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Chayela Rosenthal was born in Vilna, Poland to Fruma and Nochum Rozental. Her father published the afternoon Yiddish daily newspaper and her brother, Leyb was a prolific Yiddish writer and poet, who published his first book of poems at age 14. Chayela’s dramatic and singing talents were recognized early on, and when she was 16 she was chosen to represent Soviet occupied Vilna in the Festival of Songs in Moscow.
On June 24th, 1941, the German army invaded Vilna and the culturally rich Jewish world of the “Jerusalem of Lithuania” as Vilna was known, was destroyed forever. Chayela’s father was among the first to be taken away in the unexpected roundups of men who were then murdered in Ponar, the forest soon to be become a killing dumping ground outside of Vilna, never to return. In September, the 60,000 thousand or so Jews living in Vilna were ordered to leave their comfortable homes and forced into an area of seven streets in the old Jewish quarter, which then became called the Vilna Ghetto. When Jacob Gens, the ghetto chief announced plans for a theatre company to be formed inside the ghetto which would allow actors and writers a permit to work, and thus survive, many Jewish intellectuals and rabbis objected vehemently, smearing walls with posters claiming: “You don’t perform theatre in a graveyard.”
Despite the opposition, Gens forged ahead with the plans for a theatre. The young, charismatic Chayela was a regular feature, singing in jazz ensembles and eventually appearing in starring roles in musical productions, many written by her brother. The plays, musicals and satirical revues, especially those written by Leyb, which depicted ghetto life with poignant humor, grew to be very popular. They served to provide much needed relief and hope for the rapidly dwindling, fear filled population, for many of whom, attending the theatrical shows in the large auditorium gave them the only opportunity to gather together as community. Survivors today talk of the theatre as a “miracle.” Nothing could keep audiences away, not even the presence of German and Lithuanian soldiers in the audience, or the grim reality of omnipresent random murders, imminent death and starvation. At the end of the first year, the group had given 111 performances. Seen by some as spiritual resistance against the evil of the oppression and violence of the Nazis, this group of artists and actors demonstrated that in the face of the most depraved conditions, people could rise above their horrific circumstances to work together and create and present art . Thus culture and spirit were sustained and nourished.
Chayela starred in many roles, most notably as the young orphan girl Peshe, “Peshe fun Reshe,” a comic satiric revue about the upheaval and chaos of living in the Ghetto. Her rendition of Yisroilik, written by her brother, about a typical young ghetto street urchin, was sung throughout the ghetto and is still a favorite in Yiddish circles today. With her youthful vivaciousness, irrepressible humor, and heartfelt singing, the petite Chayela soon became adored and hailed as the “Wunderkind of the Vilna Ghetto,” and “Songstress of Hope”.
In September of 1943, as the liquidation and destruction of the Vilna Ghetto began, the shows kept going until the end. Deportees attended performances even as they knew that the next day would probably bring death. The songs written by Leyb Rosenthal: Mir Leybn Eybek, (We live Forever) Einz, Tzvei Drei, (One, Two, Three) and the musical “Moyshe halt Zich “(Moses, hold on!) accompanied many Vilna Jews on their final destination to extermination camps. Leyb’s songs are ironically being sung to this day by non-Jewish klezmer singers in Germany today.
Leyb was deported to Klooga Camp in Estonia where he was brutally murdered one day before the Soviet Troops liberated that camp. Chayela’s mother was separated from her in a selection and taken away to be killed. Chayela and her sister Mary were deported to the labor camp Kaiserwald, in Riga. Chayela kept singing, giving hope and courage and keeping alive the precious memories of their beloved home, Vilna. In March 1945, she and her sister were liberated, finding themselves thin and shaven-haired in the town of Lembork in Poland, where she met her future husband, Israel Jutan. Several months later she was performing in concerts for hundreds of refugees in the DP (displaced persons’) camps, appearing with the Yiddish State Theatre. Through a chance meeting with Molly Picon who was visiting the refugee camps, Chayela was invited to audition for the famous impresario, Sol Hurok, visiting Warsaw to restore the ruined cultural sites. Hurok was impressed enough to offer Chayela an engagement in Paris, France with his agent. Chayela and Israel, now going by his previous journalist nom de plume of Xavier Piat, and working as the editor of a Polish newspaper, took their happy leave of Poland, the country that represented virulent anti-Semitism, death and destruction for Jews. On a one way ticket, they set out for a life of true liberation in the free western world.
After a time in Paris performing cabaret and touring Europe singing her Yiddish songs, Chayela had the opportunity to visit South Africa with the African Consolidated Theatres under the management of Yiddish impresario Sarah Sylvia. In 1951, Chayela and Xavier decided to make South Africa their home, eventually settling in Cape Town, where their daughters Naava and Zola were born. Chayela continued to perform cabaret and theatre in South Africa, Israel and as guest artist on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theatre, appearing with Yiddish writer and producer Jacob Jacobs. She died unexpectedly of ovarian cancer in 1979, shortly after starring as Golde in Fiddler on the Roof in the Nico Malan Theatre in Cape Town. She is remembered with love and admiration by her many fans as a diminutive woman of huge presence and “chain” (charm), always ready with a joke, embed with courage, enormous talent and a huge capacity for the joy of life. Her credo was: “Chupp zich ein a tog!” Grab the day !
GIVE THE GIFT OF CHAYELA ROSENTHAL’S AUTHENTIC SONGS- CHAYELA ROSENTHAL CD- A YIDDISH MEDLEY
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Chayela Rosenthal c. 1946 |
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Strashun St, September 2003 Doorway to the Vilna Ghetto Theatre building Alleyway in old Jewish section, Vilnius 2003 Plaque commemorating the Vilna Ghetto Theatre |
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Chayela posing as Yisroilik, c 1948 |
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HISTORY OF CHAYELA ROSENTHAL |
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To learn more about Chayela Rosenthal and hear a sample of her singing, please click on: http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/music/detail.php?content=yisrolik |
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Leyb Rosenthal c. 1940 |
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Chayela in Paris, c 1950 |