Jacob P. Adler

Jacob P Adler is often considered the greatest dramatic actor of the Yiddish theatre. He was renowned for his roles in classic Yiddish plays and his portrayal of Shakespeare’s Shylock. Adler’s performances were marked by their emotional depth and intensity, earning him a lasting legacy in the world of theatre.

Abraham Cahan, the editor of the Jewish Forward newspaper wrote about Adler:

"He had dramatic power and an innate sense of stage effects. He never learned to speak on stage simply, of course. It was against the special kind of artistic nature that he had.

He was attracted to melodrama much more than to drama in a realistic sense, but his melodramaticism had in itself a poetic weight.

The more I became acquainted with his playing, the more convinced I became that he was most suited to Shakespeare roles, where recitation was self-evident.

In such roles, he would add classic beauty, as they say."

On 5 December 1901, Adler staged Shakespeare's "Shylock" for the first time. In 1903 the same play was performed by English actors in English, and Adler performed in the role of "Shylock" in Yiddish.

In the title role, Adler made a very deep impression not only with Jews, but as well as with the non-Jewish theatre audience.

Adler also starred in Jacob Gordin's "The Yiddish King Lear," along with his new wife Sara. The production was a great success. This play, which is based only very loosely on Shakespeare's play, "King Lear," played well not only with the popular audience, but also with Jewish intellectuals who until this time had largely ignored Yiddish theatre, ending for a time the commercial dominance of operettas such as those of the most well-known Yiddish playwrights at that time, Professor Horowitz and Joseph Lateiner.

The next year, Gordin's "The Wild Man" solidified this change in the direction of Yiddish theatre.

Jacob P Adler had a number of children: He had a few children with his first wife, the Yiddish actress Sophia Oberlander, and while married to her, Adler had a child, Charles (who later became a stage actor) with Yiddish actress Jenny Kaiser, who had acted in London.

Adler also had a child with his second wife, Yiddish actress Dinah Shtettin, named Celia, who became a wonderful Yiddish actress. He also had four children with his wife, the fine Yiddish actress Sara: the well-known actors Luther and Stella Adler,  and the lesser-known actors Jay, Frances, Julia and Florence.

Jacob and Stella Adler both became members of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Jacob P Adler is thought of as one of the finest actors ever to play on the Yiddish stage.