Ben-Zion Witler
Encyclopedia
Ben-Zion Witler 1907–1961, Jewish singer, actor, coupletist, comedian and composer.
At the age of six Witler moved with his family from Belz (Galitsia) to Vienna, where he received a strict Chasidic religious upbringing; fearing his family's reaction, in 1919 (at the age of 12) he secretly joined the "Free Jewish Folksbiene
" under an alias. He worked briefly as a journalist at the German Zionist weekly Viner Morgen-tsaytung (Vienna Morning Times) but in 1926 returned to the Vienna theater scene, performing in comedies and operettas, studying opera repertoire with Yulianovsky and Fuchs, touring (Paris, London, South Africa, France and Vienna). He spent three years in Poland in the mid-1930s, becoming a "public darling." In 1937 he appeared in Riga in A Khasene in Shtetl
and The Galitzian Wedding by William Siegel. Some of his many other starring roles were in Yanko the Gypsy, A Millionaire's Caprice, The American Litvak, The Brave Officer, The Bandit Gentleman, The Strength of Love, The Bride with Three Brothers, The Golden Bridegroom, The Threshold of Joy, It's Hard to be a Jew by Sholom Aleichem
, Ansky's The Dybbuk, Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin's God, Man and Devil, and David Pinski
's Yankel the Smith.
Starting in 1940 he toured the U.S., playing at NYC's Hopkinson Theater in Siegel's Forgotten Women and Chicago's Douglas Theater in Siegel's A Golden Dream. In 1946 he toured Argentina, at Buenos Aires Mitre Theater in Kalmanovitsh's "Home Sweet Home." He performed with Argentinian-born actress Shifra Lerer
, his wife, through North and South America, Israel, and South Africa through the 1950s.
He recorded hundreds of songs; his hits included:
At the age of six Witler moved with his family from Belz (Galitsia) to Vienna, where he received a strict Chasidic religious upbringing; fearing his family's reaction, in 1919 (at the age of 12) he secretly joined the "Free Jewish Folksbiene
Folksbiene
The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene is a professional theater company in New York City which produces both Yiddish plays and plays translated into Yiddish, in a theater equipped with simultaneous superscript translation into English...
" under an alias. He worked briefly as a journalist at the German Zionist weekly Viner Morgen-tsaytung (Vienna Morning Times) but in 1926 returned to the Vienna theater scene, performing in comedies and operettas, studying opera repertoire with Yulianovsky and Fuchs, touring (Paris, London, South Africa, France and Vienna). He spent three years in Poland in the mid-1930s, becoming a "public darling." In 1937 he appeared in Riga in A Khasene in Shtetl
A Khasene in Shtetl
A Khasene in Shtetl A Khasene in Shtetl A Khasene in Shtetl (Yiddish for A Wedding in the Village / A Village Wedding, also called A Shtetl Wedding / A Wedding in the Shtetl, Yiddish: אַ חתונה אין שטעטל (סעגיל-װאָל) is a Yiddish musical theater play written by William Sigal, and often directed and...
and The Galitzian Wedding by William Siegel. Some of his many other starring roles were in Yanko the Gypsy, A Millionaire's Caprice, The American Litvak, The Brave Officer, The Bandit Gentleman, The Strength of Love, The Bride with Three Brothers, The Golden Bridegroom, The Threshold of Joy, It's Hard to be a Jew by Sholom Aleichem
Sholom Aleichem
Sholem Aleichem was the pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, a leading Yiddish author and playwright...
, Ansky's The Dybbuk, Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin's God, Man and Devil, and David Pinski
David Pinski
David Pinski was a Yiddish language writer, probably best known as a playwright. At a time when Eastern Europe was only beginning to experience the industrial revolution, Pinski was the first to introduce to its stage a drama about urban Jewish workers; a dramatist of ideas, he was notable also...
's Yankel the Smith.
Starting in 1940 he toured the U.S., playing at NYC's Hopkinson Theater in Siegel's Forgotten Women and Chicago's Douglas Theater in Siegel's A Golden Dream. In 1946 he toured Argentina, at Buenos Aires Mitre Theater in Kalmanovitsh's "Home Sweet Home." He performed with Argentinian-born actress Shifra Lerer
Shifra Lerer
Shifra Lerer was an Argentine-born American Yiddish theater actress based in New York City. Lerer appeared opposite every major Yiddish theater actor during her career, which lasted 90 years...
, his wife, through North and South America, Israel, and South Africa through the 1950s.
He recorded hundreds of songs; his hits included:
- Gelibte (Beloved)
- Dzhankoye
- Varshe (Warsaw)
- Akhtsik er, zibetsik zi (He's 80, She's 70)
- Byalostok
- Mayn alte heym
- Oyfn veg shteyt a boym
- Leb un Lakh
- Krokhmalne Gas
- Zing, Brider, Zing!
- Belz