Source: NYPL Digital Collection
Translation:
Program
Naye Binhe
Garden Theater, (Madison square Garden) Madison Ave. and 27th St.
Friday and Saturday evenings, Sunday matinees and evenings, 14th, 15th, 16th of April 1916 and the entire week of Passover, matinees and evenings
Gabri and the Woman
A performance in 3 Acts and 4 Scenes
From
Dovid Pinski
Born in Mohilev Russia, current day Belarus, on April 5Th 1872, David Pinski was a renowned Jewish writer, thinker, playright, and editor. Born to a wealthy family, his father was the chief supplier of military uniforms to the Czar. This status afforded the Pinski’s more opportunities than most other Jews in that time. From a very young age, it was clear Pinski had a knack for writing, and by 1890 he was penning Yiddish songs for the Bnai Zion Union, a cause and interest that would follow him through life. Originally determined to become a doctor, it was not until 1892 when he met I.L. Peretz that he moved to Warsaw and seriously began to pursue writing. By this time, he was deeply entrenched in the Labor Zionist movement, in contrast to his mentor Peretz who felt “negative regard toward the proto-Zionist circles.” Despite this, the two worked together for many years including founding a publishing house.
In 1899 Pinski moved to New York. There he wrote for and edited numerous socialist and Yiddish publications, notably “Dos Abend Blatt” the official newspaper of the American Socialist Workers Party, “Der Arbeiter Zeitung,” “Der Yiddisher Kempfer,” and “Di Tsayt.” At this point he had become a prominent figure within Paole Zion, and went so far as to form Farband, a prominent labor Zionist organization. All the while he wrote plays. In fact, in 1904 as he was set to achieve his PhD in Germanic Language and Literature Columbia University, he skipped his PhD final exam in favor of attending the premier of his play, “Family Tsvi,” costing him his degree.
Most famous for his plays, the subjects were often common people, Jewish folklore, or Biblical figures. His most famous play, “The Treasure” centers around a gravedigger who comes across a small fortune in the ground as he buries his dog. He often explored the psychology of his characters, and many of his plays had a streak of psychosexual complexity. “Gabri and the Woman,” whose poster is seen above, was one of his more overtly sexual plays.
In 1949, Pinski moved to Israel, where he would continue writing and editing. In 1959, he died in the city of Haifa, where there is now a street in his name.
Works Cited
https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Pinski
https://www.britannica.com/biography/I-L-Peretz
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=34294&q=&rootcontentid=38026
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/socialist-zionism
https://ingeveb.org/articles/weaving-the-revolution-i-l-peretz-the-social-protest-writer
