"The Jewish Frankenstein," the Golem, describes a rabbi in seventeenth-century Prague who creates a living statue to protect his community from harm. By the time Leivik wrote this play in 1921, he was living in the United States. He was born in Chervyen, Belarus, the oldest of nine children in a traditional home. Leivik joined the Jewish Bund in 1905 and was arrested in 1906 by the Russian authorities and sentenced to four years of forced labor and permanent exile in Siberia. He was smuggled out of Siberia and to America in 1913 where he wrote poetry and drama for several Yiddish dailies. The Golem was first staged in Hebrew in 1925 by Habimah in Moscow and some of the same participants put on a Yiddish version through the theater studio "Free Art" (Fraykunst), also in Moscow, in 1927.

The second professional production was produced in Polish in Lublin's City Theater using Mark Arnshteyn's translation.The Golem enjoyed most play during the interwar period in Polish in Poland. This production also played in Lodz (Municipal Theatre), Grodno, and Bialystok. In

1928, for instance, it played Warsaw's Circus (a venue of 2500 seats) where it was performed twenty-six times.

The third Polish production was by a Marek on 27 June 1928 in Lodz's Municipal Theatre, where the play was performed a long time with great success. Later the play in Polish also was performed in the municipal theatres of Grodno and Bialystok. Featured here is a photograph of an unidentified theatrical production of the play and a review of MarK Arnshteyn (1879-1943)'s production.