In 2018, a revival of "Forgotten Divas of the Yiddish Stage" at the Museum of Jewish Heritage featured a single photograph of Pepi Litman: dark eyes, a sharp jaw, a tilted derby hat, and a smile that says, "You thought you knew me. You never even saw me coming."
She taught her audience that gender is a costume, and that the funniest, most heartbreaking thing you can do is wear the wrong one perfectly. In 2018, a revival of "Forgotten Divas of
Her most famous role was (a parody of Alexander II’s telegraph clerks). She would stride on stage in a too-tight military jacket, tangled in telephone wires, singing: "I am a modern man, a telephone man, But my mama still calls me by my girl’s name!" The "Grand Tour" of Exile Due to the pogroms of 1905 and rising antisemitism in the Pale of Settlement, Litman joined the great Jewish migration westward. She became a star of the Romanian Yiddish theaters (Bucharest and Iași) before sailing to London and finally landing at the epicenter of Yiddish culture: New York City’s Second Avenue . She would stride on stage in a too-tight