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Modern Yiddish theater was founded by Avram Goldfaden. Collaborating with two musicians Israel Grodner and Issachar Goldstein of the "Broder Singers", he established the first professional Yiddish theater in Iaşi, in 1876 . Goldfaden served not only as the troupe’s manager, but also as author, composer, set designer and director, in addition to guiding the actors. The troupe began as all-male; but soon hired actresses as well, and during the first years presented comedies and operettas.
The poet Mihai Eminescu who knew German and understood Yiddish, attended the first performances at the Grădina Pomul Verde (Green Fruit-Tree Garden) in Iaşi in 1876 and documented them in his review in the Curierul de Iaşi (The Courier of Iaşi). He wrote that the troupe had six players, that he was impressed by the quality of the singing and acting but found the pieces without much dramatic interest.
The aspirations of modern Yiddish theatre at its beginning, are reflected in Moses Schwarzfeld's remarks written in 1877, and calling for a serious and educational Jewish theatre: "If we write only comedies or if we only imitate German, Romanian and French pieces translated into Yiddish, all we will have is a secondary Jewish stage just making people laugh and cry is an evil for us Jews in Romania."
Goldfaden agreed with Schwarzfeld and stated: "If I have arrived at having a stage, I want it to be a school for you... Laugh heartily if I amuse you with my jokes, while I, watching you, feel my heart crying. Then, brothers, I'll give you a drama, a tragedy drawn from life, and you shall also cry — while my heart shall be glad." It seems that Goldfaden succeeded in his goal, and Bernhard Nathansohn, reporter of the newspaper Hamelitz, who visited Romania in 1878 wrote: "When a Jew enters a Yiddish theatre in Bucharest he is thunderstruck hearing the Yiddish language in all its splendor and radiance."
Goldfaden's plays formed a canon of Yiddish theater, and were performed for over fifty years. Among his most popular plays were Di tsvey Kuni-Leml (The Two Kuni-Lemls ) first performed 1880, Di kishefmakherin (The Sorceress ) first performed in 1880, and Bar Kokhba, first performed in1883.
Goldfaden's first troupe was a little company, playing in the style of the Italian commedia dell’arte with performances relied heavily on the elements of song, slapstick, and spectacle. Apart from Iaşi, where the troupe was established, it stayed for a while in, Botoşani, Gălaţi, Brăĭla and Bucharest.
Two years after Goldfaden founded the first Yiddish theater troupe, there were already several rival troupes in Bucharest, mostly founded by former members of Goldfaden's troupe. The most important of them, was Israel Grodner's troupe, who unlike Goldfaden, aspired to create a realistic theater.
The political and social ferments in Romania, the economic crisis and rising anti-Semitism, caused Goldfaden in 1896 to leave the country where he had spent his most creative years.
The lack of interest in the Jewish theater at the end of the 19th century was a result of economic difficulties followed by rising Anti-Semitism. About a third of the Jewish population left Romania, among them a large number of intellectuals. During those years troupes of the Jewish theater gave performances in order to help the poor of the community and the emigrants According to an article from 1896, the Juvelier troupe was the only troupe that stayed in Romania, and around that time there were already Yiddish theater troupes from America that came to perform in Romania. However, around 1900 Juvelier too emigrated to New York with his entire troupe.
Israil Bercovici, 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, 27-79
