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Horowitz, Moses ha-Levi

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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Judæo-German playwright; born on the 7th of Adar, 1844, at Stanislau, Galicia. After the usual Jewish education he studied German and went to Bucharest. In 1876 he established a Jewish theater there, and has been connected with the Jewish stage ever since. He was the first to introduce actresses on the Jewish stage; previously men had always taken the feminine rôles in Jewish plays. Horowitz went to New York in 1884, taking with him a company of his own.

He has written no less than 169 plays. "Das Polishe Yingel" being his first dramatic production. 'Among his more successful plays are: "Schlome Chochom," "Kuzri," "Chochmath Noshim," "Ben Hador," and "Yetziath Mizraim." Most of Horowitz's plays are historical, but he is always on the lookout for "zeit piessen" (topical subjects). Thus he found dramatic material in the strike at Homestead and in the massacre of Kishinef (1903) Themost successful of his "zeit piessen" was "Tissa Eslar." Many of his dramas were composed in the course of a few days, and he utilized without hesitation whole scenes of foreign dramas. Though a successful playwright, Horowitz failed as an actor, and after he went to America he abandoned acting entirely.