Shalom Secunda
| Sholom Secunda | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 September [O.S. 23 August] 1894 |
| Origin | Aleksandriya, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | June 13, 1974 (aged 79) New York, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Composer |
Sholom Secunda (4 September [O.S. 23 August] 1894, Aleksandriya, Russian Empire – 13 June 1974, New York) was an American composer of Ukrainian-Jewish descent.
He was born in 1894 as Shloyme Sekunda in Aleksandria city, Kherson Governorate,Russian Empire (now Ukraine) to the family of Abraham Secunda and Anna Nedobeika. In 1897 the family moved to the Black Sea port city of Nikolaev, where they opened an iron bed factory.
At age 12 Shloyme played Abraham/Avrom in Abraham Goldfaden's Akeydes Yitskhok (The Sacrifice of Isaac) and Markus in The Kishef-Makherin (The Sorceress).
In 1907, like numerous other Jews of the Russian Empire (see History of the Jews in Russia), he emigrated to United States with his family after a series of pogroms that rocked the region in 1905. In January 1908 the family emigrated to New York as steerage passengers on board the SS Carmania and were inspected and briefly detained on Ellis Island. In New York City (they first lived on East 127th Street where his father had settled before sending for his wife and children), young Shlomo became a noted child khazn (cantor). When his voice changed he studied music and taught piano, then worked in comedy theater in the chorus until his song "Amerike" was accepted by Jennie Goldstein, who sang it with great success in Kornblum's Unzere kinder (Our Children).
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