Pesach "Peishachke" Burstein (April 15, 1896 – April 6, 1986) was a Polish-born American comedian, singer, coupletist, and director of

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

/theater. He was honored with the

Itzik Manger Prize The Itzik Manger Prize for outstanding contributions to Yiddish literature was established in 1968, shortly before Itzik Manger's death in 1969. Manger "was and remains one of the best-known twentieth-century Yiddish poets." The Prize has been desc ...

in 1986. His wife Lillian Lux, and son

Mike Burstyn Michael Burstein ( he, מייק בורשטיין; born July 1, 1945) is an Israeli-American actor known onstage as Mike Burstyn. He was born in New York City to the late Yiddish-language actors, Pesach Burstein and Lillian Lux. His first cous ...

are also actors.

Early years

Born in

Pułtusk Pułtusk (pronounced ) is a town in northeast Poland, by the river Narew. Located north of Warsaw in the Masovian Voivodeship, it had a population of about 19,000 . Known for its historic architecture and Europe's longest paved marketplace ( in ...

,Zylberczweig, Zalmen (1931).
Burstein, Pesach
. In: Zylbercweig, with the assistance of Jacob Mestel, ''Leksikon fun yidishn teater'' exicon of the Yiddish theatre Vol. 1. New York: Elisheva. Col. 156. English translation at the ''Museum of Family History'' website:
Pesach Burstein
. Retrieved 20 November 2016. then in

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

, in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(today, in Poland), Burstein was called Pesach-ke due to his birth on

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...

. In 1901 he moved with his family to

Berdiansk Berdiansk or Berdyansk ( uk, Бердя́нськ, translit=Berdiansk, ; russian: Бердя́нск, translit=Berdyansk ) is a port city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast (Oblast, province) in south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the ...

(Ukraine), where his father ran a clothing store. He ran away from home as a teenager to join a traveling Yiddish theatrical troupe. He was arrested as a spy by Russians during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He never again saw his parents, who were beaten and killed in a robbery in Minsk, as they were traveling back to Poland in 1921.Burstein, Pesach'ke; Lux, Lillian (2003). ''What a Life! The Autobiography of Pesach'ke Burstein, Yiddish Matinee Idol''. Syracuse, NY:

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Press. .

United States

Brought to the United States in 1923 by Boris Thomashefsky and signed to a 20-year recording contract by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, he is well-remembered for singing " Odessa Mama" and the Yiddish version of " Sonny Boy". There is a common myth that this recording was made same day, in the same studio and with the same orchestra that Jolson had just used, but the Burstein waxing was made some time after the million-selling Jolson recording. In addition, Jolson was an exclusive Brunswick artist, whilst Burstein recorded for Columbia, on its Green Label ethnic series. Jolson was accompanied by the Brunswick studio orchestra, under the direction of

Gus Haenschen Walter Gustave Haenschen ( - March 27, 1980) was an arranger and composer of music and an orchestra conductor, primarily on old-time radio programs. Early years Haenschen was born in St. Louis to parents who had come from Germany and settled in tha ...

. The (considerably smaller) studio orchestra accompanying Burstein was probably a sub-group of the National Theater pit orchestra, under the baton of Joseph Rumshinsky. An impressive stage whistler and actor-director of the popular '' A Khasene in Shtetl'' (''A Wedding in the Village'') act with his entire family.'' The Komediant'' (1999). New York: New Yorker Video. He married twice, secondly to Lillian Lux, 22 years his junior. In 1939, the couple was touring

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Since there was unrest at the time, a member of the diplomatic corps suggested the Bursteins take the summer off from performances; they left for the United States just days before the German invasion. The troupe was sponsored by

Boris Thomashefsky Boris Thomashefsky (russian: Борис Пинхасович Томашевский, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; yi, באָריס טאָמאשעבסקי) (1868–1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-b ...

to play on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Yiddish theatres in the

Yiddish Theater District The Yiddish Theatre District, also called the Jewish Rialto and the Yiddish Realto, was the center of New York City's Yiddish theatre scene in the early 20th century. It was located primarily on Second Avenue, though it extended to Avenue B, b ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's Second Avenue. Pesach and Lillian Burstein had twins, Michael and Susan (b. 1945). Michael Burstein became an actor, known professionally as

. When the twins turned 7, they began performing in '' The Komediant'', '' A Khasene in Shtetl'' (''A Wedding in the Village'') and other Yiddish-language productions all over the world, although Susan did not remain in the acting business. The family also performed at resorts in the Catskills, in Sullivan County, New York, a resort circuit colloquially known as the "

Borscht Belt The Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York, straddling both Upstate New York and the north ...

".Pesach Burstein's bio at Jewniverse
He toured extensively through Eastern Europe before World War II. Pesach Burstein opened his own theater ("The Hopkinson") in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. His troupe (advertised as the Four Bursteins, the twins appearing under the stage names ''Motele'' and ''Zisele'') won critical acclaim in Israel and on Broadway for performing

Itzik Manger Itzik Manger (30 May 1901, Czernowitz, then Austrian-Hungarian Empire – 21 February 1969, Gedera, Israel; yi, איציק מאַנגער) was a prominent Yiddish language, Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, a ...

's ''Megille Lider'', the longest running Yiddish production to date in Israel, released on Broadway as ''Megilla of Itzik Manger''. After the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, due to a drastic reduction in the size of the Yiddish audience, he was instrumental in finding out diasporic communities as far afield as South America, and Eastern Europe, as well as Israel. He initially settled in Israel but later left due to the state tax levied on

Yiddish theater Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revu ...

for promotion of the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, and problems with authorities.

Later years

Pesach Burstein performed a small role in the Israel Becker-directed movie '' Shnei Kuni Leml'', starring his son. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, director Arnon Goldfinger directed a documentary film about the lives and careers of the Burstein family – '' The Komediant'' (the title a reference both to Burstein's career in general and to the name of one of his shows).

Autobiography

His autobiography, ''What a Life!'', was co-authored with his wife in Yiddish (''Geshpilt a Lebn'', 1980) and later translated into English.

Death

''Pesach'' means

in Yiddish, and Pesach-ke Burstein was so named because he was born on the day of

in 1896; he died a few hours before

in 1986, a week and two days short of his 90th birthday. He was interred in the Yiddish Theater section (Block 67) of the Mount Hebron Cemetery.

References

External links

* *
The Komediant website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burstein, Pesach 1896 births 1986 deaths People from Pułtusk American male musical theatre actors American people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish emigrants to the United States Polish cabaret performers American emigrants to Israel Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli male film actors Israeli male musical theatre actors Jewish cabaret performers Jewish American male actors Jewish American comedians Vaudeville performers Yiddish-language singers Yiddish theatre performers 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American singers 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American male singers Burials at Mount Hebron Cemetery (New York City) 20th-century American Jews American Ashkenazi Jews Itzik Manger Prize recipients