After cutting out the talking and singing parts of the Yiddish film “The Jewish Mother,” the presentation of which caused a minorriot Saturday night, the continued showing of the film was uninterfered with. Special posters signed by the municipal officials and the representative of the producers today announced that a compromise had been reached.
Saturday night, during the showing of this first Yiddish talkie to be presented in Tel Aviv, a number of hot-headed defenders of Hebrew spattered ink and hurled foul-smelling objects at the screen as the audible part of the picture began. Others left the theatre in a demonstrative fashion, being greeted with cheers by a crowd outside. The shouts and boos became so widespread that the British poice were called in to aid the local force.
On the request of Vice-Mayor Rokeach the police prohibited the second showing of the film, after the initial performance had been completed with difficulty. A number of the rowdies were arrested but were later released when Vice-Mayor Rokeach gave assurances that their actions would not be repeated.
The Hebrew press is divided in its reaction to the incipient riot. The Doar Hayom applauds the action of the “defenders of the Hebrew language” against “the deliberate impertinence of a jargon performance.” The Davar, organ of Jewish labor, on the other hand, satirizes what it terms the “futile fanaticism” of those who marred the showing of the first Yiddish talkie in this all-Jewish city.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
