Boris Thomashefsky in Eretz Yisrael

Unknown photographer

Boris Thomashefsky (1868–1939) and [Regina Zuckerberg] (ca.1888–1964) in Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) at the National Theater.

ca. 1930

This photo depicts actors from the operetta Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) written by Boris Thomashefsky, a famous Ukrainian-born actor and the biggest star of the American Yiddish theater, in collaboration with Abraham Ellstein (1907–1963), a renowned American Jewish theater composer. According to the handwritten script preserved in the Dorot Jewish Division, Thomashefsky began writing a libretto in Paris on October 14, 1930, during his extensive European tour of 1929–30. Within a mere two weeks he returned to America, and on November 26, the operetta had its premiere at the Public Theater in New York. For Thomashefsky, it marked a comeback to New York’s stage after several years of absence. The play was staged multiple times in New York and other cities in 1930–32.

In the operetta, Thomashefsky played the role of Israel, the patriarch of the family of four, who, along with his pious father Nachman, were embarking on the journey from the snowy shtetl in the Pale of Settlement to Eretz Yisrael (a biblical term translated as the Land of Israel). The libretto was written in response to the migration of Jews from the Russian Empire, who fled anti-Semitic persecution at the turn of the 20th century.    

Along with Thomashefsky (as Israel), the Austrian-born Yiddish actress Regina Zuckerberg is likely pictured in the photo as Yehudit, Israel’s wife, with her arms around two unidentified child actors, who played the roles of Aharon and Rivkele. The scene captured here comes from the prologue of the operetta, showing the family at the beginning of their journey. Its central moment is the parents’ earnest attempt to respond to their children’s uneasy questions about the pogrom in their hometown. 

In addition to the script, the Dorot Jewish Division preserves the handwritten musical portions of the operetta by Abraham Ellstein as part of the larger Boris Thomashefsky collection of Yiddish plays