Boris Thomashefsky (, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; ) (1868–July 9, 1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-born (later American) Jewish singer and actor who became one of the biggest stars in Yiddish theater. Early life He was born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky in (; ), a village in the Chyhyryn county of the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire (today in the Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine). He grew up in the nearby town of Kamyanka (today in the Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine), until, at the age of 11, he left for Berdychiv where he trained as a meshoyrer (choir singer) in the renowned synagogue choir of cantor Nisan Belzer. In 1881, he emigrated with his family to the United States, and just a year later, while still a teenager, he was largely responsible for the first performance of Yiddish theater in New York City, in what was to become the Yiddish Theater District. He has been credited as the pioneer of Borscht Belt entertainment. Although Thomashefsky left Imperial Russia at a time when Yiddish theater was still thriving there (it was banned in September 1883), he had never seen it performed prior to the 1882 performance he brought together in New York. Thomashefsky, who was earning some money by singing on Saturdays at the Henry Street Synagogue on the Lower East Side, was also working as a cigarette maker in a sweatshop, where he first heard songs from the Yiddish theater, sung by some of his fellow workers. Career Thomashefsky managed to convince a local tavern owner to invest in bringing over some performers. The first performance was Abraham Goldfaden's Yiddish operetta (The Witch). The performance was a mild disaster: pious and prosperous "uptown" German Jews opposed to the Yiddish theater did a great deal to sabotage it. His performing career was launched in part due to an instance of this sabotage—bribing the soubrette to fake a sore throat: Thomashefsky went on in her place. Shortly afterward, the teenage Thomashefsky was the pioneer of taking Yiddish theater "on the road" in the United States, performing Goldfaden's plays in cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston and Chicago, all in the 1880s; for much of the 1880s, Chicago was his base. After Yiddish theater was banned in Russia, his tours came to include such prominent actors as Siegmund Mogulesko, David Kessler, and Jacob Adler, with new plays by playwrights such as Moses