Boris Thomashefsky (1868¹–1939, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.) was a Jewish singer and actor; born in Tarasche, a shtetl near Kiev, Ukraine, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 12 in 1881. A year later, barely a teenager, he was largely responsible for the first performance of Yiddish theater in New York City. 1868 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... A shtetl or shtetele (little town/city in Yiddish) was typically a small town or village with a large Jewish population in pre-Holocaust Central Europe and Eastern Europe. ... Kiev (Київ, Kyiv, in Ukrainian; Киев, Kiev, in Russian) is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper river. ... Ukraine (Україна, Ukrayina in Ukrainian; Украина in Russian) is a republic in eastern Europe which borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest and the Black Sea to the south. ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... Events January - April January 16-24 ? Siege of Geok Tepe ? Russian troops under general Skobeleff defeat Turkomans January 25 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company February 5 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. ... Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Eastern European Ashkenazaic Jewish community. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ...

Although Thomashefsky left Imperial Russia at a time when Yiddish theater was still thriving there (it was banned shortly after, in September 1883), he had never actually seen it performed prior to the 1882 performance he brought together in New York. Thomashefsky, who was earning some money by singing on Saturdays at the Henry Street Synagogue on the Lower East Side, was also working as a cigarette maker in a sweatshop, where he first heard songs from the Yiddish theater, sung by some of his fellow workers. [JVL] Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... Categories: Manhattan neighborhoods | Stub ... A sweatshop is a factory, where people work for a very small wage, producing products such as clothes, toys, shoes, and other consumer goods. ...

He managed to convince a local tavern owner to invest in bringing over some performers. The first performance was Abraham Goldfaden's operetta The Witch. The performance was a bit of a disaster: pious and prosperous "uptown" German Jews opposed to Yiddish theater did a great deal to sabotage it. Thomashefsky's performing career was launched partly because part of the sabotage consisted of bribing the soubrette to fake a sore throat: Thomashefsky went on in her place. [JVL] Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (July 24, 1840 – January 9, 1908), born Abraham Goldenfoden (first name alternately Avram, Avron, Avrohom, Avrom, or Avrum, last name alternately Goldfadn; the Romanian spelling Avram Goldfaden is common) was a Russian-born Jewish poet and playwright, author of some 40 plays. ... Operetta (literally, little opera) is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. ...

Shortly after, the teenaged Thomashefsky was the pioneer of taking Yiddish theater "on the road" in the United States, performing Goldfaden's plays in cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston and Chicago, all in the 1880s; for much of the 1880s, Chicago was his base. After Yiddish theater was banned in Russia, his tours came to include such prominent actors as Siegmund Mogulesko, David Kessler, and Jacob Adler, with new plays by playwrights such as Moses Ha-Levi Horowitz. [Adler, 1999, 312-314] The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... This article refers to the largest city of Pennsylvania. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... This article is about the city in the US state of Maryland. ... City nickname: The Steel City Location in the state of Pennsylvania Founded 1758 Mayor Tom Murphy (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 151. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Events and Trends Technology Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... Categories: People stubs | Jewish film and theatre | 1855 births | 1926 deaths ...

In 1887, playing in Baltimore, he met 14-year-old Bessie Baumfeld-Kaufman, who went backstage to meet the beautiful young "actress" she had seen on stage, only to discover that "she" was a boy. Bessie soon ran away from home to join the company, and eventually took over the ingenue roles, as Boris moved on to romantic male leads; they were married in 1891. [JVL]

In 1891, with Mogulesko, Kessler, and Adler all engaged in starting the Union Theater, Moishe Finkel brought the still relatively unknown Thomashefsky back to New York to star at his National Theater, where Thomashefsky became such an enormous popular success in Moses Halevy Horowitz's operetta David ben Jesse as to force the Union Theater temporarily to abandon its highbrow programming and compete head on. [Adler, 1999, 318 (commentary)] 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Operetta (literally, little opera) is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. ...

After Adler recruited Jacob Gordin as a playwright and found a way to draw the masses to serious theater with Gordin's The Yiddish King Lear, and then turned to Shakespeare's Othello, Thomashefsky decided to show that he could compete on that ground as well, and responded with the first Yiddish-language production of Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which, by all reports, he acquitted himself excellently. [Adler, 1999, 329, 330] These productions ushered in what is generally seen as the first great age of Yiddish theater, centered in New York and lasting approximately until a nwe wave of Jewish immigration, in 1905—1908 once again resulted in a vogue for broad comedy, vaudeville and light operettas, which the Thomashefskys embraced wholeheartedly, especially in performing Leon Korbin's plays about immigrant life. [Adler, 1999, passim, 359 (commentary)] William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... This page is about the Shakespeare play, for the board game, see Othello board game. ... The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare and one of his most well-known and oft-quoted plays. ... 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Vaudeville is a style of theater, also known as variety, which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ...

Other notable Thomashefsky productions included Yiddish versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Goethe's Faust and, unlikely as it may seem, Wagner's Parsifal. According to the Jewish Virtual Library [1] (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Thomashefsky.html), in an adaptation of Hamlet called Der Yeshiva Bokher (The Yeshiva Student), "a wicked uncle smears [a] rabbinic candidate’s reputation by calling him a nihilist and the young man dies of a broken heart." [JVL] (They don't say whether this was the production that went head to head with the Adler/Kessler Othello.) Simon Legree menaces Uncle Tom Uncle Toms Cabin (ISBN 0553212184) is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, in which slavery is a major theme. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Faust Part 1 (original title: Faust - Der Tragödie erster Teil) is Johann Wolfgang von Goethes most famous work. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 – February 13, 1883) was an influential German composer, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas. ... Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. ... See Semicha for article about ordination of rabbis. ... This article is about the Russian political and revolutionary movement. ...

By 1910, Thomashefsky owned a 12-room home on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, plus a bungalow by the sea, and 20 acres in Hunter, New York which included an open-air theater, Thomashefsky's Paradise Gardens. Each of his three sons had an Arabian horse. [Adler, 1999, 359 (commentary)] For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ... The Arabian The Arabian horse first appeared in the Arabian Peninsula at least 2,500 years B.C.E. They were carefully inbred to maintain desirable features (e. ...

With his wife, actress Bessie Thomashefsky, he had a son Ted, who changed his name to Ted Thomas and became a stage manager; one of Ted Thomas's sons was the noted conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas. Stage management is a sub-discipline of stagecraft. ... Conductor can mean different things in different contexts: In science and engineering, a conductor is material capable of conveying electricity. ... Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944), nicknamed MTT, is an American conductor, pianist and composer. ...

Notes

¹Date is from Jewish Virtual Library [2] (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Thomashefsky.html). [Liptzin, 1972, 78] says he was born in 1866, which would make him approximately 14 rather than 12 when he emigrated and 16 rather than 14 at the time of his stage debut.

References

• Chira, Susan, "100 Years of Yiddish Theater Celebrated", New York Times, October 15, 1982, C28.
• Adler, Jacob, A Life on the Stage: A Memoir, translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, ISBN 067941351.
• Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
• Boris Thomashefsky (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Thomashefsky.html) from the Jewish Virtual Library (JVL), retrieved February 28, 2005.