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
 

Leyzer Rosenstein
 

Born on 22 January 1881 in Iasi, Romania. His father worked in the city baths, lived off the Yiddish theatre and was in charge of a Romanian theatre. Harry Schuchman remarks about R.'s father: "He was like a well-known institution in Iasi, as with all actors, who were found in Romania or arrived there from other countries."

R.'s brothers Samuel (Yakov-Shmuel) and Abraham and their sister Roze (Ziegler) were Yiddish actors. A sister, Rokhl, was a wardrobe master.

Attending cheder and school, where he easily learned German and Romanian. He sung as an "alto" with a cantor. He began as a child role player in Yiddish theatre and sung in the chorus of Rosenblum and Silbert. As well he acted in small roles, then did the same with Juvelier.

When Juvelier in 1900 traveled to America, he took several young choristers and beginning actors, and alone staged Yiddish theatre productions, during with R. debuted as "Abraham" in Goldfaden's "Sacrifice of Isaac." Later he played as a professional actor with Akselrod, then with Podzamce and Yona Reisman.

For four years he was a folk singer in Lemberg, collecting many folk songs and send them to Leo Wintz, some of them accompanied by Arno Nadel, published in the German journal, "East and West."

 


R. played Yiddish theatre in Vienna with Kanner, Podzamce and Reisman, then in Berlin with Laresko, later in London with Charles Nathanson, and from the Wallersteins was hired for Paris, and from there he returned to Akselrod, and then in Karlsbad with Klug.

A rich American Jew who heard him sing, gave him travel expenses for America, where he played a season in Chicago (with Maurice Schwartz and Kalman Juvelier), was director for two seasons in Minneapolis, and played then in New York (manager Sigmund Weintraub), Chicago (manager Hershl Zuckerberg), in California, Liberty and Brooklyn, Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, in the "Amphion" Theatre (manager Gustave Schacht), the "McKinley Square" Theatre (manaqer [Izidor] Casher), and left New York, stopping across American cities with Yiddish folk song concerts, until he settled in California, coming back to New York, only rarely and once in the early 1940s did he perform with a concert. then again he turned back to California, where he passed away on 14 January 1960 in Los Angeles on the street.

Al. Harris writes about him:

" ... The Yiddish singer who during the First World War in his twenties broke onto the Yiddish concert stage with a new cycle of folk and love songs, which he collected in Romania, and they were sung and evoked thanks from the public, loud applauses. Leyzer Rosenstein was acclaimed as an actor and singer of folk songs, and he took the title. He always adhered to actorial virtue and purity, preserving both his physical beauty, his clothing. ... In the winter season in 1925 the Jewish National Labor Farband sent us both away on a concert tour across the country. The trip lasted around fifteen weeks. ... Leyzer Rosenstein constantly was a principled vegetarian. ... One time, traveling with him on a train, I had conversations with him about his habit of having a fresh flower every day. He preserved it with religious precision. ... How many times I have tried to find out from him what hidden duty is associated with that ritual. He was not happy to answer, but from half words and from pertinent remarks, I bumped into the fact that somehow a young novel, that an episode of love was indeed connected to it. He had abandoned the theatre profession, became a wandering businessman of antiques, it turns out. Gossipy rumors were circulating about him for doing some stupid, dishonest things, making business ventures that embarrassed his name and shamed the plight of Yiddish actors, as he made all the businesses as a former Yiddish actor. Let us remember Leyzer Rosenstein as an elegant singer, who excited thousands of Jewish hearts, and with his romantic love songs, evoked memories of dreamed-up younger days."

On a larger note about R. in the "Forward," it was said:

"Leyzer once was a popular actor, but the last twenty years, since he settled in California, he no longer played in any theatre, but he gave concerts. he had a lot of feeling, was a great musician, and although he has not had a voice recently, he took great care because of his unfinished way of interpreting a Yiddish song.

More than twenty years ago Leyzer Rosenstein, who did not move without a flower in his lapel, left his family in New York and went away to Los Angeles, where for a certain time he worked in an antique store, which he had managed the well-known performer Julius Nathanson. Later Rosenstein began by himself to deal with antiques.

Leyzer became a tragic figure. He did not make a partition between mine and yours. He introduced tens of thousands of people, including his closest friends, into his trades, promised a golden fortune, took out "loans," which he used to repay and received a bad name. Several times he was arrested, but released and engaged again in this manner until he was again was arrested. ... In the last few years, R. had not been performing in concerts, but simply living off small "loans" or just waiting for meat and blood. ... He fell down in the street, taking him into one of the "fruits", like a hero of Gorky's "Na dne (The Lower Depths)," and there he died. From there ... he was given a free funeral, in which there participated only two saleswomen from the antique shop where Rosenstein last used to come in to. When the Los Angeles Jewish societies had wondered about his tragic death, they created a committee that was ready to put down a gravestone for him."
 

M.E.

  • (--) -- Tragisher toit fun aktior un folkszinger leyzer rozenshteyn, "Forward," N.Y., 25 March 1960.

  • Harry Schuchman -- Brif fun leyener, dort, 1 April 1960.

  • Al. Harris -- Leyzer rozenshteyn hot opgezungen zayn lid, "Day Morning Journal," N.Y., 28 April 1960.

 


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 4, page 2595.
 

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