Ellen Adler and Selwyn Freed

Celia Adler

Celia Feinman Adler was born in New York on December 6, 1889 and was the only child of actors Jacob P. Adler and his second wife Dinah Shtettin. She was known as the “First Lady of the Yiddish Theatre.” Her parents’ marriage was short-lived and after Jacob Adler’s 1891 elopement with Sara Heine, Dinah divorced Jacob and married actor Siegmund Feinman. Their daughter Lillie Feinman married Yiddish actor Ludwig Satz. Dinah continued to appear onstage with Jacob Adler even after their divorce and, at age four, Celia Adler acted in “Der Yidisher Kenig Lear” (The Jewish King Lear) alongside her father and his new wife, Sara.

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