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N. was born on 10 February
1865 in Kishinev, Bessarabia. His father is a well-to-do
lumber merchant.
He received a Yiddish
education, and N. until age six helped his fathers
business. At the beginning of 1881 N. became, by chance,
aroused by his young friend David Kessler,
performing together in an amateur offering of the play "Mekhtshe
shadkhan" by M. Heler.
A review about the offering
was published in "Besarabiskya vyedomosty". Goldfaden
read the review and came to Kishinev and engaged N.,
together with Kessler, for his troupe, which then made a
short tour across Bessarabia and southern Russia.
From Goldfaden, G. went over
to Shomer's troupe, in which then Mogulesko, Spivakovski,
Karp, Haimovitsh, Frau Levitsky (later- Sara Adler) and
Frau Edelstein, had acted. Then N. entered into
Gradner's troupe.
Due to the ban on Yiddish
theatre in Russia, N. traveled in 1883 to Austria and
entered into Juvelier's troupe. In 1887 N. came to
London and acted under the direction of Smit together
with Adler, Aba Shoengold, Katzman, Kempner and Anna
Held. In 1890 N. came to America, and he acted with
Adler in Poole's Theatre, then he went over to the
theatres: Windsor, Thalia, Kessler's Second Avenue,
Yiddish Art Theatre, and back to Kessler's Second Avenue
Theatre where he until 1930 was active as an actor and
stage manager. |