sincoff/abraham

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

Abe Sincoff
(Sinkoff)

S. was born in 1885 in Odessa, Ukraine. His father was a teacher of Russian and Hebrew. In 1891, together with his family, he came to America, and due to his relations he became a choir signer for Cantor Yeruchem Hktn and afterwards with other cantors.

At the age of eleven he acted in Lateiner's "Alexksander der kroynfrints" and devloped a deep yearning for the stage.

After finishing school his father urged him to become a businessman, but S. already was a frequent visitor to the Yiddish theatre, and he put together (at the age of sixteen) an "amateur" group and was taken with the Yiddish theatre. Thanks to his business sense, S. soon became the manager of the amateur troupe. When during a production in a Yiddish vaudeville theatre of a [farkirtsung] of Jacob Gordin's "Der mumser", he fell into the role of "Dvornik", S. acted in the role and since then remained a professional actor.

In October 1903, S. became a member of the Actor's Union Local 5. In 1907 he was engaged in an English vaudeville theatre and had in the span of several years wandered from the English to Yiddish vaudeville and back.

In 1912 he became director and proprietor of a Yiddish theatre in Newark (Sincoff's Metropolitan Theatre), where he acted for four years in the legitimate Yiddish theatre.

In 1916 he bought the theatre and switched over to the English stage. Five years later, he returned to the Yiddish stage and was one of the active members in the Yiddish Actor's Union, where he also was for several years a member of the Executive Board.

From 1926-30, he acted as a character-comic in New York's Public Theatre.

In 1930-31 he was at Chicago's Lawndale Theatre, and in 1931 also English in the comedy "East of Broadway".

In 1932 for a short time was again in the Yiddish theatre.

In 1928 he was in New York to celebrate his twenty-fifth stage jubilee.

In 1932 he acted in the talkie "Uncle Moses" by Sholem Asch.

S. for several years presided over the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance and was a member in the publishing committee for the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre".

Sh. E.

Y. K. (Jacob Kirschenbaum) -- 25th Anniversary Stage Jubilee for Abe Sincoff, "Morning Journal", N. Y., 2 March 1928.
Abe Sincoff -- Meyne interesantste momenten oyf der bine, "Tog", N. Y., 1 March 1929.
[---] -- Yiddish Theatrical Alliance, "Forward", N. Y., 25 October 1930.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 2, page 1494.