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FEDERATION OF AMERICAN MUSICIANS, SINGERS AND PERFORMING ARTISTS, INCORPORATED (FAMSPA), USA
Our Mission Statement

Visit the website of the World Who's Who in Jazz, Cabaret, Music and Entertainment, published by the Federation of American Musicians, Singers and Performing Artists. Read about the listees and purchase your copies at http://www.worldwhoswhoinjazzcabaretmusicandentertainment.com/

 

SHOWBIZ TIME MAGAZINE. April-May Issue P.22                                                   Cover of the Magazine     Table of Contents     
IN MEMORIAM:

  THE GREAT CHAYELA ROSENTHAL

Photo: The late great Chayela Rosenthal (1924-1979) in black satin gloves. She was loving with a heart bigger than the world we live in, down to earth, and also… super duper elegant and classy on stage.

The sun shines brighter and warmer, the valleys get greener, and the world becomes happier, lovelier and more meaningful, when people and artists like Chayela Rosenthal inhabit the earth. She is gone now, but her talent, her persona, her generosity, her smile and the artistic beauty and pioneering spirit she brought to the world of art and entertainment are still around us. We still feel her presence and warmth, her beauty and talent. This ethereal memory brings joy to my heart and pain to my soul. How majestic and mightier, the hand of God would and could be, if that hand had written a longer life for people like Chayela Rosenthal! But what do I know? Chayela Rosenthal was an extraordinary human being; singer, actress, comedienne, and stage pioneer.

Even when deported to Kaiserwald labor camp and Stutthof Concentration Camp, Chayela made special concerts to inspire and uplift her fellow inmates with her soulful singing. At war's end, she endured the infamous Death March, miraculously spared from the Nazi enforced drowning in the Baltic Sea by the liberating Russian army.

 

     

Chayela posing as Yisroilik, in 1946.

In 1945 Chayela joined the State Yiddish Theatre, performing in DP camps in Germany and Poland. Visiting American Yiddish star Molly Picon spotted her there, in turn urging her friend, impresario Sol Hurok to help Chayela leave anti-Semitic Poland.

Chayela in her youth. She was larger than life, both on and off stage.

After an audition in Warsaw, Mr. Hurok arranged for Chayela to perform cabaret in Paris, where she recorded her first singles and where impresario Sarah Sylvia engaged her for a Yiddish theatre tour of South Africa.

 

 Chayela and her fellow Holocaust Survivor husband, Xavier Piatka settled in Cape Town, South Africa in 1951, where she recorded her first full length, self titled album.  The petite and effervescent Chayela was a popular and beloved Yiddish entertainer and cabaret performer, adored for her comedy routines and international singing.  She appeared twice on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theatre as guest artist with Jacob Jacobs.  She courageously played her final role as the quintessential Golde in "Fiddler on the Roof". One week later, she died of cancer in 1979 at age 55.  Her two daughters, Naava and Zola are both entertainers and singers living in the USA. Naava's one woman show, "Better Don't Talk!" is a tribute to Chayela's Life. Read more at Website: www.naava.com