Mina Bern

Mina Bern (May 5, 1911 – January 10, 2010)^[1][2] was a Polish-born American actress. She was a star of the Yiddish theater.^[3]

Biography

Mina (Bernholtz) Bern was born in Bielsk Podlaski. Her theatrical debut was in Bialystock under the director Yehuda Greenhoyz.^[4] In 1930, through her relative Moishe Broderzon, she shortened her name and auditioned successfully to join the Ararat Yiddish cabaret theater in Lodz.^[3] and then played at the Warsaw Scala and later, the Kaminska theaters and the local folk theater. With Dina Halperin and Sam Bronetski she worked in the collective Our Theater, and later with Zygmunt Turkov.^[5] A few years later, she established a small cabaret theater in Białystok.

Bern fled to Russia with her daughter after the Nazi invasion of Poland; there she played with the "Bialistocker yidishn miniatur-teatr" (miniature revi-teater)^[4] of Shimon Dzigan and Israel Shumacher. In 1944 she was sent to a camp in Uganda where she did children's theater for Poles stationed there. Through Jewish family connections she went to Kenya in 1945 and from there to Israel where she worked with Jenny Lavitz in the revue Rozhinkes mit mandlen, favorably reviewed and subsequently staged at the Hebrew Li-La-Lo revue theater.^[5]

In 1949, after an incident in which she was found guilty of sending a thug to beat up theater critic Haim Gamzu, who had written a bad review of her performance, she emigrated to the United States.^[3] She married the actor and producer Ben Bonus. She was a member of the Jewish actors union and recorded songs in Hebrew.

Awards

Bern received an Obie award in 1999.

Filmography

• Brooklyn Babylon (2001) .... Nanna
• Flawless (1999) .... Mrs. Spivak
• Celebrity (1998) .... Elderly Homeowner
• The First Seven Years (1998) (TV) .... Landlady
• I'm Not Rappaport (1996)
• Everything Relative (1996) .... Grandma Kessler
• Little Odessa (1994) .... Grandma Tsilya
• It Could Happen to You (1994) .... Muriel's Neighbour
• Pressure Drop (1994) .... Ida Potashner
• Avalon (1990) .... Alice Krichinsky
• Crossing Delancey (1988) .... Would-be Victim
• Tenement (1985) (as Mina Bern Bonas) .... Ruth

See also

• Music of Israel
• Shoshana Damari

References

1. ^ Berger, Joseph (January 12, 2010). "Mina Bern, Versatile Yiddish Actress, Dies at 98". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/theater/13bern.html. Retrieved January 13, 2010. 
2. ^ Kilgannon, Corey (January 12, 2010). "Kvelling Over a Matriarch of the Yiddish Theater". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/nyregion/13yiddish.html. Retrieved January 13, 2010. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Queen of mamaloshen
4. ^ ^{a b} http://yiddish.forward.com/oldarchive/090806/ Yiddish Forverts Sept. 8 2006
5. ^ ^{a b} Zalmen Zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn teater, Book three column 2296

External links

• Mina Bern at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Bern, Mina
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 5, 1911
Place of birth
Date of death	January 10, 2010
Place of death