{"id":1594,"date":"2019-12-09T15:58:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T15:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:24:10","slug":"the-yiddishe-shikse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/yiddish-images\/the-yiddishe-shikse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yiddishe Shikse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

(1940)<\/p>\n

Source: Museum of the City of New York<\/a><\/p>\n

Translation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clinton Theater, 80 Clinton Street<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Three shows every day\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Great guest in Clinton Theater<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Louis Weiss presents<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

December 11th<\/h3>\n

And a whole week<\/h5>\n
\n
The Beloved Radio Comedian<\/h5>\n

Mr. Shishke<\/h2>\n

Davel<\/h1>\n

Taim<\/h1>\n<\/td>\n

\n
\n

Starting Friday<\/h3>\n

Saturday and Sunday<\/h5>\n
\n
New York\u2019s Radio Darling<\/h5>\n

Vera Rozanko<\/h2>\n

The Jewish<\/h1>\n

Shikse<\/h1>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In very great success operetta<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span><\/h2>\n

Jewish Gentile (f)<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n

Mr. Shishke<\/span><\/p>\n

in a big laugh role with new jokes–spraying<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

\n

Come see a radio broadcast on the stage<\/span><\/p>\n

Also personally see Rabbi Zaidman the [\u05e7\u05d0\u05dc\u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05e9\u05e7\u05e2\u05e8] preacher \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

As well as a new Broadway picture<\/span><\/h3>\n

\n<\/td>\n

\n

Vera Rozanko<\/span><\/p>\n

and new Soviet songs<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

Together with: Dreyman Rappaport, Jack Shargel, Moshe Lipshitz, Sam Kravitz, Benny Gitlitz, Lillian Lux, Bessie Mogulesko, Helen Appel, Birdie Shargel and others<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is a poster for the Yiddish production, “The Yiddishe Shikse,” performed at the Clinton Theater in 1940, featuring Vera Rosanko and Mr. Shishke (radio comedian and star of Double Time). This folk musical originally opened at the Bronx art theater in 1935.<\/p>\n

Louis Weiss, who ran the Clinton Theater and the Hebrew Actors’ Union for many years, put on this particular showing of ‘The Yiddishe Shikse.’ He formatted the Clinton Theater’s schedule in a unique way by bringing in a different star attraction each week for a condensed showing of a play or musical; he gave two shows a day and three on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

This play was written by Vera Rosanko’s husband, Israel Rosenberg, a prominent Yiddish playwright in Canada and later New York in the first half of the 20th century. Rosenberg was born in 1895 in Lublin, Poland to an Orthodox family (his father was a Rabbi) and after emigrating to Canada and then to New York City in 1921, he acted in and penned many Yiddish musical comedies, melodramas, and operettas. He married Vera Rosanko in 1912.<\/p>\n

Rosanko, born Shifra Viner in 1893, partly grew up in a Ukrainian village, after being sent there by her father, where she was not aware of her Jewishness until her father brought her home several years later. As a result of her time there, she picked up an extensive repertoire of Ukrainian and Russian songs.<\/p>\n

When she later emigrated to Canada, and then New York, she began advertising her actress\/singer persona as ‘Di Yiddishe Shikse’–the Jewish gentile woman–because she often donned Ukrainian folk costumes and performed Ukrainian and Russian songs in her appearances. She was said to have a wavering soprano voice.<\/p>\n

She often performed in productions written by her husband, and starred in a WEVD radio feature he wrote for many years. In 2013, their daughter Betty Perlov published a children’s book titled Rifka takes a bow<\/em> about growing up as their daughter in the Yiddish theater scene.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/span><\/p>\n

Burs\u030ct\u0323ein Pesah\u0323, et al.\u00a0What a Life!: the Autobiography of Pesachke Burstein, Yiddish Matinee Idol<\/i>. Syracuse University Press, 2003.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fogel, Joshua. \u201cYiddish Leksikon.\u201d\u00a0Yiddish Leksikon<\/i>, 10 May 2019, http:\/\/yleksikon.blogspot.com\/2019\/05\/vyera-rozanka-vera-rosanko.html.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cIsrael Rosenberg (II).\u201d\u00a0Israel Rosenberg (II)<\/i>, http:\/\/www.museumoffamilyhistory.com\/yt\/lex\/R\/rosenberg-israel-II.htm.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Kamins, Toni L., et al. \u201cThe Stage in Review.\u201d\u00a0Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/i>, 12 May 1935, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/1935\/05\/12\/archive\/the-stage-in-review-15.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Perlov, Betty Rosenberg., and Cosei Kawa.\u00a0Rifka Takes a Bow<\/i>. Minneapolis: Kar-Ben, 2013. Print.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cRecord Reviews.\u201d\u00a0The Billboard<\/i>, 30 Aug. 1947, p. 118.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Rothstein, Bob. \u201cRe: Di Yidishe Shikse.\u201d\u00a0Mendele: Yiddish Literature and Language<\/i>, vol. 15.002, 15 May 2005.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Rothstein, Bob. \u201cIsrael Rosenberg.\u201d\u00a0Mendele: Yiddish Literature and Language<\/i>, vol. 21.011, 24 Jan. 2012.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Vera Rosanko<\/i>. http:\/\/www.museumoffamilyhistory.com\/yt\/lex\/R\/rosanko-vera.htm.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(1940) Source: Museum of the City of New York Translation: Clinton Theater, 80 Clinton Street Three shows every day\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Great guest in Clinton Theater Louis Weiss presents December 11th And a whole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yiddish-images","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9teox-pI","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1732,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}