Shmain, Nekhemye
1906–1943
He was a playwright and actor, born in the town of Kamenaya (Kamiana), near Bila Tserkva, Ukraine. He performed in the Kiev Yiddish children’s theater, and he later also directed a series of performances with this same theater.
He composed dramatic works, as well as theatrical productions of the Yiddish classics.
As the start of WWII, he headed for the front and was killed in a battle near Lozansk (Lozanskoye), Kharkov district, in 1943.
His published plays include:
Eynakters far der Bine (One-Act Plays for the Stage) (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1935), 40 pp.;
Der Dnyeper Dertseylt, Tripolyer Tragedye (The Dnieper [River] Recounts, a Triple Tragedy), “a play in three acts and nine scenes” (Kiev-Kharkov: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1937), 24 pp.;
A Gast (A Guest), “a play in one act” (Kiev-Kharkov: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1937), 24 pp.;
Der Zeyde un di Eyniklekh (The Grandfather and the Grandchildren) (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1937), 24 pp.;
Bam Ofenem Forhang (By the Open Curtain), three one-act plays (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1939), 68 pp.;
Kantonistn, Tragedye in Dray Aktn (Recruits, a Tragedy in Three Acts), with Fayvl Sito (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1940), 95 pp.
He also dramatized Mendele’s Der Priziv (The Conscript) (Kharkov: Gezunt, 1927), 62 pp.
Sources: Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish Theater), vol. 5 (Mexico City, 1966); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish Publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1962), see index.