A SHAYNA MAIDEL

Play by Barbara Lebow, 1988

Barbara Lebow's play A Shayna Maidel, first produced in 1985, dramatizes the saga of the Weiss family, Polish Jews whose lives are irrecoverably altered by the Holocaust. The play begins in a Polish shtetl in 1876, when the patriarch of the family, Mordechai Weiss, is born during what appears to be a pogrom. This scene is significant in Lebow's play, for he is a good baby who does not cry, thus foreshadowing his resilience and tough spirit. A Shayna Maidel is a memory play in that it is set in three times: when Mordechai is born in 1876, when his two daughters (Rose White and Lusia Weiss Pechenik) are reunited in New York City during the present (1946), and when Lusia has flashbacks of her life in Poland immediately before and after the Holocaust. Lusia has survived Auschwitz, and the Red Cross and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society have contacted her father to inform him that she is coming to New York. Mordechai insists that she come to live with her sister, Rose. This order from her father upsets Rose because she does not remember her sister and thus feels uncomfortable about sharing an apartment with her. In addition, Rose, having come to New York at the age of four, has become fully Americanized and has even changed her name from Rayzel Weiss to Rose White. Although she is not ashamed of being Jewish, she has distanced herself from her past in Poland and her Jewish heritage; she does not even keep kosher, which disturbs Mordechai. The main reason Rose feels uncomfortable about living with Lusia is her guilt: she has enjoyed a peaceful and uneventful life in New York while her sister suffered unspoken atrocities during the Holocaust. Mordechai, his wife, and his two daughters were supposed to leave Poland for New York, but before they could leave, Lusia contracted scarlet fever and had to remain in Poland with her mother. Therefore, Mordechai had taken Rose (Rayzel) with him to New York and had intended to have his wife and Lusia join them after the daughter recovered. But when the war breaks out, mother and daughter cannot leave the country. Lusia initially does not mind being left behind because she can remain with her best friend Hanna and because she has fallen in love with Duvid. Lusia marries Duvid, and they have a child (Sprinze) together, but eventually Lusia, her mother, husband, child, and best friend are taken to Auschwitz. Only Lusia and Duvid survive the ordeal, and Lusia, grieving for her mother, baby, and best friend, arrives in New York to live with the relatives who left Poland before the war and to attempt to track down Duvid, whom she believes is alive and looking for her.

Rose does not know how to talk to her sister because they are strangers to one another and because Rose cannot comprehend the suffering that Lusia has experienced. Lusia recognizes almost immediately her sister's reluctance to be with her, which adds to the strain in the relationship. Lusia is also distracted because she is preoccupied with her search for her missing husband. As the audience later discovers, Lusia is also angry at Mordechai because just before the war started he had turned down an opportunity to bring his wife and Lusia to New York: someone had offered to lend him the money to bring the two over to New York, but because of his pride and dignity, Mordechai refused to accept the money. Mordechai's refusal prevented his wife and daughter from leaving Poland; as it turns out, if Mordechai had accepted the offer, his family would have survived and his daughter never would have suffered her ordeal in Auschwitz.

Mordechai and Lusia have each maintained a list of their relatives and what happened to them during the Holocaust. The two family members read their lists in ritualistic fashion, revealing that almost all their relatives have died. Rose is fascinated by the reading of the lists and wants to know more about her past; Mordechai has previously shielded her from any knowledge about her relatives, even her own mother, because he felt that it would cause her too much pain. Mordechai now reveals to Rose that he has kept a letter from her—a final letter written to her from her mother. In the poignant letter Rose's mother tells her that she loves her and sends along her baby spoon, which she has kept as a tangible reminder of their bond.

The play concludes on a positive note, for Mordechai manages to help find Duvid and bring him to Rose's apartment, where Lusia is waiting. Lebow's touching play demonstrates the indomitable nature of the human spirit and the importance of strong family bonds. Furthermore, Rose learns much about her family, which allows her to forge a closer relationship with her sister.

—Eric Sterling