Luba Kadison, 99; Last Survivor of Noted Yiddish Theater Troupe

Luba Kadison, 99, a leading actress in Yiddish theater during its heyday on New York’s Lower East Side, died May 4 at her home in Manhattan, said Caraid O’Brien, a Yiddish theater scholar and friend of Kadison.

The Lithuanian-born Kadison was the last surviving member of the Vilna Troupe, an influential company founded in Europe during World War I. She was part of a second golden age of Yiddish theater that saw serious and satirical plays challenge the dominance of popular musicals.

She performed in Lower East Side theaters packed with Jewish immigrants. She had roles in Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance,” Israel Joshua Singer’s “Brothers Ashkenazi” and a Yiddish production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”

The Holocaust devastated Yiddish culture, and declining use of the language worldwide was eventually mirrored in New York’s theater scene.

Later in life, she became an interpreter, a teacher and a painter. She wrote a memoir with her husband, Joseph Buloff, titled, “On Stage, Off Stage: Memories of a Lifetime in the Yiddish Theatre,” published in 1992.