Sam Kestin describes 50 years in the Yiddish Theater
Preface
Like many other well-known names in the American Yiddish theater, my great-great grandfather Sam Kasten’s (1869-1953) (written in Yiddish as “Kestin,” which is how it is spelled throughout this website) memoirs were published as serialized articles in American Yiddish press. From September 1946 - February 1947, Sam’s memoirs (likely ghost written by Mendel Osherowitch were published as a 45-article series in the Forverts (The Forward, aka The Jewish Daily Forward).
Sam Kestin describes of 50 years of Yiddish Theater
The famous comedian, who for 50 years has been dancing and singing on the Yiddish stage, tells his memories for Forverts. Dramatic, romantic, funny, and comical tales that occurred in and around the Yiddish theater in the last half century.
Start reading Sam Kestin’s articles in the Forverts Saturday, September 7th. The articles will appear twice a week, Thursday and Saturday.
This website contains my translation of his memoirs. Armed with beginner Yiddish skills and an English/Yiddish dictionary, I provide a mostly verbatim translation, but in certain areas I do shift towards a more natural translation rephrased for the English ear. I indicate areas where I am very unsure of my translation. Translations of many of the lyrics that Sam recounts are still a work in progress.
Where possible, I have cross-referenced items Sam discusses, as detailed in footnotes and inserted images. I obtained all memoirs articles from The National Library of Israel and, for those newspaper editions that were not available online, from the New York Public Library’s microfiche archives.
There are also three appendices:
- Appendix A: A timeline of Sam’s whereabouts over the course of his memoirs
- Appendix B: A table of all plays Sam describes in his memoirs, including the English translations of their names
- Appendix C: A list (with biography links, where available) of all people Sam meets and describes in his memoirs
Yiddish words are generally defined on their first usage. I hope to add a Yiddish glossary in the future!
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to librarians at NYPL’s Dorot Division for support finding the “missing” articles! Thanks also to Steve Lasky and other volunteers who have contributed to the Museum of the Family History for making many translations from Zalmen Zylbercweig’s Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater available! They have been invaluable for cross-referencing.
This project is dedicated to the memory of my maternal grandfather Sol Glassman ז׳׳ל, whose untimely death sent me down an ancestry rabbit hole wherein I accidentally ended up at Sam (who, as one of my paternal great-great-grandfathers, is entirely unrelated to Sol) and discovered a treasure trove of Yiddish writings. Uniting the two sides of my family through Yiddish Theater is, simply put, beshert.