NATHAN H. HORNSHTEYN (HORNSTINE)

NATHAN H. HORNSHTEYN (HORNSTINE) (August 28, 1871-September 14, 1929)

            He was born in Odessa, southern Russia.  He attended religious primary school, studying secular subject matter in a boarding school, high school, and for a short time in university.  After high school he took part in Russian-language school productions.  Later, he left university and (using the pseudonym “Malyuta”) acted with Russian troupes in Odessa and Kherson.  In 1892 he emigrated with his parents to the United States, where they settled in Philadelphia and where he worked as a bookkeeper, and he acted in amateur theater and in 1898 with a professional troupe.  At the same time he continued his studies, and in 1904 he graduated from medical school and was practicing as a doctor.  At this time he was composing plays for the Yiddish theater, including thirty-five theatrical pieces of which eight were staged.  Those produced include: Di zinderin (The [female] sinner), starring Tomashevsky; Ferbotene frukht (Forbidden fruit), with Anshel Schorr; Der prayz fun zind (The price of sin), staged by Kessler in New York.  He died as a result of an automobile accident in Philadelphia.  One may find in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the following plays by Hornshteyn: Ir nekome (Her revenge), a drama in four acts; Di gezunkene (The reprobate), a drama in four acts; and Der nayer meshiekh (The new Messiah), a drama in four acts—all written in the period, 1913-1914.

Source: Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1.

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