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Born in 1893 in Berislav, Kherson Gubernia, Ukraine.
Parents -- tailors, learned in a cheder and privately
with a teacher. Through a friend, who parents were known
amateurs in a local dramatic circle. M., as a child of
eight, was taken into a production of "Shulamis", and
felt so that with a friend he organized thirty children
and performed "children's productions" every Shabbes
evening, in which M. participated. 1907 -- acted in the
role of "Joseph" in the "New Kovno" colony, where his
family had moved to. Later, traveling through towns to
obtain hours, and he used to, in these places, organize
dramatic circles in which he would stage-direct and act
until 1910. By failing an exam, his studies were cut
short, and in 1911 entered Yekaterinoslav with his
relatives in a typewriter business, and soon however he
went to the typewriter factory, acting at the same time
with "amateurs", under the pseudonym "Zomer", but
however due to ? , he rejected the work, and he joined
the professional Yiddish troupe of Kanievski, which he
soon left due to her aumkultureler attitude,
returning to the Jewish colonies, where he organized
dramatic circles, with whom he performed and worked
further as a mechanic, until the World War in which he
took part, organizing at the same time Russian theatre
productions in Polk and participated in the Yiddish
"amateur" productions in the towns near the front.
1917-20 -- participated in a
collective of "amateurs" with the Yekaterinoslav union
of "stage art activists". 1920 -- toured with the actor
Kazhdan to Baku in a collective of "young artists",
1922-23 -- acted in Moscow (director: Brandesko), where
he had the opportunity to become familiar with the new
Soviet theatre, and 1924 -- joined the troupe under the
direction of Zhitomirski, then toured with a collective
to Zhitomir (two months), and there he remained as a
director of a dramatic circle with a workers' club from
Kustarn.
1925 -- joined the Jewish
Ukrainian State Theatre in Kharkov, where he created the
role of "Mordechai" in "Purim shpiel", "Pnkhsl" in "Di
kunilemlekh", "Mekler" inj "Koymenkerer", "HaLevi" in "Shabtai
tsvi", and "Fokin" in "Barg arop". M. worked in the same
theatre as the regisseur-labarant in the play
"Recruits", according to Akesenfeld.
1927 -- participated in the
Yiddish film, "Di erd ruft".
Sh. E.
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