Miriam Kressyn (March , â€" October , ), one of the "First Ladies of
the Yiddish Theater", acted and sang on stage, film and radio; she
wrote plays as well.[citation needed]Kressyn was born in Białystok,
Poland, the seventh child of Mashe and Yankev Kressyn. It was a poor
family; her father made his living traveling to village fairs. Not
being able to support the family, he emigrated to the United States,
bringing two of his daughters, but three years later he traveled home
alone. Miriam became a member of the kleyn bund but threatened with
arrest for "smuggling literature" she went to America with the whole
family and settled in Boston."By the time she arrived in Boston,
Massachusetts, in , Miriam was fluent in six languages." Her mother
sold a feather-bed to pay for her education. She won a $ scholarship
to study music abroad after winning a contest between the best high
school singers in New England. When Julius and Anna Nathanson, playing
in Freeman's Goldene Kaleh in Boston, happened to hear Kressyn, they
persuaded her to join their chorus. She played small roles with Max
Gebil in Khuppah-kleyd (Wedding dress), with Ludwig Satz in Der gazlen
(The Thief) and with Leon Blank in The Three Brides. She didn't
consider this to be a career, as she was studying law at Northeastern
University.Hy Jacobson drew her further into Yiddish theater; she
performed with him and Aaron Lebedeff at the Londiel Theater. In - she
played at Philadelphia's Arch Street Theater (managed by Hymie
Jacobson, May Sieman and Simone Woolf). In she married Jacobson and
they toured in Argentina, Berlin, England, France, Lithuania, Latvia
and Poland. She played the leading role (Esther) in Joseph Green's
film Der Purimshpiler opposite her husband, with Zigmund Turkow as a
traveling Purim player. She toured with Jacobsen in America and then
in they returned to Poland and toured South African in .
the Yiddish Theater", acted and sang on stage, film and radio; she
wrote plays as well.[citation needed]Kressyn was born in Białystok,
Poland, the seventh child of Mashe and Yankev Kressyn. It was a poor
family; her father made his living traveling to village fairs. Not
being able to support the family, he emigrated to the United States,
bringing two of his daughters, but three years later he traveled home
alone. Miriam became a member of the kleyn bund but threatened with
arrest for "smuggling literature" she went to America with the whole
family and settled in Boston."By the time she arrived in Boston,
Massachusetts, in , Miriam was fluent in six languages." Her mother
sold a feather-bed to pay for her education. She won a $ scholarship
to study music abroad after winning a contest between the best high
school singers in New England. When Julius and Anna Nathanson, playing
in Freeman's Goldene Kaleh in Boston, happened to hear Kressyn, they
persuaded her to join their chorus. She played small roles with Max
Gebil in Khuppah-kleyd (Wedding dress), with Ludwig Satz in Der gazlen
(The Thief) and with Leon Blank in The Three Brides. She didn't
consider this to be a career, as she was studying law at Northeastern
University.Hy Jacobson drew her further into Yiddish theater; she
performed with him and Aaron Lebedeff at the Londiel Theater. In - she
played at Philadelphia's Arch Street Theater (managed by Hymie
Jacobson, May Sieman and Simone Woolf). In she married Jacobson and
they toured in Argentina, Berlin, England, France, Lithuania, Latvia
and Poland. She played the leading role (Esther) in Joseph Green's
film Der Purimshpiler opposite her husband, with Zigmund Turkow as a
traveling Purim player. She toured with Jacobsen in America and then
in they returned to Poland and toured South African in .
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