Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy didn't only play "Spock" in the television series, "Star Trek," but years earlier he played in the Yiddish theatre. In Martin Boris' unpublished biography of Yiddish theatre great, Maurice Schwartz, Boris wrote:

"Unperturbed by the generally negative comments from the press, Maurice forged ahead with his next production, ""It’s Hard to Be a Jew, the English-language form prepared first in 1931 by Tamara Berkowitz, Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter.

One of the major roles for "It’s Hard to Be a Jew," that of Ivanov, the Christian who trades places with his Jewish friend, was up for grabs. Oscar Ostroff, the former manager of the Douglas Park Theatre in Chicago and Schwartz’s current manager in Los Angeles, recommended a twenty-two-year-old tyro named Leonard Nimoy.

Showing up for an audition at the Civic, Nimoy apprehensively made his way down the aisle to the stage, preparing himself emotionally to meet the iconic Maurice Schwartz. Anna and Maurice were by the footlights, observing the young man sauntering down to meet them. The son of Jewish immigrants, Nimoy understood Anna’s comment in Yiddish: “He looks like a ‘goy.’ Maybe he’ll be good for the part."

Leonard Nimoy was thrilled to share a stage with Schwartz, in the role originated by Paul Muni some thirty years earlier. ... "It’s Hard to Be a Jew" ran fourteen weeks, an eternity for a Los Angeles-based play."