DOVID-MOYSHE SABSAY

DOVID-MOYSHE SABSAY (18??-1921)

            He was born in Kherson, Ukraine, the son of a synagogue beadle.  He was later to become a well-known actor and theater director.  He began his stage career singing in wine cellars, later traveling about with various Yiddish troupes, and he often played in taverns and inns.  He was very popular in Russia.  In 1904 his Lider un kupletn (Songs and couplets), “publisher and property of bookdealers, the brothers B. Letnitski in Odessa” (in the inside jacket it read “Songs, poems, and couplets”).  This short book includes thirty-three songs, with a song in place of a preface concerning singing in public.  During the civil war in Russia, 1920-1921, he settled in Krementshug (Kremenchuk), Ukraine.  He fell from a balcony, broke his backbone, and after several days in a hospital he died.

Source: Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 2 (New York, 1934).

Yankev Kahan