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
 

Moshe Burshtin

B. was born Shevat [nkhmu] (2 August) 1884 in Odessa, Ukraine. His father was an assistant to the Kazioner rabbi in Odessa and one of the first "Hovevi Zion (Lovers of Zion)."

As a child he learned in the Odessa Talmud Torah with Mendele Mokher Sefarim, and at the age of eight he began to sing soprano with Cantor Sirota, later singing as a choir boy with Pinye Minkowski, Yankel Saraker and Wlodawski.

At the age of eighteen he was one of the popular Yiddish folk singers in southern Russia and Bessarabia, and at the same time he began to give himself to self-education.

In 1903-4 he began to act in Yiddish theatre in Nikolaev under the direction of Krause, then in Bucharest in the Zhignitsa with Mordechai Segalesco and Itsikl Goldenberg. He also acted with Feinman.

In 1912 he was engaged by J. Kessler for London, where he acted with Thomashefsky.

From 1914 until 1918 he acted in London and across the English province with Fannie Waxman. In 1913 he was in partnership with N. Blumental, a director in Paris.

 


In 1925 he founded the first Yiddish folks theatre in Paris, under the name of "Teatre le Temple', where he brought as guest stars the actors Baratov, Sniegov, Zaslavsky, Samberg, Apelboym and Potocka.

In 1926 he founded the first Yiddish revue theatre in Paris.

In 1927 he acted with Blumental in Paris, and in 1928 he was with a member troupe in South Africa.

B. also sang many songs for the gramophone.

B.'s daughter, Khaika, acts on the Yiddish stage.


Sh.E.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 1, page 157.

You can read Moshe's later biography in the "Lexicon," Vol. 5.
 

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