The Museum of
FAMILY HISTORY

       the yiddish world

 

  EXHIBITION

 

Lives in the Yiddish Theatre

Morris Axelrad and wife Minnie
1911


Morris Axelrad, Yiddish Actor
 

Meier/Morris/Maurice Axelrad (1879-1953), born
in Iasi, Romania, was an actor and producer in the Yiddish Theatre in London, Paris and Buenos Aires.

 

At the age of thirteen, Morris joined a circus and became the camel keeper. After this he returned home without any money and thus decided to act
in amateur Yiddish productions. In the 1890s, Morris moved to London and found work in a hat factory.
He subsequently became a professional actor and became a popular comedian on London's East End.

 

Morris' choice of a theater career caused Morris' parents to sit shiva for him. Ties were broken with
the family with the exception of the younger generation. It was to them that Morris would give coins to supplement the parents' income and those
of his siblings.

Further, Morris' brother David Axelrad became a scenery painter in the Yiddish Theatre and several others in the family followed his lead into the performance end of the Theatre even in America. However, his nephew, Dr. Jacob Weingreen (1907-1995) took a more scholarly route and became the first Hebrew Chair at Trinity College in Dublin and author of a definitive Hebrew grammar entitled "A Practical Grammar of Classical Hebrew." He and his wife Bertha (who was from South Africa) also played a pivotal role in assisting Holocaust survivors.




 


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