Hebron's Stories
If a story is important, then it must be told. We can portray dreams of what the future may hold, or allow introspection on what has occurred in the past. A story is a narrative that can relay lessons and warnings. A story can teach us about hope and remind us how important and meaningful our lives are. We are unearthing stories about those buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
Lou Menchell was a Catskills comedian who made audiences laugh with Yiddish humor, funny songs, and impressions. One night he saw a young English singer on television and decided he had to meet her. Her name was Vicki Stuart. She had survived the Blitz as a child, toured for American servicemen, and sung for Johnny Carson. They married in London in 1960. For twenty summers they performed together in the Catskills and raised their sons beside a lake. After losing their infant son Andrew, they helped change how the country understood Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. When Lou died in 1979, Vicki stopped singing, until their son Ivan wrote shows that brought her voice back. Here is her remarkable life, in her own words.
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Menasha Skulnik was the little man of the Yiddish stage. He was born in Warsaw in 1890, ran away to join a circus as a boy, and came to New York in 1913. After years on the road, he became a star in Buenos Aires. Back on Second Avenue, he played more than 700 roles. He was the lovable schlemiel in a too-small hat who could make audiences laugh and cry at once. Millions knew him as Uncle David on The Goldbergs. In his sixties he crossed over to Broadway, in The Fifth Season and The Flowering Peach. He was still working when he collapsed at a rehearsal in 1970. Today he rests at Mount Hebron Cemetery among the stars of the Yiddish theater.
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Henrietta Jacobson was born in Chicago in 1906 to two Yiddish actors. Her father died when she was a few weeks old. At three, she made her stage debut beside her mother, popping out of a potato sack as a lost child. By thirteen, she knew the stage was her life. She acted, sang, danced, built sets, and created choreography. In 1935, she met Julius Adler. Three years later, he proposed, partly to save money on visas for a tour of Belgium. She said yes, and it stuck. Together, for decades, they played Yiddish stages, Broadway, and dinner theaters across America. Henrietta Jacobson Adler rests at Mount Hebron Cemetery. ~Blog by Kayla Rose
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Reizl Bozyk was a cherished Yiddish theatre actress whose career stretched across Europe, South America, and the United States for more than six decades. She was admired for her blend of warmth, humor, and resilience, becoming a central figure in the survival of Yiddish theatre after the Holocaust. Though best known to mainstream audiences for her late-life film debut in Crossing Delancey (1988), her work on stage began as early as the 1920's and endured well into the 1990's. Her story reflects both the tragedies and triumphs of Jewish life in the twentieth century: a life uprooted by war, yet sustained by art and performance. ~Blog by Jonathan Moskowitz
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Bertha Kalich was a renowned Ukrainian-Jewish American singer and actress on the Yiddish and English language stage during the late 19th and early 20th century. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, she began her career as a chorus girl in the Skarbek Polish theatre, becoming an early prima donna in Gimpel's Theatre and performing throughout eastern Europe. Referred to variously as "the Jewish Bernhardt" and "the Yiddish Duse. She was known for her dramatic roles, fine diction and ability to convey deep emotion. By her own count, she took on 125 different roles in seven languages during the course of her career. She also appeared in films and on Broadway. Bertha Kalich is considered one of the greatest actresses of the Golden Age of American Yiddish theater. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Menashe Oppenheim became a sought after performer in the Yiddish theater during the mid 20th century. He also gave concerts, sang on the radio and made records. He composed and wrote his own lyrics.
Oppenheim appeared in several important Yiddish language films including: Jolly Paupers (1937), The Row (1937), Mamele (1938), Kol Nidre (1939), and Mazel Tov Yidden (1941). Oppenheim became known for his powerful voice and emotional performances. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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As a boy, Philip Laskowsky learned music from a Chazzan and his brother who was a music professor.
Philip was promoted to Second Choir conductor for the Bustnai Opera in Warsaw. He then moved on
to acting roles with Yiddish theater troupes in Poland and the Russian Empire. When he emigrated to the
U.S., Philip began acting and composing short works for the Yiddish theater. He collaborated with
Yiddish theatrical greats such as Boris Thomashefsky, Louis Gilrod, Jacob Jacobs and Isidore Lillian.
Philip continued composing and arranging compositions for other composers for the duration of his
career. ~ Blog by Renee Meyers
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Leon Blank was born in Kishinev in 1867. After a pogrom, his pious family fled to Romania, where he sang in synagogue choirs. Then a Yiddish theater troupe came to town. Leon was stage-struck. He followed the Mogulesko company and later stowed away on their ship to America. In New York, he started in the chorus. The first time he filled in for Thomashefsky, the audience drove him off with tomatoes. He kept going. The critic Alan Dale later called him an unqualified genius of the stage. He turned down Broadway and Hollywood to stay with Yiddish theater. He died in 1934 and rests at Mount Hebron Cemetery. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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In her early years, Mina Bern entertained in the Soviet Union, British Mandate Palestine, Uganda and Kenya.Mina and her husband, Ben Bonus, performed in the 14 Yiddish Theaters on Second Avenue. She was known
for her cabaret singing and comedic talent. When the Yiddish Theaters started a down-ward spiral, Ben and Mina became entrepreneurs bringing Yiddish to audiences across the country. Mina and Ben also brought their shows to Broadway. Mina performed for almost 70 years all over the world and truly was the First Lady of the Yiddish Stage. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Jacob Jacobs was a notable figure in the heyday of the Yiddish theater. His work significantly impacted the preservation and promotion of the Yiddish culture and performance. Jacobs is remembered for his dedication to the Yiddish language and culture, helping to keep it thriving through the theater. Jacobs left the world with his mega hit theme song entitled "Baymir Bitsu Sheyn." ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Ben Bonus, born Baruch Bonus in 1920 in Horodenka, Poland, was a gifted singer who immigrated to the U.S. at 17, escaping the fate of his family who perished in the Holocaust. In America, he became a prominent figure in Yiddish theatre, performing, producing, and founding multiple troupes and venues. With mentors like Jacob Ben-Ami and Herman Yablokoff, and later his wife Mina Bern, Ben kept Yiddish culture alive through over 100 plays and musicals, including Broadway revues. He dedicated his life to preserving Jewish heritage through theatre until his death in 1984.
~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Yankel Kalich spent his life producing, directing, writing and acting in his Yiddish theater productions in the United States and abroad. His chance meeting with a Yiddish Theat-rical group passing through his town was the sole event which paved Kalich's path to the stage. Kalich had a long career in the Yiddish Theater and also made a number of appearances on early television programs. Kalich was known for his role in Fiddler on the Roof (1971) which also starred Molly Picon, Kalich's wife. .He was also known for his performances in Yidl Mitn Fidl (1936) and Mamele (1938). Kalich was president of the Yiddish Actor's Union and he also worked for the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theater."
~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Boris Thomashefsky sang in a synagogue choir in Russia as a boy. In 1881, at about thirteen, he came to New York and rolled cigarettes in a sweatshop, where he heard workers singing Yiddish theater songs. Within a year, he helped stage one of the first Yiddish plays in America, playing the female lead himself. A young girl named Bessie came backstage to meet that beautiful actress. She later became his wife and his star. Boris took Yiddish theater on the road across America, staged Shakespeare in Yiddish, and built the National Theater. When he died in 1939, 30,000 people filled the Lower East Side for his funeral. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Leon Leibgold was born to parents who were both Yiddish actors. In his youth, Leon worked as a Vaudeville
performer. Leibgold was an actor in both the Yiddish theater as well as in Yiddish Lan-guage films. Leibgold gained fame by acting in several Yiddish Language films including Yidl Mitn Fidl and The Dyb-buk.
He was also known for his role in the film Tevye. After completing the Dybbuk, Leibgold and his wife, Lili Liana (Leibgold's former costar), escaped the holocaust in 1937 when they left Poland for the United States. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Jack Pearl was born Jack Perlman on the Lower East Side in 1894. He left school at twelve to run errands for a music publisher, then broke into vaudeville in Gus Edwards's School Days act. By the 1920's, he was a Broadway regular in eighteen revues. Radio made him a star. As the boastful Baron Munchausen, he told wild tall tales in a thick German accent. Whenever his straight man doubted him, the Baron shot back, :Vas you dere, Sharlie?" The whole country repeated it. He earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jack Pearl died in 1982 at 88 and rests at Mount Hebron. ~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Aaron Lebedeff was one of the greatest Yiddish performers of all time. He was born for the stage and was one of the top song-and-dance men of the Yiddish Theater. Unlike many of the performers of his time, he composed, wrote the lyrics to and sang and performed all of his material both in English and Yiddish.Lebedeff also produced a number of his shows and appeared in several of them in the 1930's. He was the star of the Second Avenue theatre district for 16 straight seasons. Lebedeff's wrote his Yiddish lyrics in his individual style and one reviewer remarked that they "virtually defied translation with a humor that is difficult to render into English.`Blog by Renee Meyers
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Throughout her nearly six decades long career, Jennie Goldstein was beloved by the public and acclaimed by critics
for her ability to make audiences cry and for her outstanding voice. When Jennie was young, she played self
sacrificing wives, daughters and sweethearts. As she got older, Jennie played Self-Sacrificing wives. Jennie Goldstein lived almost sixty years of Yiddish theater and was one of the main heroines of its' history and one of its main creators.
~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Maurice Schwartz became an actor and a producer of Yiddish plays. He founded the Yiddish Art Theater in Manhattan. Schwartz also started an acting school to nurture budding talent. One of his students was Paul Muni who went on to star in 25 of Schwartz's productions. His theater performed a rotating repertoire
of nearly 200 plays. Later on in his career, Schwartz was billed as the greatest of all Yiddish actors and the "Olivier of the Yiddish stage".
~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Naftule Brandwein was an Austrian-born Jewish American Klezmer musician,clarinetist, bandleader and recording artist active from the 1910's to the 1940's.
Naftule Brandwein is considered to be among the top Klezmer musicians of the twentieth century. Brandwein was also known for his impetuous and boundless life.
Many band compositions have become standards and sources of inspiration in the Klezmer music world. Since the revival of Klezmer in the 1970's, a new generation
the new generation of Klezmer revives the works of Naftule Brandwein.
~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Ludwig Satz was a Yiddish comedian. He was born in Lvov, Poland. In 1910 he joined a troupe of Yiddish actors. he played in Gordin's Got and Mentsch under Taivi. He appeared in Budapest and London and achieved Broadway success as Abe Potash in Potash and Perlmutter. He also acted with Jacob Adler and Maurice Schwartz. Ludwig performed in Boris Thomashefsky's Yiddish Venture on Broadway. He later toured Europe and South America. In 1925, a New York Times article stated that Ludwig Satz was the greatest Yiddish comic actor of all time.
~Blog by Renee Meyers
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Molly Picon was known as the great comedienne of the Yiddish Theater over a career that lasted nearly 90 years. She was the star of the Yiddish and English-speaking stage, motion pictures,radio and television. Picon's work after the war is significant. She performed comic song and dance performances for people in the DP camps in Europe and worked with Jewish refugees. Picon understood that entertainment was a way to connect people to their Jewish heritage after all they had endured. Molly Picon was a true star with universal appeal: across nations, languages, cultures and religions.
Blog by Renee Meyers
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Pesach Burstein was just a teenager when he joined a Yiddish Theatrical Troupe in Russia. Shortly after arriving in the USA, he became a major Star in the Yiddish Theatre. Pesach recorded over 300 discs of Yiddish songs and his voice soon became one of the best known in Yiddish music.
Pesach was a multi-talented performer. He was a singer, dancer, comedian, coupletist, stage whistler and director. Pesach formed a Troupe with his wife and children called "The Four Burstein's." The group toured internationally and made a name for themselves bringing Yiddish language productions to Yiddish speaking audiences around the world.
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Shifra got her start in show business at the tender age of 8 when she began to act in children's roles. Around this time, an Actor/ Producer named Boris Thomashefsky was in Buenos Aires looking for a child actor for his touring Yiddish Troup. Miriam Lerer, Shifra's older sister, met with Mr. Thomashefsky and recommended he meet Shifra. Miriam added a caveat saying that their father might object. Mr. Thomashefsky reportedly stated, "You bring the girl, I'll deal with the father later."
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Ida Kaminska was born in Odessa in 1899 to two great Yiddish stage actors. She first stepped on stage at five, beside her mother. In Warsaw, she built a theater of her own. When the Nazis invaded Poland, she fled east with her family and kept performing under Soviet rule. After the war, she returned to Poland and led the state Yiddish theater, named for her mother. In the 1960s, she starred in The Shop on Main Street and earned an Oscar nomination. In 1968, antisemitic purges drove her from Poland once more. She came to New York at 69, died in 1980, and rests at Mount Hebron Cemetery. ~Blog by Julian Christy
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Meyer "Meir" Posner (November 6, 1890-February 8, 1931) was a music director, conductor, composer, choral director, and educator. Posner was a man of many titles. He started young, learned efficiently, and went on to plant his legacy. He lived a young yet fulfilling life.
He now rests with us at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
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Seymour Rexite, also known as Seymour Rechtzeit (Jan 18, 1910, OR 1911-Oct 14, 2002), was a Polish American actor, singer, and pioneer of the American Yiddish Theater. He began as a child singing wunderkind, dazzling everyone who heard him perform. He starred and performed on radio shows for several decades throughout his career, served on Yiddish airwaves, and even sang for President Calvin Coolidge. Rexite's passion, talent, and ability to reinvent himself led to a legendary career spanning several decades.
~Blog Written by Brandon Castro
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Herman Wohl was born in 1876 in Otinya, Galicia, and grew up in a Hasidic home. At nine he left to sing as a choir boy, learning from cantors and starting to compose. At sixteen he was conducting a chorus and performing with a traveling troupe. He came to America in 1896 and went to work in the Yiddish theaters. At the Windsor Theatre he met composer Arnold Perlmutter, and together they wrote operettas for sixteen years, including Dos Pintele Yid for Boris Thomashefsky. He wrote hundreds of songs in all. Later he led choirs and conducted for the great Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt. He died in 1936 and rests at Mount Hebron. ~Blog by Brandon Castro
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Yablokoff had a fabled career and life. His performances, songs, and plays influenced many generations, and many are still moved by his work today. His performances to over 180,000 Jewish refugees deserve all the praise and celebration in the world. Yablokoff's story and legacy should be shared and remembered forever.
~Written by Brandon Castro
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Alexander Olshanetsky was one of the most prominent and prolific Second Avenue composers and conductors, and one of the musically most sophisticated exemplars of the Yiddish theater.
He now rests with us at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
~Blog Written by Brandon Castro
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Joseph Rumshinsky was a Jewish conductor, lyricist, director, and composer. Rumshinsky is celebrated among the greatest American Yiddish musical composers, even being considered one of the Big Four composers of his period. He transformed Yiddish theater, made it a part of his life, and took it with him.
~Blog Written by Brandon Castro
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