B. Lidin-V5

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

B. Lidin
(Elihu-Barukh Liverant)

L. was born in 1893 in Partshev (Parczew), previously in the Siedlce, now in the Lublin region, Poland. His father was a "corner lawyer." He learned with melamedim (religious teachers), and then in a Beit HaMedrash. From his early youth he worked with various trades ([kamashn, beytlen], clocks, hats, cooking, etc.). Discontent at home, where he didn't have any peace with his stepmother, and also with his situation at work, he often left for relatives in other cities, and he worked in a beer brewery with an uncle in Lublin, in a business in Warsaw, and during the outbreak of war in a restaurant-hotel in Brisk. Here L. was taken into military service, and after being released, in 1917, he debuted with an "amateur" group as "Brunin" in Rakov's "Der talmud-khokhem", then here he directed "Chasia the Orphan" with Sarah Reyzen, and he also wrote at the same time in the local "Der veker."

Traveling as a businessman for various articles across Russia, there came to Uman to a department of [arbeter-komisariat], where he founded with the local "Culture League," a drama section, in which he acted and directed.

In 1920 he immigrated to Romania and he began to act with the "amateurs" in Beltz, and here he became engaged by actor Fishl Kanapov, and since 1922 he has been a professional Yiddish actor. After acting for a year with Kanapov, where he had the opportunity to act with the guest-starring Jacob Kalich and Molly Picon, he entered into the troupe of Viera Kanievska-Breitman,

with whom he acted for a season, then for a certain time with Dina Kenig. In 1925 he acted in the troupe, which Sholom Brin had put together with Lidia Potocka, later with provincial troupes; 1927 -- a short time in the "Vilna Operetta Troupe," then with a part of the troupe across Transylvania. From May 1927 he acted for several months with Baratov in the Bucharest "Jignitsa," and in September 1927 he entered into the Ziegler troupe, with whom he went on various tours across eastern and western Europe.

About his tragic end Julius Schwartz promulgated:

"According to the oral declaration of the fardinstfuln actor of the Romanian People's Republic Moritz Sackler, B. Lidin, his wife and youngster Leibele, a gifted child who used to act and dance in the troupe of his parents, were brought by the Nazis for deportation.

The circumstances were such: Lidin with his wife and son found themselves in Czernowitz when the Nazis had captured the city at the end of the summer in 1941. Lidin had a street pass, and when we needed to be sent away in the deportation, Seckler said he should not go. Lidin answered: "Me, with a pass, they won't take me." But they had lacked their numbers because in the beginning [there were those who] had resisted, who were later caught and sent away. In that transport they had lidinen mit zayne genumen, and in Transnistria they were killed.

The actress Sevilla Pastor confirmed that he was killed in Transnistria."

Sh. E. from Julius Schwartz.

"Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre," Warsaw, 1934, V. 2, page 1047.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 5, page 4007.