Ben-Zion Witler (1907–1961), also Ben-Tsion Vitler, BenZion Wittler, was a Jewish singer, actor, coupletist, comedian and composer.

Early life

At the age of six Witler moved with his family from

Belz Belz (, ; ; ) is a small city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine, located near the border with Poland between the Solokiya River (a tributary of the Bug River) and the Richytsia stream. Belz hosts the administration of Belz urban hromada, one of ...

, Galisia, to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he received a strict

Chasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those affi ...

religious upbringing.

Career

In 1919, at the age of 12, he joined the ''Freie jüdische Volksbühne'' theater in Vienna (1919–1922; no connection to the New York

Folksbiene The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, commonly known as NYTF, is a professional theater company in New York City which produces both Yiddish theater, Yiddish plays and plays translated into Yiddish, in a theater equipped with simultaneous sup ...

), secretly and under an alias, fearing his family's reaction. He worked briefly as a journalist at the German Zionist weekly ''Wiener Morgenzeitung'' (''Vienna Morning Times''), but in 1926 returned to the Vienna theater scene, performing in comedies and operettas, studying opera repertoire with Yulianovsky and Fuchs, touring (Paris, London, South Africa, France and Vienna). Witler spent three years in Poland in the mid-1930s, becoming a "public darling.Zalmen Zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Volume 3), p. 2260-2261" In 1937 he appeared in Riga in ''

A Khasene in Shtetl ''A Khasene in Shtetl'' (Yiddish for ''A Wedding in the Village'' / ''A Village Wedding'', also called ''A Shtetl Wedding'' / ''A Wedding in the Shtetl''; Yiddish: אַ חתונה אין שטעטל) is a Yiddish musical theater play written by Wi ...

'' and ''The Galitzian Wedding'' by William Siegel. Some of his many other starring roles were in ''Yanko the Gypsy, A Millionaire's Caprice, The American Litvak, The Brave Officer, The Bandit Gentleman, The Strength of Love, The Bride with Three Brothers, The Golden Bridegroom, The Threshold of Joy,

It's Hard to be a Jew ''It's Hard to be a Jew'' (Yiddish: Shver tsu zayn a yid) is a 1920 Yiddish-language comedy play by Sholom Aleichem about the difficulty of Jewish-Gentile relationships in the Russian Empire. It was premiered at The Yiddish Art Theatre, Second Ave ...

'' by

Sholom Aleichem Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich (; May 13, 1916), better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish and , also spelled in Soviet Yiddish, ; Russian and ), was a Yiddish author and playwright who lived in the Russian Empire and in the Unit ...

, Ansky's ''

The Dybbuk ''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; , ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by S. An-sky, authored between 1913 and 1916. It was originally written in Russian and later translated into Yidd ...

,''

Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin Jacob Michailovitch Gordin (Yiddish: יעקב מיכאַילאָװיטש גאָרדין; May 1, 1853 – June 11, 1909) was a Russian-United States, American playwright active in the early years of Yiddish theater. He is known for introducing Re ...

's ''God, Man and Devil'', and

David Pinski David Pinski (Yiddish: דוד פּינסקי; April 5, 1872 – August 11, 1959) was a Yiddish language writer, probably best known as a playwright. At a time when Eastern Europe was only beginning to experience the Industrial Revolution, Pinsk ...

's ''Yankel the Smith''. Starting in 1940 he toured the U.S., playing at NYC's Hopkinson Theater in Siegel's ''Forgotten Women'' and Chicago's Douglas Theater in Siegel's ''A Golden Dream.'' In 1946 he toured Argentina, at Buenos Aires Mitre Theater in Kalmanovitsh's "Home Sweet Home." He performed with Argentinian-born actress Shifra Lerer, his wife, through North and South America, Israel, and South Africa through the 1950s.

Recorded songs

He recorded hundreds of songs; his hits included: * Gelibte (Beloved) * Dzhankoye * Varshe (Warsaw) * Akhtsik er, zibetsik zi (He's 80, She's 70) * Byalostok * Mayn alte heym * Oyfn veg shteyt a boym * Leb un Lakh * Krokhmalne Gas * Zing, Brider, Zing! * Belz *Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen (Raisens and Almonds)

In popular culture

In the German TV drama Die Zweiflers (S1.E2, 2024) a tape of music by Ben-Zion Witler is pulled out from the glove compartment of the car of the Yiddish-speaking character Symcha Zweifler and played.

External links

Guide to the Papers of Shifra Lerer and Ben-Zion Witler
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NY
A couple of his albums on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witler, Ben-Zion 1907 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish cabaret performers Polish cabaret performers Polish Zionists Jewish composers Jewish songwriters Yiddish-language singers of Austria Yiddish-language singers of Poland Yiddish theatre performers 20th-century Polish poets 20th-century Polish male singers 20th-century Polish comedians Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States

Early life

Career

Recorded songs

In popular culture

Further reading

External links