{"id":922,"date":"2016-11-20T15:51:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-20T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/?p=922"},"modified":"2023-05-01T16:28:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T21:28:37","slug":"london-new-york-or-the-great-british-yiddish-theatre-brain-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/london-new-york-or-the-great-british-yiddish-theatre-brain-drain\/","title":{"rendered":"London &#8211; New York, or The Great British Yiddish Theatre Brain Drain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We Brits Have&nbsp;been sending some of our finest actors across the Atlantic for as long as anyone can remember. Charlie Chaplin, Vivien Leigh, Kate Winslet, Christian Bale \u2026 the list goes on and on. Cue occasional bouts of US tabloid hysteria, and headlines about a British \u201cinvasion\u201d or \u201ctakeover.\u201d Or, on the British side, anxiety about a brain drain that weakens our own theatre. There\u2019s not much evidence of that. British theatre is in rude health, and anyway it\u2019s reassuring to know we are still able to produce something that other people want. Once upon a time, it was cars and coal. Now, actors and musicians are pretty much all we have left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I digress. The point is \u2014 an almost identical brain drain was happening more than a century ago in the Yiddish theatre. Around 1890, London switched from being a net importer to an exporter of Yiddish actors. And its main market was America. First, it was just the Lower East Side. Then, as the American Yiddish stage exploded into its all-singing, all-dancing heyday, it was the Bronx and Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia and beyond. America\u2019s Yiddish theatre managers sent talent scouts to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Whitechapel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Whitechapel<\/a>, check books and ships tickets at the ready. The lucky few had their transatlantic passage paid for; many others simply took their chance in the world\u2019s biggest Yiddish theatre city. The total number of Yiddish actors, playwrights, and musicians who left Britain in the years 1885 &#8211; 1915 probably runs into the hundreds. So who are the big names of this Yiddish theatre brain drain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all lists, this one needs some house rules. So:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No babies.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jwa.org\/encyclopedia\/article\/adler-celia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Celia Adler<\/a>, conceived in London, but born in America, isn\u2019t eligible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No civilians. They\u2019ve got to be in the Yiddish theatre already. That rules out&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yivo.org\/maurice-schwartz-and-the-yiddish-art-theater-1965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Maurice Schwartz<\/a>, who got separated from his emigrating family as a youngster and wandered the streets of London\u2019s East End for two years before his father found him again.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No transits. Pretty much everyone from&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.yivoencyclopedia.org\/article.aspx\/Goldfadn_Avrom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Goldfaden<\/a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/openmusiclibrary.org\/person\/48374\/?content=score\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mogulesco<\/a>&nbsp;passed through London at some point. (One look at Whitechapel was usually enough to speed them on their way.) Unless they made Britain their home, however briefly, they\u2019re out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So here it is \u2014 my personal top ten list of Great British Yiddish theatre exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here it is \u2014 my personal top ten list of Great British Yiddish theatre exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. Jacob Adler (1855 &#8211; 1926)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3303-576x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-924\" width=\"436\" height=\"775\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3303-576x1024.webp 576w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3303-169x300.webp 169w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3303.webp 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 436px) 100vw, 436px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cJacob Adler, the King of the Jewish Stage,\u201d a handbill for a touring performance at the Standard Theatre, East London, c. 1900.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Adler is the Big Daddy of the transatlantic Yiddish theatre brain drain, but he almost missed the boat \u2014 figuratively speaking. While Adler\u2019s troupe was scratching out a living in the immigrant clubs of Whitechapel in the mid 1880s, stars like Mogulesco and&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/exhibitions.europeana.eu\/exhibits\/show\/yiddish-theatre-en\/theatres\/feinman-yiddish-people---s-the\" target=\"_blank\">Feinman<\/a>&nbsp;hurried through London and grabbed the top spots on the Lower East Side. Adler was well aware of developments in New York, but for a long time \u201chang out with Whitechapel chorus girls\u201d was higher on his to-do list than \u201cbuy tickets to New York.\u201d He met&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/exhibitions.europeana.eu\/exhibits\/show\/yiddish-theatre-fr\/jml-contextes\/item\/89?page=\" target=\"_blank\">Jenny Kaiser<\/a>&nbsp;soon after he arrived in London. A child of the Whitechapel slums, she was a talented singer and actress, lustrous-eyed, fiery, and gorgeous. At age fifteen, she was pregnant with Adler\u2019s child, and she gave birth to Solomon Adler at the still-scandalous age of sixteen. Solomon sneaks onto our list, too \u2014 he grew into a handsome teenager, changed his name to Charles Adler, and headed off to New York to meet his famous siblings and pursue his own showbiz career. But it took the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com\/generalnews\/the-spitalfields-disaster\/\" target=\"_blank\">deaths of seventeen audience members<\/a>, trampled and suffocated in a panicked exit from the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/exhibitions.europeana.eu\/exhibits\/show\/yiddish-theatre-en\/theatres\/hebrew-dramatic-club\" target=\"_blank\">Hebrew Dramatic Club<\/a>&nbsp;in Spitalfields in January 1887, to persuade Adler it was time to head west. Within a few years he was the King of Second Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2. Dina Feinman (c. 1869 &#8211; 1946)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/12.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-925\" width=\"490\" height=\"735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/12.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/12-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dina Feinman. Photograph courtesy of Fundaci\u00f3n IWO, Buenos Aires.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dinah_Shtettin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dina Feinman<\/a>\u2019s family came to London from Poland when she was a small child. She was about sixteen years old when she met Jacob Adler in London, at the same time as he was carrying on with Jenny Kaiser. In fact, both girls were in the chorus of his Russian Jewish Operatic Company, which must have made life \u2026 well, dramatic. Later on, as one of the leading Yiddish prima donnas in New York, she was often called \u201cthe Sarah Bernhardt of the Yiddish stage.\u201d Feinman\u2019s return appearances in London were big events. In 1909, a woman was crushed to death as the crowd surged towards the stairs to get the best gallery seats in the Pavilion Theatre for one of her shows. She was a popular figure in Whitechapel, though the critic&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/1944\/10\/22\/archive\/morris-myer-british-zionist-and-yiddish-editor-dies-in-london-was-65\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Morris Myer<\/a>, a hard man to please, thought she had picked up some bad habits in New York, and accused her of playing to the gallery rather than keeping in character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3. Samuel Goldenburg (c. 1886 &#8211; 1945)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47de-e3a9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.r-399x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-926\" width=\"193\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47de-e3a9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.r-399x1024.webp 399w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47de-e3a9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.r-117x300.webp 117w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47de-e3a9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.r-768x1970.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47de-e3a9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.r-599x1536.webp 599w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47de-e3a9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.r.webp 796w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Samuel Goldenburg. Courtesy of the Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Goldenburg was an aspiring actor and an accomplished, conservatory-trained musician in Warsaw who came to London to escape military service in the tsar\u2019s army. Settling in the East End around 1905, he found London\u2019s professional Yiddish theatre closed to him by jealous (and presumably inferior) colleagues. So he started his own amateur company in the Yiddish anarchists\u2019 club on Jubilee Street. Sigmund Feinman gave Goldenburg his break in London around 1908, and the rest is Yiddish theatre history. After several years touring to South Africa and Argentina, Goldenburg became one of the most admired actors on the American Yiddish stage. He appeared with&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thomashefsky.org\/theproject.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Boris Thomashefsky<\/a>&nbsp;and in Schwartz\u2019s Yiddish Art Theatre, where he also worked as a voice coach. Goldenburg\u2019s Broadway credits include the 1937 Jewish liberation epic&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibdb.com\/broadway-production\/the-eternal-road-12181\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Eternal Road<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;(a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kwf.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kurt Weill<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems-and-poets\/poets\/detail\/franz-werfel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Franz Werfel<\/a>\/<a href=\"http:\/\/www.milkenarchive.org\/resources\/tags\/view\/meyer-weisgal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Meyer Weisgal<\/a>&nbsp;production), in which he appeared as Moses alongside&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kwf.org\/pages\/lotte-lenya.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lotte Lenya<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. Rubin Doctor (c. 1878 &#8211; c. 1940)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/audio\/?fa=language%3Ayiddish%7Csubject%3Ahumorous+songs%7Ccontributor%3Arubin+doctor&amp;st=list\" target=\"_blank\">Rubin Doctor<\/a>&nbsp;was a one-man hit factory. He wrote a succession of brilliant Yiddish novelty songs and yet almost everything about him is a mystery. He was probably born in 1878, but the&nbsp;<em>Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre<\/em>&nbsp;says 1882. Also, his surname was originally Stolon. We don\u2019t know when he changed it to Doctor (though it\u2019s pretty obvious why; wouldn\u2019t you?). Born in&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.yivoencyclopedia.org\/article.aspx\/Bessarabia\" target=\"_blank\">Bessarabia<\/a>, he came to London in the 1890s, performing in Yiddish music hall and working as a hairdresser. Ellis Island records show he left London in 1910, joining relatives already in America. He worked mostly in Yiddish vaudeville, published around a hundred songs, and recorded well over fifty. Herr Doctor was equally adept at schmaltz (\u201cIkh benk nokh mayn shtetele\u201d\/I miss my hometown) and comedy. His runaway hit \u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=csBvTWpKzR0\" target=\"_blank\">Ikh bin a border bay mayn vayb<\/a>\u201c\/I\u2019m a boarder at my wife\u2019s place) had the ultimate accolade of its own parody. As theatre historian Joel Schechter writes, the brilliant Yiddish puppeteers&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/32954\/summary\" target=\"_blank\">Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler<\/a>&nbsp;included a version of it in their play&nbsp;<em>Biznes&nbsp;<\/em>(Business), where the factory-owner puppet pleads, \u201cI want to be the boss in my own business.\u201d Seriously, folks, it\u2019s&nbsp;<em>a shande far di yidn<\/em>&nbsp;(ridiculous) that Rubin Doctor remains so obscure. This cannot stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition1.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"930\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition1.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-930\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition1.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition1-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition2.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"927\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition2-683x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition2-683x1024.webp 683w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition2-200x300.webp 200w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition2-768x1152.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition2.webp 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition3.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"929\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition3-683x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-929\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition3-683x1024.webp 683w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition3-200x300.webp 200w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition3-768x1152.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition3.webp 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition4.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"773\" data-id=\"928\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition4.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-928\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition4.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Prohibition4-233x300.webp 233w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Rubin Doctor, \u201cProbishon\u201d (Prohibition), 1919. Library of Congress, Music Division, Heskes Collection, Box 11 &#8211; 897.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"932\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Ikhbin2-682x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Ikhbin2-682x1024.webp 682w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Ikhbin2-200x300.webp 200w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Ikhbin2-768x1152.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Ikhbin2.webp 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"931\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/IkhbinaRubin1-682x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-931\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/IkhbinaRubin1-682x1024.webp 682w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/IkhbinaRubin1-200x300.webp 200w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/IkhbinaRubin1-768x1152.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/IkhbinaRubin1.webp 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Rubin Doctor, \u201cIkh bin a border bay mayn vayb\u201d (I\u2019m a boarder at my wife\u2019s place), 1922. Library of Congress, Music Division, Heskes Collection, C.D. Box 8-1248.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"933\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/OyOyDiV_1-682x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-933\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/OyOyDiV_1-682x1024.webp 682w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/OyOyDiV_1-200x300.webp 200w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/OyOyDiV_1-768x1152.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/OyOyDiV_1.webp 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"935\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Oyoy2-682x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-935\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Oyoy2-682x1024.webp 682w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Oyoy2-200x300.webp 200w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Oyoy2-768x1152.webp 768w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Oyoy2.webp 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"487\" height=\"265\" data-id=\"934\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/OyOy3-487x265.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-934\" \/><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Rubin Doctor, \u201cA brivele fun der heym\u201d (A letter from home), 1897. Library of Congress, Music Division, Heskes Collection, Box 1 &#8211; 13.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-4 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"940\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym1.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-940\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym1.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym1-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"938\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym3.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-938\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym3.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym3-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"939\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym5.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-939\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym5.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym5-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"942\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym4.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym4.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym4-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"941\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym2.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym2.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/abrivelefunderhaym2-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Rubin Doctor, \u201cA brivele fun der heym\u201d (A letter from home), 1897. Library of Congress, Music Division, Heskes Collection, Box 1 &#8211; 13.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>5. Rudolf Marks (1867 &#8211; 1930)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"461\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3299.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-937\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3299.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3299-300x231.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rudolf Marks and Sigmund Mogulesco, New York, c. 1892.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In one of the most widely-reproduced of all New York Yiddish theatre photos, taken in the 1890s, three of the all-time greats \u2013 Jacob Adler,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Kessler_(actor)\" target=\"_blank\">David Kessler<\/a>, and Sigmund Mogulesco \u2013 face the camera with a few colleagues. Aping Mogulesco\u2019s pose, elbows resting on the same stool, is the actor Rudolf Marks. It\u2019s an in-joke. Marks and Mogulesco swapped roles in Goldfaden\u2019s mistaken identity comedy&nbsp;<em>The Two Kuni-Lemls<\/em>&nbsp;and were said to be impossible to tell apart, to the consternation of Mogulesco\u2019s many fans. It\u2019s a faint echo of Marks\u2019s chameleon-like genius. He came to London from Odessa in the 1880s, and was one of the earliest stars of the London Yiddish stage, as both a comic and dramatic actor and a prolific playwright. He also adapted many Victorian melodramas for the Yiddish stage (in an early example,&nbsp;<em>The Stowaway<\/em>&nbsp;became&nbsp;<em>Der matroz oder der yosem in gefar<\/em>\/<em>The Sailor, or The Orphan in Danger<\/em>). Marks was equally popular as an actor in New York in the 1890s, but then, to his colleagues\u2019 amazement, he left the stage and reinvented himself as a successful lawyer. Oh, and his father was the celebrated translator of the Talmud,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu\/spring-2016\/literary-hasidism.html\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Levi Rodkinson<\/a>. Max Rodkinson became the actor Rudolf Marks in order not to upset his father, but changed his name back to Max Rodkinson when he took up law. Chameleon-like to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>6. Nahum Rakov (1866 &#8211; 1927)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Greenboy.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"441\" height=\"751\" data-id=\"943\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Greenboy.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Greenboy.webp 441w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/Greenboy-176x300.webp 176w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 441px) 100vw, 441px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/6.1.13_MG_7227.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"885\" data-id=\"944\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/6.1.13_MG_7227.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/6.1.13_MG_7227.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/6.1.13_MG_7227-203x300.webp 203w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/6.1.2._MG_7209.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"487\" height=\"265\" data-id=\"945\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/6.1.2._MG_7209-487x265.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-945\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Rakov was a prolific and successful playwright who was often accused of plagiarism or re-working other dramas. He was born near Vilna, Lithuania and came to London in the mid 1880s, working as an actor, prompter, playwright, stage manager, and occasional commercial traveler. His first play was&nbsp;<em>Der griner in london oder der misioner&nbsp;<\/em>(<em>The Greenhorn in London or The Missionary<\/em>). He must have thought the title had a nice ring to it because, after emigrating to America in 1902, he wrote&nbsp;<em>The Greenhorn Girl<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>The Greenhorn Boy<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>The Greenhorn Wife<\/em>, and&nbsp;<em>The Greenhorn Actor<\/em>. Rakov wrote dozens of melodramas for the top Yiddish theatre stars, including Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/a-day-that-tortured-my-body-and-tormented-my-soul-bertha-kalichs-kol-nidre-in-bucharest\">Bertha Kalich<\/a>. Having written a new play, Rakov had a novel sales technique. He would act out all the characters, often crying real tears. The actors around him would cry along and the star and theatre manager would be so impressed they\u2019d buy the manuscript on the spot. Eccentricity seems to run through Rakov\u2019s life. In his last years in Mount Vernon, he kept two huge dogs at home, ensuring that almost nobody from the Yiddish theatre community came to visit. He also called one son Alexander Daudet Rakov after the French novelist. Freakily, the boy became an American novelist called&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/hgar-srv3.bu.edu\/collections\/collection?id=122623\" target=\"_blank\">Alec Rackowe<\/a>. So, not just eccentric, but psychic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>7. The Lubritskys<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"797\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/MNY328856.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-946\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/MNY328856.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/MNY328856-226x300.webp 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Goldie Lubritsky and Samuel Goldenberg in an unidentified production. Image courtesy The Museum of the City of New York.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Yiddish theatre was awash with family troupes. There were famous ones like the Kaminskis, the Kompanyetzes, the Treitlers, and the Adlers. And less famous ones like the amazing&nbsp;<em>mishpokhe<\/em>&nbsp;Lubritsky. There was dad: Isaac-Yankl, a wedding entertainer from Vishegrod in Poland who continued in this line of work in London, adding on jobs as a comic songwriter and theatre prompter. And then there were his three precocious children: Golda, Dave, and Fanny. The Lubritskys were in London by 1896, the year of Fanny\u2019s birth. They all started their careers as child actors on the Yiddish stage, before the family swapped Whitechapel for Brooklyn in 1908. Remarkably, all three children continued to work as professional Yiddish actors in America. Fanny had a successful career in Yiddish musicals, Golda married the Yiddish actor Irving Grossman and toured together with him, and Dave and Fanny both returned to London in Ludwig Satz\u2019s company, which played at the Whitechapel Pavilion Theatre in 1930.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>8. The Weisenfreunds<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"441\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3304.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-947\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3304.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3304-300x221.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">London Yiddish music hall song-sheet c. 1903 featuring lyrics \u201cwhich Madame Sally Weisenfreund is singing now in America.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Hollywood legend&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0612847\/\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Muni<\/a>&nbsp;was one of Warner Brother\u2019s hottest properties in the 1930s and 40s, marketed as \u201cthe screen\u2019s greatest actor.\u201d Less well-known was his start in the theatre \u2013 as a young kid named Meshulim Meyer Vayznfraynt, bumping over country roads around Lemberg and Krakow in a horse and cart with his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/the-krakow-yiddish-theatre-postcards-a-crowdsourcing-experiment\">parents\u2019 travelling Yiddish song-and-dance show<\/a>. \u201cMoony\u201d played Yiddish character parts as a kid, showing a startling talent for make-up. The family stopped off in London around 1899. Parents Sally and Philip put on Yiddish music hall shows above a pub behind the London Hospital on Whitechapel Road, while Moony and his brothers went to the Jews\u2019 Free School nearby. All was going fine until rival Jewish gangs started brawling outside the pub, knives and broken beer glasses at the ready. A murder in 1902 saw several of the ringleaders deported. The Weisenfreunds decided they\u2019d had enough of stepping over corpses on the way to work and headed to the US. Muni Weisenfreund became Paul Muni, star of Yiddish theatre, Broadway, and finally Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>9. Eliyohu Zalmen Yarikhovski (? &#8211; ?)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"395\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3300.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3300.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/DSC_3300-300x198.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist\u2019s sketch of the audience watching a Yiddish performance at the Oriental Working Men\u2019s Club in Vine Court, Whitechapel, c. 1890.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Yiddish theatre composer Eliyohu Zalmen Yarikhovski made his way to London from Warsaw in the footsteps of his younger brother, Yudl (known in London as \u201cFlash\u201d), in the 1880s. Their domain was the Vine Court Hall, a tightly-packed 300-seat fire hazard of a venue down a dark alley off Whitechapel Road. Vine Court was the scene of a brutal murder in the 1880s. Improbably, it was also where Yarikhovski staged his (world premiere?) Yiddish translation of Verdi\u2019s<em>&nbsp;La Traviata<\/em>&nbsp;in 1889. Yarikhovski surfaces next in Philadelphia, where he seems to have spent many years as music director of the prominent&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/libwww.freelibrary.org\/digital\/item\/39189\" target=\"_blank\">Arch Street Theatre<\/a>&nbsp;in its Yiddish period. What else did he do in America? Did he leave any surviving trace of his activity in the US? Did he change his name? When did he die? All my inquiries have drawn a blank. EZY (\u201cEasy\u201d) could not have staged his disappearance more effectively if the mafia themselves had ordered it. His is easily the best vanishing act in Yiddish theatre history. This too is&nbsp;<em>a shande far di yidn<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>10. Yetta Schoengold (1884 &#8211; 1967)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/1934\/10\/02\/archive\/critical-moments\" target=\"_blank\">Yetta Schoengold<\/a>&nbsp;had a successful career in America and Europe but her origins were pure Yiddisher Cockney. Her Polish-Jewish father Marks Rubinstein was an East End purse manufacturer, as well as the manager of a Jewish immigrant club that featured Yiddish plays. Yetta was born in London in 1884. She left school and went into her father\u2019s business, then became a Yiddish music hall singer. You can get an idea of her style on the 1905 London recording of \u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/performance\/gevald-gevald-police-help-help-police-mq0000709653\" target=\"_blank\">Gevald, gevald police<\/a>\u201d (Help, Help Police), reissued in 2003 on the compilation&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/joelrubinklezmer.com\/recordings\/jewish-music-series\/2003\/06\/di-eybike-mame-the-eternal-mother-women-in-yiddish-theater-and-popular-song-1905-1929\/\" target=\"_blank\">Di Eybike Mame \u2014The Eternal Mother: Women in Yiddish Theater and Popular Song 1905-1929<\/a>. As Nina Warnke observes, \u201cit will stick in your ear whether you like it or not.\u201d Around 1907, Yetta married the Yiddish actor Bernard Schoengold and settled in New York. Along with other popular Jewish-American actors, she appeared in&nbsp;<em>Spring Song<\/em>&nbsp;on Broadway in 1934. She died in the US in 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Acknowledgements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My thanks to Avrohom Lichtenbaum of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.iwo.org.ar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fundaci\u00f3n IWO<\/a>, Buenos Aires and Miryem-Khaye Siegel of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nypl.org\/about\/divisions\/jewish-division\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York Public Library<\/a>&nbsp;for their help tracing some of the images. Nachman Falbel kindly let me reproduce posters from his collection, featured in his 2013 book&nbsp;<em>Estrelas Errantes: Mem\u00f3ria do Teatro \u00cddiche no Brasil&nbsp;<\/em>(Wandering Stars: A History of the Yiddish Theatre in Brazil).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We Brits Have\u00a0been sending some of our finest actors across the Atlantic for as long as anyone can remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[45,47,11,14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1876-1899","category-1918-1945","category-actors","category-musicians","category-writers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>London - New York, or The Great British Yiddish Theatre Brain Drain - Digital Yiddish Theatre Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/london-new-york-or-the-great-british-yiddish-theatre-brain-drain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"London - New York, or The Great British Yiddish Theatre Brain Drain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We Brits Have\u00a0been sending some of our finest actors across the Atlantic for as long as anyone can remember.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/london-new-york-or-the-great-british-yiddish-theatre-brain-drain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital Yiddish Theatre Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-20T21:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-01T21:28:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/05\/13122015193313.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"824\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"streich@uwm.edu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"streich@uwm.edu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/london-new-york-or-the-great-british-yiddish-theatre-brain-drain\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/london-new-york-or-the-great-british-yiddish-theatre-brain-drain\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"streich@uwm.edu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/#\/schema\/person\/acb308ee9146d2d003cc0dfb2a5f08f9\"},\"headline\":\"London &#8211; 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