Joseph Lateiner (; December 25, 1853 – February 23, 1935) Lateiner, Yoysef (Joseph) (December 25, 1853–February 23, 1935), translated from Leksikon Fun Der Nayer Yidisher Literatur by Joshua A Fogel was a playwright in the early years of Yiddish theater, first in Bucharest, Romania and later in New York City, where he was a co-founder in 1903 with Sophia Karp of the Grand Theater, New York's first purpose-built Yiddish language theater building.
Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, now Romania, Lateiner got his start writing for theater in Iaşi around the start of 1878, when Israel Grodner, having left Abraham Goldfaden's Bucharest company, needed a playwright. He added some topical material to a German-language comedy Nathan Schlemiel oder Orthodoxe und reformirte Juden by J. Rosenzweig (Ein Tendenz-Lustspiel in 3 Acten. Pressburg, 1873Nathan Schlemiel oder Orthodoxe und reformirte Juden. Ein Tendenz-Lustspiel in 3 Akten, public domain, readable in Google Books), and came up with a play Die Tzwei Schmuel Schmelkes (The Two Schmuel Schmelkes). He translated and "Yiddishized" plays from Romanian and German; his more than 80 plays included Mishke and Moshke: Europeans in America (or The Greenhorns), "Satan in the Garden of Eden", and "The Jewish Heart".Nahma Sandrow, Vagabond Stars, a world history of Yiddish Theater, pp. 106-107
Lateiner's Yiddish language operetta Blihmele ().https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/92eebd20-2120-0134-568a-00505686a51c c.1895 poster for Blihmele. New York Public Library premiered in 1894 at the Windsor Theatre, New York City, Sigmund Mogulesko, translation from Zalmen Zylbercweig's Leksikon fun yidishn teater, vol. 2, p. 1180. and included the hit song "Khosn kale mazel tov" written by Sigmund Mogulesko.
By showing that Goldfaden was not the only person who could write a successful play in Yiddish, he opened the floodgates for other Yiddish playwrights.
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References
Adler, Jacob, A Life on the Stage: A Memoir, translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, . 77 (commentary).