Ola Lilith

Ola Lilith (, born Łaja Cederbaum or Lolya Tsederboym; 15 November 1906 – 1 or 6 December 1980) was a Polish-American singer and actress in the Yiddish Theatre.

Life

Early life Ola was born in Warsaw in 1906 as Łaja Cederbaum to an assimilated Jewish family. Her parents were landlord Szyja Cederbaum (related to Aleksander Zederbaum )

Career By the 1920s, her singing (in Warsaw) attracted the attention of cabaret director . She debuted there (under polonized name Cederowska) in 1922 or 1925, After the Azazel troupe fell apart in March 192, Godik, Lilith and some Azazel members toured throughout Poland and all of Europe, and later with Boris Thomashefsky and Ruth Rene in Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Berlin, Holland and England.

She was brought to America by Joseph Rumshinsky and Menasha Skulnik; she performed in New York City in 1931 and played the title role in Rumshinsky's Second Avenue production "A Maiden from Warsaw", with leading man Willy Godick, and subsequently the musical comedy Pleasure. Instead, after her divorce she emigrated to the United States, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1935. She refused to join the Yiddish Theater Union, calling their audition process "The Inquisition". She sang and performed on WEVD radio programs in New York. Her last acting role was in Ven di zun geyt oyf (Sunrise, When the Sun Rises) with Ludwig Satz and Edmund Zayenda in 1941. She subsequently joined the American army and remarried a non-Jewish contractor named Leland Benton; they settled in Miami Springs, Florida.