Hersh Leib Sigheter

Hersh Leib Sigheter (1844–1931 or 1933 or 1829–1930), pen name of Hersh (Hirsch) Leib Gotlieb (or Gottlieb, was a Romanian Jew who, even before the advent of what is generally considered to be professional Yiddish theater, wrote satirical Yiddish-language Purim plays on an annual basis and hired boys to play in them. Although often objected to by rabbis, these plays were popular, and were performed not only on Purim but for as much as a week afterwards in various locations.

Under his own name, Gotlieb was also a famous translator, journalist and editor of newspapers in what is now Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania (Hungarian: Sziget or Máramarossziget). He founded what was effectively a newspaper in Hebrew in 1887 (or 1878). It published weekly, alternating between the two names Hashemesh and HaCharsah to avoid a tax on weekly newspapers. He also published from 1893 to 1897 his Jewish People's Paper in Yiddish, from 1904 to 1914 his weeklies, Zion and Love of Zion, and his monthly The Truth, all in Hebrew language.

References

• Bercovici, Israil, O sută de ani de teatru evreiesc în România ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998). ISBN 973-98272-2-5. See the article on the author for further publication information.
• N. M. Gelber (Jerrold Landau, trans.), "The History of the Jews of Stanisławów"; p. 32–43 accessed online 2009-11-14.
• Herman Dicker, "Piety and Perseverance - Jews from the Carpathian Mountains", with a foreword by Elie Wiesel, Sepher-Hermon Press, Inc. New York (1981). ISBN 0-87203-094-6.