Regina Zuckerberg c. 1911

Regina Zuckerberg (Yiddish: רעגינע צוקערבערג or רעגינא, c. 1888–1964) was an Austrian-born Yiddish theatre actor and Prima donna who had a career both in Europe and the United States.[1][2][3]

Biography

Regina Zuckerberg was born Rifke Kobak on 19 March 1887 or 1888 in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (today Lviv, Ukraine).[4][5] Her parents were Leiser and Gittel (née Zuker) Kobak.[4] She was involved in singing and performance from a young age; as a youth she sang in a temple choir in Lemberg under Cantor Halperin.[1][6] She met her first husband, Sigmund (Zaynvil) Zuckerberg, also an actor, and they were married in Lemberg in 1904.[4] At around that time they joined a troupe led by Sholem Perlmutter which toured successfully around Galicia, as well as the famous Gimpel Theatre troupe based in Lemberg.[7][1][8] Due to her striking appearance and strong voice she was highly in demand as a leading actress.[1]

She had a daughter, Pauline, who was born in Chernivtsi in 1907. She emigrated to the United States in March 1908, sailing from England to New York City.[5] She made some appearances on the London Yiddish theatre stage during her journey.[9] Her mother, Gittel, also followed her to the United States a few months later.[10] The month Regina arrived she joined Boris Thomashefsky's People's Theater in the Bowery, where she was billed as the "Austrian Tetrazzini."[11][12] That marked the beginning of several decades of collaboration with Thomashefsky; Jacob P. Adler was also involved in bringing her to the New York theatre world.[13] Regina seems to have gone back to Europe and returned with Sigmund in the following years, apparently settling permanently in the United States in 1911.[14]

In New York, as in Galicia, Regina was highly in demand as an actress.[15][16][13] She also recorded a handful of 78-rpm discs at Victor records in 1916 during the wartime boom in local Yiddish recording.[17] Those ten sides, which were recorded over a two-day period, were mainly Yiddish theatre songs of the day by such contemporary composers as Arnold Perlmutter, Herman Wohl, and Louis Friedsell.[17]

Regina Zuckerberg, c. 1923

She divorced her first husband Sigmund in Chicago in 1920.[5] She had become romantically involved with Boris Thomashefsky, who had given her the leading role in his production over his own wife Bessie, and who eventually left him.[1][18] Sigmund sued Thomashefsky for $100,000 for "loss of marital affection."[18] Regina and Boris were then married to one another.

In the 1920s and 1930s Regina continued to tour successfully with Thomashefsky's productions.[19][20] In 1935 she costarred in her only film role, the Yiddish talkie Bar Mitzvah, written and directed by Henry Lynn, based on a Thomashefsky play and produced by Lynn and Jack Stillman.[21][22][23][24] When Thomashefsky died in 1939 Regina was at his bedside.[25]

Her Yiddish theatre career seems to have declined after Thomashefsky's death. In 1943 she remarried in New Jersey to an insurance salesman named Robert Kessler.[26][3]

She died in Jersey City on October 4, 1964 at age 76.[3] She was buried at the Mount Hebron Cemetery.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rumshinsky, Joseph (29 January 1953). "Iosef Rumshinski dertselt vegn 50 yor idish teater". Forverts (in Yiddish). New York. p. 2.
  2. ↑ "Regina Zuckerberg". Jewish Music Research Centre. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "REGINA ZUCKERBERG. Special to The New York Times". The New York Times. New York. 5 October 1964. p. 33.
  4. 1 2 3 "Searching for Surname (phonetically like): KOBAK AND Givenname (DM soundex): RIFKE in Lwów Wojewodztwo". Jewish Records Indexing - Poland. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "Regina Kobak Zuckerberg discovered in New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943". Ancestry. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Zylbercweig, Zalmen; Mestel, Jacob (1931). Leḳsiḳon fun Yidishn ṭeaṭer vol 1 (in Yiddish). New York: Elisheva. p. 112.
  7. ↑ Zylbercweig, Zalmen; Mestel, Jacob (1931). Leḳsiḳon fun Yidishn ṭeaṭer (in Yiddish). New York: Elisheva. p. 2612.
  8. ↑ Bechtel, Delphine (1 June 2011). "Le théâtre yiddish Gimpel de Lemberg : une Odyssée oubliée". Yod. Revue des études hébraïques et juives (in French) (16): 83–98. doi:10.4000/yod.659. ISSN 0338-9316.
  9. ↑ Adler, Celia (1959). Tsili Adler dertseylṭ (in Yiddish). New York: Tsili Adler faundeyshon un bukh-ḳomiṭeṭ. p. 214.
  10. ↑ "Gitel Kobak discovered in Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  11. ↑ "OPERA NOTES". Musical Courier. No. 12. 18 March 1908. hdl:2027/uiug.30112097181611.
  12. ↑ "⁨MME. REGINA ZUCKERBERG". ⁨⁨The Jewish Voice⁩. 1908-06-05. p. 7.
  13. 1 2 Rumshinsky, Joseph (1944). Ḳlangen fun mayn lebn (in Yiddish). New York: A. Y. Biderman. pp. 378–84.
  14. ↑ "Siegmund Zuckerberg discovered in Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  15. ↑ Yardeini, Mordecai (1960). Leo Lyoṿ momenṭn fun zayn lebn un shafn : shṭrikhn tsu a porṭreṭ fun a barimṭer muziḳalisher perzenlekhḳayṭ bay Idn (in Yiddish). New York: Farlag Nigun. p. 273.
  16. ↑ Palepade, Benzion (1950). Sof fun ṿanderung (in Yiddish). Buenos Aires. p. 195.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. 1 2 "Zuckerberg, Regina". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  18. 1 2 Halpern, Stefanie (2016). "Boris Thomashefsky: Matinee Idol of the Yiddish Stage". In Nahshon, Edna (ed.). New York's Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 124. doi:10.7312/nahs17670-007. ISBN 978-0-231-54107-7.
  19. ↑ "Thomashefsky's Stock Having a Good Season". Billboard. New York. 16 October 1926. p. 6.
  20. ↑ "Thomashefsky Returns". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York. 16 March 1932. p. 22.
  21. ↑ "Bar Mitzvah". The National Center for Jewish Film. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  22. ↑ Goldman, Eric A. (1983). Visions, images, and dreams : Yiddish film past and present. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780835715157.
  23. ↑ Goldman, Eric A. (1983). Visions, images, and dreams : Yiddish film past and present. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press. p. 190. ISBN 9780835715157.
  24. ↑ "FOREIGN DIALOGUE". The Film Daily. Wid's Films and Film Folk, inc. 20 March 1935. p. 11.
  25. ↑ "THOMASHEFSKY, 71, YIDDISH ACTOR, DIES". The New York Times. New York. 10 July 1939. p. 23.
  26. ↑ "Regina Thomashefsky Thomashefsky discovered in New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
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