# Sokher Goldstein

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Yiddish theatre performer (c.1859–1887)

**Sokher Goldstein** (c. 1859 – 1887), first name also spelled **Suher**, **Soher**, **Socher**, or **Sukher**, was a singer and actor, one of the founding performers in [Yiddish theater](/source/Yiddish_theater). A [Jew](/source/Jew), presumably of [Ukrainian](/source/Ukraine) or [Romanian](/source/Romania) origin, nothing is known about his life before [Abraham Goldfaden](/source/Abraham_Goldfaden) recruited him in [Iaşi](/source/Ia%C5%9Fi) in 1876 as the second actor after [Israel Grodner](/source/Israel_Grodner) for what became the first professional Yiddish theater troupe.

Goldstein participated in the performance at Gradina Pomul Verde ("the Green Fruit-Tree Garden") that is often accounted the first professional Yiddish theater performance. Most likely, the piece by Goldfaden that was performed was a semi-improvised [vaudeville](/source/Vaudeville) called *Dos Bintl Holts*, "The Bundle of Wood". Goldstein participated in a tour with Goldfaden to [Botoşani](/source/Boto%C5%9Fani), [Galaţi](/source/Gala%C5%A3i), [Brăila](/source/Br%C4%83ila), and finally [Bucharest](/source/Bucharest), where the troupe settled for about two years.

According to Joel Berkowitz, "[his] boyish face landed him all the women’s roles until the troupe took on its first actress a few months later." [Berkowitz, 2004, 12] That actress was the young [Sara Segal](/source/Sofia_Karp), whom he met and married in Galaţi (upon marriage, she took the name Sofia Goldstein; after his death, she remarried and became famous as Sofia Karp). (*See [Sophia Karp](/source/Sophia_Karp) for more about the marriage.*)

In Bucharest, he performed for Goldfaden and other theater directors.

He died of [tuberculosis](/source/Tuberculosis). [Adler, 1999, 86 (commentary)]

## References

- Adler, Jacob, *A Life on the Stage: A Memoir*, translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-679-41351-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-679-41351-0). 64 (commentary), 86 (commentary).

- [Bercovici, Israil](/source/Israil_Bercovici), *O sută de ani de teatru evreiesc în România* ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [973-98272-2-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/973-98272-2-5). 61.

- Berkowitz, Joel, [Avrom Goldfaden and the Modern Yiddish Theater: The Bard of Old Constantine](https://web.archive.org/web/20060218183911/http://yiddishbookcenter.org/pdf/pt/44/PT44_goldfaden.pdf), *Pakn Treger*, no. 44, Winter 2004, 10-19.

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