yt/pictorial-library/men

THE MUSEUM OF FAMILY HISTORY presents

** A Pictorial Library of the Yiddish Theatre **

SITE MAP | YIDDISHWORLD

Men

Women

ACHRON, JOSEPH
(1886–1943)
b. Lozdzieje, Lithuania
Composer

ADLER, CHARLES
(1886-?)
Actor

ADLER, JACOB P. (PAVLOVITCH)
b. Odessa, Ukraine
(1855-1926)
Actor

ALEICHEM, SHOLEM
(Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich)
(1895-1916)
b. Pereyaslav, Ukraine
Writer

ANDREYEV, LEONID
(1871-1919)
b. Orvol Province, Russia
Writer

ANSKY, S.
(SOLOMON ZANVEL RAPPOPORT)
(1863-1920)
b. Vitebsk, Belarus
Writer

ARNSTEIN, MARC
Writer

ARONSON, BORIS
(1900-1980)
Kiev, Ukraine
Set Designer/Painter

ASCH, SHOLEM
(1880-1957)
b. Kutno, Poland
Writer

cir 1920
Vilnius, Lithuania

ASRO/AZRO, ALEXANDER
(1888-1963)
Actor in Vilna Troupe

BARATOFF/BARATOV, BEN ZVI/BEN ZVEE
Actor

BARDINI, ALEKSANDER
(1913-)
b. Lodz, Poland

Aleksander Bardini was an actor, director and acting teacher.

BEN-AMI, JACOB (né Shtchirin)
(1890-1977)
b. Minsk, Belarus (then Russia)
Actor

BENAVENTE (Y MARTINEZ),
JACINTO
1866-1954)
b. Madrid, Spain
Writer

BERKOWITZ, I.D. (ISAAC DOV)
(1885-1967)
b. Slutsk, Belarus
Writer

BERMAN, RAKHI
From Kovno, Lithuania
Actor in the Minchener Jidiszer Kleinkunst Teater (MIKT) troupe

BERNSTEIN, BERL

BIMKO, P. (FELIX/FISHEL)
(1890-1965)
b. Kielce, Poland
Writer

BLEI, BORIS
Sculptor

BLEICH, YEHUDA

BULOFF, JOSEPH
(1899-1985)
b. Vilnius, Lithuania
Actor, Director

1931
Bucharest, Romania

CASHER/CASHIER, ISADOR(E)/IZIDORE
(1887-1948)
Actor

CHEKHOV, ANTON
(1860-1904)
b. Taganrog, Russia
Writer

CHEKHOV, MIHAIL
(1891-1955)
b. St. Petersburg, Russia

Nephew of Anton Chekhov, actor, director, member of the
Moscow Art Theatre and the studios 1913-1919. Emigrated in 1928.

photo 1928-9

CHERIAVSKY, JOSEPH
Composer of music for "The Dybbuk"

CHERTOFF/CHERTOV, ALEXANDER
Settings

COHAN, CHARLES
Actor; Financial Secretary of the Hebrew Actors Union

COHEN, JACOB/YAKOV

CRYSTAL, L.
Ex-manager of the Yiddish Art Theatre

CUTLER, YOSL
Painter; writer

DYMOW, OSSIP (DIMOV, OSIP)
b. Russia
Writer

EISENBERG, ABRAHAM
Sculptor

ELVING, BERNARD DAVID
(-1948)
Born in Poland (poss. Zyrardow)
Actor; theatre owner/director

Owner of Newark, New Jersey's "Elving's Metropolitan Theatre" between 1922 and 1944. At the time, Newark had the fourth largest Jewish community in the United States. By the time the building was sold in 1944, most of the area's Jewish population had moved away from the Third Ward.

Elving's was considered to be the most successful commercial Yiddish theatre in all of New Jersey.

This brick theatre was located at 117 Montgomery Street (corner of Charlton Street) within Newark's predominantly Jewish Third Ward. It seated 1200-1400 patrons. Elving's was principally owned by brothers Bernard and Israel Elving.

Bernard starred and sang in the productions, along with his wife Rose who helped him with the scripts and the staging of the productions. Brother Israel was the businessman who also handled all dealings with the Hebrew Actors Union. He was really the theatre manager and operator. (NB: Israel is buried in a Zyrardow plot at Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, NY.)

Many well-known actors played at Elving's, including Molly Picon, Boris Thomashevsky, Jacob Adler, Menashe Skolnik, Moishe Oysher, Aaron Lebedeff, Paul Muni (Muni Weisenfreund) and David Kessler.

Elving is buried in
Yiddish Theatrical Alliance society plot
at Mt. Hebron Cemetery.

FEDER, MOSES

FEINBERG, L.
Ex-manager of the Yiddish Art Theatre

FISCHER, HERMAN
Director of Yiddish theatrical productions in Warsaw; co-founder
of Hebrew Actors Union of Warsaw

FISHKIND, ABRAHAM
(-1940)
Actor

FOKINE, MICHEL
(1880-1942)
b. St. Petersburg, Russia
Ballet master

FOX, HARRY

FREED, LAZAR
Actor

Ex-husband of Celia Adler.

FRIEDLANDER, MAX
(-1966)
Actor; in 1937 HAU Executive Board member

1925
Kazimierz-Dolny, Poland

FRYDMAN, SZOEL (nom de plume - Leib Raskin)
Writer

Yiddish writer from Kazimierz-Dolny, Poland; presumably perished in the Holocaust.

GABEL, MAX
Actor; producer
1920s

People's Theater in New York 1924;
Gabel's Public Theatre 1929-30, 1934-5, 1952

GAILING, BERNARD/BENJAMIN
Actor

GERMAN, MISHA
Actor

GIBSON, MICHAEL
Actor

GLAGOLIN, BORIS
(1879-1948)
Director ; Actor; Producer; Writer
b. Russia

Directed the Yiddish Art Theatre's "The Gardener's Dog" and "Othello."

GOGOL, NIKOLAI
(1809-1852)
b. Sorochyntsi, Russia
Writer

GOLD, DAVID

GOLD, LEON
(-1984)
Actor; Cantor?

GOLDENBERG, SAMUEL
Actor

GOLDFADEN, WOLF
Actor

GOLDSMITH, YECHIEL
Actor

GOLDSTEIN, LOUIS
(1892-1960)?
Actor

GOLUB, MEYER

GORDIN, JACOB
(1853-1909)
b. Mirgorod, Ukraine
Writer

GORDON, WILLIE
(-1966)
Yiddish playwright

Gordon wrote 150 plays, most of which were comedies. Most of these were produced on New York City's Lower East Side.

Perhaps Siegel was best known for his play "The Great Moment," which ran during the 1927-8 season at Max Gabel's theatre. This production featured the actors Max Gabel and Jenny Goldstein.

His works include "Der Shikker," (known in English as "The Drunkard"), "Bublitchki," which starred the wonderfully comedic Menasha Skulnik and Molly Picon, and "The Jewish Cowboy."

A few of Siegel's works were made into musicals by Joseph Rumshinsky and Sholom Secunda.

GORIN, B. (BERNARD)
b. Grodek, Ukraine ?
Writer

GORKY, MAXIM
(1868-1936)
b. Nizhny Novogorod (Gorky), Russia
Writer

GOTTESFELD, CHONE
b. Skala, Poland
Writer

GREENBERG, ISAAK/YITZCHOCK ARYE
Actor

GREENBERG, JOSEPH
Actor

GREENBLATT, H.
Ex-manager of the Yiddish Art Theatre

GREENFIELD, JEAN
Actor; President of HAU in 1923 and 1937, at minimum)

1937

GRIBUNIN, VLADIMIR
(1873-1933)
Actor, founder member of the
Moscow Art Theatre,
photo 1928-9

1937

GROSSMAN, I./Y.
Ex-manager of the Yiddish Art Theatre; at minimum, HAU Executive Board member in 1937.

GROSSMAN, JOSEPH
Business Manager

GUDELMAN, AARON

GUSKIN, REUBEN
Ex-manager/business manager of the Yiddish Art Theatre

1937 HAU
Manager

GUTZKOW/GUTZKOV, KARL
(1811-1878)
b. Berlin, Germany
Writer

HART, SIDNEY

HAUPTMAN, GERHARD
b. Szczawno Zdrój, Poland
Writer

HENENERICH, H.
Ex-manager of the Yiddish Art Theatre

HERSHBERG, JOSEPH
(1873-1925)
Manager of the 2nd Ave Yiddish Theatre.

HIRSCHBEIN, PERETZ
(1880-1948)
b. Klestchel (near Hrodna) or Melnik, Belarus
Writer

HOFFMAN, LEON
Publicity manager

IBSEN, HENRIK
(1828-1906)
b. Skien, Norway
Writer

JAFFE, LOUIS N.

cir late 1920s
Cleveland, Ohio

1920
Chicago, Illinois?

JORDAN, HARRY
Actor

JUVELIER, KALMAN
Actor; HAU Executive Board member

cir 1920
Vilnius, Lithuania

KADISON, LEIB
Actor; Director

1931
Bucharest, Romania

KASTEN, SAM

KATEHALOFF, VASSILY
Moscow Art Theatre, 1928-9

KATZ, BEN-ZION
Actor

KESSLER, DAVID
Actor
(1860-1920)
b. Chişinău, Moldova

KESTEN, LEWIS
Publicity manager

KLABUND (ALFRED HENSCHKE)
(1890-1928)
b. Krossen, Germany
Writer

KOBRIN, LEON
b. Vitebsk, Belarus
Writer

KUBANSKY, ABRAHAM
Actor

c. 1929

LANDO, WILLIAM
Proprietor of the Lando (Yiddish) Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

LAWSON, MARK
Scenery painter

LEIVICK, H. (LEIVICK HALPERN)
(1888-1962)
b. Cheryven (Igumen), Belarus
Writer

LEONIDOFF/LEONIDOV, LEONID
(1873-1941)
Actor; director

Joined the
Moscow Art Theatre in 1903, photo 1928-9

LEVE, SAMUEL
(1908-1999)
Designer

LEVY, JULIUS

LIBIN, Z. (ZALMAN)
b. Russia
Writer

LITTMAN, ABRAHAM
Impresario of "The People's Theatre" in Detroit, Michigan

LUBRITSKY, DAVID
(1904-1959)
b. London, England

LUMET/LUMAT/LUMATT, BARUCH
(1898 -1992)
b. Warszawa, Poland

Lumet was best known for his work in the Yiddish theatre.
Some of his Yiddish Art Theatre roles:
Banker von Blotte, and several other roles, in The Tenth Commandment, 1926
A Young Roman, in The Witch of Castile, 1930

He was the father of film director Sidney Lumet.
He acted in several films, most notably The Pawnbroker (1964) and The Group (1966.)

LUZHSKY/LUZHSKI, VASSILY
(1869-1931)
Actor, founder member of the
Moscow Art Theatre,
photo 1928-9

MANNE, SOLOMON
b. Krakow, Poland
Actor

MAREVSKY/MOREWSKI, ABRAHAM
Actor

MASSALNINOFF, NIKOLAI
Moscow Art Theatre, 1928-9

MAUD, ZUNI
Painter; writer

MAZO, MORDECAI
Actor and Director of the Vilna Troupe

MEREZHKOVSKY/
MERESHKOWSKI. DMITRY
b. St. Petersburg, Russia
Writer

MICHALESKO, MICHAL
(cir 1884-1957)
Actor; HAU Executive Board member

MOGULESKO, ZIGMUND

MOLIERE (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)
(1622-1673)
b. Paris, France
Writer

MORRISON, MORRIS

MOSKVIN, IVAN
(1874-1946)

pupil of Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Philharmonic School, Moscow, founder of the
Moscow Art Theatre,
photo 1928-9

NACHBUSH, NOAH
Actor in the Vilna Troupe; later M. Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre (e.g. "The Gardener's Dog)

NADIR, MOISHE
(Yitzchak Rayz/Isaac Reiss et al)
b. Narayev, Ukraine
Writer

NASATIR, MORRIS
1937 HAU Executive Board Member

In addition to being a theater manager and owner, Morris was a prompter, producer, and playwright in the Yiddish theatre.

NATHANSON, CHARLES

NEMIROVITCH-DANTCHENKO, VLADIMIR
(1858-1943)Writer, dramatist, director, co-founder with Stanislavski of the Moscow Art Theatre,
photo 1928-9

OLSHANETSKY, ALEXANDER
(1892–1946)
b. Odessa, Ukraine
Composer

Composted music for "Shabtai Zvi"

OSTROVSKY, SAM
Scenery painter

PERETZ, I. L. (ISAAC LEIB)
(1851-1915)
b. Zamosc, Poland
Writer

PINSKI, DAVID
(1872-1959)
b. Mogilev, Belarus
Writer

ROGOW, DAVID
(1905-1997)
b. Vilnius, Lithuania (Poland)
Actor

Born in Vilna, Rogow started performing in theatrical productions while attending the Real Gymnasium. He then went on to act in the troupe Davke and in the Yiddish marionette group Maidam. Rogow survived World War II in Russia; soon after the war, he started acting in Yiddish theater again, along with his wife, Nina, in German displaced persons camps.

In 1947, Rogow acted in Munich’s Yiddish theater. Three years later, he and his family left for New York. He joined Maurice Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theater, where he performed, among others, the role of Nokhemtshe in I.J. Singer’s “Yoshe Kalb.” He played key roles in a number of productions at the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre (now known as The National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene).

Rogow was an accomplished reciter of Yiddish prose and recorded a several literary classics. He worked for many years at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and as a researcher on the Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language. He leaves behind his wife, Nina. His daughter, Lillian, passed away in February.

--excerpted from the Jewish Daily Forward, April 20, 2007

ROLLAND, ROMAIN
(1886-1944)
b. Clémency (Nièvre, France)
Writer

ROSENBERG, MICHAEL
(1901-1972)
Actor

ROSENBLATT, JOSEF (CANTOR)
(1882-1933)
b. Bila Tserkva, Ukraine
Cantor

ROSENFELD, JONAH
b. Staryy Chartoriysk (Chartorisk), Ukraine
Writer

ROSENTHAL, BORIS

ROSENTHAL, MAX

ROTBAUM, JAKUB
Actor, Director, Artist

ROTHBLUM, ISAAC
Actor

RUBIN, GERSHON
Actor

RUBIN, MENACHEM
(1894-1962)
Actor

RUMSHINSKY, JOSEPH M.
(1881 [1879?]–1956)
b. near Vilnius, Lithuania
Composer

RUSKIN, SHIMON/SHIMEN
Actor

SAKS, MICHAEL
General Manager of the 2nd Ave. Theatre

SAMUILOFF, M. B.
Actor

SACKLER, HARRY
b. Bogorodychyn, Ukraine)
Writer

SANDLER, PERETZ
Composer

Composed music for "May-Time")

SATZ, LUDWIG
Actor
(1891-1944)
b. Lviv, Ukraine

SCHNEIDER, PHILIP
Business Manager of the Second Avenue Theatre

SCHNEIER, SAMUEL

SCHNEUR (HAMEROW), CHAIM
Actor in the Vilna Troupe

SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR
(1862-1931)
b. Vienna, Austria
Writer

SCHOOLER, ZVI
Actor

SCHWARTZ, MARTIN

SCHWARTZ, MAURICE
(1890-1960)
b. Zhidachov/Sedikov, Ukraine
Actor; Director of the Yiddish Art Theatre

SCHWARTZBERG, JOSEPH
Actor

SCHWEID, MARK
Actor; Vice-President of HAU

SECUNDA, SHOLOM
(1894–1974)
b. Aleksandriya, Ukraine
Musical director

SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD
(1856-1950)
b. Dublin, Ireland
Writer

SHERMAN, PINCHAS
Actor

SHOMER, AVRAM
Writer

SILBERKASTEN, MOSHE/MORRIS
actor; HAU executive board member 1923 and 1937 (at minimum.)

SILBERSTEIN, MOSHE
Actor

SINCOFF, ABRAHAM
President of the Hebrew Actors Union

SKULNIK, MENASHA
(1890-1970)
b. Warsaw, Poland
Actor, performer

SOBEL/SOBLE, JACOB
Actor

STANISLAVSKI/
STANSILAVSKY,
CONSTANTIN
(1863-1938)
Actor, director, teacher, co-founder with Nemirovich-Danchenko of the Moscow Art Theatre, creator of the "System."
photo 1928-9

"Tchekoff's 'The Three Sisters'"