Moses Horowitz

Moses Ha-Levi Horowitz (February 27, 1844 – March 4, 1910), also known as Moishe Hurvitz, Moishe Isaac Halevy-Hurvitz, etc., was a playwright and actor in the early years of Yiddish theater.Jacob Adler describes him as an "authorit[y] on dramaturgy", but also remarks that before being part of the Yiddish theater in London in the mid-1880s he had "wandered in different lands, involved himself in various undertakings, and then moved on often leaving, it is said not altogether pleasant memories behind him." He was one of the few figures in the early years of Yiddish theater who did not participate in the boom years in Imperial Russia (1879–1883).

Famous for the speed with which he turned out his plays (usually in no more than three days), he would sometimes start actors rehearsing the first two acts of a play while he wrote the third backstage.

Horowitz was born in Stanislau, eastern Galicia (then a province of Austria-Hungary, now in Ukraine). He received the usual Jewish education, and also studied German. At 18 he became a Hebrew teacher in Iaşi, Romania, before moving to Bucharest, where he became director of a Jewish school, a position from which he was dismissed, after which he converted from Judaism to Christianity and became a missionary. He later claimed to have served as professor of geography at the University of Bucharest.

In Romania in 1877, he converted back to Judaism and, having been turned down as a playwright by Goldfaden, who wrote all of his own company's plays, Horowitz (along with Joseph Lateiner) began to write plays for Israel Grodner and Sigmund Mogulesko after they left Abraham Goldfaden's troupe. A favorite of Bucharest intellectuals, he was at that time known for historical dramas, sometimes with improvised monologues (especially for his own roles); he was initially seen as a more serious playwright than Goldfaden, who at this time was writing vaudevilles, light operetta, and the occasional melodrama. Goldfaden's work would soon take a more serious turn, while Horowitz eventually became "a 'specialist' in the 'shund' (lowbrow) genre.".

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