Seymour Rexite (January 18, 1914 – October 14, 2002), originally Shayele Rechtzeit, was a Polish American singer and actor. He was a significant figure in

Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satire, satiric or nostalgic revues; melodr ...

in the United States, and with his wife Miriam Kressyn he performed on the radio over four decades, performing pop standards 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 ...

. He also served as president of the

Hebrew Actors' Union The Hebrew Actors' Union (HAU) was a craft union for actors in Yiddish theater in the United States (primarily in New York City), and was the first actors' union in the United States. The union was affiliated with the Associated Actors and Artiste ...

. Web page includes video and full transcript. Born in

Piotrków Trybunalski Piotrków Trybunalski (; also known by #Etymology, alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021). It is the capital of Piotrków County and the second-largest city in the Łódź Voi ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

, and a child prodigy, Rexite immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1920, along with his father, a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

, and his older brother Jack Rechtzeit, an actor and songwriter. Several years later, immigration quotas prevented Rexite's mother and other siblings from emigrating from Poland, so Rexite sang a song, which his brother Jack had composed, before President

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...

which so moved that he granted them entry visas.Knickerbocker Village blogspot
/ref> At age 13, he took over the lead in the Yiddish musical ''The Rabbi's Melody'' when 30-year-old

Ludwig Satz Ludwig Satz (18 February 1891 – 31 August 1944) was an actor in Yiddish theater and film, best known for his comic roles. A 1925 ''New York Times'' article singles him out as the greatest Yiddish comic actor of the time. He was born in L ...

left to play in ''

Potash and Perlmutter ''Potash and Perlmutter'' is a 1923 American silent film, silent comedy film directed by Clarence G. Badger. The film is based on an ethnic Jewish comedy with characters created by Montague Glass and Charles Klein for a 1913 Broadway Potash and ...

'' on Broadway. Unlike Satz, who had been a grown man playing a teenage boy, he was the actual age of the character. He later starred in ''The Song of the Ghetto'' at a theatre on Second Avenue in the

Yiddish Theater District The Yiddish Theatre District, also called the Jewish Rialto and the Yiddish Realto, was the center of New York City's Yiddish theatre scene in the early 20th century. It was located primarily on Second Avenue, though it extended to Avenue B, ...

opposite the famous soprano

Isa Kremer Isabelle Yakovlevna Kremer (; 21 October 1887 – 7 July 1956) was a soprano of Russian Jewish descent who at various times of her life held citizenship in Russia, the United States, and Argentina. She first drew notice as a teenager for her rev ...

. He first appeared on the radio, singing in Yiddish, in 1927. In the 1930s he flirted with crossover success, performing with

The Dorsey Brothers The Dorsey Brothers were an American studio dance band, led by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. They started recording in 1928 for OKeh Records. History The Dorsey Brothers recorded songs for the dime store labels (Banner, Cameo, Domino, Jewel, Oriole ...

in late-night shows at

Billy Rose Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman, lyricist and columnist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainm ...

's Casino de Paree, but decided to focus on the Yiddish-language side of his career. He married Miriam Kressyn, another star of the Yiddish stage, in 1943. The two had a long-running radio program on

WEVD WEVD was the call sign held by three New York City commercial radio stations, with related ownership, from 1927 until 2003. This call sign was formed from the initials of recently deceased Socialist Party of America leader Eugene Victor Debs. H ...

radio, performing Yiddish translations of pop music standards (largely their own translations of everything from

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...

to ''

Man of La Mancha ''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay '' I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervan ...

'') as well as songs written in his native language. Kressyn died at age 86 in 1996; they had no children. Rexite died in 2002 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The couple is buried under the family name Rechtzeit in Block 67 of Mount Hebron Cemetery. This section is reserved for those who were part of New York Yiddish theater and is maintained by the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance.

References

External links

*
New York Times obituaryYiddish Radio Project articlebiography
at the

Milken Archive The Milken Archive of Jewish Music is a collection of material about the history of Jewish music in the United States. It contains roughly 700 recorded musical works, 800 hours of oral histories, 50,000 photographs and historical documents, an exte ...

Children's biography from scholastic.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rexite, Seymour 1908 births 2002 deaths People from Piotrków Trybunalski Male actors from Łódź Voivodeship People from Piotrków Governorate Polish emigrants to the United States American people of Polish-Jewish descent Yiddish theatre performers Yiddish-language singers of the United States American male stage actors Jewish American male actors 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers Burials at Mount Hebron Cemetery (New York City)