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L. was born on 17 July 1889
in Warsaw, Poland. His father was a Radzmin Chasid, a
lumber merchant. He learned with melamdim
(religious teachers) and a teacher in his home, and as a
youth sang with a cantor.
L.'s brother -- a
music professor -- took him under his wings and taught
him to act, with a plan to prepare him as a military
kapellmeister, because practice gave him the opportunity
, at the age of thirteen, to study the operetta "Bustni"
with Kaminski. L. remained for two years as chorus
director., hen he had the opportunity to act with
Strasfogel as "Urkh" in the one-act "Der man
untern tish", and he remained as an actor until the
outbreak of the World War, traveling with various
Yiddish troupes across Poland and Russia.
When the German army
captured Warsaw, there there was organized the "Central"
Theatre, and L. entered into the theatre as an actor and
he participated as a comical character in the then
staged European operettas. Several of them were "Di kino
kenigin", "Der veg tsum glik" and "Di tole komtese",
where L. translated from German to Yiddish.
On the eve of the World War,
L. composed his first composition for Nozyk's operetta "Dvoshe
di subrazhisktke", which was performed across Russia and
Poland. Afterwards he wrote (together with Belzatsky)
the music for Y. L. Vohlman's operetta "Der shtroyener
almn" and for the operetta "Di varshever yungt". |