Dina Halpern (15 July 1909, Warsaw [1] – 18 February 1989, Chicago) was a Polish-born actress of the Yiddish theater, who came to the United States in 1938, on the eve of the Second World War, and spent the rest of her life there. [2] She first became famous in the 1930s for her roles on the Yiddish stage in Poland, as well as in Yiddish-language films. [3] After the war she performed with great success in Yiddish theaters in the U.S., especially in Chicago, where she made her home; [3] and toured internationally, both as a guest star and a director of Yiddish troupes. [2] Also well known for her recitations, she was highly regarded as an interpreter of classic and contemporary Yiddish poetry. [2] Halpern won the Itzik Manger Prize in 1988. [2]
Halpern was a niece of the renowned Yiddish actress Ester Rachel Kaminska, and a cousin of Kamińska's daughter, the actress Ida Kamińska. [3]
Dina Merrill was an American actress. She had more than a hundred film and television credits from the late 1950s until 2000s. Throughout her life, she married three times.
Ida Kamińska was a Polish actress and director. Known mainly for her work in the theatre, she was the daughter of Avrom Yitshok Kaminski and Ester Rachel Kamińska, known as the Mother of the Jewish Stage. The Jewish Theatre in Warsaw, Poland is named in their honor. In her long career Kamińska produced more than 70 plays, and performed in more than 150 productions. She also wrote two plays of her own and translated many works in Yiddish. World War II disrupted her career, and she later immigrated to the United States where she continued to act. In 1967, she directed herself in the lead role of Mother Courage and Her Children on Broadway. In 1973, she released her autobiography, titled My Life, My Theater.
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Sara Adler was a Russian actress in Yiddish theater who made her career mainly in the United States. She was known as the "mother" or "duchess" of Yiddish theater.
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Helen Beverley was an American film and stage actress, who began her career in Yiddish theater and films. She was sometimes credited as Helen Beverly.
Ester Rachel Kamińska ; née Ester-Rokhl Halpern was a Polish Jewish actress, known as the mother of Yiddish theatre. She won fame as the star of a series of Yiddish theater companies managed by her husband, Avrom Yitshok Kamiński, touring in the cities and small towns of the Russian Empire from approximately 1893 to 1905. In Warsaw, in 1907 they together founded the Literary Troupe, the first Yiddish theater company to dedicate itself to a 'literary' or 'artistic' repertoire.
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The Itzik Manger Prize for outstanding contributions to Yiddish literature was established in 1968, shortly before Itzik Manger's death in 1969. Manger "was and remains one of the best-known twentieth-century Yiddish poets." The Prize has been described as the "most prestigious in Yiddish letters". Apparently no Manger Prizes have been awarded after 1999.
Jana Robbins, née Marsha Eisenberg, is a Tony, Olivier and Drama Desk Award-winning American producer, actress, director, teacher, and speaker. She has produced and won awards for her West End, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.
Dina Halpern at IMDb