Simon Pascal portrait from Das retziele 1910

Simon Paskal ( or ; February 8, 1877 – October 17, 1930) was a Romanian-born American

Yiddish Theater 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 satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; na ...

actor and

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

who recorded numerous Yiddish-language discs during the early twentieth century.

Early life

Paskal was the son of a blacksmith, and worked for his father as a youth; due to his excellent singing voice he also became a choirboy for Cantor Abraham Osher in Galați. According to his

First World War 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 ...

draft registration card Simon was born on February 8, 1877. During the 1899 anti-Semitic riots in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, Paskal left the country on foot (part of the movement called the fusgeyers), eventually arriving in 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 1900 according to the

Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre ''Leksikon fun yidishn teater'' ( ''Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre'' or ''Encyclopedia of the Yiddish Theatre'') is a Yiddish language reference encyclopedia compiled by Zalmen Zylbercweig, assisted by Jacob Mestel on two volumes. The six-volume 3,0 ...

, or 1903 according to census documents. By 1904, his wife Sarah had joined him in the United States. He soon became a Yiddish-language singer 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 ...

's east side, and then became a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

actor. In the first five years Simon and Sarah were in New York, they had two daughters, Pearl and Dorothy.

Musical career

In the first decade of his arrival in the United States, Paskal began to record numerous Yiddish-language records for

Zonophone Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman's Universal Talk ...

, including

Avram Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in Yiddish and Hebrew languages and author of some 40 plays. Goldfad ...

compositions such as ''Dos yoseml'', as well as more contemporary compositions by Louis Friedsell, Arnold Perlmutter, and others. In the 1910s he began to record on other labels such as

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. In addition to Yiddish music, he also recorded a number of

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...

songs for those labels. Paskal left the United States for

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

during this time, and joined a troupe headed by Jacob Silbert; by 1913 he returned to the United States and joined Louis Coopersmith's Cleveland Royal Theatre, acting in such plays as ''Bar Kokhba'' and ''Shulamis''. He also continued to record during this time. A 1918 advertisement in the Yiddish newspaper ''Morgen Zhurnal'' promoted a concert he held with Clara Gold, Benny Zeidman and other Yiddish singers promised songs from the best operas, Jewish songs, and new comedy songs. Another advertisement in the ''Morgen Zhurnal'' two years later described "an entirely new English novelty act". Seeking a change of career, he eventually trained as 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 performed less and less in the theater the early 1920s. Some notable appearances he did make were in a 1921 Yiddish-language production of

La Juive ''La Juive'' (, ) is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra National de Paris, Opéra de Paris, on 23 February 1835. Composition history ''La Juive'' ...

at the Lexington Theatre, and the titular role in ''Bar Kokhba'' in a 1922 production. He began to record more

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

liturgical music for

and

OKeh Records OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...

during the early 1920s, although he continued to record Yiddish songs as well. He died on October 17, 1930, in

. Contemporary newspapers reported his death as a suicide.

References

External links

List of Simon Paskal recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings {{DEFAULTSORT:Paskal, Simon People from Galați County 1881 births 1930 deaths Romanian Ashkenazi Jews Yiddish theatre performers Hazzans Romanian emigrants to the United States Suicides in New York City 1930 suicides Zonophone Records artists Columbia Records artists Victor Records artists Suicides by hanging in New York City 20th-century American singers