Shtokbant Biography

Their bin to Juda ... The wonderful stories from the life of Isaac Romanovich Shtokbant, the artistic director of the Buff Theater Isaac Romanovich Shtokbant, the next year is ninety. Petersburgers know him as a famous director, artistic director of the Buff Theater. And in the synagogue on the Tver Shtokbant - an ordinary parishioner. A Jew among Jews.

After all, my whole environment is different, I have been working in Russian theaters all my life ... I began to go to the synagogue every Saturday. My comrades know: on this day Isaac Romanovich is not at work, he prays. True, this does not always come out. The Saturday and Sunday theater is the most intense working days. And I, praying about the Saturday of the rest, often, alas, you are sent after that to go to my Buff, to Zanevsky Prospekt.

But I am glad that others have the opportunity to observe a Shabbat. The conversation with Isaac Romanovich was before Hanuk's holiday. Therefore, the director decided to lie in his "Jewish" memories and wonderful stories from life. The rabbi-port and "deprived" I was born in Leningrad, in the family of an engineer. The parents of his father lived in Tver, his grandfather was a master.

During the war, they managed to survive, then Tver Kalinin was not long under the Germans, and they were hidden by the neighbors. Mother's ancestors from the Baltic states. For some time her grandfather or great-grandfather lived in Petrozavodsk, he was a rabbi and at the same time military tailor. Then, with NEP, my grandfather had two shops in Leningrad. He was considered a "deprived", and because of this, my mother could not get an education.

Once I was in a real Jewish place, in Beshenkovichi. I remembered how on Saturdays we were kicked out of the house in which we lived because we prayed there. He remembered the colorful carrier to Libe ... But still, the first sharp and exciting experiences associated with my Jewry belong to the war years. The blessing in the exhausted minyan was a year in Budapest. I was a lieutenant of the Office.

We walked between the artillery and infantry and adjusted the fire. I was nineteen years old, and I managed to get the Order of the Red Star. We met the victory in the city of Merrzcheshlag, in the Austrian Alps, near Graets, and from there we were transferred to Hungary. I remember how we went there - everything is already mixed up, without any order: infantry, artillery, horses, lucky guns, because the war has ended.

We were encouraged enthusiastically, as liberators, although Hungary was recently an ally of Germany. And in Budapest, I saw an unusual person. He was thin, pale, and to say that he was poorly dressed - it means to say nothing. He looked at me for a long time, and then recalled me and began to speak ... I do not know in what language. Either in the Yiddish, which I did not know, or in German.

In German, I understood a little: I taught him at school. At first he apologized for a long time, and then he asked if I was a Jew. And I answered in German: "I, their bin to Jude-yes, I am a Jew." He was very excited, took my hand and led me to some house. There were several men in front of him, the same exhausted, ragged. He said something to them.

And they brought me into the house, one of them laid a hand on my head, and they read a prayer. And they read it all over me. As if they blessed me. I think these people survived in a concentration camp. And it was important for them that in this mighty Ar-Miy, the army of winners, liberators also have Jews-with officer shoulder straps, with orders ... “I reject your request because you are a Jew!

But the general, to whom I gave a report, sternly told me: “I reject your request. You will serve further. " I asked - why? He replied: "Because you are a Jew." I was amazed at such frank anti -Semitism of the Soviet general. And then it turned out that the general of his last name was Brady, he was the commander of the southern group of troops Jew himself. I don’t know what he meant!

Maybe he believed that Jews had a special responsibility, or he wanted Jews to be more in the army ... But only by his mercy I served up to thirty-heels. And only at the very last moment did he manage to apply for the director's faculty of the Theater Institute. He no longer had time to act: they took up to twenty -five ... Hanukia in the Buff Theater. December photo: George Grigoryev Prayer, who saved my brother, I have a cousin.

For the past twenty years he has been living in America. We were always very friends. He is an atheist himself. He recently fell ill with cancer, and everyone believed that he was doomed. How could I help him? Only by the fact that he prayed every night for him. And recently, his wife told me that a miracle happened to Lenya: he came to life, returns to life, even sat behind the wheel of the car for the first time in a long time.

I want to believe that my prayer helped him ... P. In the days of Hanuki in the foyer of the Buff Theater, they light a lamp, and young actors who have nothing to do with Jewry make sure that the fire does not fade away - for the sake of their teacher, for his faith.