Pepi Litman

Yiddish drag king

By Arlene Stolnitz

Anyone who had ever heard Pepi Litman sing with her deep, hoarse, mannish voice could never forget it! Nowadays, we are used to seeing men as “drag queens,” but what about women as “drag kings?”

Long before Barbara Streisand played the part of Yentl, we knew of men in drag in the days of Shakespeare, but is it so surprising that, in Judaism, there is a rich tradition of women dressing in drag? Purim, as well as Yiddish Theater, are just two examples of women dressing as men.

Case in point is Pepi Litman, singer, actor, Yiddish theater star, who, during the early 1900s, performed as a “drag king” in the vaudeville circuit. Part of the famous troupe known as Der Broderzingers, the Broder Singers, Pepi traveled all over Eastern Europe performing songs, skits and plays, often poking fun at Jewish life. Changing her given name from Pesha to Pepi, she was the ultimate star of the program.

“The moment she stepped on the stage, dressed as a Galician youth, with skull cap and ringlets, the whole atmosphere of the room was different. It was dominated by a personality. She is the incarnation of the joyous spirit of the Jew, with moments of pathos and sentiment. Listening to her sing, I forgot that I was in Galicia — forgot the horrible depressing poverty with which I had been surrounded….”

Pepi Litman

In another account, “wearing short pants, white socks and house slippers, with both hands under the sidelocks or on her hips, she used to pop out from behind the curtain with a song, and at that moment, the audience would light up as though struck by lightning.”

Pesha Kahane, later known as Pepi, was born in Tarnopol, a city in Galicia, Poland around the year 1874 and lived until the early ’30s. She is known today as a proto-drag king performer, paving the way for future drag performers. Pepi was known to speak several languages, was active in Yiddish circles, and while on the road, observed Jewish law, including keeping kosher and lighting Shabbat candles. She was known in her time as a ‘“chansonette in Khosidic trousers.”

One of her most popular tunes, known by nearly everyone in the Hungarian/ Slovak region she came from (largely forgotten after WWII) is “Hot a Yid a Vaybele,” (A Jew Got a Wife), klezmer style, with piano and violin, 1913.

Excerpt

Fin mitvokh in der fri

biz fraytik far nakht

hot Surele mayn vayb

deym kigl gemakht

From Wednesday in the morning Until Friday twilight,

Surele my wife made a kugel

Hot a yid a vaybele

hot er fin ir tsures.

Hot ir fin a vaybele

Toyg zi af kapures

A man (Jew) has a wife She gives him trouble, A man has a wife And she is not good for anything.

Please note the sexist, misogynistic wording, which would never be acceptable today. Still, there are some elderly Jews who remember the song fondly. Listening to Pepi’s recordings, which you can easily find on YouTube, her voice does not seem mannish to me at all!

Arlene Stolnitz, founder of the Sarasota Jewish Chorale, is a member of the Jewish Congregation of Venice. A retired educator from Rochester, New York, she has sung in choral groups for over 25 years and also sings in The Venice Chorale. Her interest in the preservation of Jewish music of all kinds has led to this series of articles on Jewish Folk Music in the Diaspora.