Tantsman, Avrom-Yitskhok
November 12, 1857–November 13, 1908
He was born in Warsaw, Poland. In the later 1870s he became a wandering Yiddish actor, later a darling of the Yiddish theatrical world in Poland. He also published songs. He published in 1891 in Poland: Hotsmakh’s Kremil fun Fershidene Antiken, 25 Yudishe Folkslider Vos Zenen Gezungen Gevoren in Goldfadens Yudishen Theater (Hotsmakh’s Shop of Various Antiques, Twenty-Five Yiddish Folksongs That Were Sung in Goldfaden’s Yiddish Theater), 88 pp., published by Moyshe-Mordkhe Tsukerman. Of the twenty-five songs and couplets, only a small portion were Goldfaden’s.
When he came to the United States in 1889, he soon acquired a name in the theater world. He published the plays Shimshen hagiber (Samson the Hero) and Kapitan Drayfus (Captain Dreyfus), as well as numerous one-act plays; he also adapted plays and left behind an unproduced operetta Avigayl, di Sheynhayt fun Khevron (Abigail, the Beauty of Hebron). He published a number of songs in Yidishe Tageblat (Jewish Daily Newspaper) and other newspapers in New York. He also published articles in the summer issues of Yidisher Kuryer (Jewish Courier) in Chicago. A collection of his work appeared in New York: Naye Komishe Kulpetin [kupletn] un Teater-Lider (New Couplets and Theater Songs), “originally written by the artist A. Tantsman, published by Yankev Drukerman.”
He died in New York.
Source: Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish Theater), vol. 2 (New York, 1934).