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Ari Fuhrman
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F. was born in 1924 in
Czernowitz, Bukovina.
He studied singing in
the local academy of music and started to take an
interest in the theatre. However, the Second World
War interrupted his studies.
In 1941, when the Nazis
invaded Bukovina, F. was deported with his whole
family to Transnistria.
And there, under the
most terrible conditions, in the concentration
camps, F. created an underground Yiddish theatre where
he appeared in episodic roles and also played in the
orchestra. The shows did not last a long time,
however, because the German Nazis and the Rumanian
fascists became aware of this and destroyed
everything.
After the war, F. moved
to Bucharest and starred in the local professional
theatre.
There he played in more
important roles like "Hotzmakh" in the "Di
kishufmakherin" ("The Witch/Sorceress"), "Herr
kroller" in "Anne Frank", and so on.
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In 1959, he emigrated to
Eretz Yisrael and joined the newly formed national
theatre, Habima.
In 1961 F. arrived
in America. There he moved to Philadelphia,
where his family who had survived the war was
living. He had been separated from them for
fifteen years.
There he started
playing Yiddish and Yiddish-English programs,
with his wife Chayele Ash and his brother, the
popular singer Avraham Fuhrman, acting in evening
performances for different Yiddish
organizations, among them "B'nai B'rith",
branches of Hadassah, community centers,
congregations, synagogues, B'rith Shalom
departments, etc.
Together with his
wife, he also organized two dramatic circles of
the "New Yiddish American" and "B'nai B'rith",
where they presented Yiddish shows.
F. is a member of
the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" Committee.
F. composed the
music for the productions of "Mottl péïsié dem
hazns", "Grine felder" (arrangements) and for
the small-art programs presented by himself and
his wife, Chayele Ash.
"Lexicon of the
Yiddish Theatre", V. V, Mexico 1967
(part "Our Builders", on page 11).
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