Moyshe Oysher

Moyshe Oysher was born in 1906 in Bessarabia. He was descended from a long line of cantors, the seventh cantor in the family. On his mother's side, the men were mostly all craftsmen.

As he told the writer Gershon Einbinder, who wrote under the pseudonym of Khaver Paver:

"The apprentices of my carpenter grandfather … sang Yiddish folk songs as well as labor songs, and I absorbed those heartfelt tunes, and they became lodged in my blood. And it was from my father and from my other grandfather, that I inherited my cantorial abilities."

Because his father had immigrated to America in Moyshe’s early years, he was raised by his grandfather.

Moyshe studied with elementary religious teachers who were delighted with his ability to chant the prayers, while he also sang with a cantor, later joining the non-religious, secular school, "Ha-bima,” where the parable writer Eliezer Shteynbarg taught. The school was populated by rich young people desirous of acting in the Yiddish theatre, who had established a small stage there. Moyshe appeared there while still a small child, in several roles in Shteynbarg's "The Berditshever Rabbi in the Heavenly Court," and was greatly encouraged by the play's author.

Moyshe spoke about this in his conversation with Khaver Paver:

"If I were not to tell you about Eliezer Shteynbarg, the famous poet and parable writer who influenced my entire life, the story of my childhood would not be complete. Eliezer Shteynbarg, my rabbi, my poet, my leader, my booster, my challenger, my first acting and musical director. He provided me with the key to Yiddish and Hebrew literature. Eliezer Shteynbarg had written a musical play for children ... so, naturally, because of my voice I played the eponymous role of Reb Levi Isaac, as well as of the main devil, and a bunch of other roles."

In 1921 Moyshe joined his father in Canada. En route to Canada he lost his boyish voice. Because his father was unemployed, Moyshe had to find work: first as a restaurant dishwasher, then in a laundry in Brighton. Finally, his voice returned, and he began to sing in a number of literary-dramatic clubs.

He became acquainted with the actor Wolf Shumsky and traveled with him to Winnipeg, Canada, where he acted in the latter's Yiddish theatre for two seasons, debuting in Solotorefsky's "The Woman Convert."