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Members of the Jewish Drama Club
Tbilisi,
1932
Photo
provided by ©Ilo Paykin
First row from the right: Khaya
(Katya) Eyngorin/Paykin ,
Second row from bottom, second on the left: Esfir (Fira)
Solomonovna Sverdlina (1908-1968, Tbilisi)
Second row from the top, first on the right: Isaak Paykin (1901 – 1956, Tbilisi)
It would be fair mentioning that Tbilisi has never been the main
center of Jewish life in Georgia.
Nevertheless, according to the 1897 census, 3,668 Jews lived in
Tbilisi. Most of them were
Ashkenazim: having arrived from Europe, they brought to Tbilisi their language – Yiddish. At some point, the need for events in
Yiddish became so urgent that a whole Jewish theater appeared in the Folk’s
House of the Zubalashvili brothers (built in 1909).
The official openning
of the Jewish club of musical and melodramatic art took place on March 16, 1910.
The opening of this club was preceded by the creation of
the Society of Jewish Music and Literature in Tbilisi – the same activists
organized a drama club at the Zubalashvili Folk’s House.
The first performance was "Jewish Pan". At the
end of March, viewers were already invited to watch the drama in 4 acts "Broken
Hearts" in Yiddish. Among the actors - Kogan, Eisenberg, Skidelsky,
Schaefer and others. Judging by the posters, Mr. Shvartsman was the
“permanent prompter”, and Mr. Ioffe was the scriptwriter. Today, many
actors of the Jewish drama club rest in peace at the Navtlugi Cemetery in
Tbilisi.
It is interesting that the amateur troupe, which gave
performances in Yiddish in Tbilisi, did not disintegrate with the coming to
power of the communists - they continued their theatrical activities at
various venues until the end of the 1930s. However, then they still broke
up. By that time, however, most of the Jewish cultural projects in the city
had been closed indicating a beginning of a period when the authorities
started fighting for the eradication of Jewish religious and national-cultural
traditions in Tbilisi.
Photo from the personal archive of ©Dmitriy Khatskilevich
Brothers Eingorins from right to left: Misha (1905 – 1971, Tbilisi), Yakov (1892-1968, Tbilisi), Shmuel (Mulya),
Yefim (1908 – 1976, Tbilisi)
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