By Ella Weiner
Folksbiene
Under the supervision of
The Education Committee of the Workers’ Circle
Manager: Y. Halts ⚬ Benefit for: L. Man
Jewish Settlement House Auditorium
Telephone: Orchard 4-3785 ⚬ 128 Stenton Street, New York
1957-1958 Season
My Father’s Court
By
Isaac Bashevis
Dramatized and Produced
By
Dovid Likht
Two acts, eight scenes
Decorations ––– Harry Baum
Performed ––– Ben Rosentsveyg
Stage and Technical Director ––– Mordekhay Yakhson
“My Father’s Court” shows a picture of a life and a neighborhood that is no more.
The rabbinical court is an old institution for the Jews. It began when Moishe Rabeinu chose from the people hard-working men, men of truth, who hated money or robbery, so they should be judges. They found a direct lineage from the court until the Anshi Knesset of glory and the Sanhedrin. The court was a combination of a tribunal, a house of prayer, a university, and – if you like – a cabinet for a psychoanalyst, where people with difficult spirits can share what oppresses them. Not only did the court demonstrate that such a combination is possible, it also demonstrated that such a combination is necessary.
The idea of the court is that one cannot have justice without divinity; that firm communities with injust proceedings from before the weak and that the best family is that one, that the plaintiff entertains with good will and with a belief in the higher powers.
The antithesis to the rabbinical court is the inquisition, and all of that court, that makes use of power and acts of violence, all the same if they are right or left.
The rabbinical court was possibly by a people of deep faith and greater humility. It attained the highest degree in the time when Jews were devoid of any power, devoid of any authority.
The rabbinical court is now gone for the Jews, but I am sure that it will don a new garment and will become a general, decent institution. It is my deepest conviction that the forthcoming court will be a rabbinical court, provided that the world will be moral from now on, not backwards.
– I. Bashevis
Publisher
The Spring
The publisher “The Spring” brings us in Yiddish the best literary creations from the most important Yiddish, Hebrew, and other foreign languages authors.
1957 – four masterpieces from four big storytellers – 1958
Isaac Bashevis Zalman Shnier Sh. Y. Egnun Ernest Hemingway
Already published
Isaac Bashevis / My Father’s Court
Zalman Shnier / The Bastard
Already in print
E. Hemingway / The Old Man and the Sea
Sh. Y. Egnun / An Ordinary Tale
Catalog – Free
