Manny Fleischman

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

Manny (Meir) Fleischman

M. was born on 1 July 1903 in Toronto, Canada. His father, Shaye (Sam), in Ostrovtse, Poland, played with band in the rabbi's court. Immigrated to Toronto and was year-long the factual conductor and violinist in the Yiddish theatres (Lyric and Standard.) Raising six children, from them four are well-known musicians: Max -- first-classical violinist; Janet -- first wife of Herman Yablokoff, pianist; Dave -- pianist and conductor; and Manny, who took to the violin as a child.

He studied early on with his father, then with Prof. von Kunitz in Toronto's "Conservatory of Music." F. wanted to play violin in an orchestra of a Yiddish theatre, but when the theatre did not receive permission to have more than one violinist, he learned how to play the trumpet.

In 1926 he entire Fleischman family settled in New York, where F. soon became the librarian of the music organization of the "Academy of Music" theatre, and then in the "Capitol" Theatre on Broadway.

In 1935 he performed for the first time in Yiddish theatre, beginning with arranging and composing music for Yablokoff's offerings in the "McKinley Square" Theatre in the Bronx, then F. became associated with the Yiddish theatres on Second Avenue.

His brother-in-law Herman Yablokoff recalled:

"He became very beloved with the entire Yiddish theatre family.

Being by nature a good musician, he always was prepared to do a job. He had demonstrated a fundamental ear for music and singing. He didn't need any tuning fork, or a piano to arrange the harmonies for musical compositions. He had diligently ge..imlshul, where the director Dr. Zachariah Kurman was reading notes and writing notes as easily as people write a letter.

F. wrote music for us, Aaron Lebedeff, Maurice Schwartz, Jennie Goldstein, Leo Fuchs, Menasha Skulnik, Irving Jacobson, and many other Yiddish performers. Of his successful compositions is heard: "Song of Songs," "Dir a bisl, mir a bisl," "Mayn shtetl mohilev," "Der yidisher nigun," "S'iz shoyn nokh alemen," and tens of other songs, which are sung until today.

F. was the founder of the "Palestine String Quartet," had recorded a number of Yiddish folk and Hebrew songs, which he had arranged in a modern style.

Through the summer months, F. led an orchestra in the Miami vaudeville theatre of Leon Schachter.

On 17 December 1963 F. passed away from a heart attack and was laid to his eternal rest in the grounds of the "Yiddish Theatrical Alliance" in New York.

Sh.E. from Herman Yablokoff.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 7, page 6241.