Last Tuesday the Yiddish [Hebrew] Actors' Union held a meeting under the chairman of the Yiddish keshir. It was one of those meetings of which it is said "will be recorded in the history of the union."

Whether it will be written in its history or not, we don't know. That it will, however, shape the relations between the Yiddish actors in America and their colleagues in Poland, or better said, between the Actors' Union and the Artists' Union, in this we are quite sure.

A bitter accusation against the Yiddish Artists' Union (the actors' union in Poland) came out during the meeting that R. Guskin, the manager of the Actors' Union, led. He even warned the Artists' Union that the local union will hold them accountable for sending deported American Yiddish actors from Poland.

"Had the Artists' Union protested against such an action, the Polish government would not have given occasion that at this and that time our members should no longer be in Warsaw," Guskin said in his report.

He pointed out that at the same time that the local artist seeks to unite at every opportunity in order to enhance the prestige of the American Yiddish actor. If only a Yiddish actor from the United States makes a mistake in Poland, he is immediately attacked in the press, immediately banned, a bad name is thrown at the union to which he belongs. They are not even waiting for it, that the local union should itself discipline her members: they ignore everything -- the union, without bringing any complaint against the actor who sinned in Poland.

"It's a bit of a debt owed to our own members," Guskin said. "Take the case with our own 'Bismarck', Anshel Schorr. When he left we made him a nice banquet, greeted him with friendly speeches, gave him lovely gifts. Though he had to go shopping with the influential persons there, he was not ashamed to print a letter stating that we should study with them.

Talking about the respect that members need to have for their own organization, Guskin "mercifully" addressed only the members of the union who do not associate with scabs. Scabs themselves are a skeptic in their soul, he explained.

"You are causing people to lose every bit of attention for you and for your union. It goes without saying that outsiders have already had a say with the managers, about whom they should hire and who they should not," the speaker continued.

With the sharpest words he attacked those members who tolerate scabs. Union actors who play with scabs must be severely punished, he demanded. And if they withhold it, they must be ostracized, so that no progressive person will come with them in whatever situation there is.

At the start, Guskin reported about the current season in the theatres in the province. The condition there is very bad. While business in New York is much better than it was a year ago, business on the road is much worse. Nevertheless, the managers also continue to run their businesses and are likely to be overwhelmed by the time the "attractions" begin to arrive from New York. Only one theatre closed its doors in the province. This is the theatre in Newark. After all, the theatre did not do such bad business at all. Bernard Elving, the owner of the theatre, had absolutely nothing to do with the closure. The theatre was in the hands of Mollie Cohen, and she closed it. Guskin believes there was not enough reason to shut it down.

On his recommendation, the meeting decided to reopen the issue of the "chain" of the province theatres. A committee of five was elected to take up the matter and make definite recommendations about it and bring it to the union. The committee consists of Moshe Simonoff, Dave Baratz, Sidney Hart, Joe Weiss, and Bernard Elving.

The meeting also agreed to require the Executive Board to hold a special meeting and consider the various points of the manager's report. In connection with the accusation that Guskin made about the Polish Yiddish Artists' Union, there will be two interesting letters that were received by the representative of the "Forward." The letters were written by American Yiddish actors who now find themselves in Poland. We will exclude the name of the writer.

"... Everything would have been fine, if not for the Artists' Union. They are killing me; it is terrible with us in America that when a Pole comes, people are happy. He is given the best place, he receives wages, and after that he pays the union nothing. Now that I'm here, I soon paid fifty dollars and three percent of the earnings. Now they want fifty dollars again every two months, and that's the Polish justice.

"Already now I have spent five hundred dollars, and they hold on to this one demand, and they still claim that they have justice. "So they suddenly let me know that since I would not give them fifty dollars every two months and three percent of my money, they would not let me play ... at the moment I do not know where I will play."

A second actor writes:

" ... Must interrupt my work. The Polish powers are sending me out of Poland. Such a decree; foreign artists should not be here. Those who had prior permission remain. My license has expired, renewal is impossible, I have to leave. I do not know where to go. There's actually nowhere to go. The decree happened suddenly.

" ... It's a general decree that will bear sad consequences, and the main thing -- it is with the consent of the Yiddish Artists' Union in Poland ... It's a new decree on Yiddish theatre in Poland. Our short-sighted politicians here in Warsaw do not see it.

" ... We received all their members in a friendly manner; some before, some later. We send them plays from which they live; but to us, they have only persecutions. Upon arrival, you must pay a deposit of five hundred zlotys before you can start playing. Now it is already raised to a thousand. Their relationship with our union is outrageous. "In one of the Yiddish newspapers in Poland, the following message appeared under the heading: "The Decree on Artists."

"As it turns out, the ban on the artist Teitelbaum to play theatre in Poland is not a single case. The same decree also happened to a second artist, the character-comic Abe Karp, this artist who has left New York for the entire winter season, in the meanwhile here he has become ill. He had to interrupt his guest-appearances and travel for a short time to Vienna. The day when he returned from the cure and chose to renew his guest appearances, he suddenly received a notice that he is forbidden to engage in his work in Poland.

"One needs to mention that the artist Teitelbaum just set up a new thing with the Vilna Troupe, and the ban broke both him and the whole troupe.

"The government commissariat has banned the black, naked dancer Josephine Baker from coming to Poland .

Due to the fact that in all European cities, during her performances great adventures had taken place, she did not get the visa to Poland."