OSSIP DYMOW THE HABIMAH NATIONAL THEATER My memory conjures up the following picture: It was a hot, beautiful day in Bialystok. I, a student of the institute in St. Petersburg, had returned here on vaca- tion to see my mother, brothers, sisters and friends. Although still quite young, I had already written the play Shma Yisroel. 1 was ambling down the lovely Li- powa Street when a young man with cunning eyes and a pointed black moustache stopped me. I didn’t know him, never having seen him before, but apparently he knew me: ‘Allow me to translate your play into Hebrew,” he said to me. I looked at him incredulously, but inwardly I was quite pleased. ‘““With pleasure,” I answered. ‘““Who are you?” **Nochum Cemach,” the young man replied. “And what do you wish in exchange for your granting permis- sion? What will it cost?’ “Into Hebrew, nothing,’ I answered, a trifle embarrassed. He squeezed my hand and disappeared. Cemach subsequently organized a dramatic troupe and staged my play. But the Czarist government interfered and he was unable to be very successful. Several year later we met again in Vienna, at the time of the Zionist Congress meeting. One of my plays was included in his repertoire; he had evidently studied it quite well and cleverly produced it. Still it did not yet meet the standards of Habimah, Cemach’s Hebrew- language theater company. This was just the beginning, the first step. I did not have the pleasure of seeing the Habimah players perform in their full glory until Cemach and his troupe arrived in New York. In America it soon became apparent why the Habimah Company, so well put together by Cemach, disbanded amidst failure because of internal frictions. Either he quit or he was fired. "1 should never have come to America,” he told me again and again. Immediately he made new plans, which were never carried out. ''1 wish to create a new revue,” he explained to me, ‘whose title will be ‘The Queen of Sheba’ and whose theme should be appropriate to the title. It will feature singing, dancing and several short one-act sketches. Could you write a few of these skits? Try, I beg of you.” Was it possible to refuse Cemach anything? I did compose a few one-act sketches, then read them for him and his players. Nothing came of these efforts. “‘The Queen of Sheba” remained a dream. Very few people knew that Cemach even carried such an idea in his head. 26 Instead of ס10''‎ Queen of Sheba’? Cemach became involved in American drama. After all, one must make a living. He went to California, and worked for the English theater and in films. At that time I was in Ger- many. When I returned to America we met again. “You must go to Israel,” he told me in a tone sounding more like an order than a bit of friendly advice. ‘““There you will write a real play for us.’’ Proba- bly he told this to other playwrights as well, because Habimah needed new material. Later on, Habimah captured the attention of the world like a flaming torch. Everywhere, in every world capital, his plays provoked raves. It was a long time since the theatrical community had been so stirred. Russians, Germans, French, British, Americans — Christians and Jews alike — sang the same songs of praise for Cemach and his troupe, and, if Iam not mis- taken, Christians in greater numbers than Jews. Only a small portion of Habimah’s fans under- stood Hebrew. Nevertheless, they grasped the beautiful message Cemach and his actors communicated through speech, song and dance. The fact that the language was unfamiliar — a “‘dead”’ tongue, as it was known then — did not disturb anyone. On the contrary, perhaps it helped. The lovely ancient sounds were fresh to the ear. The ''0620' language enlivened audiences and was more dynamic than many of the modern and popular languages. The message of Habimah and The Dybbuk suddenly became world acclaimed, comprehended by everyone — a sort of Esperanto, a means of uniting people and nations, art and spirit. Generations will come and go and people will wonder how all this could happen. How did Habimah Start, only to conquer the world? The name of Cemach will never be forgotten. People will say: “‘During an ear- lier era before the black, gruesome, Fascist hand de- scended upon the Jews, Habimah was created in Bialystok. The presentations of Anski’s Dybbuk were shown. They portrayed to the world, both in Europe and in America, the cultural beauty which the Jewish people, so unjustly oppressed, possesses.” But Cemach’s later life was difficult. People did forget him and he died disappointed and lonely on Sep- tember 8, 1939 at the age of 52. LET US REMEMBER OUR MARTYRS AND HEROES PSL SCOrOOYYS The Bialystoker Memorial Book