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
 

Tsvi Kahan
 

 

K. was born on 8 July 1885 in Lovitsh (Lowicz), Warsaw region, Poland, into a strongly Orthodox family. In his youth he was renown for being a prodigy. He learned with the Sochaczew gaon R' Avraham Bornshteyn. At age seventeen he obtained a teaching permit, later he began to write Hebrew. Due to the persecution of the Chasidim he made his way across Russia as a Hebrew teacher. The first fictional work he published was in "Hd hzmn", "Hmeurr", "Htsfirh" and in Yiddish in "Der freynd".

In 1907 he settled in Lodz and became a permanent collaborator of the "Lodzer nakhrikhten", then of the "Lodzer tageblat", and here often wrote about the Yiddish theatre. In the summer Julius Adler's troupe staged Kh.'s one-acter "Shvigers". On 26 June 1915 in Lodz's Skala Theatre (Directors Adler-Serotsky) there was staged Sam Lyudner's dramatization of Kh.'s novel "Lodz in krig, oder, der lodzer zapasner soldat avraham milner". In the 1915-16 season Kh. wrote the political monologues, which the actor Hershl Yedvab had read out aloud.

After the world war he immigrated to America, where he was in journalistically active, having written theatre reviews in New York's "Yidishes tageblat" and translated Eziz Damet's drama "Yosef trumpeldor" 18-20, 22-24, 26, 1928. The same play, in the translation of Itzhak Bukhner, was published in "Altneyland", Warsaw, 1925, 4-0]. Later Kh. had the same play adapted (with the consent of the author) as a partnership.

K. had written by hand comedies in three acts "Der sheyner veg" and "Er kontsker rebbe", a drama in three acts and twelve scenes.
 

Sh. E.

  • Z. Reyzen -- "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre", Vo. II, pp. 12-13


 

 

 

 


 

Home       |       Site Map       |      Exhibitions      |      About the Museum       |       Education      |      Contact Us       |       Links


Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 2, page 955.
 

Copyright ©  Museum of Family History.  All rights reserved.