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Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and modernist plays. At its height, its geographical scope was comparably broad: from the late 19th century until just before World War II, professional Yiddish theatre could be found throughout the heavily Jewish areas of Eastern and East Central Europe, but also in Berlin, London, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York City.
Abraham Goldfaden, also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in Yiddish and Hebrew languages and author of some 40 plays. Goldfaden is considered the father of modern Jewish theatre.
Jacob Pavlovich Adler was a Jewish actor and star of Yiddish theater, first in Odessa, and later in London and in New York City's Yiddish Theater District.
Boris Thomashefsky, born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-born Jewish singer and actor who became one of the biggest stars in Yiddish theater.
Sophia Karp, born Sara Segal, and also known as Sophie Goldstein, Sofia Carp, and Sophie Karp, was a Romanian-born Jewish actress and soprano, the first professional Yiddish theater actress.
Sigmund Mogulesko — Yiddish: זעליק מאָגולעסקאָZelik Mogulesko, first name also sometimes spelled as Zigmund, Siegmund, Zelig, or Selig, last name sometimes spelled Mogulescu — was a singer, actor, and composer in the Yiddish theater in New York City. He was born in Kalarash, Bessarabia and began singing in the local synagogue choir. Before reaching adolescence, he was paid nearly three times what teachers made, to sing in the synagogue of Chişinău. Soon after moving to Bucharest, Romania, he was paid to sing in churches as well as synagogues, and started acting.
Israel (Yisrol) Grodner was one of the founding performers in Yiddish theater. A Lithuanian Jew who moved at the age of 16 to Berdychiv, Ukraine, Russian Empire, the Broder singer and actor was in Iaşi, Romania in 1876 when Abraham Goldfaden recruited him as the first actor for what became the first professional Yiddish theater troupe. Jacob Adler remarks that as the only Lithuanian Jew in the early years of Yiddish theater, he deliberately spoke a different dialect of Yiddish on stage so that it would blend better with the other actors.
Sokher Goldstein, first name also spelled Suher, Soher, Socher, or Sukher, was a singer and actor, one of the founding performers in Yiddish theater. A Jew, presumably of Ukrainian or Romanian origin, nothing is known about his life before Abraham Goldfaden recruited him in Iaşi in 1876 as the second actor after Israel Grodner for what became the first professional Yiddish theater troupe.
IsraelRosenberg founded the first Yiddish theater troupe in Imperial Russia.
Moishe Finkel was a prominent figure in the early years of Yiddish theater. He was business partner first of Abraham Goldfaden and later of Sigmund Mogulesko and, for a time, was married to prima donna Annetta Schwartz. Together, they dominated Yiddish theatre in Bucharest in the early 1880s and in New York City in the late 1880s and into the 1890s, with a repertoire based mainly in the works of Joseph Lateiner and Moses Horowitz.
Sara Adler was a Russian actress in Yiddish theater who made her career mainly in the United States. She was known as the "mother" or "duchess" of Yiddish theater.
Annetta Schwartz was one of the first distinguished female performers in Yiddish theater. She and her sister Margaretta shared prima donna duties in Abraham Goldfaden's troupe in Romania beginning in 1877. Jacob Adler described the sisters as "absolutely respectable" women with classical training as singers. He also writes that when they performed in Odesa, Ukraine in the late 1870s, they had Paris dresses of a quality that had never been seen in that city.
Margeretta Schwartz was one of the first distinguished female performers in Yiddish theater. She and her sister Annetta shared prima donna duties in Abraham Goldfaden's troupe in Romania beginning in 1877. Jacob Adler described the sisters as "absolutely respectable" women with classical training as singers. He also writes that when they performed in Odesa, Ukraine in the late 1870s, they had Paris dresses of a quality that had never been seen in that city.
Sophia "Sonya"Adler, also known by her early stage name Sonya Michelson, was a Russian actress who was one of the first women to perform in Yiddish theater in Imperial Russia. Later she became the first wife of actor Jacob Adler, with whom she relocated to London in 1883, after Yiddish theater was banned in Russia.
Keni Liptzin was a star in the early years of Yiddish theater, probably the greatest female dramatic star of the first great era of Yiddish theater in New York City.
Mirele Efros was an 1898 Yiddish play by Jacob Gordin. Some have called it "the Jewish Queen Lear".
Dinah Shtettin was an English Yiddish theater actress. She was the second wife of Jacob Adler, with whom she had a daughter, Celia Adler, in 1889.
Grodner is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Zina or Zena Goldstein was a Yiddish theater actress and singer. She was born in Minsk, before moving to Warsaw. Her parents, who were also musical, supported her becoming a singer. She joined Aryeh Schlossberg's chorus and was given small roles. She became the prima donna in Abram Yitzhak Zandberg's Groys teater in Łódź, then worked in Rapel's troupe and for a short time in Kaminsky's. After the outbreak of the first world war, she became the primadonna in Łódź's Scala Theater, run by Julius Adler and Herman Sierocki, where she played in a number of European operettas.
Regina Zuckerberg was an Austrian-born Yiddish theatre actor and Prima donna who had a career both in Europe and the United States.
References
- Adler, Jacob, A Life on the Stage: A Memoir, translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-679-41351-0. 135.