Merchants of Helsinki N Jewish stereotypes on a Yiddish stage J
Simo Muir
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30752/nj.85933
Abstract • This article analyses a New Year’s revue from 1929 by Helsinki-born Jac Weinstein (1883–1976) and the image of the Jewish merchant. Many stereotypes concerning ethnicity and gender are at play in the revue and the line between humour, Jewish self-deprecation and antisemitic depic- tion of the Jew becomes blurred. The questionable business ethics of Jewish merchants is one of the core themes of the revue. The article asks what role ethnic stereotypes played in Jewish humour before the height of National Socialist racial antisemitism, and what purpose such performances served. It examines the various stereotypes found in the couplets, sketches and one-act plays in Weinstein’s kleynkunst performance against the background of transnational Jewish performing arts and current research on Jewish entrepreneurship and antisemitism in Finland.
2 Introduction1 Weinstein (1883–1976). Among these works, which were thought to have been lost, was a In 2005, when the Jewish Community of New Year’s revue from 1929 that satirises in a Helsinki was selling a house in the Punavuori bold and frank manner the life of local Jewish district of Helsinki, formerly a centre of Jewish-owned clothing shops and small fac- 2 tories, a cellar packed with forgotten archival Jac Weinstein, whose father was a former Jewish soldier of the tsar’s army and whose material was discovered. Then working at the mother was a daughter of a Königsberg National Archives of Finland, I was commis- rabbi, attended a traditional heder and a sioned to create an inventory of the mate- Jewish school fashioned after Russian state- rial. The documents included manuscripts run Jewish schools. He went on to study at a of Yiddish plays written by Helsinki-born local Swedish-language grammar school and was among the first Finnish Jews to enrol businessman, playwright and impresario Jac in the Imperial Alexander University (now University of Helsinki). At the outburst of 1 I would like to thank Helen Beer, Laura the First World War, he fled to Copenhagen Ekholm, Riikka Tuori and Hadas Weiss for in order to avoid conscription to the Russian their assistance and valuable comments about army. In Copenhagen he married Helsinki- my article. I would also like to thank Yvonne born Rebecka Seligson (1891–1973), and Westerlund for making available her private they soon moved to Stockholm, returning archives for my research. All mistakes that to Helsinki in 1921, when Weinstein obtained may remain are mine. I would also like to Finnish citizenship. There, he became a part- express my gratitude to the Kone Foundation ner in his brother-in-law’s fabric wholesale for funding my research. firm. (Muir 2010)
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 27 merchants. I was surprised to find many stereo one-sided as it used to be. Beneath the mask types in the revue and this made me wonder of the canny merchant could be a caring family what the purpose of their performance was man who sympathetically engaged with the at the time. plights around him. However, according to Towards the end of the 1920s, the Jewish Erdman, many of the performances ‘clearly community of Helsinki suffered an economic bordered on the antisemitic, despite the fact and existential crisis. The depression hit the that Jews were active in writing and attend- Jewish clothing trade particularly hard, and ing these shows’ (ibid. 105). The same applied concentration on the same branch caused to German cabaret, and as the historian Peter tension within the community and pressure Jelavich (1993: 6, 79) has pointed out, only after from the outside. Antagonism towards Jews the rise of virulent political antisemitism in the was increasing and the Jewish merchants were 1920s did the comicality of such jokes become frequently targeted in the Finnish press. In this questionable. Jewish organisations and indi- atmosphere, the future prospects, especially for viduals started to protest, which led eventually the younger generation, seemed gloomy. to the diminution of the stereotypes (ibid. 201). One might expect Jewish cultural production My aim in this article is to analyse how in this period to provide hope or self-assertion, Weinstein depicts the Jewish merchants in and this makes it doubly surprising that a revue Helsinki at the verge of the calamitous 1930s like Weinstein’s would be staged instead. In the for European Jewry, and to discuss the mean- revue many stereotypes concerning ethnicity and ing and purpose of these stereotypes. The arti- gender are at play. The line between humour, cle starts by contextualising Weinstein’s œuvre Jewish self-deprecation and antisemitic depic- in the field or Yiddish kleynkunst theatre and tion of the Jew is often blurred. The questionable by presenting Weinstein’s New Year’s revue. business ethics of Jewish merchants is one of the I will then analyse the image of the Jewish core themes of the revue. How should we inter- merchant and the stereotypes found in the pret the stereotypes in Weinstein’s New Year’s revue in the light of literature on contemporary revue and how did the spectators understand transnational Jewish performing arts, and I will them? What purpose did the performance of also reflect on recent research about Jewish such stereotypes serve, and what role did the entrepreneurship and antisemitism in Finland ethnic stereotypes play in Jewish humour and in the first half of the twentieth century. society before the height of National Socialist Weinstein’s revue offers an alternative racial antisemitism? approach to the social and cultural history of The stereotype of a deceitful Jewish mer- Finnish Jews and challenges the nationalistic chant can be traced back to traditional thea- and conventional understanding of ethnicity tre production. This Jewish merchant was and integration in pre-Second World War also popular in so-called Hebrew comedy in Finland, often seen as unproblematic (see America. According to the theatre scholar Kuparinen 2008: 276; Muir 2013). In addition, Harley Erdman (1997: 19, 65, 80), at the end of analysis of Weinstein’s sketches provide a new the nineteenth century, the depiction of Jewish Nordic dimension to the research into Yiddish merchants in American popular entertainment theatre in general, and to the micro-research 3 changed from the traditional antisemitic, field of Yiddish kleynkunst in particular. gloomy and revengeful image of Shylock to a comical and jovial, though still unreliable and 3 Yiddish kleynkunst, as well as Yiddish vaude- cheating, merchant. The image is no longer as ville, has enjoyed little attention in the past
28 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 Yiddish kleynkunst performances learned in school – lacked the vocabulary and in Helsinki expressions and, perhaps more importantly, a tradition to describe the Jewish Diaspora. The Jewish community in Finland, which Things that could be said in Yiddish would had gained civil rights and freedom of pro- have sounded different in Swedish. fession only with Finnish independence in Having its roots in Avrom Goldfadn’s 1917, was breaking away from the traditional Yiddish theatre founded in Iași (Yassy), and religious East European Jewish lifestyle Romania, in 1876, modern Yiddish theatre had and absorbed with accelerating speed the reached the shores of Finland some thirty years secular and urban lifestyles and languages of later, when the country was still an autonomous the country’s capital, Swedish and Finnish. 4 grand duchy of the Russian Empire. The first The linguist Neil Jacobs (2002: 203) has known Yiddish theatre group in Helsinki was claimed that cabaret among Jews ‘became the dramatic section of the Yidisher literarer testing grounds for evaluating the achieve- klub, the Yiddish Literary Club, founded by ments, failures and limitations of Jewish Noach Oberman in 1906, in which Weinstein emancipation and integration into modern was also a founding member. In 1922 Weinstein European society’. Similarly, Yiddish theatre founded the Yidishe dramatishe gezelshaft in in America has been described as a ‘secular Helsingfors, the Jewish Dramatic Society in ritual, a rite of passage from shtetl to assimila- Helsinki, which functioned until the outbreak tion’ (Pollak and Greenbaum 1998: 127). For of the Second World War (though theatrical Finnish Jews, the shtetlekh, the small towns performances directed by Weinstein continued of the Russian Pale of Settlement with large during and after the war). The theatre group Jewish communities, were still a fresh mem- was fashioned after the model of hundreds ory. There was not a family where one of the of similar societies all over Eastern Europe. parents or grandparents did not come from Its members were mainly amateurs but there one of them. Despite the rapid shift from were also some theatre and music profession- Yiddish to Swedish, in which the younger als. Weinstein’s theatre group stood in many generation was already fluent, the language ways between the East and the West, absorbing of the Jewish cabaret in Helsinki between the influences, besides Yiddish theatre in Eastern world wars was still Yiddish. One could argue Europe and the United States, especially from that Yiddish was better equipped to dealing 5 German and Swedish cabaret. Along with with intimate social issues. Swedish – for many born around the turn of the nineteenth 4 and twentieth centuries a second language On the origin and developement of Yiddish theatre, see e.g. Sandrow 1996, Steinlauf 2010, Berkowitz 2003, Berkowitz and Henry 2012, among historians of Yiddish theatre, who Nahson 2016, Caplan 2018. have focused mostly on the so-called ‘legiti- 5 Whilst it is not known whether Weinstein mate’ stage (see Nahson 2016: 244; Berkowitz ever visited Germany, he would have had an 2003: 19). For Yiddish kleynkunst theatre per opportunity to see visiting German cabaret se, see Nudelman 1968, Sandrow 1996 and artists during his time in Sweden and later Bułat 2010; for Yiddish vaudeville in New in Finland. For instance in 1923 Meinhard York, see Sandrow 1977, Nahson 2016 and Maur from the Deutsches Teater in Berlin Thissen 2016; for Yiddish music hall in performed for Jewish audiences in Helsinki London, see Lachs 2018; for Yiddish theat- (Muir 2004: 60). In general educated Finnish rical performances on amateur stage in the Jews were fluent in German, which they had Soviet Union, see Shternshis 2006: 70–105. learned at school and/or independently, read
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 29 classics of Yiddish theatre, such as plays by that ‘humor can serve as social commentary, Jacob Gordin, Sholem-Aleykhem and Sholem thus providing a venue for change by lending Asch, the group performed also Yiddish caba- comedians a forum to discuss social, political, ret, i.e. kleynkunst soirées and longer full-even- religious, and sexual issues safely. Humor can ing revues. (Muir 2004: 48–9, 67–76) also help society work through unspeakable Cabaret had found its way to stages of difficulties by giving a name and face to evil’. European Jewish theatres from the first The literary scholar Ruth Wisse (2013: 10) has appearances at the Chat Noir in 1881 in Paris defined Jewish humour in the following way: via clubs in German cities some twenty years ‘Jewish joking is the product of an intricate cul- later. Typical of cabaret or revue were short ture, conceived in a Jewish language or idiom, skits and songs, both original and parodies drawing on Jewish memory, and responsive to of existing ones. The cabaret became a place shared experiences, especially of the deleteri- where society was set under criticism and ous kind’. This often self-deprecating nature satire. In the 1920s, kleynkunst, as cabaret was of Jewish humour, found also in Weinstein’s often called in Yiddish, was in vogue among plays, makes performing it challenging. A East European Jewish sophisticates. The ven- joke may work differently depending on the ues brought together people of various skills: performers and listeners and on the general artists, musicians, writers, professional and social climate of the time. According to Wisse amateur actors. The theatre scholar Nahma (ibid. 34), Sigmund Freud made ‘a distinction Sandrow (1996: 323) has described kleynkunst as between jokes directed by Jews at Jews and ‘a sort of cabaret revue, witty, gay, and irrever- jokes directed at Jews by foreigners – not ent, rapidly winging from music to dance to because the former are any kinder, but instead monologue to sketch’. According to Sandrow because Jews know the connection between (1977: 94), kleynkunst, which also existed in their own faults and virtues’. America, was a little more refined than vaude- Weinstein’s New Year’s revue ville, with its music stemming from art and folksongs, its playlets often by classical writ- Weinstein’s New Year’s revue appears on the ers and in pure Yiddish instead of vaudeville’s cover of the printed programme under the cheerfully vulgar linguistic hodgepodge. The Swedish name ‘Revyafton’, Revue evening themes of vaudeville were also quite different (Program 1929) (see Fig. 1). Yiddish perfor- from those of European kleynkunst, since the mances in Helsinki were often advertised in latter revolved around the immigration experi- Swedish, the official language of the com- ence and nostalgia for the Old Home with its munity at the time. Inside the leaflet, all the traditional religious life style. programme details are in Latinised Yiddish. Weinstein’s Yiddish-language kleynkunst The revue was performed on New Year’s Eve, shows were obviously meant to meet the call 31 December 1929, in the festive hall of the for Yiddish entertainment in the Jewish com- Jewish Co-educational School by the Jewish munity. His revues and soirées also provided a Dramatic Society in Helsinki. The manuscript chance to vent difficult social issues. The sociol- of the revue, which is the only remaining nearly ogist Lynn Rapaport (2005: 252) has explained complete revue by Weinstein, consists of 108 typed folios in Latinised Yiddish (instead of using Hebrew characters, as would usually German literature and were influenced by German culture, which was held in high have been the case). It includes several work- regard in Finland. ing versions of the couplets and sketches as
30 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 Fig. 1. The printed programme for the New Year’s revue in Latinised Yiddish and Swedish shows the how the evening was divided into three sections, very much in the style of revues in the Weimar Republic. Finnish Jewish Archives, National Archives of Finland. well as items that did not end up in the final I may have sinned today 6 programme (Weinstein 1929). It appears that And been a bit harsh. Weinstein, the author and director of the piece, Despite all that, we will remain friends performed the role of the conférencier, the mas- As we have been until today ter of ceremonies. His lines are absent from the Like nothing ever happened. manuscript, except for one rhymed fragment And nothing ever was. probably meant to end the show, in which he begs forgiveness for his outspokenness and Weinstein’s revue follows the tradition of annu- suggests reconciliation: ally updated New Year’s revues, which had been popular in Paris and were becoming popular in Ikh efsher hob gezindikt haynt Berlin in the beginning of the twentieth cen- Un a bisl shtreng geven. tury ( Jelavich 1993: 106). Besides the effects of Dokh veln mir farblaybn fraynt economic depression, Weinstein’s cabaret deals Vi mir es zay’n geven biz haynt with other societal issues that can be found Vi gornit volt geshen. in the minutes and archival material of the 7 Un gornit iz geven. Jewish community. These include attempts to maintain a traditional orthodox Jewish lifestyle
6 A part of the revue, the one-act play called Der tsebrokhener shpigl, can be found in the titles are in the original Latinised form, Yvonne Westerlund’s private archive. The play which reflect the peculiarities of Helsinki is written in Hebrew letters and was probably Yiddish. Weinstein’s Latinisation, often not one of the first drafts of the manuscript. consistent, is based on Swedish orthography, 7 The Yiddish transliteration used in this article where for instance å stand for Yiddish o (אָ). follows the YIVO standard. In the references See Muir (2004: 135–136).
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 31 Fig. 2. There are no known pictures of Weinstein’s New Year’s revue. However, a picture taken during the birthday party of clothing manufacturer and businessman Moses Skurnik on 17 December 1930, in the festive hall of the Jewish Co-educational School, shows a stage design that corresponds with descriptions found in Weinstein’s manuscript of the revue. Courtesy of Dorrit Skurnik, Helsinki. against increasing secularisation, and discus- Weinstein ridicules the Nazi German racial sions about the future prospects of the young paradigm by drawing attention to the Reich’s in a society growing hostile towards Jews. It minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels’ 8 is noteworthy that Weinstein’s revue is devoid ‘Jewish nose’ (Muir, forthcoming). of political matters, including Jewish politics, The structure of the New Year’s revue fol- or issues relevant to the wider Finnish society. lows that of programmes at the Buntes Theater According to Jelavich (ibid. 5, 154), during the in Berlin (the first German cabaret founded 1920s, revues in the Weimar Republic tended in 1901), where the first third of the evening to avoid political statements; sexuality and was devoted to songs and the second and gender were much more prominent themes, third parts of the show included longer works as was also the case in Weinstein’s New Year’s ( Jelavich 1993: 44). Weinstein’s revue starts revue. However, politics became more visible similarly, with seven couplets that satirise the 9 in the Weimar revue towards the end of 1920s, Jewish clothing trade and Jewish social life. and especially after the Great Depression and the increasing success of the Nazis (ibid. 139, 8 Some of Weinstein’s war-time poetry in 187). There is some evidence that Weinstein’s Swedish, e.g. Judestjärnan – Davidssköld ( Jewish star – David’s shield; 23 October revues made a similar turn in the wake of the 1943) and one sketch written in Swedish, growing power of the extreme right in Finland, Rapporten (Report; 17 November 1943), deal especially when Finland was co-belligerent with the percecution and annihilation of with Nazi Germany during the Second World Jews in German-occupied countries (Muir, War. In a sketch of a Purim-shpil from 1944, forthcoming). 9 The couplets in the order of the programme
32 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 A pause is followed by two sketches, or tab- define the conditions of life in a metropolis, leaux as they are referred to in the programme, i.e. the latest fashion, consumerism, the hectic and a short one-act comedy about the Jewish nightlife with its music and so forth ( Jelavich 10 clothing trade. A second pause is followed 1993: 85, 109, 113). According to the economic by a longer one-act comedy called the Der tse- and social historian Laura Ekholm (2019: 86), brokhener shpigl (The broken mirror), set in the ‘the rise of the modern garment industry with 11 house of a nouveau riche clothing merchant. standard-sized ready-to-wear clothing is inev- Weinstein’s stage design also seems to have itably one of the markers of a modern, indus- been influenced by the style of the Buntes trialised consumer society’. Jewish merchants Theater, where cabaret shows were performed in Helsinki were concentrated in the cloth- in a private salon milieu ( Jelavich 1993: 46). ing industry and were pioneers in the retail One of the rare pictures of the stage in the fes- of low-cost ready-to-wear clothing (Ekholm tive hall of the Jewish Co-educational School 2019; 2013; 2005). The Jewish clothing shops from December 1930 shows a bourgeois salon (referred to in Swedish at the time as konfek- decoration that matches the stage description tion, from French confection, i.e. ready-to-wear 12 of Der tsebrokhener shpigl (see Fig. 2). After garment), alongside hat and fur ateliers, were the revue programme, a ‘special number’ was dominant in the urban landscape of Helsinki. performed, and was most likely followed by Henrik Street (today Mannerheim Street), music and dance – a New Year’s ball. Helsinki’s main road, had several Jewish- The image of Jewish merchants owned shops, and as many as fifteen adjacent in Helsinki Jewish businesses in 1929 (Ekholm 2005: 181). Jews’ prominence in the ready-to-wear cloth- Weinstein’s New Year’s revue depicts the ing industry is reflected in the first couplet of Jewish community as vital and modern, in line the revue, Di ongeshteltes gezang (The employ- with cabaret’s general tendency to reflect and ees’ song), which is an energetic song of the younger generation, clothing-shop assistants. The couplet is sung by a group of men to the (in original Latinised Yiddish): Di ångeschtel- melody of the Hebrew song Im eyn ani li mi li, tes gesang (The employees’ song),Dås lidl fun di konfektionären un grossisten (The song of which adds an ironic twist to the song because clothing retailers and wholesalers), A schtern its original words are ‘If I am not for myself, fun bollplan (A star from the football field), who is?’ Di ongeshteltes gezang contains a bat- Chajke Tschårt (Khayke the Devil), A vigenlid tery of real names of Helsinki Jewish shops, (A lullaby), Idishe jiches ( Jewish lineage), and many of which carried the family name of the Unser budget (Our budget) (Weinstein 1929). 10 The sketches are:Der idisher mark (The owner. The names show also how many of the Jewish market) and A bild fun Henriksgas (A businesses strove to distinguish themselves as scene from Henrik’s Street); and the one-act French or English: comedy: Di kukle – oder Der gebrochener neider (The mannequin doll – or The broken oath). (Weinstein 1929) In konfektsyon mir dinen. Es ligt 11 Title in Weinstein’s original Latinisation Der in undzer blut. zubrochener schpigl (Weinstein 1929). Un undzere balebatim ir kent zey ale gut: 12 According to the programme (Program Au Bon Marché un Prima, Confection 1929), the stage for the New Year’s revue was de Paris designed by Josef Manulkin (later Manuel, 1908–2009), a student at the Academy of Fine Un Confection des Modes, Confection Arts in Helsinki. Company.
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 33 Refreng: Nemen vos der vint vet gebn, Un Jakobovitsch un Rakevitsch, Old England Geyen mitn shtrom un J. Schik Un Savlansky un Waprinsky, Cho Stiller, Like your father you will live Kubelik. In a murky shop, You’ll take what the wind will bring you, In a clothing shop we work. It runs And you’ll go with the flow. in our blood. And our employers, you know all The fact that the young were following in the of them well: footsteps of their parents was seen as a problem Au Bon Marché and Prima, Confection in the community and special grants were given de Paris to encourage adolescents to study and gain And Confection des Modes, Confection university degrees (Ekholm 2005: 186). Company. The economic depression in Finland that started over a year earlier hit the clothing indus- Refrain: try especially hard. Many companies, among And Jakobovitsch and Rakevitsch, Old them the wholesale firm J. Linder Ltd, where England and J. Schik Weinstein himself was a shareholder, had gone And Savlansky and Waprinsky, Cho Stiller, bankrupt in 1928 (Muir 2010). Weinstein’s sat- Kubelik. ire was thus also self-irony. Anxiety over the clothing industry is the theme of the couplet Name raps like this were characteristic of called Dos lidl fun di konfektsyonern un grosistn assimilated Jewish revue in German-speaking (The song of the clothing retailers and whole- countries ( Jacobs 2002: 204). The line ‘It runs salers), sung by a group of men to the cheer- in our blood’ suggests that being part of the ful foxtrot melody of Constantinople by Harry clothing business was practically inevitable. Carlton from 1928. Retail was painfully slow, The entire Jewish community was connected adding pressure on the wholesalers who had to the clothing trade in one way or another, more at stake: and many of its young cut their education short to go straight into the clothing busi- Fun Henriksgas un Hagneskayen ness, mostly retail (Ekholm 2005: 180). Even Loyfn mir arum un mir shrayen: high-school and university graduates like Es iz nit gut! Weinstein himself joined the clothing trade Un fun Robertsgas zey loyfn, in the wake of the 1920s economic boom. The Kukn oyb mir do epes farkoyfn. couplet called A vignlid (A lullaby), the melody Men lakht mit blut . . . of which is unknown, satirises this one-sided Un der zeyger shlogt do bald dokh tsvey occupational structure and limited prospects Un der veksl vart dokh nit. Oy, vey! for Jewish youth. The irony in the scene lies in the disparity between the image of a mother Refreng: and child and the contents of the song. The Konfektsyonern un grosistn mir zaynen dokh mother foretells the future of her son: ale di faynste fun shtot.
Vi der tate vestu lebn From Henrik’s Street to Hagnäs Strand In a fintstern krom, We run about and we shout:
34 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 It is not good! the turn of the century (Seppälä 2009: 169, And from Robert’s Street they run 285). By the late 1920s, with the social and And look if we sell something here economical rise of local Jews, the market had People laugh with the taste of blood in become for them a shameful reminder of their mouths the past and of the humiliating Jewish stat- And the clock soon strikes two utes they had to endure. In a song from the And the I.O.U. does not wait. Oh no! sketch Der yidisher mark (The Jewish market) the place is described as follows (sung to the Refrain: melody of A yidishe troyke arranged by Joseph Clothing retailers and wholesalers we all Rumshinsky): are indeed the best in town. Men hert bay undz imer say fri i say shpet The couplet goes on to tell how the merchants A nomen, vos klingt nit gehoybn. earn hardly anything at all and that one mer- Men makht mit dem kop ven men fun es redt, chant’s misfortune, even if a competitor, affects Vayl keyner vil dem nomen nit loybn, the entire Jewish trade: ‘Ven fun undz makht Fun fintstern geto es hot a gerukh eyner pleyte / Vern ale mir poshet bald teyte . . .’ Un fun ire ayzerne tsamen, (‘When one of us goes bankrupt / We’ll all end Fun shpot un farfolgung, fun laydn un flukh – up dead soon . . .’). According to Ekholm (2006: Der yidisher mark iz der nomen. 118), the depression in Finland between 1928 and 1932 exposed the economic vulnerability One hears among us constantly, of the community in its one-sided occupa- early and late, tional structure. One bankruptcy could set off A name that does not sound exalted. a domino effect, making many other Jewish One shakes one’s head when talking businesses collapse. about it, As a contrast and flip-side of fancy shops No one wants to praise it. selling the latest continental fashion, the It reeks of the gloomy ghetto revue presents the viewers with a Jewish mar- And of its iron fences, ket in Helsinki that trades in trapkes, ‘rags’. Of mockery and persecution, According to Jelavich (1993: 109), depictions of suffering and curse – of the past can be a means to accentuate the The Jewish market is its name. modernity of the present. The Jewish mar- ket, or Narinkka, from the Russian phrase na There was an even stronger reason for intro- rynke (at the market), where still some forty ducing the topic in the New Year’s revue: in less-fortunate families were selling second- 1929 the Helsinki city authorities were plan- hand clothes, was just around the corner ning to close the market down. This led to from the elegant Henrik Street (Ekholm petitions and bitter protests from among the 2005). The market had been there for sixty Jewish salespeople. By 1930, the Jewish market years and it was a popular shopping place for had nevertheless closed down (Ekholm 2005: members of the working class. Most Jewish 106). The timing could not have been worse, families started their business at this market as some merchants who had gone bankrupt as a result of earlier restrictions in livelihood. during the depression were forced to return The so-called ‘Narinkka Jews’ had been a to the Jewish market, to the ‘poor mother’ as laughingstock for Finnish variety theatre at the song puts it.
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 35 Stereotypes of dubious business ethics business, a confection shop ‘like everyone else’. The comedy had actually started with a Despite the depression, the revue depicts the scene in which the butler steals some of Mr economic rise of many Jews during the boom Grossist’s cigars, citing a Talmudic phrase: of the 1920s and mocks the excesses of the Im yogato motsoso! (Seek and you shall 13 nouveau riche. Along with the civil rights, find!). The butler has a ‘secret recipe’ for when Finland became independent in 1917, success. One has to take: Jews gained the freedom to choose their occu- pation (Ekholm 2013: 17, 32). Consequently, 50 protsent energye, 34 protsent frekhheyt, 15 many families established their own clothing umerlekhkeyt un misht es tsuzamen mit a ½ % shops and flourished during the economic erlekhkeyt un a ½ % libe eyner tsum andern. boom of the 1920s. In the one-act comedy Der tsebrokhener shpigl, the viewers get a 50 per cent energy, 34 per cent impudence, glimpse of the life of nouveau riche Mr and 15 per cent dishonesty, and to mix it with Mrs Grossist (lit. wholesaler) who party at the half per cent honesty and half per cent love most exclusive restaurants, go to the theatre, of the other. dress according to the latest fashion and travel abroad to spas. Much of the comedy lies in a And the mixture had to be taken every morn- pantomime, where the butler and maid, his ing, immediately after morning prayers. The fiancée, act as their master’s and mistress’s maid, shocked by the low percentage of love, reflections in a dressing mirror broken by acci- throws a shoe at the butler when he tries to dent when the master and mistress were out. hug her but hits the mirror, which shatters. The The master was at a board meeting trying to play has an ironic end as the maid, impressed resolve problems with keeping up a traditional by the butler’s ability to deceive the master and Orthodox Jewish lifestyle, and the mistress mistress with the mirror reflection trick, and was at a meeting of the women’s charitable to place the blame of the broken mirror on the trust fund-raising for the Jewish unemployed. master, accepts his recipe for success with ‘half Both come home separately and so drunk that a per cent of love of the other’. they cannot see that the mirror is broken and In the couplet Yidishe yikhes ( Jewish line- think that they are talking to their reflec- age), Mr Chatzkelson commits an insurance tions, which look ‘somehow younger’. Such fraud by setting fire to his shop to save his visual and mimic vitality common in caba- business from bankruptcy (sung to the melody ret in Germany (see Jelavich 1993: 83) were of Fishel Singer’s Yidl mit zayn fidl): important non-verbal devices employed in Weinstein’s show. Far eynike jorn zurik iz geshen The alleged bad business ethics of Jewish Az der sezon iz geharget geven merchants and deceitfulness of the cloth- Un di gesheftn teyte, khotsh nem un makh ing trade is the central theme in the one-act a pleyte comedy Der tsebrokhener shpigl. Whilst Mr Un ikh hob keyn retung nit gezen. and Mrs Grossist are out, the butler and the Hot zikh mir getrofn a shabes tsu nakht maid discuss their life prospects. The butler would like to ‘open a door’ which the maid, a 13 The Hebrew phrase refers to Rabbi Yitzhak’s naïve figure, understands as becoming a thief. teachings in the Babylonian Talmud, What the butler really means is to open a Megillah 6b.
36 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 A sho nokh der havdole, vi ikh shtey mir of the Jewish community and its religious un trakht, establishment. Officially, the community was Shrayt tsu mir Khaym Zlates: Es brenen still Orthodox and represented East European dayne shmates! Litvak orthodoxy (ibid. 11–12, 18). In the refrain, Do shpringt mayn vaybl oyf un zingt Mrs Chatzkelson praises her husband’s virtues: un lakht: . . . ‘Mayn man reb Khatsklzon ver ken im epes ton?/ Azoy geyt yedn vemen Got hot nor gebentsht’ (‘My Some years ago it happened husband Mr Chatskelson, who can compete The season was going to hell with him? / This is the way it goes for everyone And business was dead, near bankruptcy who is blessed by God’). And I did not see any way out. This negative, self-deprecatory image of It happened to me one Saturday evening a Jewish merchant ‘with 15 per cent dishon- 14 An hour after the Havdalah, when I was esty’ could be considered as in-group humour, just standing and thinking, told by one Jew to another, ‘harmless’ since Khaym Zlates shouts out to me: Your rags the actors and audience were all Jews. Jelavich are on fire! has considered the humorous depiction of Jews Then my wife jumps up and laughs: . . in the Berlin cabaret of Schall und Rauch in the 1920s as in-house jokes among actors and On top of breach- an invited audience ing secular law, Mr ( Jelavich 1993: 79). Chatzkelson also The negative image breaks the fourth of a Jewish business commandment by and stereotypes of keeping his shop open Jewish merchants on the Holy Shabbat, in Weinstein’s New something that the Year’s revue would, Helsinki rabbi fiercely however, suggest that opposed by com- these had been issues manding shopkeepers during the past year, to lock their doors. as the revues generally Weinstein does not concentrated on the mention the name of previous year’s events. Fig. 3. A fragment of an antisemitic cartoon from a the rabbi, but the only mainstream family picture magazine called Suomen One indicator of the official rabbi in post kuvalehti in November 1927 in which a Junnu Kivanen popularity of such in 1929 was Scholem is swindled by a Jewish merchant. The merchant’s line stereotypes among is a parody of Jewish-Finnish. The text reads: ‘“The Treistman (Muir and sleeve – it has to be long like that so that it can shrink the broader society Tuori 2019: 19–20). . . .” – And Junnu bought it’. National Library of Finland. was the appearance As soon as the rabbi in November 1927 disappears, Mr Chatzkelson opens the door of a dishonest Jewish clothing merchant in again. The song indicates the clash between the a popular comic strip published in a main- growing secularisation among the members stream family picture magazine called Suomen Kuvalehti (Veli Giovanni 1927; Hanski 2006: 14 Prayer that marks the symbolic end of 115; Kuparinen 2008: 271). In the story, the Shabbat. young forthright protagonist Junnu Kivanen
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 37 goes to a Jewish clothing store to buy a winter goy jacket, only to be swindled by merchants with It is cheap indeed. – But I’m not sure if I will exaggerated ‘Semitic’ features (see Fig. 3). By buy it. the end of the 1920s, Jewish merchants were first clothing merchant increasingly attacked in daily newspapers, and Cheap, you see! Cheap and cheap are not the even more so in the antisemitic press (Hanski same thing. 2006: 124–43). This stigma on Jewish trade was (Pulls him by the sleeve.) not new, as stereotypical depictions of Jews Come in anyway. It costs nothing to look! and Jewish merchants had featured in Finnish (Pulls him by the sleeve.) (In comes the second newspaper articles and cartoons of humour clothing merchant.) magazines since the 1880s (Forsgård 2002). second clothing merchant Stereotypes of vulgar behaviour (Runs to the goy, pulls him by the other sleeve.) Why should you believe him? He has only The sketchA bild fun Henriksgas (Scene from lousy merchandise that lasts from the Fast of Henrik’s Street) in Swedish and Jewish-Swedish Esther to Purim [i.e. one day]. My costumes satirises the ruthlessness and vulgarity – the ‘34 are made of the best materials and the best per cent impudence’ – of which Jewish clothing accessories. The gentleman shall come with me! shop keepers were accused, especially in anti- (Pulls him.) semitic caricatures. The scene also depicts the fierce competition among Jews in the branch. In Eventually both sleeves of the coat rip, which the sketch, two neighbouring clothing retailers causes a big uproar. A policeman arrives at the try to lure the same passer-by into their shops scene to see what all the fuss is about. The sell- by dragging him by the sleeves of a coat that ers blame everything on the passer-by, the goy, the first merchant has managed to force on him. and he is taken away by the police. In the end The Swedish-speaking passer-by, thegoy , as the two ‘competitors’ go hands on shoulders to Weinstein names the character, is a caricature a nearby fancy café called Primula at the corner of a ‘typical Finn’: shy, hesitant, but stubborn: of Henrik Street and Kaleva Street, cursing the goy and calling him an ‘antisemite’. By turning goy things upside down, making the merchants Nu ä’ de’ ju billigt. – Men int’ vet ja’ om jag köper. in the story the victims and the non-Jewish 1. konfektsyoner passer-by the villain, Weinstein is obviously Bilach, scheier ni! Bilach och bilach ä’ inte glaich. questioning the dealers’ behaviour. The Jewish (Tsit im farn arbl.) merchants on Henrik Street, kibitzing in front Nu kom in lechål-apåches. De’ koschtar ingenting of their shops and interfering with each oth- att titta! er’s businesses, are also depicted in a couplet (Tsit im farn arbl.) (Arayn der 2 konfektsyoner) called Khayke Tshort (Khayke the Devil). In it, 2. konfektsyoner a fearsome yidene, a Jewess, threatens men with (Loyft tsum goy, tsit im baym andern arbl.) vitriol and violence. Her role is performed by Vaschka ni tro honom? Han har bara dåli’ vara a cross-dressing man to underscore her mas- som håller från Ester tånes bis purim. Mina culinity and unattractiveness. She tells about kuschtjumer har de’ finaste tig å’ de’ finaste till- her husband, who is trying to do business on beheiver. Harrn schka komma me’ mej! Henrik Street, where he speaks with his hands (Tsit im.) in the ‘Jewish parliament’ (‘Dort redt er mit di
38 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 hent in dem yidishn parlament’). The behaviour performative code switching – i.e., the inten- of Jewish merchants was discussed in Helsinki tional deconstruction of speech varieties, and newspapers and the police tried to eradicate the conscious rearrangement or recombina- it, which was said to cause disturbance to tion of styles, codes, etc.’ was characteristic for the passers-by (see Helsingin Sanomat 1927). emancipated and assimilated Jewish cabaret. Some merchants were even prosecuted for When talking to non-Jews, all characters this. Helsingin Sanomat even published anti- in Weinstein’s revue speak an imitation of semitic cartoons by Tiikeri (Arvo Tigerstedt) Jewish-Swedish. An analysis of Weinstein’s depicting the Jewish merchants of Helsinki parody of Jewish-Swedish shows that it con- (e.g. Tiikeri 1930). Such was the spread of this tains many distinct linguistic features that offensive image of the Henrik Street Jewish are different from the quasi-Jewish-Swed- merchants among the town’s people that the ish found in antisemitic caricatures in the community took measures to cleanse the Finnish press (Muir 2006: 544–5). A parody public image of the Jews. Nearly a year after of Jewish-Swedish is also used in the couplet Weinstein’s revue, in November 1930, a group Undzer budzhet (Our budget), where mem- of Jewish merchants came up with statutes bers of the Jewish community are lament- aimed at eradicating what they called ‘des- ing, to the melody of Volga boatmen, the high picable business methods’ (Ekholm 2005: 183; budget of the Jewish congregation. During Memorandum 1930). The rules forbade such the economic depression, some members of things as ‘lurking’ in front of the shops and the Jewish community, who were also becom- interfering with neighbouring businesses, and ing increasingly secularised, and failed to pay they advised that shop doors be kept closed. their community tax. In the song, the chair Writing about Jewish self-criticism and self- of the community explains to the non-Jewish hatred, the historian Todd Endelman (2011: janitor of the synagogue why he cannot be 118) has claimed that ‘having identified with paid on time: the societies in which they lived, acculturated Jews saw themselves and other Jews through . . . Herrn, va’ scho god Christian spectacles, if not at all times then at Sche min kleiderbod, jach har zores oifn pud. least some of the time. Inevitably, there were Un schäschongen va’ schå dåli’, Herre God! occasions when they experienced the behaviour Ni farshtår nok alein, schnella herrn, of other Jews as embarrassing or shameful’. Jach mus schälja varor untern kern. Weinstein’s humorous depiction of the mer- chants on Henrik Street could thus be seen as . . . Sir, be so kind, providing a compensatory pleasure to Helsinki See my clothing booth, I have tons Jews who were – to borrow Wisse’s (2013: 35) of problems. words – ‘under the double weight of their own An the season has been so bad, oh Lord! disciplined heritage and the collective respon- You understand yourself, dear sir, sibility to behave well among nations’. I have to sell merchandise below Linguistic stereotypes the market price.
Besides satirising merchants’ behavior, The excerpt includes sound shifts replacing Weinstein also parodies the way they talk, as hissing /s/ with hushing /sh/, the universal apparent in the sketch above. According to marker of Jewish-Swedish, e.g. scho ‘so’, sche ‘see’ Jacobs (2002: 204), ‘language play involving (cf. Swedish så, se); a lexical item transferred
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 39 from Yiddish, e.g. kleyderbud ‘clothing booth’ and social norms concerning Jewish women (cf. Swedish kläder stånd); and an idiomatic on stage in the late nineteenth and early twen- Yiddish saying, tsores oyfn pud, lit. ‘problems tieth centuries. As with the Jewish merchant, that could be measured in poods’ (Russian unit we can see similarities between the representa- of weight, approx. 36 pounds, 16½ kg). Pseudo- tion of Jewish women in Weinstein’s revue and Yiddish had been typical for Hebrew comedy that of American vaudeville. Asexual Jewish in American vaudeville, and many cabarets in women characters in Weinstein’s revue, i.e. Germany employed ( Jewish) actors who imi- the caring Jewish mother in Lullaby, the fear- tated various dialects of East European Jews, some (old) Jewess in Khayke Tshort, the nagg besides parodying their customs. Language ing wife and fiancée in Der tsebrokhener shpigl, use in revues had become a means of focus- contrast sharply with non-Jewish women. ing on larger societal issues of nation, class, According to Erdman, the female Jewish body ethnicity, gender and so forth ( Jacobs 2002: seemed nearly incompatible with vaudeville 203). On the one hand, Weinstein (himself (Erdman 1997: 156, 158). This was also evident with university-level education in Swedish) in Russian variety performances; for instance, was parodying the speech of some Helsinki the Russian actor Pavel Veinberg, who visi Jews for whom Swedish was a second lan- ted the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki at the guage and whose language acquisition was beginning of the twentieth century, performed incomplete. Yiddish influence on Swedish the role of a Jewess in drag in his Hebrew also stemmed from bilingualism in the com- comedy (Byckling 2009). In Weinstein’s munity and limited contact with Finns. A revue, however, there are numerous insinua- school inspection from 1930 of the Jewish tions of flirtation and extra-marital relations Co-educational School in Helsinki, where the between Jewish men and non-Jewish women. official languages of instruction were Swedish According to Jelavich (1993: 96), oblique songs and Hebrew, reported that the children were and scenes of extra-marital relations and sex ‘semi-lingual’, unable to properly speak either in general were at the core of cabaret. Both Swedish or Yiddish (Muir 2018: 32, 52). On Mr Grossist in Der tsebrokhener shpigl and the other hand, Weinstein could be seen as Mr Chatskelson of Yidishe yikhes had been parodying the Yiddish-influenced Swedish dancing and flirting with women oyf‘ Fennias attributed to Jewish merchants in caricatures pol’, on the dance floor of Fennia, which was in Swedish and Finnish-language humorous one of Helsinki’s finest nightclubs in the magazines and the press. This was the type ‘roaring twenties’. In Der tsebrokhener shpigl, of language Jews were expected to speak, and Mr Grossist sings, after returning home, the members of the majority could also parody refrain of a popular song from 1928 by the it. Moreover, Yiddish was becoming increas- Swedish revue king Ernst Rolf, starting with ingly stigmatised as an epitome of a mixed the allusive sentence: ‘Jag är ute när gumman and impure language. Adolescents, especially, min är inne, jag är inne när gumman min är ut’ found it embarrassing to speak Yiddish in pub- (‘I am out when my missus is in, I am in when lic (Muir 2004: 11; Muir 2006: 540). my missus is out’). Stereotypes of gender roles and sexual The theme of the one-act comedyDi kukle behaviour oder der gebrokhener neyder (The doll or the broken oath) is the flirting that takes place in a In his New Year’s revue, Weinstein does not clothing store, again a stereotype found in the break away from the stereotypical depiction antisemitic press of the time (see Kuparinen
40 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 Fig. 4. Hanna Schlimowitsch (1911–96) played the role of a Parisian mannequin in the sketch Di kukle oder der gebrokhener neyder (The doll or the broken oath). Schlimowitch, who acted in the Jewish Dramatic Society from an early age, became a very popular Finnish film star under the stage name Hanna Taini. The picture is from her role in the film Siltalan Pehtoori (of Steward of Siltala), 1934. Finnish Jewish Archives, National Archives of Finland.
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 41 15 2008: 272). In the sketch, Mr Kleiderman vaudeville from the late nineteenth century (lit. ‘clothier’) receives a mannequin from Paris as well as in the German cabaret of the early and he is attracted by its beauty, clad in a styl- twentieth century (Erdman 1997: 118; Jelavich ish short dress without sleeves. The doll was 1993: 96). played by Hanna Schlimowitsch, known for Contesting the stereotype of a ‘ghetto Jew’ her striking beauty (see Fig. 4). The story is a humorous twist on a Hassidic tale in which The final stereotype in Weinstein’s revue is a pious Jew vows to donate money for a holy connected with the physicality of Jews, espe- cause in order to cross a bridge safely. In Di cially Jewish men. Weinstein’s merchant is a kukle, Mr Kleiderman jokingly vows to donate positive anti-hero who proves his business a large sum of money to a yeshiva in Jerusalem savvy. A similar type can be found in many should the mannequin come to life. Suddenly, anecdotes about Jewish merchants, told even the mannequin starts to move and speaks in today among Jews in Finland, and how they French. Mr Kleiderman flirts with her, peeps always manage to succeed using one trick under her skirt and sings and dances Parisian or another (Muir 2006: 547–8). However, in cabaret melodies with her. He orders food physical skills the triumph was not always and wine, and a bed from the biggest depart- guaranteed. The couplet A shtern fun bolplan ment store in town, Stockmann’s. When (A star from the football field) tells about Mrs Kleiderman appears, Mr Kleiderman, the defeat the football team of the Jewish exhausted, tries desperately to wipe the lip- sports club Stjärnan (Swedish, The Star) stick off his face. In the Hasidic story, the suffered in a match against a non-Jewish pious Jew cancels the oath after crossing the Finnish team. The melody of the couplet was bridge safely, but, crossing back for something adopted from the melancholic Yiddish oper- he has forgotten on the other side, he falls etta song Fun Shpanye (From Spain) by Zvi into the river. In the revue, Mr Kleiderman Hirsch Gershoni, which was in the repertoire refuses to give a donation to a messenger, of the Jewish Song Association in Helsinki. who happens to come by to collect money for Gershoni’s song is about the hardships of the the institution in Jerusalem, and the manne- Jewish people in the Diaspora, which adds a quin becomes lifeless again. The fact that Mr layer of irony to Weinstein’s couplet: Kleiderman flirted with a ‘doll’ and not a ‘real girl’ gave this quasi-sexual encounter a sense Oyfn plan bin ikh haynt gevezn a held. of estrangement that made it socially more Kh’hob geshlaydert dem bol vayt ibern feld. acceptable. In addition, the sexist represen- Iz gekumen fun hintn a gazlen, a goy tation of a young female is that of a gentile Un hot a brike geton in mayn – oy, oy, oy, oy! Parizer kukle, a Parisian dolly, not a yidishe tokhter, a Jewish daughter. Similar scenes of On the field I was a hero today lecherous Jewish men lusting after randy non- I flung the ball far over the field. Jewish girls had been popular in American From behind came a villain, a goy And gave a kick in my – oy, oy, oy, oy! 15 Weinstein reworked the sketch in 1940 into a one-act musical comedy called A komedye The sports association made it possible to expe- vegn undz yidelekh (A comedy of us Jews), which was performed at the Balder Theatre in rience and to depict a healthy and masculine Helsinki, most likely as part of a New Year’s image of a Jew, compared to the stereotypical revue (Muir, forthcoming). ghetto or bourgeois Jew, seen as weak, effeminate
42 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 and cowardly (Stanislawsky 2001: 91; Ekholm clash between increasing secularisation and the and Muir 2016: 180–1). Sport was also a way to religious Jewish establishment, amplifying the encounter non-Jews, and was vital to integra- internal tension within the Jewish community. tion in Finnish society. The ambitions were Performing the Jewish stereotypes in this high – The Star’s football team tried hard to setting to an insider group in Yiddish could join the Finnish champions’ league, and finally be considered safe. I would argue, though, that managed to do so in 1931 (Weintraub 2006: 74). the Jewish stereotypes in Weinstein’s revue go Conclusions beyond mere repetition of similar motifs in transnational entertainment and reflect the As the analysis has shown, practically all of increasing pressure of antisemitism in Finnish the Jewish stereotypes in Jac Weinstein’s New society. Research into Finnish everyday anti- Year’s revue from 1929 are widespread trans- semitism, especially in the press, corroborates national tropes of popular entertainment from this argument. Also, documents from the the late nineteenth century and the first dec- Jewish community, such as the memorandum ades of the twentieth century. These ethnic of Jewish merchants in 1930, show how this stereotypes, performed by Jews and non-Jews community tried to fight back with practical alike, can be found in American vaudeville, measures. Performing the Jewish stereotypes in Russian variety theatre, Weimar Republic Weinstein’s revue gave Finnish Jews a chance cabaret and in shows put on in Helsinki. At to deal with the occasional tensions within the core of these stereotypes was the image of a the community and with the growing pressure deceitful Jewish merchant, which also features from outside, and to gain a measure of relief prominently in Weinstein’s New Year’s revue. through biting satire and humour. Besides deceitfulness, the stereotypes found in the revue include vulgarity, poor acquisi- tion of local languages and allusions to sexual Dr Simo Muir is cur- behaviour between Jewish men and non-Jew- rently an honorary research associate ish women. It is only with the rise of political at the Department of antisemitism in the 1920s that concern over Hebrew and Jewish the harmful effects of the Jewish stereotypes Studies, University grew and they became unpopular, for instance College London, and he is the PI of the in the Weimar cabaret. It is at this turning Kone Foundation- point that we still find these stereotypes in funded project Weinstein’s revue. ’Diasporas of the In many ways, Weinstein’s New Year’s Music Industry and their Finnish Connections’. revue was a testing ground for evaluating the He received his PhD in Yiddish linguistics at the University of Helsinki in 2004, and has achievements, failures and limitations of Jewish published widely on Jewish history in Finland. integration into Finnish society. The revue cel- His latest articles include ‘“Mother Rachel and ebrates the success of the Jewish merchants her children”: artistic expressions in Yiddish in the retailing of ready-to-wear clothing. and early commemoration of the Holocaust in Finland’ (East European Jewish Studies, 48(3), At the same time, it satirises the downside 2018) and, co-authored with Dr Riikka Tuori, of the concentration within a single branch ’”The Golden Chain of Pious Rabbis”: The of activity, especially at a time of economic origin and development of Finnish Jewish depression. The revue expresses the growing Orthodoxy’ (Scandinavian Jewish Studies, concern of the young about their future and the 30(1), 2019).
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 43 Bibliography Erdman, Harley, 1997. Staging the Jew: The Performance of an American Ethnicity, 1860–1920 Berkowitz, Joel (ed.), 2003. Yiddish Theatre: New (New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press). Approaches (Oxford, Littman Library of Jewish Forsgård, Nils-Erik, 2002. Alias Finkelstein: Studier Civilization). i antisemitisk retorik (Esbo, Schildts). and Barbara Henry (eds.), 2012. Inventing — Hanski, Jari, 2006. Juutalaisvastaisuus suomalaisissa the Modern Yiddish Stage: Essays in Drama, aikakauslehdissä ja kirjallisuudessa 1918–1944, Performance and Show Business (Detroit, Wayne PhD dissertation, University of Helsinki State University Press).
44 Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 forthcoming. ‘Between the “free zone” and the 1996. Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish — — “Jew zone”: Jewish performing arts in Axis- Theater (Syracuse, Syracuse University Press). allied Finland’. Seppälä, Mikko-Olavi, 2009. Hauska poika: and Riikka Tuori, 2019. ‘“The Golden Chain kuplettilaulaja J. Alfred Tanner (Helsinki, — of Pious Rabbis”: The origin and development WSOY). of Finnish Jewish Orthodoxy’, Scandinavian Shternshis, Anna, 2006. Soviet and Kosher: Jewish https:// Jewish Studies, 30(1), pp. 8–34, doi: < Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 doi.org/10.30752/nj.77253> (Bloomington, Indiana University Press). Nahson, Edna, 2016. ‘Entertaining the crowd’, in Stanislawsky, Michael, 2001. Zionism and the Fin New York’s Yiddish Theater. From the Bowery de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism from to Broadway, ed. Edna Nahson (New York, Nordau to Jabotinsky (Berkeley, University of Columbia University Press), pp. 240–7. California Press). Nudelman, M., 1968. ‘Kleynkunst- un maryonetn- Steinlauf, Michael C., 2010. ‘Theater: Yiddish teaters’, in Yidisher teater in Eyrope tsvishn Theater’, inYIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern beyde velt-milkhomes. Poyln, eds. Itsik Manger Europe
Nordisk judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies | Vol. 30, No. 2 45