Clara Rafalo

Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE yIDDISH THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"
1931-1967

Clara Rafalo

She was born in 1882 in Cincinnati, America.

Her parents were grocery store owners.

She studied in a public school, high school and also studied music (singing and piano) in the a local conservatory.

When Aba Shoengold acted with his children in Cincinnati, R.'s father substituted for him at home, where after hearing her sing, added her to his troupe as a prima donna. Her father, who was a theatre lover, had soon moreover agreed, and six weeks later her mother. R.--with the agreement of both parents--then traveled to Pittsburgh where Schoengold's troupe was performing, and then she debuted there as "Shulamis."

Later she was engaged as a prima donna by Ellis Glickman in Chicago; in New York's Windsor Theatre (Manager Leon Spachner, by Mike Thomashefsky in Philadelphia, and at the Thalia Theatre [in New York], where she acted with [David] Kessler in the successful Lateiner operetta "The Jewish Heart."

For a certain amount of time, R. both by herself and together with Hershl Zuckerberg, directed Yiddish theatre troupe across the American province and acted in starring roles not only in operettas, but also in dramas.

R.'s first husband, Morris Goldberg ("Der butsher [The Books]") had also for a time acted on the Yiddish stage. Such was also the case with her sister Eva.

In her last years R. no longer acted and lived in Cincinnati, the town of her birth. She also went on vacation in Saratoga Springs where she became sick. She was taken away to a hospital, where they performed an operation, and on 25 August 1959 she passed away.

Sh. E.

Celia Adler--"Celia Adler's Story," New York, 1959, pp. 267 and 421.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 4, page 3049.