ABSTRACT
Avrom Goldfaden (1840-1908) was a Yankl-of-all-trades, and of shifting notions of Jewish identity. He achieved modest renown as a young man by writing popular Yiddish songs, and then turned to the more prestigious but less widely accessible craft of Hebrew verse with Tsitsim u’frakhim [Blossoms and Flowers], published in 1865. His two books of Yiddish poetry, Dos yidele [The Little Jew, 1866] and Di yidene [The Jewish Woman, 1869], helped bring his poetry to the attention of a wider audience. The latter volume also contained the seeds of Goldfaden’s later renown, with two forays into dramaturgy: a short sketch in dialogue form and a full-length comedy. Both the dramas and the poetry also anticipated another phenomenon: Goldfaden’s lifelong fi xation on Jewish themes in his writings.
