Purim Eve, a One-Act Comedy
Mordechai Monassowitz
Nissim Catalan
1902
Cast [in this passage]
Abraham Levi: Rich merchant
Aneta: Abraham Levi’s wife
Max, Yosef, and Aron: Abraham and Aneta Levi’s sons
Frida and Klerchen: Abraham and Aneta Levi’s daughters
Shmuel Natan: Zionist, a lumber merchant, and Abraham Levi’s uncle
Ḥayim: Shmuel Natan’s 12-year-old son
Creator Bio
Mordechai Monassowitz
Born in Shat (Shaty) in the Russian Empire (today Šėta, Lithuania), Mordechai Manes Monassowitz was an educator and writer. He founded a school in Libau (today Liepāja, Latvia) and wrote poems, essays, and plays, especially didactic ones. He immigrated around 1919 to New York City, where he worked as an educator.
Creator Bio
Nissim Catalan
Born in Bulgaria, Nissim Natan Catalan was a translator and editor of theatrical dramas, a Hebrew teacher, and a journalist. His Ladino translation of Mordechai Monassowitz’s Neshef Purim (1902) was printed in Kazanlik, Bulgaria, in 1909. Catalan’s translation includes adaptations for his Ladino-speaking surroundings. In 1910, he published a Ladino translation of another play, El estado deplorable del profesor žudio en el Oriente en Sinema , in Edirne. Catalan later settled in Mexico, where he died. According to his great-grandson, he was also a rabbi.
Purim Eve is a Ladino version of Monassowitz’s Hebrew play produced by Nissim Catalan. The play was likely also translated into Yiddish. The play warns Jews against the dangers of cultural assimilation and promotes Zionism.
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