Israel Rosenberg
Encyclopedia
Israel Rosenberg (ca. 1850 – 1903 or 1904; Yiddish/Hebrew
: ישראל ראָזענבערג) founded the first Yiddish theater troupe in Imperial Russia.
A personable "hole-and-corner lawyer" (that is, one without a diploma) and swindler in Odessa
, Rosenberg was part of the migration of merchants and middlemen to Bucharest
, Romania
at the start of the Russo-Turkish War in 1887. These merchants and middlemen would prove a crucial component of the audience for the nascent professional Yiddish-language theater, consisting at that time only of a single troupe, that of Abraham Goldfaden
. Unlike the rest of the migrants, Rosenberg actually joined the troupe and became an actor.
Like many who worked with Goldfaden, he soon chafed under the latter's imperious style and with his countryman Jacob Spivakovsky, put together his own travelling troupe and set out for the eastern part of Romania. At first they did well, but with the end of the war much of their audience returned to Russia; after running through their money playing in the provinces, they turned up nearly broke in Odessa, where there was a pre-made audience of those who had already seen Yiddish theater in Romania during the recent war.
There, in spring 1878, Rosenberg obtained some small backing and formed a troupe including Spivakovsky; Broder singer
s "Schmul with the Hoarse Throat", "Boris Budgoy" (Boris Holtzerman), Laizer Duke, Aaron Schrage; Jacob Adler
, at that time new to performing; Sophia (Sonya) Oberlander
, who later married Adler; and Masha Moskovich, whom Adler in his memoir describes as "a red-gold-haired beauty"; and various others, including singers from a local synagogue
choir. Their first performance was at Akiva's restaurant, and consisted of two light vaudevilles and Goldfaden's very early play "The Recruits". The cast was all male, because the two women considered this an insufficiently respectable venue; that was soon remedied by renting the Remesleni Club, an 800-seat theater that had hosted many German-language performances. There they played Goldfaden's "Grandmother and Granddaughter" with yet another Broder singer, named Weinstein, clean-shaven for the first time in his adult life, as the grandmother and Masha Moskovich as the granddaughter.
After several more successes in Odessa, most notably a production of Breindele Cossack
starring Jacob Adler and Sonya Oberlander (then performing under the name Sonya Michelson), their run was cut short by the news that Goldfaden, whose plays they were using without permission, was coming with his troupe to Odessa, and that he had booked the Remesleni Club out from under them. Goldfaden's own account is that he was coming there at the urging of his father; Adler attributes it to Rosenberg and Spivakovsky's "enemies". Rosenberg, never the most ethical of men, hired Goldfaden's watchmaker brother Naphtal, renamed his troupe "the Goldfaden Company", and withdrew from Odessa to tour the hinterland, with Sonya's brother Alexander as an advance man.
In Kherson
, a granary was adapted into a theater by a wealthy retired soldier, Lipitz Beygun, who even imported first-rate scenery from Spain. Here they acquired a new prompter, Avrom Zetzer—whom Adler describes as a "learned" man who had previously fulfilled the same function for Goldfaden in Romania— and virtuoso Zorach Vinyavich became leader of their orchestra; Vinyavich's 16-year-old daughter Bettye also joined the troupe to play juvenile roles.
Returning to Odessa, they found Goldfaden "as difficult to approach as an emperor". [Adler, 1999, 114] When they finally managed to get an audience, Goldfaden agreed to allow Rosenberg's company to function as a provincial touring company, but with a different brother of Goldfaden's, Tulya, not merely on board but officially head of the troupe. Goldfaden also snagged Spivakovsky for his own Odessa company.
With Tulya in charge there were, as Adler wrote, "no more communistic
shares, no more idealistic comradeship". They played a month in Chişinău
, where people slept in the courtyard to be the first to get tickets, and a 16-year-old David Kessler
was almost accepted to join the company as an extra
, but was prevented from doing so by his father. Later they toured to Yelizavetgrad (now Kirovohrad
), where they were joined by Israel
and Annetta Grodner
, who had re-joined Goldfaden in Odessa, but then had a falling out.
When his actors struck in Kremenchuk
over low pay, Rosenberg himself triumphantly played the juvenile lead role in Shmendrik
, effectively breaking the strike. Fences were mended, and one of their next performances, in Poltova, became a benefit as a wedding gift to players Adler and Oberlander. They toured on through Ukraine, lionized in some towns, harassed by the police in others, until Goldfaden called them back to Odessa, a call that most of his troupe obeyed, leaving Rosenberg and the Adler-Oberlander contingent (ironically, the leaders of the recent strike) in Smila
, without a troupe.
There, they had the good fortune to overhear the singing voice of a woman who would later become famous under the name Keni Liptzin
, but who at this time called herself Keni Sonyes, who became their new prima donna. They toured on to Spolya, a town that at the time belonged to Count Alexander A. Abaza, probably the most philo-Semitic of Tsar Alexander II
's advisors. The town lacked a theater, but at Abaza's behest a storehouse was turned into an excellent performance space, furnished in part from the count's own dacha. They continued on successfully to Zlatapolya, Novomirgorod, and Bogoslav, around which time Alexander Oberlander met a woman, married, settled down, and was replaced as advance man by a former employer of Adler's named Cheikel Bain.
Though their touring kept them living in decent style, things were not all rosy. In Pereyaslav, Adler reports, they played at a fine small theater, but the local police chief tried to treat the actresses as prostitutes. Goldfaden was making impossible demands for royalties; at one point Sonya Adler gave him nearly all of her jewelry to placate him; shortly after, in late 1880, Goldfaden briefly recruited the Adlers away from Rosenberg, but he treated them so badly that they ended up suing him for their wages and rejoining Rosenberg in Nezhin, where his troupe was performing in a tent theater.
The period after the February 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II
was a bad one for the Jews. Provocateurs were traveling around the empire, stirring up pogrom
s, one of which soon swept over the troupe in Nezhin. The troupe managed to avoid bodily harm by partly by convincing the rioters that they were a French
theater troupe and partly by making judicious use of the money the Adlers had won in court from Goldfaden.
They made their way to Łódź, where they did well enough to pay off some debts. Having heard that in Odessa Osip Mikhailovich Lerner
and Goldfaden were each presenting their respective versions of Karl Gutzkow
's Uriel Acosta, Rosenberg and company decided to do the same. Rosenberg translated; with Spivakovsky having ducked out only three days before opening, Adler played the title role; Liptzin played Uriel's mother; Sonya Adler played Judith. The production was a triumph, but they had about played out Łódź. Spivakovsky returned, and nearly stole the troupe out from under Rosenberg; in the end, all united again, and they went on to Zhytomyr
with a new director in charge, an apparently rich man named Hartenstein who seemed to want to invest in them.
Adler, in his memoir, indicates that he was rather unimpressed with Hartenstein, describing him as "a young man from Galicia with long hair and short brains, half educated in Vienna
, and half an actor." They thought they had found "a quiet corner" of the Russian Empire in which "to make a bit of a livelihood", but in fact Hartenstein was simply running through his money.
In Zhytomyr, they had shared a theater with a Russian troupe, who were sympathetic to their trevails. Two Russian actors agreed to participate in a series of benefits on their behalf; one of them, whom Adler identifies only as "Mademoiselle Kislova", nearly destroyed them by making a speech from the stage excoriating the audience and Russian society in general for their lack of support for what she considered to be good theater.
The next incarnation of the company was actually organized by Adler, although Rosenberg was once again a partner. With Keni Liptzin, they toured to Rostov
, Taganrog
, around Lithuania
, and to Dünaburg (now Daugavpils
, Latvia
). Aiming to bring the troupe to Saint Petersburg
, they brought back their sometime manager Chaikel Bain. They were in Riga
in August 1883 when the news arrived that a total ban was about to be placed on Yiddish theater in Russia.
The troupe were left stranded in Riga. Chaikel Bain took ill and died. With some difficulty, passage to London
for the troupe was arranged on a cattle ship, in exchange for entertaining the crew. However, about this time the Grodners reappeared. Adler wanted to include them in the group headed for London. According to Adler, Rosenberg, who played many of the same roles as Israel Grodner, essentially told Adler "it's him or me". Adler attempted to convince him to change his mind, but insisted on including Grodner in the travel party: Adler considered him one of the best actors in Yiddish theater, a great asset to any performances they would give in London, while he felt Rosenberg lacked depth as an actor. He tried to get Rosenberg to come with them to London, but Rosenberg would not budge.
That is the end of the story of Rosenberg's career in theater.
Adler in his memoir gives an account that when he went back in Europe in 1903 in the wake of the Kishinev (Chişinău) pogrom
, in an unsuccessful attempt to convince some of his family to join him in the United States
, he encountered Rosenberg as a street beggar and unsuccessfully attempted to give him money. Shortly after, he heard that Rosenberg was dead.
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
: ישראל ראָזענבערג) founded the first Yiddish theater troupe in Imperial Russia.
A personable "hole-and-corner lawyer" (that is, one without a diploma) and swindler in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Rosenberg was part of the migration of merchants and middlemen to Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
at the start of the Russo-Turkish War in 1887. These merchants and middlemen would prove a crucial component of the audience for the nascent professional Yiddish-language theater, consisting at that time only of a single troupe, that of Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden ; was an Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays.Goldfaden is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre.In 1876 he founded in...
. Unlike the rest of the migrants, Rosenberg actually joined the troupe and became an actor.
Like many who worked with Goldfaden, he soon chafed under the latter's imperious style and with his countryman Jacob Spivakovsky, put together his own travelling troupe and set out for the eastern part of Romania. At first they did well, but with the end of the war much of their audience returned to Russia; after running through their money playing in the provinces, they turned up nearly broke in Odessa, where there was a pre-made audience of those who had already seen Yiddish theater in Romania during the recent war.
There, in spring 1878, Rosenberg obtained some small backing and formed a troupe including Spivakovsky; Broder singer
Broder singer
The Brodersänger or Broder singers, from Brody in Ukraine, were Jewish itinerant performers in Austrian Galicia, Romania, and Russia, professional or semiprofessional songwriters and performers, who from at least the early 19th century sang and danced, often in comic disguises, and who performed...
s "Schmul with the Hoarse Throat", "Boris Budgoy" (Boris Holtzerman), Laizer Duke, Aaron Schrage; Jacob Adler
Jacob Pavlovich Adler
Jacob Pavlovich Adler , born Yankev P. Adler, was a Jewish actor and star of Yiddish theater, first in Odessa, and later in London and New York City....
, at that time new to performing; Sophia (Sonya) Oberlander
Sonya Adler
Sonya Adler , born Sonya Oberlander, early stage name Sonya Michelson, was one of the first women to perform in Yiddish theater in Imperial Russia...
, who later married Adler; and Masha Moskovich, whom Adler in his memoir describes as "a red-gold-haired beauty"; and various others, including singers from a local synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
choir. Their first performance was at Akiva's restaurant, and consisted of two light vaudevilles and Goldfaden's very early play "The Recruits". The cast was all male, because the two women considered this an insufficiently respectable venue; that was soon remedied by renting the Remesleni Club, an 800-seat theater that had hosted many German-language performances. There they played Goldfaden's "Grandmother and Granddaughter" with yet another Broder singer, named Weinstein, clean-shaven for the first time in his adult life, as the grandmother and Masha Moskovich as the granddaughter.
After several more successes in Odessa, most notably a production of Breindele Cossack
Breindele Cossack
Breindele Cossack is a darkly comic 1887 Yiddish-language play by Abraham Goldfaden, generally accounted one of the best of his early works. The title character is a woman who, at the start of the play, has already driven five husbands to suicide...
starring Jacob Adler and Sonya Oberlander (then performing under the name Sonya Michelson), their run was cut short by the news that Goldfaden, whose plays they were using without permission, was coming with his troupe to Odessa, and that he had booked the Remesleni Club out from under them. Goldfaden's own account is that he was coming there at the urging of his father; Adler attributes it to Rosenberg and Spivakovsky's "enemies". Rosenberg, never the most ethical of men, hired Goldfaden's watchmaker brother Naphtal, renamed his troupe "the Goldfaden Company", and withdrew from Odessa to tour the hinterland, with Sonya's brother Alexander as an advance man.
In Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
, a granary was adapted into a theater by a wealthy retired soldier, Lipitz Beygun, who even imported first-rate scenery from Spain. Here they acquired a new prompter, Avrom Zetzer—whom Adler describes as a "learned" man who had previously fulfilled the same function for Goldfaden in Romania— and virtuoso Zorach Vinyavich became leader of their orchestra; Vinyavich's 16-year-old daughter Bettye also joined the troupe to play juvenile roles.
Returning to Odessa, they found Goldfaden "as difficult to approach as an emperor". [Adler, 1999, 114] When they finally managed to get an audience, Goldfaden agreed to allow Rosenberg's company to function as a provincial touring company, but with a different brother of Goldfaden's, Tulya, not merely on board but officially head of the troupe. Goldfaden also snagged Spivakovsky for his own Odessa company.
With Tulya in charge there were, as Adler wrote, "no more communistic
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
shares, no more idealistic comradeship". They played a month in Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
, where people slept in the courtyard to be the first to get tickets, and a 16-year-old David Kessler
David Kessler (actor)
David Kessler was a prominent actor in the first great era of Yiddish theater. As a star Yiddish dramatic performer in New York City, he was the first leading man in Yiddish theater to dispense with incidental music....
was almost accepted to join the company as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
, but was prevented from doing so by his father. Later they toured to Yelizavetgrad (now Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad , formerly Yelisavetgrad, is a city in central Ukraine. It is located on the Inhul River. It is a motorway junction. Pop. 239,400 ....
), where they were joined by Israel
Israel Grodner
Israel Grodner was one of the founding performers in Yiddish theater. A Lithuanian Jew who moved at the age of 16 to Berdichev, Ukraine, Russian Empire, the Broder singer and actor was in Iaşi, Romania in 1876 when Abraham Goldfaden recruited him as the first actor for what became the first...
and Annetta Grodner
Annetta Grodner
Annetta Grodner was a Ukrainian Jewish singer and actress, the first prima donna in Yiddish theater.The daughter of a bootmaker in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, she met and married Israel Grodner some time around 1870, when he passed through Kremenchuk in the course of his wanderings as a young Broder singer...
, who had re-joined Goldfaden in Odessa, but then had a falling out.
When his actors struck in Kremenchuk
Kremenchuk
Kremenchuk is an important industrial city in the Poltava Oblast of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Kremenchutskyi Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located on the banks of Dnieper River.-History:Kremenchuk was...
over low pay, Rosenberg himself triumphantly played the juvenile lead role in Shmendrik
Shmendrik
Shmendrik, oder Die komishe Chaseneh is an 1877 comedy by Abraham Goldfaden, one of the earliest and most enduring pieces in Yiddish theater. The title role of Shmendrik was originally written for the young Sigmund Mogulesko, and derived from a character Mogulesko did when auditioning for...
, effectively breaking the strike. Fences were mended, and one of their next performances, in Poltova, became a benefit as a wedding gift to players Adler and Oberlander. They toured on through Ukraine, lionized in some towns, harassed by the police in others, until Goldfaden called them back to Odessa, a call that most of his troupe obeyed, leaving Rosenberg and the Adler-Oberlander contingent (ironically, the leaders of the recent strike) in Smila
Smila, Ukraine
Smila is a city located on the Tyasmyn River in the Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine. The city is itself a raion within the oblast as well as serving as the administrative centre of the wider Smiliansky Raion...
, without a troupe.
There, they had the good fortune to overhear the singing voice of a woman who would later become famous under the name Keni Liptzin
Keni Liptzin
Keni Liptzin , surname sometimes spelled Lipzin, was a star in the early years of Yiddish theater, probably the greatest female dramatic star of the first great era of Yiddish theater in New York City....
, but who at this time called herself Keni Sonyes, who became their new prima donna. They toured on to Spolya, a town that at the time belonged to Count Alexander A. Abaza, probably the most philo-Semitic of Tsar Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
's advisors. The town lacked a theater, but at Abaza's behest a storehouse was turned into an excellent performance space, furnished in part from the count's own dacha. They continued on successfully to Zlatapolya, Novomirgorod, and Bogoslav, around which time Alexander Oberlander met a woman, married, settled down, and was replaced as advance man by a former employer of Adler's named Cheikel Bain.
Though their touring kept them living in decent style, things were not all rosy. In Pereyaslav, Adler reports, they played at a fine small theater, but the local police chief tried to treat the actresses as prostitutes. Goldfaden was making impossible demands for royalties; at one point Sonya Adler gave him nearly all of her jewelry to placate him; shortly after, in late 1880, Goldfaden briefly recruited the Adlers away from Rosenberg, but he treated them so badly that they ended up suing him for their wages and rejoining Rosenberg in Nezhin, where his troupe was performing in a tent theater.
The period after the February 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
was a bad one for the Jews. Provocateurs were traveling around the empire, stirring up pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s, one of which soon swept over the troupe in Nezhin. The troupe managed to avoid bodily harm by partly by convincing the rioters that they were a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
theater troupe and partly by making judicious use of the money the Adlers had won in court from Goldfaden.
They made their way to Łódź, where they did well enough to pay off some debts. Having heard that in Odessa Osip Mikhailovich Lerner
Osip Mikhailovich Lerner
Osip Mikhailovich Lerner was a 19th century Russian Jewish intellectual and lawyer. Originally a maskil—a propagator of the Haskala, or "Jewish Enlightenment"—he later converted to Christianity and wrote a book denouncing Jews...
and Goldfaden were each presenting their respective versions of Karl Gutzkow
Karl Gutzkow
Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.-Life:...
's Uriel Acosta, Rosenberg and company decided to do the same. Rosenberg translated; with Spivakovsky having ducked out only three days before opening, Adler played the title role; Liptzin played Uriel's mother; Sonya Adler played Judith. The production was a triumph, but they had about played out Łódź. Spivakovsky returned, and nearly stole the troupe out from under Rosenberg; in the end, all united again, and they went on to Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr is a city in the North of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zhytomyr Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion...
with a new director in charge, an apparently rich man named Hartenstein who seemed to want to invest in them.
Adler, in his memoir, indicates that he was rather unimpressed with Hartenstein, describing him as "a young man from Galicia with long hair and short brains, half educated in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and half an actor." They thought they had found "a quiet corner" of the Russian Empire in which "to make a bit of a livelihood", but in fact Hartenstein was simply running through his money.
In Zhytomyr, they had shared a theater with a Russian troupe, who were sympathetic to their trevails. Two Russian actors agreed to participate in a series of benefits on their behalf; one of them, whom Adler identifies only as "Mademoiselle Kislova", nearly destroyed them by making a speech from the stage excoriating the audience and Russian society in general for their lack of support for what she considered to be good theater.
The next incarnation of the company was actually organized by Adler, although Rosenberg was once again a partner. With Keni Liptzin, they toured to Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
, Taganrog
Taganrog
Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...
, around Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, and to Dünaburg (now Daugavpils
Daugavpils
Daugavpils is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. Daugavpils literally means "Daugava Castle". With a population of over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
). Aiming to bring the troupe to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, they brought back their sometime manager Chaikel Bain. They were in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
in August 1883 when the news arrived that a total ban was about to be placed on Yiddish theater in Russia.
The troupe were left stranded in Riga. Chaikel Bain took ill and died. With some difficulty, passage to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for the troupe was arranged on a cattle ship, in exchange for entertaining the crew. However, about this time the Grodners reappeared. Adler wanted to include them in the group headed for London. According to Adler, Rosenberg, who played many of the same roles as Israel Grodner, essentially told Adler "it's him or me". Adler attempted to convince him to change his mind, but insisted on including Grodner in the travel party: Adler considered him one of the best actors in Yiddish theater, a great asset to any performances they would give in London, while he felt Rosenberg lacked depth as an actor. He tried to get Rosenberg to come with them to London, but Rosenberg would not budge.
That is the end of the story of Rosenberg's career in theater.
Adler in his memoir gives an account that when he went back in Europe in 1903 in the wake of the Kishinev (Chişinău) pogrom
Kishinev pogrom
The Kishinev pogrom was an anti-Jewish riot that took place in Chişinău, then the capital of the Bessarabia province of the Russian Empire on April 6-7, 1903.-First pogrom:...
, in an unsuccessful attempt to convince some of his family to join him in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, he encountered Rosenberg as a street beggar and unsuccessfully attempted to give him money. Shortly after, he heard that Rosenberg was dead.