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
whom he played until the outbreak of the Second World War. After the Nazis occupation of Warsaw, he fled to the Soviet Union, and until June 1941 he worked together with and created the Lviv (Lemberg) Jewish State Theatre. After the outbreak of fighting between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, he was evacuated, together with still other Yiddish actors, to Middle Asia, where they played Yiddish theatre (most of the time Gordin's plays, where also "Mayn zun" of Gorelik's, and "Froy advokat" by Vergeil, which Ida Kaminska wrote down from memory) in Runza (Kirgizia), then across Alma-Ata, Ash, Leninobad, Andijan, Bamangan. When Ida Kaminska and Meier Melman traveled to Moscow, the troupe in December 1945 was directed by Yitzkhok Grudberg-Turkow, Sheftl Zak and K. In 1946 he returned to Poland, where he participated in the returned-to-life of the Professional Artist's Union of the Yiddish actors who had remained alive, and from 1946 until 1948 he, the artistic director of lowest Yiddish theatre, where he directed several plays, including the actual American drama, "Tife vurtslen." At the end of 1948 he traveled to Paris, where he performed for a certain time in Gordin repertoire ("Nuchumize Khana Devorah" in "Mirele Efros," "Motye Shtreykhl" in "Chasia the Orphan," "Raphael Friedlander" in "Kreutzer Sonata," and "Zisl Kreynes" in "Di shkhithe.") In 1949 he went to Brazil, where he directed until 1954 with non-professional theatre collectives in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, and also performed at the same time with recitations from the creations of the Yiddish and world literature. In 1954, together with his wife, the actress Ester Perlman, were engaged by the directors Yitzkhok Lubeltshik and Willy Goldstein in a theatre ensemble, under the artistic direction and participation of guest-star Maurice Schwartz, on a tour to South Africa, returning to Brazil and for several years working as a stage director with a theatre collective at the Sao Paolo Folks House, where also from time to time there were performed plays with other "amateurs" across the country. In 1957 K., together with his wife, was engaged for the "Yiddish Art Theatre," where Maurice Schwartz created in Buenos Aries, and here they participated in the offering of "Yosele the Nightingale," "Wandering Stars," and "Sender Blank" by Sholem Aleichem, "Esterke" and "The Wise Men of Chelm" by Aaron Zeitlin, "Uncle Moses," by Sholem Asch, et al, returning to Brazil, together with Maurice Schwartz, where they participated in his offerings of "The Three Gifts" (according to Y.L. Peretz), "Dybbuk" by Ansky, "In a Faraway Corner," by Hirshbein, and "Tevye the Dairyman" by Sholem Aleichem. K. then began again his stage-directing work with the drama circles and directed Markish's play, "Uprising in the Ghetto," and Sholem Aleichem's "Hard to be a Jew" for his fortieth year time, as well as "Hershele Ostropoler" by Gershenson. In 1960 K. traveled with his wife to the Land of Israel, where they played for around a year in Yiddish, including six months together with Joseph Buloff in "Tevye and his Daughters" (according to Sholem Aleichem), and "The Singer of his Sorrows," by Osip Dymow, then K. directed (with Ester Perlman in the title role) "Madame X," by A. Bisson, and "Mirele Efros" by Jacob Gordin (playing the role of "Nuchumize") In 1961 he traveled to Western Europe, where he performed with his wife for a "theatre evening" in Paris, and also directed there with an amateur circle the comedy, "Hershele Ostropoler" by Gershenson.
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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon
of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig,
Volume 4, page 3204.
Copyright © Museum of Family History. All rights reserved.