Luba Kadison


Luba Kadison Buloff was a Lithuanian Jewish actress, active for decades in Yiddish theatre, in both Europe and the United States.

Early life

Luba Kadison was born in Kovno, Lithuania. She moved with her family to Vilna during World War I, and then to Warsaw while she was still in her teens. Her father, Leib Kadison, was a member of the Vilna Troupe. From a young age, Luba Kadison was playing juvenile roles with the Vilna Troupe, and moved into female leads as she grew.

Career

With the Vilna Troupe, Luba Kadison played the bride in S. Ansky's The Dybbuk, and in Ossip Dimov's Yoshke Muzicant. Kadison and Buloff moved to the United States in 1927, both to work with Maurice Schwartz at the Yiddish Art Theater in New York City. Both were fixtures in the Yiddish theatre scene in New York for many years after they arrived. They performed in South American tours in 1933 and 1940. She played the wife in a Yiddish adaptation of Death of a Salesman. In 1954, she had a leading role in the Yiddish musical Wish Me Luck!
In 1962, Luba Kadison and Helen Waren adapted three stories by Anton Chekhov for English performance. In 1970 Kadison adapted Singer's The Brothers Ashkenazi, for a production starring and directed by her husband Joseph Buloff. The New York Times reviewer judged her adaptation pleasing, saying "Miss Kadison's Yiddish lines are flavorsome and supple." Luba Buloff also worked as a translator, and taught acting.
In 1992, her memoirs written with Joseph Buloff, On Stage, Off Stage, was published.

Personal life

Luba Kadison married fellow actor Joseph Buloff by 1925, in Bucharest. They had a daughter, Barbara. Kadison was widowed when Joseph Buloff died in 1985. Luba Kadison died in 2006, a few months before her 100th birthday. She was the last survivor from the Vilna Troupe.
The papers of Joseph Buloff and Luba Kadison are archived at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in New York City.