Joseph Goland

Joseph Goland (1907-1974)
Joseph Goland was born ot 6th May 1907 in Kremenchuk, in the Ukraine. His father was very musical and would have liked to have been a cantor or opera singer, but his parents insisted on a middle class profession and so he became an electronics dealer. He retained his love of music and sympathized with his children’s musical ambitions, supporting them to his best ability. The eldest son, Konstantin, became a baritone at the Opera in Kiev; the second son, Nahum, a literary manager in the theatre; the third son, Isaak, was engaged by a provincial opera company, but was then taken on by the Moscow Habima Ensemble to Berlin, but when the troupe left for its next engagement, he stayed on in Germany where, under the name of Iso Golland, he became a well-known soloist at the Berlin Staatsoper. The fourth child of the electronics dealer, Sonya / Sara, became a pianist; the fifth, Shlomo / Salomon, a Zionist pioneer who emigrated to Palestine in 1920. 

Joseph Goland was the sixth and youngest child in the family. He was educated at kheder school and as a child took an interest and an active part in his elder brother Isaak’s singing lessons. When he was eight, he appeared on the concert stage for the first time. When he was ten he became a member of “Makkabi”, the Zionist youth organization and sports club. When he was 13 or 14 he and some school-friends set up a theatre group that operated on behalf of the “Children for Children” aid organization during famine in Ukraine. During the Civil War, the ensemble even performed for the Red Army and Goland became the director of a theatre at the front.

In 1923 Goland, together with his parents and sister, followed his brother Salomon to Palestine. During the day he worked on the roads as a pioneer (khaluts), while spending the evenings rehearsing with the ensemble of the Ohel theatre that had been founded in 1924 by Moshe Halevi (a workers’ theatre, “ohel” is Hebrew for “tent”). He also took singing lessons with Yehuda Salzberg (Har-Melakh) and with his brother’s help came to Berlin in 1929 to continue his training at the Academy of Music, in his spare time appearing on stage at various Berlin theaters. In November 1932 Goland returned to Palestine where he joined the ensemble of the Mat’ateh Theatre as an actor.

In 1935 Joseph Goland was invited by Decca to come to London to make some recordings accompanied by Moshe Wilensky on the piano. Back in Palestine, he performed with the popular folk singer Channa Kipnis in “Zot hi Ha-aretz / This Is The Land”, the first (semi-documentary) Hebrew sound film made in Palestine. In the film, Goland sang the song “Havu levenim / Hand the Bricks”. In 1937 the singer was commissioned by the Jewish National Fund to undertake an extensive tour of the Benelux countries and Eastern Europe. In Palestine once again, Goland joined the recently founded “Smadar” cabaret. Later on, together with his wife, the dancer Miya Arbathova from Riga, and the actor Michael Gur, he founded his own cabaret “Af-Al-Pi / Although”, which has used during the Second World War for entertaining the troops. He was also responsible for the “Komedia Musikalit / Musical Comedy”, with those ensemble he appeared in the role of Moshe Finkelstein in Claire Booth-Luce’s play “Finkelstein contra Hitler” in September 1943.

During the war Joseph Goland joined the recently founded Palestine Folk Opera and appeared in buffo roles in many operetta productions. From 1948 to 1949 he went on a long tour of the USA with the Yemen-born singer and dancer Shoshana Damari (1923-2006). Back in Israel Joseph Goland became a co-founder of and performer at the “Li-La-Lo / For Me, For Her, For Him” cabaret. He died in 1974.
Horst J. P. Bergmeier, Dr. Ejal Jakob Eisler, Dr. Rainer E. Lotz
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Last update 26-02-2009