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

1931-1969
 

Abraham Baum
 

 

B. was born in 1864 in Odessa, Ukraine. A grandson of an Odessa dayan, R' Zise. About his youth, it is only known that he together with the late actor (Jacob -- ed.) Katzman, worked in a tobacco factory, and when Naftali Goldfaden put together a troupe, he acted with them.

In 1886 one finds him acting together with the Gradners in Riga, from where they traveled to London due to the ban on Yiddish theatre in Russia, but soon after the famous "fire" in the theatre, he traveled in 1887 together with Adler and the Gradners to America, where he acted in various troupes -- in the beginning as an amateur, later in singing-father roles, possessing a great baritone voice.

In order to make a life for himself in America, aside from acting, he was also a cafe owner, and the actors gladly visited his coffee house. Here he often used to live off of them and on his own account.

In 1901 he became sick from a lung inflammation, and after only five days he passed away, coming to his eternal rest in Washington Cemetery in New York (Brooklyn -- ed.)


M. E. from his wife, Jacob Katzman and Bina Abramovich.

  • B. Gorin -- "History of the Yiddish Theatre", Vol. I, p. 242; Vol. II, pp. 49, 51.

  • Bessie Thomashefsky -- "Mayn lebens-geshikhte", New York, 1916, p. 160.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 1, page 148.
 

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