Lillian Lux

Lillian Lux
Lux with husband Pesach Burstein
Born	Lillian Sylvia Lukashefsky (1918-06-20)June 20, 1918 Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Died	June 11, 2005(2005-06-11) (aged 86) New York, New York, United States
Spouse(s)	Pesach Burstein (1938–1986) (his death) 2 children

Lillian Lux (June 20, 1918 – June 11, 2005) was an American singer, author, songwriter and actress in Yiddish theater and Yiddish vaudeville in the United States, Israel and other Yiddish speaking communities in the diaspora.

Lillian Sylvia Lukashefsky was born in Brooklyn. Her father, a jeweler, had originally wanted to become an actor. He sent his daughter to the Yiddish Art Theater, where Lux began performing when she was just seven years old. By the age of 14, Lux was a chorus girl and involved in various Yiddish radio programs. Working in the Catskills, she was teamed with a young Danny Kaye; the friendship that began from the working relationship was lifelong.

She met her future husband, Polish-born Israeli Yiddish-language actor-director Pesach Burstein, in 1938 when he hired her for his theater company's South American tour. While on the tour, the couple was married in Montevideo, Uruguay. Lux's most notable roles in her milieu were The Komediant and A Khasene in Shtetl (A Wedding in the Village), both of which were directed by her husband. Her most critically acclaimed performance was in Itzik Manger's Songs of the Megillah (Yiddish: Megille Lider - the longest running Yiddish production to date in Israel, released on Broadway as Megilla of Itzik Manger). It was also Lux's only role on Broadway.

She played roles alongside her husband, and often alongside her twin children Mike and Susan, who were born in 1945; the performing family was advertised as the Four Bursteins. In 1962, the family moved to Israel. On the 100th anniversary of her husband's birth in 1996, director Arnon Goldfinger directed a documentary film about the lives and careers of the Burstein family -The Komediant.