fort Bragg two months and a half months ago. A haircut, shave, hot shower using two cakes of soap, clean clothes and looking forward to sleeping in a bed, we are beginning to feel like human beings again.
This morning we learned that the Blue Army was victorious, and we found that out from the newspapers. I was in the Blue Army and didn’t even know who won the war. If the umpires were as good as some I’ve seen around, I can understand why we won. I guess everything the Blue Army did, was a strike. They must have been homers. Gus Reissman should have been in the stands watching these maneuvers, and I bet the umpires would have caught plenty H__. You don’t get as much heck from the coach (or officer) or Gus Reissman. Sorry I have to pick on you Gus, but I can picture you at the “Y” every Sunday letting the guys have it. By the way, Mollye, who is he picking on this year? Sometimes I think I’m better off in the Army.
I expect to be home in three weeks. We are getting fifteen days for Christmas furlough, and that is a swell present. Well that seems to be about all at present. Regards to the gang at the “Y” and I’ll be seeing you all soon (I hope).
Love,
Artie.
Take a look at the post script of this letter Artie Blatman wrote to his older brother, Morris.
PS. How about a calendar. If you can get one with a picture of a sweater girl on it – minus sweater – send it out.
Artie wrote to Mollye on Sunday, February 11, “At the present time we’re sitting in a small town in Hitler’s own back yard. Mom doesn’t have to know about it but I’m in Germany.”
This letter to Artie Blatman, written on February 23, 1945, is one of the few letters we have written by Mollye. It was returned to her because it could not be delivered to Artie Blatman.
This letter, written on February 27th, refers to Blatman’s letter of February 11th.
Artillery Observer Orders Fire on Self to Clean Out Enemy
A case of a man willing to sacrifice his own life to aid the advance of his unit is the story of Lt. Arthur Blatman of Lt. Col. Roger Lilly’s armored field artillery. Acting as forward observer, Lt. Blatman crossed the river, dismounted with his men, carrying a portable radio, located enemy units and had fired a mission before he was captured. Just before the enemy marched in upon him with guns at the ready, Lt. Blatman flicked off his radio, but while being questioned, he surreptitiously turned on his radio with his foot and told his captors: “If I hadn’t been captured, I’d call for fire upon this position 20 times —20 times 20 times!”
Hearing the message, his battalion commander plotted fire of three battalions upon the position, “annihilated” the enemy and Lt. Blatman.
The Bronze Star Medal has been posthumously awarded to your son, Second Lieutenant Arthur M. Blatman, Armored Field Artillery. For meritorious service in connection with military operations against the enemy in Germany on 7 and 8 March 1945. Lieutenant Blatman, as forward artillery observer, continuously moved forward for better observation despite heavy artillery fire. He carried out his mission without consideration for his own safety and gave continuous support to the infantry. He continued his mission until fatally wounded. Lieutenant Blatman’s courage and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the Military Forces of the United States.
The first William Topkis (1878-1925) was alive and well in Jerusalem one night last week. On December 12, 1989 at the Israel Museum, the Steven Spielberg Film Archives of the Hebrew University presented a retrospective program on the work of Ya’akov Ben-Dov, considered to be the first Jewish filmmaker in the country. During the program of lectures, slides and films, William Topkis was cited for writing the filmscript and directing a film made by Ben-Dov in 1923.
The film, which Topkis entitled “Palestine Awakening,” told the story of a rich American Jewish tourist who landed in Haifa intending to spend only one day in “this dirty, filthy country.” Instead, he stayed on for a month seeing everything there was to see in the cities and in the kubbutzim and moshavim. At the end of the film the tourist announces that he is returning to the United States to close out his affairs and then will come to live in Palestine.
The significance of William Topkis’ participation in the making of this film in 1923 is greatly enhanced by the diary which he kept of his daily activities during his five-month stay in the Holy Land. His diary entries of the period in May 1923 when the actual filming was being done read like a film log. It is the only written record of the film and supplements the 19 minute portion of the actual film which has survived.
During the program at the Israel Museum Topkis was hailed for his Zionist career, for his film partnership with the DuPonts and Samuel Goldwyn and for his encouragement of American tourism through this film and through the American Information Bureau which he opened in Jerusalem in April 1923. As the work of William Topkis was described, I was proud to be a Delawarean. William Topkis was one of the first American Jewish leaders who realized the potential of film as an. informational device in giving wide audiences the picture of what was transpiring in the rebuilding of Eretz Yisrael. Because of his premature death in 1925, he did not have an opportunity to write or produce any more films. However, the film he left us did break new ground while setting the tone for future productions.
The public career of William Topkis began in the early part of the century when he was elected the secretary of Congregation Adas Kodesch in 1901. His English written minutes are among the first in that language of a Delaware Jewish organization. On Rosh Hashanah in 1901 he helped to write the sermon which calmed the Wilmington Jewish community in the wake of the assassination of President William McKinley.
He served as president of the Wilmington YMHA in 1913, and in 1917 Topkis was elected as Delaware’s only delegate to the first American Jewish Congress. After attending several national ZOA conventions, he was elected to the national executive committee in 1921, serving for several years with distinction. In 1923 he took his wife and daughter, and he went to Palestine to see the country; “a visit to the land of his fathers” and to do what he could to help promote its development.
All together, he and his family spent five months in Eretz Yisrael and several months in Europe, where he attended the World Zionist Congress as an American delegate. His two lasting contributions from that trip are the film and the assistance he provided for Jewish tourism in the country through his American Information Bureau. On returning to the U.S., he gave an interview printed in the national ZOA magazine, The New Palestine, and in various anglo-Jewish newspapers. In the course of the survey of his trip, he urged that 200 American Jewish businessmen should go and live in Palestine for that will “change the face of the country.”
I was pleased to hear about and see the work of the first William Topkis here in Jerusalem. I also told my friend Yaakov Gross, the historian of the film career of Ben-Dov, that the second William Topkis is currently the President of the Jewish Federation of Delaware. From Delaware to Jerusalem and back, William Topkis has left his mark.
(Note: The Steven Spielberg Film Archives is anxious to locate a complete version of the film made by Topkis and Ben-Dov. Any information about the film or still pictures taken as the filming was being done can be sent to Dr. David Geffen via The Jewish Voice. Hopefully, an English version of the Ben-Dov film composite will be available in 1990.)
Originally published in the Jewish Voice on January 5, 1990.
