Background
His father was a soldier in the Russian military.
His father was a soldier in the Russian military.
After the outbreak of the first world war Dzigan was apprenticed to a tailor to help the family make ends meet.
Moyshe Broderzon was impressed by Dzigan"s improvised parodies in 1927 and invited Dzigan to join the Ararat literary cabaret (“Klein Kunst Theater”) that he was founding in Łódź. Later he joined the “Ararat” Yiddish Theatre, and after it was closed teamed up with Israel Shumacher, to form the most famous Yiddish comic duo "Dzigan and Shumacher". When Germany invaded Poland, Dzigan and Shumacher fled to Soviet-occupied Białystok where they pulled their company back together and toured Minsk, Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkov, and other Soviet localities.
Both were incarcerated in a Stalinist work camp and managed to escape and rebuild in Israel the brilliant artistic path they had forged in Europe and the United States of America. They performed thirty years on stage and countless performances across the globe.
Their works were made into an historic Yiddish-language television program, broadcast in Israel in the 1970s. After Shumacher died, Dzigan went on performing until his own death in 1980.