Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"

1931-1969
 

Ari Fuhrman
 

 

F. was born in 1924 in Czernowitz, Bukovina.

He studied singing in the local academy of music and started to take an interest in the theatre. However, the Second World War interrupted his studies.

In 1941, when the Nazis invaded Bukovina, F. was deported with his whole family to Transnistria.

And there, under the most terrible conditions, in the concentration camps, F. created an underground Yiddish theatre where he appeared in episodic roles and also played in the orchestra. The shows did not last a long time, however, because the German Nazis and the Rumanian fascists became aware of this and destroyed everything.

After the war, F. moved to Bucharest and starred in the local professional theatre.

There he played in more important roles like "Hotzmakh" in the "Di kishufmakherin" ("The Witch/Sorceress"), "Herr kroller" in "Anne Frank", and so on.

In 1959, he emigrated to Eretz Yisrael and joined the newly formed national theatre, Habima.

In 1961 F. arrived in America. There he moved to Philadelphia, where his family who had survived the war was living. He had been separated from them for fifteen years.

There he started playing Yiddish and Yiddish-English programs, with his wife Chayele Ash and his brother, the popular singer Avraham Fuhrman, acting in evening performances for different Yiddish organizations, among them "B'nai B'rith", branches of Hadassah, community centers, congregations, synagogues, B'rith Shalom departments, etc.

Together with his wife, he also organized two dramatic circles of the "New Yiddish American" and "B'nai B'rith", where they presented Yiddish shows.

F. is a member of the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" Committee.

F. composed the music for the productions of "Mottl péïsié dem hazns", "Grine felder" (arrangements) and for the small-art programs presented by himself and his wife, Chayele Ash.


Sh. E.

"Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre", V. V, Mexico 1967 (part "Our Builders", on page 11).


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 6, page 5964-5.
 

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