Mina Bern (May 5, 1911 – January 10, 2010) was a Polish and American actress. She was a star of the Yiddish theater.Queen of mamaloshen
Life Mina Bernholtz was born in Bielsk Podlaski in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Poland). Her theatrical debut was in Białystok under the director Yehuda Greenhoyz.Ben-Avraham, Michael (September 8, 2006). "Mina Bern: Portret fun a yidisher bine-kinstlerin" (Mina Bern: Portrait of a Yiddish Stage Artist) . Forverts. Retrieved March 30, 2018. In 1930, through her relative Moishe Broderzon, she shortened her name and auditioned successfully to join the Ararat Yiddish cabaret theater in Łódź, 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.Zylbercweig, Zalmen (1959). "Bern (Bernholts), Mina" . Leksikon fun yidishn teater [Lexicon of Yiddish Theater]. With the assistance of Jacob Mestel. New York: Elisheva. Vol. 3, column 2296. 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 yidisher miniatur-teatr" (miniature revi-teater) 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 in 1947 to Mandatory Palestine 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. In 1949, after an incident in which she was accused 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. She married actor and producer Ben Bonus. Living in New York City, she and her husband operated the Village Theater, which ran Yiddish performances. She recorded songs in Hebrew.
She died in 2010, and was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.
Awards Bern received an Obie Award in 1999, for her performance in Sweet Dreams (Zise khaloymes), at the Folksbiene.Leon, Masha (January 11, 2010). "Mina Bern, Yiddish Theater Doyenne, Dead at 98". Forward. forward.com. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
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
External links
Remembering Mina Bern, Star of the Yiddish Stage at Forward