“The Strongest Man in the World”: New Photo Book About Zishe Breitbart Now Online

Gary Bart, great-nephew of the circus strongman Zishe Breitbart, has just published an online photobook showcasing artifacts related to his famous forebear that he has been roaming the world collecting for decades. Breitbart, known to Jewish audiences as Shimshn-hagibr (Samson the Mighty), was born into a family of blacksmiths in Lodz. He performed all over Europe, where he earned the byname, the “Iron King.”

Read more about Zishe Breitbart  and Jewish entertainers in The YIVO Encyclopedia.

See posters and broadsides advertising appearances by Zishe Breitbart’s less famous brother Gustaw (Gershon) in The YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland.