Cantor Hellman, 1920s

Zeydl Shmuel-Yehuda Helman (Yiddish: זײדל שמואל-יהודיה העלמאַן, c. 1855 – c. 1938), who often published under the pen name Hazman (הזמ״ן), was a Romanian Jewish actor, songwriter, journalist, and educator.[1][2][3][4][5] In addition to working as an actor in the Yiddish theatre in Romania and in the United States, he wrote and published a large number of Yiddish theatre songs which were widely performed in the late nineteenth century, making him one of the earliest popular songwriters in the genre.[5][4]

Biography

Helman was born in Iași, Romania in 1855.[3][4][5] His birth name was Shmuel-Yehuda, but he took on the name Zeydl after a childhood illness.[6] His father had been a Hazzan but died when Helman was young.[3] His mother remarried and his stepfather wanted him to become a shoichet (ritual slaughterer), but due to his interest in music he became a Hazzan and music teacher in Jewish schools instead.[6][5][3] Around 1890, he became an actor in the Yiddish theatre and began to compose many songs which became popular in Romania.[2][3][4] Among his better-known pieces were Yismekhu, Tsions tsvue, Gedenk zhe, yankl, and Ervakh, srolik; he also wrote Yiddish and Hebrew language poems.[5][4][3] He also taught himself German and Romanian and sometimes translated works from those languages into Yiddish.[7][3][1]

In 1893 Abba Sheyngold brought Helman to the United States to become a Yiddish theatre actor there under the name Helmanesko.[8] He played a few seasons in New York City and Philadelphia, including at the Romanian Opera House with Jacob Adler and at Boris Thomashefsky's theater.[2][4] However, he could not get used to life there and soon returned to Romania.[4][3]

Cover page of Hamwasser (Iași, 1903)

Upon returning to Iași he became very involved in literary and theater life once again.[1] He wrote a number of theatrical works: Bal shem (a play in five acts, staged in Iași with Kalman Juvelier in 1891–1892), Bal nes (four acts, staged in Iași with Juvelier in 1893), Pantilemon, and Ruth, a five-act opera which was never staged, Gog umogeg (a revue staged in Iași in 1920), Der yarid in himl (a one-act play), and Dos litvakl.[5][4][9] He also wrote for and edited a number of newspapers and magazines: Hayoyets, Folksblat, Yudishe Tsukunft, and Hamevaser, Helman's own literary magazine which he published from 1903 onwards.[1][6][5] For some time in the 1890s he also quit the theater and became a Hazzan in a synagogue again, although he soon returned to Yiddish songwriting.[2]

Zeydl Helman

Although he was not really a socialist, he also worked as editor for the socialist magazines Lumina and later Der veker (not to be confused with the later newspaper of the same name Der Veker (Minsk)).[1] He published semi-autobiographical booklets in the 1920s, titled Kitve hazman and Yontev bleter.[6][1]

He became blind late in life and apparently died in Iași in 1938.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kara, I. (1997). Contribuții la istoria obștii evreilor din Iași (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Hasefer. pp. 54–8. ISBN 9789739235211.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Perlmutter, Sholem (1952). Yidishe dramaṭurgn un ṭeaṭer ḳompoziṭors (in Yiddish). New York: Iḳuf. p. 318.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Schwartz, Iulian (1979). Porṭreṭn un eseyen (in Yiddish). Bucharest: Farlag Ḳriṭeryon. pp. 166–71.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Zylbercweig, Zalmen; Mestel, Jacob (1931). Leḳsiḳon fun Yidishn ṭeaṭer vol 1 (in Yiddish). New York: Elisheva. pp. 631–2.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rejzen, Zalman (1926). Leḳsiḳon fun der Yidisher liṭeraṭur, prese un filologye (in Yiddish). Vilna: B. Ḳletsḳin. pp. 857–8.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Ṭambur, Ṿolf (1977). Yidish-prese in Rumenye bayṭrog tsu a monografye (in Yiddish). Bucharest: Ḳriṭeryon. p. 192.
  7. ↑ Ṭambur, Ṿolf (1977). Yidish-prese in Rumenye bayṭrog tsu a monografye (in Yiddish). Bucharest: Ḳriṭeryon. p. 107.
  8. ↑ "Seidel Hellmann Migration • New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924". FamilySearch. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Mark, Natan (1971). Yidish-literatur in Rumenye fun ir onhoyb biz 1968 (in Yiddish). Haifa, Israel: N. Mark. pp. 44–66.
  10. ↑ "JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry - Moldavia Burial Record". JewishGen. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
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