Sholom Secunda

[2] At age 12, Shloyme played Abraham/Avrom in Abraham Goldfaden's Akeydes Yitskhok (The Sacrifice of Isaac) and Markus in The Kishef-Makherin (The Sorceress).

In January 1908, the family arrived to New York as steerage passengers on board the SS Carmania and were inspected and briefly detained on Ellis Island.

In New York City (they first lived on East 127th Street where his father had settled before sending for his wife and children), young Sholom became a noted child khazn (cantor).

When his voice changed he studied music and taught piano, then worked in a comedy theater in the chorus until his song "Amerike" was accepted by Jennie Goldstein, who sang it in Kornblum's Unzere kinder (Our Children).

He composed for the musical Di Yidishe Shikse by Anshel Schorr (1927) and A nakht fun libe (A Night of Love) by Israel Rosenberg.