ERC > LEXICON OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE  >  VOLUME 5  >  YAKOV BERGOLSKI


Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre
BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE WHO WERE ONCE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE;
aS FEATURED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S  "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"


VOLUME 5: THE KDOYSHIM (MARTYRS) EDITION, 1967, Mexico City

 

Yakov (Yasha) Bergolski
(Goldberg)


 

His correct name may have been Goldberg. He came from the Ukraine. He completed or studied in a Yiddish dramatic school. He acted at the Baku State Yiddish Theatre in Yiddish. After the troupe had divided had during the Second World War, the Jewish actors within the Yiddish troupes [went to either] Vilna and Bialystok, and B. went over to Bialystok.

According to the actor Yehoshua Borodov, Bergolski arrived in Bialystok with a wife and child, and with his talent he soon became popular, and was intelligent and wise. A little later the Soviets founded a Jewish state theatre in Vilna, with writer David Umru from Kovno as director and Max Viskind as regisseur. In this theatre B. was engaged and went to Vilna. When the Nazis took Vilna, they took both him with his wife Lili Goldenberg (who also had acted on the Yiddish stage) and their two children and put into the ghetto. There he performed in Hebrew Pinski's "Jewish hntshi," and was especially popular with his singing in the summer of 1943 of Leib Rosenthal's song "Tsu eyns, tsvey, dray." He worked in various German activities until he was killed with his entire family.

According to Yona Radinov, he died attempting to resist the Nazis.

B. especially excelled in the role of "Gorodovai" in Gershenson's "Hershele Ostropoler," "Sheyerman" in Sholem Aleichem's "Hard to be a Jew," and in the title role from Sholem Aleichem's "Stempenyu."

 Sh. Katsherginski writes:

"Artist of the Yiddish theatre in Baku. In April 1941 Bergolski arrived in Vilna, according to the processing of the Jewish State Theatre. He became the darling of theatre attendees. Self-evacuation was not possible for him, because a few days after the outbreak of war his wife had given birth (born Goldberg, an actress from Baku) to a child.

In the ghetto Bergolski was beloved by the public, excelled, and was the avekshtelung from D. Pinski's 'Hihudi hntshkh.' He quickly learned the Hebrew language and even often recited and sang in the language. He was killed in a labor camp H. K. P. a few days after he was released from Vilna (6.7.1944), together with his wife and two children."

[It isn't clear if he had the name of Bergolski or Beregolski. Also it is possible what people believed, that his correct family name was Goldberg, came from a teus, because his wife's family name was Goldenberg or Goldberg.]


M. E. from Israel Segal, Mordechai Hilsberg, Yehoshua Borodov and Dora Rubina.

Sh. E. from Yona Radinov.

  • A. Sutzkever -- "Fun vilner geto," Moscow, 1946, p. 106.

  • Sh. Katsherginski -- "Khurbn vilne," New York, 1947, p. 222.

  • Sh. Katsherginski -- "Lider fun getos un lagern," New York, 1948.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 5, page 4554.
 

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