Dzigan and Schumacher were a

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

comedy duo A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

who worked primarily in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

. Dzigan and Schumacher performed on stage for thirty years, countless times in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, later

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, and across the globe, in many films and stage shows.

Biographies

Shimon Dzigan (1905 – April 14, 1980) and Israel Schumacher (1908 – May 21, 1961) were both born in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

. Dzigan's father was a soldier in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

. After the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Dzigan was

apprenticed Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulate ...

to a

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

to help the family make ends meet.Koyekh fun yidishn humor, Shimon Dzigan's autobiography Schmacher went to a

Hebrew school Hebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning one's Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Heb ...

.Gross, Natan (2010).
Dzigan and Shumacher
. ''YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe''. yivoencyclopedia.org. Translated from Polish by Inessa Medzhibovskaya; revised by Michael C. Steinlauf. Retrieved 2018-07-26.

Career

Moishe Broderzon Moishe Broderzon (; 23 November ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. 11 November1890 – 17 August 1956) was a Yiddish poet, theatre director, and the founder of the Łódź literary society, literary group ''Yung-yidish''. Personal life He w ...

was impressed by Dzigan's improvised parodies in 1927, and invited him to join the Ararat literary ''

kleynkunst Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

(cabaret) theater'' that he was forming in

with his friends. Dzigan met Schumacher there and they teamed up to form what would become the most famous Yiddish comic duo, "Dzigan and Schumacher". They first performed at Ararat before moving on to the Yidishe Bande. They founded their own cabaret company in 1935 at the in Warsaw. When Germany invaded Poland, they fled to Soviet-occupied

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

, where they pulled their company back together and toured

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, and other Soviet cities.

Shaul Berezovsky Shaul Berezovsky (, , , 1908–1975) was a Polish and Israeli composer, pianist, and music director. He composed music for productions by many of the leading figures of the Polish Yiddish Theatre of the interwar and postwar period, including Shimo ...

composed music for their troupe during this period.

Post war

Dzigan and Schumacher attempted to leave the Soviet Union with the Polish general

Władysław Anders Władysław Albert Anders (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a Polish military officer and politician, and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Born in Krośniewice-Błonie, then part of the Russian Empire, he serv ...

, but were arrested and spent four years in gulags. First in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

and then in Oktyabrsky. They were permitted to perform, for Jews and the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. They were released in 1946, rearrested in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, and finally escaped to Warsaw in 1947. The duo played themselves in the

Yiddish language Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

Polish film, ''

Unzere kinder ''Our Children'' (, ''Unzere kinder''; , also called ''It Will Never Happen Again'') is a 1946 semi-documentary Yiddish-language film created in communist Poland. It was directed by Natan Gross and , based on the script by Rachel Auerbach and Bi ...

'', the first (semi-)documentary about

the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust saw the ghettoization, robbery, deportation and mass murder of Jews, alongside other groups under Nazi racial theories, similar racial pretexts in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland by the Nazi Germany. Over th ...

. They

emigrated to Israel ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described ...

in 1950 to rebuild their careers and faced

anti-Yiddish sentiment Anti-Yiddish sentiment is a negative attitude towards Yiddish. Opposition to Yiddish may be motivated by antisemitism. Jewish opposition to Yiddish has often come from advocates of the Haskalah, Hebraists, Zionists, and assimilationists. Types of ...

, but managed to attract an audience and toured the world. They replaced Polish characters with Israeli ones. They managed their own theater in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

from 1951 to 1952, before finally establishing their own in Tel Aviv in 1958. They broke up two years later. Schumacher died on May 21, 1961, and Dzigan went on performing solo until he died in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

on April 14, 1980.

Legacy

Their works were made into a historic Yiddish-language television program, broadcast in Israel in the 1970s, where they presented their own brand of humor. The duo's TV and live performance was Yiddish satire that focused on their experience in the gulag, fleeing Europe, and their experience as new immigrants to Israel. A famous sketch, "Einstein Weinstein", plays a lot like

Abbott and Costello Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work in radio, film, and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and 1950s, and the highest-paid entertainers in t ...

's " Who's on First." The bit on the show explained

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated physics theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical ph ...

with one explaining to the other "If you have seven hairs in your soup, it's a lot. If you have seven hairs on your head, it's very little. That's relativity."

Filmography and Stage

* ''Al khet'' (I Have Sinned, film, 1936) Dzigan as Szamaj, Schumacher as Awrejmel * ''Jolly Paupers'' (film, 1937) Dzigan as Kopl, Schumacher as Naftali * ''On a heym'' (Without a Home, film, 1938) Dzigan as Motele, Schumacher as Fisele * ''

'' (It Will Never Happen Again, film, 1951) as themselves * ''On the Ship to Eretz Yisrael''

Notes

References

* Diego Rotman
The Yiddish Stage as a Temporary Home - Dzigan and Shumacher's Satirical Theater
De Gruyter 2021
Dzigan & Shumacher (Israel - Poland / 2009), with photograph
at PennyLane Productions, 2009

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dzigan and Schumacher Jewish cabaret performers Polish emigrants to Israel Yiddish theatre performers Yiddish comedians Polish male comedians Polish cabaret performers Israeli male comedians Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Jewish Israeli comedians Entertainers from Łódź 20th-century Israeli comedians Yiddish-language satirists Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery Jewish Polish comedians Film duos 20th-century Polish male actors