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Born in 1890 in Berdichev,
Ukraine, as an only son of well-to-do parents. Learned
in a cheder, completing the two-class Jewish
governmental school and learned privately with a
teacher. As a child of nine, he "made a theatre" with
his childhood friends, and at age fourteen he helped
organize an "amateur" circle, which staged under the
direction of actor Edelman Richter's "Hertsele myukhs",
Gordin's "Der yidisher kenig lir (The Jewish King
Lear)", and other plays, in
which Z. acted in the main roles. Later Z. became a
choir boy with the city cantor and participated then in
the chorus with the local department of the Peterburg
Yiddish Literary Society. After singing for a short time
in the chorus with Fishzon in Kishinev, he went to Eretz
Yisrael, where he worked as a pioneer for four months in
Petach Tikvah, and after his illness of malaria, he
arranged (with a friend) arranged a literary
evening in Yiddish, despite the problem of the Hebrew
"patriots".
At the end of 1914 Z.
arranged in Jaffa a Yiddish production by Skrib's "Zhidovka'
("Di yidn"). Due to the war, Z. was sent away to Egypt.
From there he went to Russia and entered into Kiev in
Guzik's troupe, where he acted for nine months in
Yiddish repertoire in Russian (due to the ban on
Yiddish). Then he acted for a short time in Yiddish with
Korik in Kherson, later with Sonia Nathanson, with
Bezman, with a cooperative trope in Homel under the
direction of Moshe Lipman, and with various itinerant
troupes. In 1920 Z. went to Romania, where he acted for
two years in the Yiddish troupes, immigrated then to A"Y
(Eretz Yisrael?)
and joined in the local Hebrew theatre, where he
directed, for the first time in Hebrew, Goldfaden's "Bar
Kochba" (translated by Ben-Zion Yedidah), and "Kuni
Lemel".
Sh. E.
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