Faivel Zygielbaum

Faivel Zygielbaum (1908-) was a Johannesburg-based actor-producer.

Biography

Born Feivel Leib Zigelbaum in 1908

He came to South Africa circa 1940, prior to which he was an important member of the Yiddish "Yung Teater" in Warsaw.

He eventually settled in Israel where he was active on the Israeli theatre scene and his novel in Yiddish, Di Uhamas, dealing with the life of a Zulu family in South Africa, was published in 1971.

He wrote in both Yiddish and Hebrew and was awarded the world's most important award for Yiddish writing, the Israel Manger Prize, in 1986.

He died in Israel on 29 October, 1994.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He produced the Yiddish comedy Di Goldgreber in 1946 and performed in The Merchant of Venice (as Antonio, the Merchant, 1951), Come Blow Your Horn (1962),

He co-wrote the Yiddish play Geṭograd a drama in 3 acts, with the illustrators William Gropper and René Shapshak. Published in Johannesburg in 1945.

He had a role in the film King Hendrik, released in 1965.

Sources

Philip Gillon. 1992. Seventy Years of Southern African Aliyah. A story of achievement. Edited by the S.A. Zionist Federation (Israel) and published by Adar Publishing, Israel: p144[1]

The Rand Daily Mail, 23 July 1951; 8 November 1962; 25 March 1971.

Return to

Return to ESAT Personalities Z

Return to South African Theatre Personalities

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page