In 1876, under the impression of the first Jewish troupes from Romania who were on tour in the city, he took a great interest in theater and was accepted into the troupe of Avrum Goldfaden, the founder of the modern Jewish theater. A year later, Isrul (better known as Srulik) Grodner, who was its main star, se- parated from the Goldfaden troupe. Grodner invited Moshe Finkel and his wife Anetta Schwarz (Finkel) with him to his new company in lasi. At Grodner, the couple worked until the end of the theatrical season of 1880, and in the next season, 1881- 1882, they traveled with the troupe of another star of the early Jewish theater, Yakov Spivakovsky, around the towns of Bessarabia and southern Little Russia. He was business partner first of Abraham Goldfaden and later of Sigmund Mogulesko. Together, they dominated Yiddish theatre in Bucuresti in the early 1880s and in New York City in the late 1880s and into the 1890s, with a repertoire based mainly in the works of Joseph Lateiner and Moses Horowitz. After divorcing Schwartz, who returned to Europe, Finkel, then in his 40s, mar- ried 16-year-old Emma Thomashefsky, sister of one of the most powerful figures in Yiddish theatre, Boris Thomashefsky. Finkel's son, Abem Finkel, became a Hollywood scriptwriter. The children from his marriage to Emma, Bela and Lucy Finkel, became Yiddish actors.