David Fachler

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

David Fachler

Born on 2 December 1879 in Lodz, Poland. His father was a ritual slaughterer. Until age seventeen he learned in a Bet HaMedrash. He attended the Yiddish, Polish and German theatre and out of love for the stage he became a stand-in, then a chorister with Shliferstein in the troupe, with whom he later toured as a theatre manager., wardrober and appeared in episodic roles. He returned to Lodz, where F. put together an "amateur" troupe and with her toured across the province. Then he debuted in frames [?] with Berstein as a "beggar" in Shliferstein's "Dora, or, the Millionaire as a Begger," and he remained in the troupe as a character actor. Throughout the year he traveled, then went about with Yermeyahu ("Vosies") Adler's a "miniature" theatre and also with other wandering troupes.

F. also took up with the administrative side and thus especially excelled with his fine work and inventiveness and received from the Russian "Natshalstvo" the license for the productions.

Later F. acted in the troupe of Kompaneyets, then, as the main actor with Sabsey, and in Odessa he joined in the newly found "Hirshbein Troupe." After the troupe disbanded , he guest-starred with Kompaneyets in Warsaw, acting across Russia with Spivakovsky and Krause and with various provincial troupes, until he put together his own troupe.

Due to the pogroms in Russia, he went away to Romania in order to travel to America, but he became sick and had to be operated on in Vienna.

In Romania, F. continued to try acting with Misha Fiszon, then with Baratov, but due to his continuing illness he had to give up the stage.

Being seriously ill, he even had to be engaged with amateurs for a production in Kishinev, with whom he had staged and co-produced in Sofia Biela's drama, "Der tayvels kush," and in the province in the melodrama "Muter-shande."

Zalmen Zylbercweig, who in 1928 had become introduced to F. and his wife in Kishinev (Bessarabia), where he had received from F. his handwritten autobiography (published with remarks, in Zalmen Zylbercweig's book "Theatre Figures," pp. 81-92), writes:

"..I never had seen Fachler act, and more to translate."

Bravely, umheylbar sick, F. died on 25 September 1929, as he committed suicide in Czernowitz, Bukovina.

F.'s wife, Rosa, was a Yiddish actress.

Their son, Yakov-Leib (Lusia), an accomplished pianist, used to perform with the Yiddish theatre, such as an assistant regisseur, but mostly he gave himself to the decorative side of the productions.

Sh. E.

M. Miodownik -- Mayne teater zikhroynes, "Der shtern," Minsk, 2, 3, 1926.
Z. Zylbercweig -- Troyerik gelebt un troyerik geshtorbn, "Lodz togeblat," Lodz, 29 November and 1 December 1929.
Zalmen Zylbercweig -- "Teater-figurn," Buenos Aires, 1936, pp. 81-92.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 3, page 2203.