Metadata: Bequest of Jakub Rotbaum
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- Archiwum, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma, ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (+48 22) 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- 312/S/345
- Title:
- Bequest of Jakub Rotbaum
- Title (official language):
- Spuścizna Jakuba Rotbauma
- Creator/accumulator:
- Rotbaum, Jakub
- Date(s):
- 1901/1994
- Language:
- Polish
- Yiddish
- Spanish; Castilian
- English
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- approximately 1,000 archival units (10.0 linear metres)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The bequest includes:
- directors' copies of plays: Sen o Goldfadenie [Dream about Goldfaden], Herszele z Ostropola [Hershele from Ostropol], Młyn [Młyn], Żydowski rewizor [The Jewish Inspector], Wielka wygrana [The Big Win], Spadkobiercy [The Heirs], Riverside Drive, Życie woła [Life is Calling], Skandal w Głupowie [Scandal in Głupów], Rodzina Blank [The Blank Family], Żydowskie szczęścia [Jewish luck], Widersztand, [Resistance], Bunt [Rebellion], Damski Krawiec [Women's Tailor], Osaczeni [Surrounded], The Threepenny Opera, Burzliwe życie Leizorka Rojtszwańca [The Stormy Life of Leyzorek Roytshvanietz];
- recitation program of works by Jewish classics; a book with Jewish songs; texts for live concerts;
- articles about Sholem Asch, Sholem Aleichem, Ida Kamińska, Estera Rachel Kamińska, Isak Lewi and others;
- songbooks; notes;
- articles about Jakub Rotbaum, Sylwia Swen Rotbaum, press interviews with Jakub Rotbaum;
- articles about Sara Rotbaum;
- articles by Jakub Rotbaum in Fołks-Sztyme; Alter Kacyzne: Człowiek i artysta [Alter Kacyzne: Man and artist], Salomon Michoels, , Moja siostra Sara, Na pamiątkę Sylwii Swen Rotbaum [My sister Sara, In memory of Sylwia Swen Rotbaum], Sen o Goldfadenie w Niemczech [Dream about Goldfaden in Germany], Moja podróż do Australii [My trip to Australia]
- books, magazines (e.g. Morning Frajhajt, Fołks Sztyme, Yiddish Forward, Russian newspapers);
- reviews, including from performances of Krzyczcie Chiny [Shout China], Rekruci [Recruits], Młyn, Herszełe z Ostropola, Wielka wygrana (Bazylea) [Big Win (Basel)], Dream about Goldfaden, Sender Blank (Blank Family), Anna Karenina, Tragedia amerykańska [American Tragedy], 200,000 and others;
- materials from Jakub Rotbaum's guest appearances in Brazil, Israel, Canada, France, USA, Germany, Australia (press reports, reviews, theatre programmes of performances);
- congratulatory letters, invitations, press articles on the occasion of jubilees of Jakub Rotbaum's artistic work
- extensive correspondence from 1951-1994: letters from Jakub Rotbaum to Sylwia Swen Rotbaum from his travels, letters from family and friends from abroad; letters to Lija Rotbaum; correspondence with offices in Poland;
- texts of poems from the period of occupation, including by Władysław Szlengel, Stefania Ney, Stanisław Baliński, Władysław Broniewski;
invitations, theatre programmes (from London, Montreal, New York, Romania);
- posters of plays staged in the USA, Buenos Aires and Poland;
- programmes and posters on the anniversaries of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising;
- drawings by Szymon Kobyliński;
- photographs (also framed);
- photo albums from theatrical performances;
albums with personal photos of Jakub, Sara, Sylwia Swen Rotbaum.
The collection also includes documents by Jakub Rotbaum’ sisters: Sara (actress) and Lia Rotbaum (choreographer and director), including personal documents, e.g., laboratory test results, housing and utility bills. The preliminary list of documents made in the years 2004-2005 included over 1000 archival units.
Rotbaum's bequest also includes paintings included in the art collections of the Jewish Historical Institute. A card catalogue of paintings was prepared in the Art Department of the Jewish Historical Institute in 2012-2013. 111 works by Jakub Rotbaum of various techniques were inventoried, mainly pastels, crayons, charcoal, sanguine and oil paintings.
- Archival history:
- Jakub Rotbaum's bequest was transferred to the JHI after his death. There is no information about the circumstances of the acquisition.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Jakub Rotbaum was born on 11 July 1901 in Żelechów. From 1921 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw where his mentors were Władysław Skoczylas, Henryk Kuna and Tadeusz Pruszkowski. From 1924 he presented his works at exhibitions of the Jewish Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts; in 1933 (in Katowice) and 1935 (in Rivne) he had individual exhibitions. He drew and painted portraits, including many actors and singers, Jews ("Głowa Żyda" [The Jew’s Head], “Pośrednik” [Mediator]"), and highlanders. He graduated from the Film School in Warsaw (where he made a film about Jewish folklore in 1927) and (in 1934) the Theatre Studio at the State Jewish Theatre in Moscow.
He made his debut as a theatre director in Warsaw in 1926. His fame was strengthened by his work in the Vilna Troupe in the 1930s. He directed and performed on Jewish stages in Warsaw and Vilna, collaborated with Yung Teater and the Youth Theatre. In 1938 he went to Paris, where he was artistic director of the PIAT theatre. In 1940 he made his way to New York, where he worked in three theatres: Morris Schwartz, Folksbine and ARTEF.
In 1949 he returned to Poland and joined the Lower Silesian Jewish Theatre in Wrocław. His production of Goldfadens kholem [A Dream about Goldfaden] in 1950, which was a stage adaptation of Abraham Goldfaden's Czarodziejka [The Sorceress] and texts, among others by Itzik Manger and Rotbaum himself, influenced the entire post-war Jewish theatre in Poland. From 1952 to 1962 he was the artistic director of the State Dramatic Theatres in Wrocław. He was the author of many translations of theatrical plays and stage adaptations. In 1968, he left the Polish Theatre in Wrocław, henceforth directing at the State Jewish Theatre in Warsaw, as well as in America, Australia and Romania. He died on 30 January 1994 in Wrocław.
- Access points: locations:
- Warsaw
- Access points: persons/families:
- Rotbaum, Jakub
- Rotbaum, Lia
- Rotbaum, Sara
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged thematically.
- Finding aids:
- No finding aids exist.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Agnieszka Reszka; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; June 2020
