(1890-1960. The Last Major Figure of the New York Yiddish Theater). A Collection of c.34 Autographed Letters Signed; also telegrams, postcards, photographs (one signed) and newspaper clippings and printed ephemera relating to Maurice Schwartz

SCHWARTZ, MAURICE

v.p.

Late 1950’s and 1960

Letters on personal matters, most with autograph addressed envelopes. In Yiddish, English and Spanish. From New York, Hollywood, Cleveland, Miami Beach, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv

Maurice Schwartz was born in the Ukraine in 1890 and immigrated to New York in 1901. He made his performing debut in 1905 and in 1918 he founded the Jewish Art Theater. The Theater grew to have a repertoire of 150 plays and lasted until 1950, when audiences and companies moved from Second Avenue. During its heyday, the Schwartz theater was known in every corner of the Yiddish-speaking Diaspora and attracted many new actors. Schwartz was immpressario, director, producer and star, renowned for his performances of Shylock, Shalom Aliechem’s Tevye and Reb Mailech in Singer’s Yoshe Kalb. He immigrated to Israel in 1960 with ambitions to found a Yiddish Art Center. He died two months after arriving. Many of the documents in this collection chronicle Schwartz’s Latin American tour and his unsuccessful foray in the movie business