{{short description|Polish-born American actor}} {{Infobox person | name = Berta Gersten | image = Berta Gersten.jpg | caption = Gersten, c. 1925 | other_names = | birth_name = Berta Gerstenman | birth_date = 1894 | birth_place = Kraków, Grand Duchy of Kraków (now Poland) | death_date = September 10, 1972 | death_place = The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States | death_cause = | education = | occupation = actor | employer = | known_for = Yiddish theatre | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = }}
'''Berta Gersten''' (1894 – September 10, 1972; née '''Berta Gerstenman'''), was a Polish-born American actor, in Yiddish theater and later in Broadway productions. She took a major role in ''The Benny Goodman Story'' film in 1954.
==Biography== Gersten was born in 1894, or maybe 1896, in Kraków, Grand Duchy of Kraków (now Poland). Her family moved to New York City in 1899 where her father, Avrom Gerstenman, was a translator and her mother, Meshe (née Kopps) was a dressmaker.
[[File:Berta Gersten with the Yiddish Art Theatre troupe in London 1935.jpg|left|thumb|Berta Gersten with the Yiddish Art Theatre troupe in London in 1935]] Her acting debut happened because her mother was working for an actor who needed a child for a production.<ref name="jwa">{{Cite web |title=Berta Gersten |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gersten-berta |access-date=2022-07-03 |website=Jewish Women's Archive |language=en}}</ref> In 1918 she was recruited by Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre troup performing notable Yiddish works and dramatic classics like Chekhov Ibsen and Shakespeare in Yiddish.<ref name="nyt" /> Stayed with the theatre for 25 years frequently in leading roles with Jacob Ben-Ami.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Berta Gersten |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/berta-gersten |access-date=2022-07-03 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>
A film adaptation of the play Mirele Efros was made in the United States in 1939. It was directed by Josef Berne with Gersten in the title role and Ruth Elbaum as Shaindl. It was made in Yiddish with English subtitles.<ref>"[http://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/mireleefros.htm Mirele Efros]". National Center for Jewish Film. jewishfilm.org. Retrieved 2017-04-14.</ref>
Gersten acted in Yiddish plays, but in 1954 she took a role in an English-speaking play "The World of Sholom Aleichem" on Broadway. She was known for acting in the theatre, but she played Benny's mother in the 1956 film The Benny Goodman Story. This was her only Hollywood film appearance.<ref name=jwa/> Other significant Broadway productions of ''The Flowering Peach'' (1955), ''A Majority of One'' (1959), and ''Sophie'' (1963) included Gersten in the cast. Her lasting acting role was in ''My Father's Court'' in 1971.<ref name=":0" />
==Death and legacy== Gersten died in a hospital in The Bronx, aged 78.<ref name=nyt>{{Cite news |date=1972-09-11 |title=Berta Gersten, a Leading Lady Of Yiddish Stage, Is Dead at 78 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/11/archives/berta-gersten-a-leading-lady-of-yiddish-stage-is-dead-at-78.html |access-date=2022-07-03 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Gersten is included in the 1971 work Notable American Women, 1607–1950; A Biographical Dictionary.<ref name=James_et_al-1971>{{cite book |editor1-last=James |editor1-first=Edward T. |editor2-first=Janet Wilson |editor2-last=James |editor3-first=Paul S. |editor3-last=Boyer |title=Notable American Women, 1607–1950; A Biographical Dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw02jame_0 |url-access=registration |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |date=1971 }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031659/ Mirele Efros at IMDB]".
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gersten, Berta}} Category:1890s births Category:1972 deaths Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:20th-century American actresses Category:Actresses from Kraków Category:Actresses from New York City Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Polish emigrants to the United States Category:Yiddish theatre performers