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
 

Chana Levin

 

L. was born on 5 May 1894 in Biala Podlaska, Poland. Her father was a tailor. As a child of one-and-a-half years, she went with her family over to Warsaw, where she studied in a folkshul and learned Yiddish with a rabbi. In her early youth she became a worker with a straw peddler.

At twelve years she joined Feinstein's Yiddish children's troupe, where she debuted as "Khasya di yesoyme (Chasia the Orphan)" and she remained there to act for two years. After a short break she joined in with Zhitomirsky's troupe, with whom she toured for two years across Russia, then she acted with small provincial troupes, later with Sabsey in Odessa and with Libert-Zaslavsky across Russia.

In 1917 she came to Poland together with her husband, the actor Chaim Sandler, and traveled around across the Polish province, until she joined in 1922 Kaminski's theatre in Warsaw. Soon thereafter she became engaged to London to Joseph Kessler, where she acted for two seasons under the name Sandler, then six months in South Africa, one year in Paris, several months in Belgium, and Germany and again back to Poland, where she acted for four years in "Sambatyon," then again one season in London's Pavilion Theatre (Director -- Zusman) and after a short tour across Western Europe she came back to Poland, where she acted in 1932 in a members troupe in Warsaw's Skala Theatre and then in Warsaw's Pavilion Theatre (Director -- Chaim Sandler).

 

Specialty: Character roles.

L.'s daughter, Reyzl Sandler, acts on the Yiddish stage.
 

M. E.

  • Chana Sandler -- Vi azoy biz oykh gekumen tsu der bihne, "Di post", London, 13 January 1928, "Teat'tst", Warsaw, 5, 1929.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 2, page 1146.
 

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