Lyuba Eisenberg

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

Lyuba Eisenberg

Born in 1899 in Warsaw, Poland, to well-to-do parents. From her early youth she participated in Polish in school productions. In 1914 she arrived in America. In 1918 she joined the "Chicago Yiddish Dramatic Society" and participated in the offering of "The Dead Man" by Sholem Asch (stage director -- A. Teitelbaum), "The Treasure" by David Pinski (stage director -- Mark Schweid), "The Haunted Inn" by Peretz Hirshbein (stage director -- Jacob Ben-Ami), "The Life of a Man" by Leonid Andreyev (stage director -- Marion Gering), "The Singer of his Sorrows," "The Righteous Convert" by A. Kaczyne (stage director -- Joseph Buloff). A. also played with the "Vilna Troupe" in "The Days of our Lives" during their guest-appearance in Chicago, and studied theatre acting for a season with Jacob Mestel.

In 1929 she joined "Artes" and participated under the stage direction of her husband Meyer Eisenberg in the offering of "Naftali Butwin," "Hirsch Leckert," and "The Commissar's Father," as well as in one-acters.

In 1933 she arrived in New York, where she joined the "Artef" studio and participated since then in the offerings of "Artef," under the direction of Benno Schneider and later in "ensemble."

In 1956 with her husband, she settled in Miami Beach, Florida, where alone she used to perform with recitations, declamations, singing numbers, one-acters, and scenes from plays. There she also was active as a cultural activist.

The last time E. was ill and not able to perform any more.

On 5 July 1966 E. passed away in Miami Beach.

Ben Benevits writes:

"About ten years back they arrived in Miami Beach with the hopes of being able to earn an income by performing with small arts in the large hotels here, which had programs to please their guests. their hopes were not fulfilled, because the Eisenberg repertoire was too artistic for the sort of entertainment that the hotel guests would applaud. The Eisenbergs nevertheless had an offering for the organizations in the Yiddish cultural center, which are strongly rooted in the fine artistic interests.

In the span of several years the cultural committee staged radio programs in Yiddish through one of the large radio stations in the city. the programs were ornaments for the Yiddish language. ...our audience will remember for a long time the yearly high artistic ghetto programming, which Meyer and Luba Eisenberg have performed in. This was dramatic spectacle of a high quality, both in selection of the best of what was created by our modern Yiddish poets, as well as with the finer stage technique, which made an enormous impression."

"Ten Years Artef," New York, 1937, pp. 101-102.
Ben Benevitz -- Di eisenbergs -- men vet zay nit fargesn, "Morgn frayhayt," N.Y., 11 October 1967.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 6, page 5082.