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
 

Wolf Amzel
 

 

A. was born on 18 September 1894 in Lodz, Poland. His father was a ritual slaughterer, the uncle -- a rabbi. He completed a folkshul.

As a youth he was very interested, and often he secretly visited  the Yiddish and Russian theatre when he was a yeshiva student. In 1913 he began to participate in literary and musical events. In 1915  he performed for he first time in Zylbercweig's troupe as "Hirsh Ber" in Kobrin's "Dorfsyung". After performing with the local troupe across the Polish province, he acted for several months in M. D. Vaksman's troupe in Lodz's Thalia Theatre, then with member troupes across the Polish province. Since 1918 he has toured with member troupes across the province of Galicia. In 1920 he acted for several months in Przemysl under the direction of Ebell, then for two years with a member troupe (organized by the local artists union) in Lemberg, later again he traveled with various member troupes across the province.

During the Second World War he acted in Lemberg, and when the troupe fled, he almost fell into the Nazi hands; he went away, to travel around under the worst conditions, across the Soviet Union. He died in Bukhara during the typhus epidemic.

Here his daughter Leah (Lola) Amzel died of typhus, who at the age of nineteen or twenty, who was a "wonder child", had acted in Yiddish theatre for the state, and even guest-starred, and in

Lemberg's Jewish State Theatre during the Second World War acted in the title role in the dramatization of Jacob Dinenzon's "Yosele".

A.'s wife, Golda (Genia Shneyder), also had acted on the Yiddish stage, was rescued from the Nazi murderers, and found herself (later) in the land of Israel.


Sh. E. from Meir Melman.

  • "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre", New York, 1931, Volume 1, p. 70.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 5, page 4017.
You can read Wolf Amzel's initial Lexicon biography in volume 1 by clicking here.
 

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