Nathaniel Buchwald
Nathaniel Buchwald (1890–1956) was a 20th-century, left-leaning Jewish-American theater critic, writer, and scholar of Yiddish theater who wrote in Yiddish and English and translated from Yiddish and Russian into English. Background. Nathaniel Buchwald was born Naftoli Bukhvald on April 14, 1890, in Lublin, Volhynia, Ukraine (then, party of the Russian Empire). He studied at a religious primary school and then a public school. In 1910, Buchwald emigrated to America. He studied at the University of Georgia, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and in 1918 obtained a BS in Chemistry from New York University. Career. During World War  I, Buchwald worked for "Forverts" by translating its editorials from Yiddish into English as required by wartime security regulations regarding foreign-language publications in the US. In the 1920s, Buchwald began publishing articles appeared in "Di naye velt" ("The New World"), after which he wrote for this and other Yiddish labor publications. Following the founding of "Frayhayt" ("Freedom"–later the "Jewish Daily Forward") in New York City in 1922, Buchwald joined its editorial board and contributed as theater critic. Later, he wrote for "Morgn Frayhayt" ("Morning Freedom") and "Jewish Life", also in New York. In 1925, Buchwald helped found the Artef  Players Collective, a Yiddish theater group in New York City. (The name "Artef" came from "Arbeter teater-farband" or "workers' theatrical alliance.") Members included: Moyshe Olgin, David Pinski, David Abrams, Melech Marmur, Kalman Marmur, Shachno Epstein, Moyshe Nadir. Regarding Artef's aims, Buchwald wrote: " Life pulled in one direction, to world upheavals, to Revolution, to Soviet Russia, to collective consciousness and collective action, [while] the theatre still busied itself with bygone idylls, Hassidic legends, all kinds of tall tales, or with the routine of bourgeois life, family drama and romantic complication." They staged their first performance in 1927 but slowed  during the Great Depression and even took a hiatus from 1937 to 1939. In 1940, the group resumed performances with "Clinton Street" by Louis Miller. The group disbanded in the 1940s. Up to September 1933, Buchwald served as Moscow correspondent for the publications like the Communist Party USA's official newspaper "The Daily Worker"; Vern Smith (journalist) replaced him. Communist allegations. During the 1930s, Buchwald came to the attention of the Dies Committee of the US House of Representatives for his contributions to Agitprop theater and again in the 1950s for his theater criticism that appeared in "The Daily Worker