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
 

Itskhok Inventarz
(Inventar)
 

 

Born on 4 December 1909 in Grokhov, near Warsaw, Poland. Father -- land lessee of Count Ozherovsky. Father's brother, Avraham, rabbi in Vaver. During the First World War in 1915, Count Ozherovsky wa shot as a spy, and the land lessees with their families all had to leave and flee to Warsaw, where he opened a milk store.

He learned in Arnberger's gymnasium, and hugely developed a dsire for the theatre and joined in the Yiddish dramatic school of David Herman and Dr. Michael Weichert. In 1924 he acted in episodic roles in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with Esther Rukhl Kaminska. In 1917 he joined "Vik"t" (under the direction of Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska) and participated in the productions of "The Golden Land", later in "Vin"t" (under the direction of Jonas Turkow) and Dr. Tsipur's "Oyfshtand", then in the "Warsaw Jewish Representative Theatre" (in the play "Der toyber", "Der foter" and "Hinkeman" with Dr. Baratov, in the guest-appearance of Lidia Pototcka, and in the offering of "Dante's Death", "200,000", "Beni kenig" and "Di kuni lemels"), then in "Pakt" (with Zygmund Turkow, Avraham Morevsky, Menachem Rubin and Aliosha Stein).

During Maurice Schwartz's guest-appearance in Poland, with him he participated in "Yoshe Kalb", "Jew Suss" and other plays, and with Alexander Granach ("Kaytn (Chains)", et al.

 During the outbreak of the Second World War, he acted with Ida Kaminska's ensemble and fled to Bialystok, and from there to Lemberg, where he participated in the local Jewish State Theatre in the name of Sholem Aleichem, which the Soviet might had organized, went from there with the theatre to Rovno, where they encountered the Nazi assault that forced them to move from one city to the next; At first -- Poltava, then Baku, Ashkhabad, Tashkent, Buchara, Samarkand and Frunza, where the Ida Kaminska ensemble reset.

In 1946 he returned to Poland and acted under the direction of Moshe Lipman, in 1947 immigrated to Sweden and Norway, performing in around forty hospitals in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo, Malmo, Sunhultsbrun, with concerts of Yiddish poetry and monologues. In the presence of state disturbances here, I. went to Paris where he staged the comedy "Hershel ostropoler" by Gershenzon, acting in the title role. After acting for six months in Paris, he became engaged by Maurice Schwartz for his "Yiddish Art Theatre" in New York, where he participated in "Kol Israel (The Voice of israel)", "Hershele ostropoler", et al. Then he performed for a year in word concerts in a tour for the "Arbeter Ring (Workmen's Circle), later for "Histadrut" across America.

In 1955 I. acted with the "Plitim Theatre" in New York in Sholem Aleichem's "Dos farkhshufte shneyderl", and then withdrew from the stage.

I.'s sister, the actress Helena Velish, was killed by the Nazis.


Sh. E.

  • Itzkhok Inventarz -- Idisher aktyor bashreybt zayn bazukh in lager fun tuberkuloze kranke in shveden, "Forward", N. Y., 21 July 1947.

  • Chaim Ehrenreich -- Der poylish-idisher aktyor itkhok inventar, velkher iz itst a gast in nyu york, same, 16 September 1948.
     


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 4, page 3067.
 

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