Pesach Burstein, 89; Comedian, Singer in Yiddish Theater

Pesach Burstein, a Yiddish comedian and singer who made more than 300 records and countless stage appearances over a career that spanned most of this century, is dead at age 89.

The New York Times in its Tuesday editions reported that Burstein died April 6 in a New York City hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Last year Burstein was among the first recipients of the Goldy Awards, named for Abraham Goldfaden, who was credited with founding the Yiddish theater in the 19th Century. And he was planning a trip to Tel Aviv in June to accept the Itzik Manger Award, named for the Yiddish poet.

Burstein and his wife, Lillian Lux, appeared in dozens of musicals, comedies and melodramas in the 1930s and ‘40s. With her and their son, Mike, he returned to Broadway in 1968 in “The Megilla of Itzik Manger.”

That appearance followed by 45 years Burstein’s debut on Broadway in “The Jolly Tailors,” which starred two giants of the Yiddish theater, Rudolph Schildkraut and Ludwig Satz. He had been brought to America from his native Poland where the largely self-taught Burstein--then also known as Paul Burstein--had first established a reputation as a talented performer at age 15.

Many of the productions he appeared in over the years were those that he staged himself, the Times wrote.