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
 

Godl (?) Kurazh


About his origin, data of his birth, and how he came to the Yiddish theatre, there is no specific information.

The musician Herman Fiedler recounts that K. came from Brody, Galicia, but grew up in Odessa. Boris Thomashefsky was certain that K. was from Warsaw.

In 1884 we found him acting with Adler in London in the role of "Naftali" in Goldfaden's "Shtume kallah".

The actress Dina Feinman recounts that he loved Yiddish very much, and he had therefore taken up the Yiddish stage in London.

K. later went away to America, and here he was one of the first Yiddish actors.

The historian of Yiddish theatre B. Gorin discusses the conditions of the Yiddish theatre in New York in the year 1887:

"The minor actors did not make a living from the theatre. It will not be an exaggeration to say that every time a minor actor acts in a theatre he makes three dollars a week. But during a holiday week an actor makes a few tens of dollars, and even the great actors did not gain as much as a good shepherd when he works a little harder. The actors [then] decided to found a union. The founder of the union was Gold, Nachamkus, Schwartz, Kurazh, Sam Adler et al.

According to the actor Boaz Young, in 1892-93 K. was a former actor, had a delicatessen business, and had managed in New York with Adler's troupe in the "People's Theatre".

Dina Feinman recounts that about the profession, K. was a furrier and later had a large fur business in New York on West 9th Street.

Boris Thomashefsky relates that K. was an itinerant character actor.

K. may have passed away in New York, but no data is known about it.
 

M. E. from Boris Thomashefsky, Dina Feinman, Herman Fiedler.

  • B. Gorin -- "History of Yiddish Theatre", Vol. II, p. 60.

  • Boaz Young -- "Mayn lebn in teater", New York, 1950, p. 78.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 4, page 2906.
 

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