Dora Wasserman
| Dora Wasserman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Dora Goldfarb June 30, 1919 Jytomyr, Soviet Union |
| Died |
December 15, 2003 (aged 84) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation | Actress, playwright, theater director |
| Known for | Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre |
Dora Wasserman (née Goldfarb) (June 30, 1919 - December 15, 2003) was an Jewish-Canadian actress, playwright and theater director.
Wasserman was born in Jytomyr, Soviet Union two years after the Russian Revolution. There she learned about and performed in live-performance theatres. She was the child of a modest Jewish family. Her father was a locksmith. After studies at the School of singing Rimsky-Korsakov of Moscow, she entered to the Jewish Theater of Moscow (the GOSET), which she graduated in 1939, after 4 years of formation with great masters, including Solomon Mikhoels. With her diploma, Dora Wasserman left Moscow for Ukraine, but World War II forced her to move to Kazakhstan. She made theater tours in Uzbekistan and in Tadjikistan. Here she meet Sam Wasserman, a Polish refugee, whom she married on March 8, 1943. Ella, their first daughter, was born in Jambul on January 19, 1944. They survived the war. Dora Wasserman heard nothing from her family for decades. Sam and Dora Wasserman joined the stream of refugees moving from one transit camp to another, finally arriving in Vienna. At the Rothschild Hospital, Dora Wasserman began to perform for the refugees, creating programs and entertaining in various displaced persons camps. In 1947 their second daughter, Bryna, was born in Vienna.
The Wassermans arrived in Montreal on January 21, 1950. Intent on finding work, she began to seek a place for herself, approaching Yiddish cultural and community organizations. Her activities were many and varied from recitations in schools, singing for organizations and performing at festivals and conventions. While her connection with visiting and local writers was sustained in weekly literary evenings, she also began to hold children’s theater workshops at the Jewish Public Library of Montreal. Wasserman taught Yiddish's lessons and introduces young Montreal Jews to the Yiddish Theater. The group of gifted youngsters whom she gathered around her eventually grew into the backbone of her adult company, to which she attracted performers to form the Yiddish Drama Group in 1956.
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