Through his uncle Arke, "a hot theater lover", he became interested in the theater, at first in the beauty of Olga Glebova and the cut of Ivan Kozelsky's clothes, but he had the good fortune to be in one of the great theater cities of his time. He left the factory, becoming a raznoschik, a peddler his memoir hints at back-door assignations with "servant girls and chambermaids" by his own description, his life at this point was just a step from a life of crime. His local celebrity continued, with a reputation as Odessa's best can-can dancer. A good dancer, he became part of a crowd of young toughs who regularly crashed wedding parties. He soon got bored with boxing, but not with his new connections to the "sons of rich fathers, attorneys without diplomas", etc. His first brush with stardom was that he briefly became a boxer, known as Yankele Kulachnik, "Jake the Fist". Still living at home, he began to frequent the disreputable district of Moldovanka.
At 14 he began working in a textile factory, and soon rose to a white collar job there at a salary of 10 rubles a month, which would have been decent even for an adult. He played hooky as a 12-year-old he started going to witness public floggings, brandings, and executions of criminals later he would develop more of an interest in attending courtroom trials. He grew up with both Jewish and Christian playmates, but also survived one of the Odessa pogroms around 1862. He wrote that "the sum of my learning was a little arithmetic, some Russian grammar, and a few French phrases." His granddaughter Lulla Rosenfeld writes, "Of the haskala as an organized system of ideas, he probably knew little or nothing." His education was irregular: as the family fortunes rose and fell, he would be sent to cheder (Jewish religious school) or to a Russian language county school, pulled out of school entirely, or have a private tutor for a few months. Īdler grew up with one foot in a traditional Jewish world and one in a more modern, European one. However, according to Adler, the real patriarch of the family was his wealthy uncle Aaron "Arke" Trachtenberg, who would later be the model for his portrayal of roles such as Gordin's Jewish King Lear. His paternal grandfather lived with them for some eight years he was a pious man, and the family was much more observant of Jewish religious practices during the time he lived with them. The marriage to a divorcée cost Feivel Adler (and therefore Jacob Adler) his status as a Kohen (priest). She became estranged from her family after divorcing her first husband (and leaving behind a son) to marry Adler's father. His mother, née Hessye Halperin, was a tall, beautiful woman, originally from a wealthy family in Berdichev. Adler's father Feivel (Pavel) Abramovitch Adler was a (rather unsuccessful) grain merchant. Īdler was born in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Nearly all his family went into theater probably the most famous was his daughter Stella, who taught method acting to, among others, Marlon Brando.
Adler scored a great triumph in the title role of Gordin's Der Yiddisher King Lear ( The Jewish King Lear), set in 19th-century Russia, which along with his portrayal of Shakespeare's Shylock would form the core of the persona he defined as the "Grand Jew". Adler soon started a company of his own, ushering in a new, more serious Yiddish theater, most notably by recruiting the Yiddish theater's first realistic playwright, Jacob Gordin. He became a star in Yiddish theater in London, and in 1889, on his second voyage to the United States, he settled in New York City. Nicknamed " nesher hagodol", (" the Great Eagle", Adler being the German for "eagle"), he achieved his first theatrical success in Odessa, but his career there was rapidly cut short when Yiddish theater was banned in Russia in 1883. Adler Febru– April 1, 1926) was a Jewish actor and star of Yiddish theater, first in Odessa, and later in London and in New York City's Yiddish Theater District. Adler, Zigmund Feinman, Zigmund Mogulesko, Rudolf Marx, Mr.