Goldie Russler and Abraham Burstein papers

Goldie Russler was a Jewish actress active in American Yiddish theater in New York in the 1920s and 1930s, and in the Artef (Arbeter Teater Farband), an American Yiddish theater company. Goldie was born on August 1, 1904 to Hetya and Menachem Aaron Russler in Klishkovtsy, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (Klishkivtsi, Ukraine) and had five siblings, Yona (Weisman), Ephraim, Shoshana, and Benjamin, some of whom later moved to Israel. Goldie immigrated to the United States in 1920, arriving in New York on the Nieuw Amsterdam on September 7, 1920 under the name Golda Rosler. She performed in amateur theater productions throughout the 1920s. Goldie performed in her first Artef production, Aristocrats, in 1929 and went on to appear in fourteen Artef productions from 1929-1938 including Rekrutn (1934), Yegor Buliche (1933-1934), and Dostigayev (1934-1935). She was a member of Artef’s 1938-1939 traveling troupe and directed productions at Camp Kinderland in Hopewell Junction, New Jersey. Goldie became a naturalized United States citizen on December 19, 1938. She married Abraham Burstein on June 14, 1946 and changed her name to Goldie Burstein. She lived in New York City until her death on December 5, 1997.

Abraham (Abram) Burstein was born on June 12, 1900 in Bessarabia, Russian Empire (Ukraine) to Rabbi Shmuel Burstein and Miriam Shaindel Cahane, and had five siblings Sheiva, Rabbi Meyer Cohen Burstein, Pinchas, Sarah, and Hanna. His mother and sister Hanna were murdered at Babi Yar in September 1941. Abraham immigrated to the United States on June 2, 1921. He founded the Manhattan Slipper Company in 1928 which he ran until the late-1950s. Abraham married Yiddish theater actress Goldie Russler on June 14, 1946. He later worked as an economist. Abraham lived in New York City until his death on April 30, 1992.

The Arbeter Teater Farband (Workers Theater Association), known by the acronym, Artef, was an American Yiddish theater group organized circa 1929 by the Young Workers' League. The Artef was influenced by communist groups and often performed works that reflected an American Jewish proletarian ideology. The Artef performed plays in both Yiddish and English gaining a wider audience in the late 1930s. At its founding Kalman Marmor was president, Y. Adler, G. Sander and David Abrams were secretaries and Jacob Mestel was the director. The Artef was dissolved in 1940.