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Mr. Lerman had made his
career, as do all the Yiddish artists. Without a
systematic distribution. It is heard singing in his
place, and in his treatment of every song, though he
sings with diction and with heart. Indeed, one of his
greatest earnings would have been that of not looking at
the great success he had everywhere and now also in
Warsaw, with the lovely reviews in the Russian
newspapers. Not looking at all of them, he should take
himself seriously for the learners, so as not to make
the soon-to-be-announced transition from "singer" to
"dramatic actor," and also not everyone makes the
transition.
Mr. Lerman is still young
and filled with life and energy, and can with that
wonderful voice material make a very great singing
career."
In her remarks, the actress
Zina Rappel once mentioned Lerman and emphasized that he
for a long time he had acted under her husband's
direction, earlier together with Epelberg in Warsaw,
then by himself in Odessa, during the First World War.
She also mentions that when she later, years after the
First World War, went to London, there she again met L.
According to her he did not then act on the Yiddish
stage.
According to Zygmunt Lev,
who in that time toured with "word concerts" across
Western and Eastern Europe, around 1926 L. moved to
Paris, where together with him she participated in
several such concerts in Paris and its vicinity, and
there used to perform in a repertoire of Yiddish folk
and classical songs, as well as with Hebrew songs. Lev
mentions that "Lerman took on his task very seriously
and has moved with great lengths for his profession."
In January 1927 L. performed
in London's "Pavilion" Theatre, in the title role of
Goldfaden's "Bar kokhba."
In 1928 L. turned back to
Warsaw and performed in the "Kaminski" Theatre, in the
operetta, "Der freylekher khazn (The Happy Cantor?)."
According to various
accounts, L. later became a cantor and went away from
the stage. During the Second World War, he was found in
France.
Zygmunt Turkow noted that he
visited Vienna with the sickly Ester Rokhl Kaminska:
"I also attended a
remarkable cantorial contest in which our well-known
operetta singer Yakov Lerman participated. Lerman was
amazed that I was no singer and could not become a
cantor, because 'Cantors -- he assured me -- in bread
with butter and Yiddish theatre -- a moldy sugar.' "
According to the actor
Moshe-Dovid Makhorovski, being sent by the Nazis, L. had
pretty bad days from 1942 in Odessa, where through his
landsman Leybele Maler, he applied for the pulpit, and
was sent from there with the first or second transport
to his death.
According to the actress
Aniuta Paliakov, being along among the interred in
Drancy, she saw there L., and that on 16 July 1942, he
was taken to his destruction.
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