SLAVA ESTRIN

SLAVA ESTRIN (1892-October 22, 1966)

            Her actual given name was Tsipoyre, born in Moscow to a merchant family.  When she was about three years of age, her family moved to Warsaw.  There she later graduated from the Yehudye school, studied in Polish drama schools, and acted in Polish theater.  Because of the anti-Semitic environment, she left the Polish stage and switched to performing Y. L. Perets’s one-act plays in Yiddish in the drama section of “Hazemir” (The nightingale).  Later she acted with the Perets Hirshbeyn Troupe and in 1913 in the Hebrew drama group under the direction of Naḥum Tsemaḥ, before the emergence of Habima.  In late 1913 she came to the United States and acted on the Yiddish stage, under the direction of her husband Yankev Ben-Ami.  She translated a number of works into Yiddish, among them: Di vile ibern yam (The villa on the sea) from Polish; and from English, Herman Bar’s Der kontsert (The concert) and Ben Hecht’s A fon vert geboyrn (A Flag Is Born), among others.  She also published sketches in Tog (Day) in New York, and articles and theater reviews in the weekly newspaper Undzer folk (Our people), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Nyu yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper)—all in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1 (New York: Elisheva, 1931); M. Yakhsan, in Forverts (New York) (November 11, 1966).