According to Grisha Rotstein, in Warsaw on
Elektoralna Street, Ts. with a brother had a men's
ready-made clothing business. His wife was the best
sheitel (wig) maker before the face of the pious Jewish
women and had a small factory on Bielanska Street, where
she was also the owner of a house. Ts. felt a huge
desire for theatre, and still in 1917 he was hired to
put into the "Kaminski" Theatre in Yiddish with Zina
Goldstein and Herman Serotsky, the European operetta, "Di
dolar-printsesin." he also brought Grman actors during
the German Occupation for Warsaw, and it was a director
of a Polish variety theatre with dancers, the future
world-famous Pola Negri, and the Yiddish actor Sh.
Landau (under the name of Stalski). Then Ts. went over
to the "Central" Theatre, in which he performed with
Bren and Ryba. There there was staged European
operettas, among others "Di tsirkus-kenigin," and
striving strongly alone to play on the stage, he had
once, for his evening of honor, played in the operetta
the role of the "circus director." Before that he
specially allowed himself to wear a costume; a
red-collared suit, dressed in boots, held a handgun,
made up with aroyfgedreyte vanses, but with the
role he played he was angry, and this, once and for all
seemed to him -- he never played anymore. The business
was bad. Ts. lost a lot of money. he remained strongly
in debt, but here he did something that no other Yiddish
theatre director had done: He sold his house and paid
off all debts.
Ts. then carried himself
over to Lodz, and presented Molly Picon and Jacob Kalich
in Lodz and in Warsaw, and generally led in two
directions: Warsaw and Lodz. In 1925 he was director in
Lodz of the troupe, which played in Warsaw's "Central"
Theatre, when in Lodz there guest-starred with him Sam
Auerbach and Sadie Shoengold.
In 1932 Ts. was the director
of the Lodz "Philharmonic" Theatre, where Jacob
Rechtzeit from America guest-starred.
In 1933 he was director of
the "Poylishes" Theatre in Lodz, where there
guest-starred Al. Granach, and then Michal Michalesko.
Ts. also was the director in Lodz during the
guest-appearance of Maurice Schwartz with the troupe
(Polish-formed).
Ts. also got his daughter
excited about theatre, and in the thirtieth year opened
with her a "Revi Cosmopolitan," for which he spent a lot
of money.
According to the actor
Zalman Koleshnkov, Ts. had, during the Second World War,
worked in the administration of "Baveglekhn Yiddish
melukhe-teater (Movable Yiddish State Theatre)," but he
asked him to be released from the theatre because of his
relationship with the actors, who constantly rejected
his attitude to them, asking him to be a director and
often described him as an "explorer." His bride was to
travel to his family in Lemberg, but the tsufal hot
gevolt that he had been dragged to Russia, where he
found his death.
His wife had survived in
Israel, where she later passed away. His oldest son,
Alec, former husband of the the actress Fania Rubina,
was killed by the Nazis, and the son Henrik died in Tel
Aviv. The son Max continued to live in Haifa, Israel.
Zalmen Zylbercweig
characterizes him as such:
"Ts. was an exception of the
other Yiddish theatre directors. Already, almost all the
others likewise were actors, and in the first instance
did not treat their undertakings from a commercial point
of view, but from their artistic point of view, on how
it met their artistic ambitions. Ts., however, had a
purely business approach. He was, by all means, a
merchant and widespread proprietor. He did not shy away
from a failure. If a certain undertaking had brought him
a deficit. He did not fall into despair, but soon tried
a second. Although not overly intelligent and with an
eye on the case, at the request of Masovan theater
visitors. After all, he had always moved to greater
performances, to better repertoires, whether it was
about the drama or the drama. His word was a guarantee
for honesty and accuracy, and accused of himself, which
he is a theatre director."
M.E.
from Grisha Rotstein, Henrik Littman, Nathan Wolfovitsh
and Zalmen Kaleshnikov.
Sh.E.
from Zalmen Zylbercweig. |