Morris Waxman

Morris Waxman (1876-1931)[1] was a Yiddish actor, active in England and the USA.

BEING EDITED

Biography

He was born in Lodz, in Poland, and went to London with his parents when he was 15, his father occupying a post as Cantor in the Blashke Synagogue in London for 25 years. His grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Waxman, was Rabbi of Blashke.

He died in Los Angeles of heart failure on November 6, 1931.

As a boy in Poland he had already played in amateur Yiddish theatricals, so in London, he and his sister, Fanny Waxman, who also became a well-known Yiddish actress, joined the choir of the Yiddish Theatre, where they were also given small acting parts. He toured for a time on the ### and when he returned to London in 1896 he played with Kessler, Feinman, Magulesco, and other famous Yiddish actors. He was invited t o go to America and there he played with Jacob Adler in New York and in many other American cities. He was in London again a few years later, and then went to South Africa where he played in English productions. In 1906 Waxman started the London Yiddish Theatre at the Pavilion in Whitechapel, and he was one of the founders of the Company which was formed to establish a permanent Yiddish Art Theatre, in London, which became the Feinman Yiddish People’s Art Theatre named in honour of Sigismund Feinman, who had recently died. The Theatre is now a cinema. He played in London many times after that, between tours in the Argentine and the various countries in Eastern Europe. In 1920, after playing a season at the Pavilion Theatre in London, he appeared at the Court Theatre in London in an English play by Mr. Bertram Jacobs, called “The Priest and the Jew”.

Since his return to America soon after, he had been touring the country mostly in English plays on Jewish themes.

Sources

"Death of Morris Waxman Famous Yiddish Actor: Was Well-known Figure in London", Jewish Telegraphic Agency Archive[2]