11 Facts About Boris Thomashefsky

Boris Thomashefsky grew up in the nearby town of Kamyanka, until, at the age of 11, he left for Berdychiv where he trained as a meshoyrer in the renowned synagogue choir of cantor Nisan Belzer.

Boris Thomashefsky has been credited as the pioneer of Borscht Belt entertainment.

Boris Thomashefsky, who was earning some money by singing on Saturdays at the Henry Street Synagogue on the Lower East Side, was working as a cigarette maker in a sweatshop, where he first heard songs from the Yiddish theater, sung by some of his fellow workers.

Boris Thomashefsky managed to convince a local tavern owner to invest in bringing over some performers.

Shortly afterward, the teenage Boris Thomashefsky was the pioneer of taking Yiddish theater "on the road" in the United States, performing Goldfaden's plays in cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston and Chicago, all in the 1880s; for much of the 1880s, Chicago was his base.

Bessie soon ran away from home to join the company, and eventually took over the ingenue roles, as Boris Thomashefsky moved on to romantic male leads.

However, in 1915, Boris Thomashefsky filed for bankruptcy, listing assets of $21,900 and debts of $76,297.65.

Boris Thomashefsky sang, Erlekh Zayn, a song from a 1924 Yiddish play, Bar Mitzvah.

Boris Thomashefsky carried on a long-term affair with Yiddish actress Regina Zuckerberg, an Austrian-born actress twenty years younger than Bessie.

Boris Thomashefsky is buried with his wife, who, although separated from him by 1911, never divorced him, in the Yiddish theater section of the Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, Queens, New York.

Boris Thomashefsky even founded and funded a Jewish Army which he sent to Israel and was named after him.