Poster for the play Ale kinor (On the Fiddle)

Oscar Lachs, 1898–after 1957

Poster for the play Ale kinor (On the Fiddle) for the Levant Fair, Habimah Theater

Based on Sholem Aleichem’s story in Yiddish, Oyfn fidl: dertseylung fun di kinderyorn (On the Fiddle: a Story from the Childhood)

Tel-Aviv: Defus Sṭrod, 1936

The Habimah Theater in Tel Aviv, committed to performing entirely in Hebrew in response to the rising popularity of the Zionist movement in Eastern Europe, was first formed as an amateur troupe in Białystok, Poland, in 1912. The theater made its home in Moscow in 1918, where it grew its recognition and professionalism under the direction of Yevgeniy Vakhtangov (1883–1922), a famous Russian Armenian actor and theater producer known for his intense style of productions. 

Forced to move once again due to the increasing anti-religious propaganda and persecution of the Hebrew language in the Soviet Union, and following the split of the troup after the European tour in 1927, the theater finally established itself in British Mandatory Palestine in 1928, where its reputation continued to grow. The theater production of Ale kinor (Fiddle Strings) was Barukh Chemerinsky’s adaptation of Sholem Aleichem’s (1859–1916) Yiddish short story Oyfn fidl (On the Fidle). It tells the tale of a young boy who is fascinated by the sound of the violin and wants to learn to play it, but eventually he must give up his dream. Premiering in December 1935, it was performed again in the amphitheater of the major commercial Levant Fair on May 19, 1936, with introductory remarks by the prominent literary and theater critic Dov Ber Malkin. Oscar Lachs, who immigrated to Palestine from Frankfurt, Germany, to flee Nazi persecution, created this boldly executed poster for the performance. Lachs was known for modern poster designs that frequently featured the image of a flying camel, an emblem of the Levant Fair that he created and that appears on the poster in the upper right.