Lives in the Yiddish
Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN
THE yIDDISH THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"
1931-1967
Yosef Retik
His father was a tailor. He was educated in Yiddish, Polish and Russian schools, and in 1952, he completed his studies at the Law Faculty in Wroclaw as a Magister. His inclination to the Jewish theatre stems from as early as his childhood years, hearing the songs of [Avraham] Goldfaden from his mother. He acted in drama circles from his youngest years. The actors Yitzhak Turkow-Grundberg and Moshe Schweilich, who had seen him perform in student dramas, influenced him to enter the acting profession, where in 1949, he had received the highest awards. Since 1952, he has been a member of the National Yiddish Theatre of Poland, where he had the opportunity to play the parts of ‘Kopele’ in ‘Dos groyse gevins’ by Sholem Aleichem, ‘Fishke der kremer’ in ‘A troimer fun Kabtzansk,’ after Mendele by Y. Dagim, and M. Schweilich, ‘Menachem mendel’ and ‘Tevye der milchiger’ and ‘Siomkeh’ in ‘Shver tzu zein a yid’ by Sholem Aleichem, and in the play, ‘Der piperonter’ by Yevgeny Schwartz. R. also took part, in Polish, in the Polish films, ‘Der dokter in gemainzamen tzimmer,’ ‘Spiegelman’ and ‘Di iyalkes,’ ‘Der schneider,’ in ‘Komedianten’ as well as the part of Jews in occupation themes. He also did the scenery and directed small theatre programs. In 1954, R. sat for an extern examination in Krakow and obtained a diploma as a show personality. R. also studied music theory and piano, and wrote songs with music. Some of his songs are published with notes and have been performed by soloists and choirs.
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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen
Zylbercweig, Volume 6, page 4894.
The Museum acknowledges the kindness of Dr. Jacob Solomon Berger, of
Mahwah, NJ (USA)
who provided the English-translated version of the biographical information
displayed above.
Copyright © Museum of Family History. All rights reserved.