Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame on 2nd Avenue
The Lower East Side was heavily Jewish and German for a long time in the 1800s-1900s. The people there created their own theater where they spoke and performed in Yiddish. I don’t know how many theaters there were, but apparently enough to sustain a number of performers throughout their professional lives.
I was on a tour of the LES when, just walking along a part of 2nd Avenue I’ve been on a dozen or more times and the guide pointed out that we were at the Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame. It’s on the corner of 10th Street right at the Chase Bank. Apparently it was the site of the famed 2nd Avenue Deli. Notice the plaques on the ground.
I did some searching on names and couldn’t find a listing of the “famed”. So, I’ve decided to put them here for a little bit of posterity. There’s only one performer that I’ve remember having heard of, but all are of importance in NYC theater history. I’ve done my best to find appropriate links for the names. When I wasn’t sure, I made a note of it, but I think they’re pretty solid. Whether the links will change/vanish over time is a different question.
First, Fyvush Finkel is the only one of a few who has a “solo” star. His is also one of the most readable.
Next is the way the rest of them are: two names sharing a star. Here’s Jennie Goldstein and Ida Kaminska (she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar). I’m going to do these as thumbnails because of the volume. Click on the picture to see the actual star.
Then Lillian Lux and Pesack Burstein (a wife and husband team, respectively).
The next star is for Joseph Buloff and Luba Kadison.
The next star is for Abraham Goldfaden and Michal Michalesko:
The next star is for Miriam Kressyn and Seymour Rexite (alternative spelling of Seymour Rechzeit):
Abraham Goldfaden gets a second star, this time for being the founder of the Yiddish Theater in 1876.
The next star is for “Alt Raymond” and Barry Sisters. I’m not sure about the spelling of the first name.
The next star is for Jack Rechtzeit and Mike Burstyn (I couldn’t find anything on Rechtzeit, but Burstyn has his own website). Of course, it’s possible that “Jack Rechtzeit” and “Seymour Rechtzeit” (cited above) are the same person:
The next star is for Max Bozyk and Rose Bozyk:
The next star is for Boris Thomashevsky and Bessie Thomashevsky:
The next is for Ed Fuchs and Rebecca Richman (I can’t find anything I’m certain is a link for either of them but I suspect this is Rebecca and I wonder about a link I can find for Leo Fuchs and Rebecca Richman and who might “Ed” be if not “Leo”):
The next star is for Shulon Seckoa (possibly Sholum Secunda) and Peretz Sandler:
This next one was completely unreadable by me:
The next is for Molly Picon and Jacob Kalich (Jacob was Molly’s husband, but that’s all I know):
The next star is for Leon Liebgold and Lilly Lilyana (Leon was a Holocaust survivor):
The next star is for Mary Sureanu (thanks to reader Elise, the spelling is now corrected) Mary Soreanu and Lucy Levine:
The next star is for Irving Jacobson and an “unknown” Jacobson:
The next star is for Ben Bonas/Ben Donus and Mina Bern (it looks like Ben Bonas was Mina’s husband, but that’s a guess as I can find a “Bonas” link to Mina, but it looks like “Donus” on the star but there was a “Ben Bonus” that is also linked to Bern – this was a man of how many names?!):
The next star is for Ludwig Satz and Moishe Oysher:
The next star is for David Kessler and Zvi Scooler (also spelled Zvee Scooler, at least so it seems):
The next star is for Herman Yablokoff and Bella Meisel:
I’m sad to say that I cannot read the next star:
The next star is for Alexander Olshanetsky and Abe Ellstein:
The next star is for Mischa Gehrman and Lucy Gehrman:
The next star is for Joseph Rumshinsky and Arnold Perlmutter:
The next star is for Jacob Jacobs and Betty Jacobs:
The next star is for Maurice Schwartz and an unreadable person’s name:
The next star is for Henrietta Jacobson and Julius Adler (wife and husband, respectively. Their son is Bruce Adler who was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor two years in a row):
The next star was unreadable:
And the one after that was unreadable:
The final star on the Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame is another single-person-on-a-star, Daniel Libeskind, the architect, with the interesting suffix “Friend of Folksbiene” which was the/a theater:
-H
February 20, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Very nicely done!
I live on this street, and I am embarrassed to admit I never read all the stars here. I usually look at one or two as I go by.
February 21, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[...] Famous Ankles Documenting my wanderings around and about NYC « Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame on 2nd Avenue [...]
June 2, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hi – thanks so much for posting this!! Just a minor quibble: It’s Mary Soreanu (not Sureanu). I have a personal interest in correcting your spelling – Mary Soreanu’s my mom
I hope you like the ‘new’ 2nd Avenue Deli!
-elise ariel
June 2, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Elise,
Thank you for the correction. The wear and tear on the star made it difficult for me to read it and I couldn’t find your mom referenced in some of the Wikipedia articles I was looking at so I gave it my best shot.
I’m happy you appreciate the post. I think of this writeup as one of my key posts in the whole blog. I was just so taken aback by the fact that no one seems to have an Internet post on the Walk of Fame and I wanted to correct that omission. I’ve never been to see Yiddish theater (I’m not Jewish nor do I speak Yiddish so I might not be in their target audience), but it was an important part of NYC history and you can be proud to have that connection.
-H
August 19, 2008 at 10:56 am
I have managed to identify 100% of the names on the stars and got biografical data for almost all of those persons. If anybody is interested please do not hesitate to email.
July 16, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Ben Bonus was my grandfather. I’m curious what biographical data you have for him? Thanks.
October 30, 2008 at 8:49 am
Is Ben Bonus still alive?
Do you know where he came from?
thanks
c
November 3, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The last star you can’t identify is the great Jacob P. Adler and Sadie I think. The star before that is Menashe Skulnik. Where is Aaron Lebedeff? Perhaps he is another star you can’t read.
September 15, 2009 at 1:28 pm
[...] erected in only 1984 and yet some stars are already worn down and unreadable: (Video walkthrough / Photographic Walkthrough) The long term survival of the stars is tenuous. The deli owner who built the walk has since died, [...]
September 18, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Hi,
Just a correction. Jack Rechtzeit is not the same person as Seymour. They were brothers. Jack is my grandfather. He passed away in 1988. Jack was the president of the Hebrew Actors Union which is the Yiddish theater equivalent of the Screen Actors Guild.
My grandmother is still alive and probably knows most the people in the list.
October 8, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Andy,
Thanks for the information. Looking back at my year of daily blogging, I still view this particular post as the most important one I’ve done. There simply wasn’t anything around that I could find and I’m very pleased to be seeing renewed interest in preserving the Walk of Fame. I really hope that there is action on that as it seems a very valuable bit of NYC history.
-H
October 27, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Hi from PARIS France,
and thank you so much
for this article !
I’m managing a small web site about Jewish Culture,
(achkenazy most) and this is very
inttersting for French Jews.
I must say that i came many times to 2nd Av Deli,
but it was always in cold winter, and freezing
in the winting line, i’ve never notice those !
Would it be possible to translate your article on my
website and link it ??
Thanks a lot
Alexis
December 27, 2009 at 11:30 am
You are free to do so.
-H
December 27, 2009 at 11:46 am
Thanks a lot and Merry Chrismas !
A.