Boris Thomashefsky (, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; ) (1868–July 9, 1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-born (later American) Jewish singer and actor who became one of the biggest stars in Yiddish theater.

Early life

thumb|left|Boris and Bessie Thomashevsky's engagement portrait, 1890

He was born Boruch-Aharon Tomashevsky () in (; ), a village in the Chyhyryn county of the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire (today in the Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine). He grew up in the nearby town of Kamyanka (today in the Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine),

Career

Thomashefsky managed to convince a local tavern owner to invest in bringing over some performers. The first performance was Abraham Goldfaden's Yiddish operetta (The Witch). The performance was a mild disaster: pious and prosperous "uptown" German Jews opposed to the Yiddish theater did a great deal to sabotage it. His performing career was launched in part due to an instance of this sabotage—bribing the soubrette to fake a sore throat, Thomashefsky went on in her place.

In 1887, playing in Baltimore, he met 14-year-old Bessie Baumfeld-Kaufman, when she came backstage to meet the beautiful young "actress" she had seen on stage, only to discover that "she" was Boris. 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 married in 1891.

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 production of Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which, by all reports, he acquitted himself excellently. His production of Hamlet was more than just a direct translation; the story was also adapted to make it more accessible to a devout European Jewish audience. At the start of the play, young Hamlet has been away at Rabbinical college, and his uncle has seduced the Queen Mother away from King Hamlet, breaking the old man's heart. There are sectarian jokes regarding communication with angels. Claudius spreads a rumor that Prince Hamlet has succumbed to nihilism while away, but his scheme is discovered and the traitor is sent to Siberia in his nephew's stead. The play ends early, with Hamlet ceremonially marrying Ophelia at her funeral then dying of a broken heart. These types of edits were not uncommon in the Yiddish-language theatre scene. Some critics view it as a step away from immigrant assimilation, others as one step further towards common ground between the new residents and their American neighbors. 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 new wave of Jewish immigration in 1905—08 once again resulted in a vogue for broad comedy, vaudeville and light operettas, which the Thomashefskys embraced wholeheartedly, especially in performing Leon Kobrin's plays about immigrant life.

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, 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."

However, in 1915, Thomashefsky filed for bankruptcy, listing assets of $21,900 and debts of $76,297.65.

In 1935, late in his career, Thomashefsky was an actor/singer in Henry Lynn's Yiddish film Bar Mitzvah, in which he played a melodramatic role with gusto and co-produced the film. He sang Erlekh Zayn (Be Virtuous), a song from a 1924 Yiddish play, Bar Mitzvah.

Personal life

With his wife, actress Bessie Thomashefsky, he had three sons, as well a daughter who died when she was six years old. The third son, Theodore, changed his name to Ted Thomas and became a stage manager. Ted Thomas's son is conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. The first son, Harry, went on to direct the film The Yiddish King Lear (1935), under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project, and later moved with his mother to Los Angeles. The second son, Mickey, had affairs with two women at the same time, which led to a dramatic murder-attempt/suicide in 1931, reminiscent of his aunt Emma Thomashefsky Finkel's notorious 1904 affair. Both Mickey and his Aunt Emma were left paralyzed by the attempted murders by jealous mates and both later died of complications related to their wounds; Emma, many years later, in 1929, and Mickey, five years after in 1936. Boris Thomashefsky carried on a long-term affair with Yiddish actress Regina Zuckerberg, an Austrian-born actress twenty years younger than Bessie. This caused Boris and Bessie to separate. Both went on to have successful but separate careers. However, Boris became a pauper in the 1930s.

Death and legacy

Thomashefsky is buried with his wife, who, although separated from him by 1911, never divorced him, in the Yiddish theater section of the Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, Queens, New York.

Both Thomashefskys did much to shape the world of modern theatre from the follies to Broadway and gave a start to many actors, composers and producers who went on to start and own theaters and movie studios. Even the Gershwin brothers had their start with the Thomashefkys. They were also prominent in addressing controversial social issues of the day and in teaching the Greenhorns how to be Americans. They not only founded theaters and production companies, but had publishing houses and many other successful business adventures. Boris Thomashefsky even founded and funded a Jewish Army which he sent to Israel and was named after him. The unit later became a unit in the British Army.

Works

  • The Broken Violin (1918), music by Joseph Rumshinsky

References

Sources

  • Chira, Susan, "100 Years of Yiddish Theater Celebrated", The 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, .
  • Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, .
  • Boris Thomashefsky from the Jewish Virtual Library (JVL), retrieved February 28, 2005.
  • Timeline from The Thomashefsky Project