{{Short description|American actress (1911–2010)}} {{Infobox person | name = Mina Bern | image = | caption = | birth_name = Mina Bernholtz | birth_date = {{birth date|1911|5|5}} | birth_place = Bielsk Podlaski, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|2010|1|10|1911|5|5}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = Yiddish theater | awards = Obie Award | notable_works = }} '''Mina Bern''' (May 5, 1911 – January 10, 2010)<ref name=NYTObit>{{cite news|title=Mina Bern, Versatile Yiddish Actress, Dies at 98|first=Joseph|last=Berger|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 12, 2010|accessdate=January 13, 2010|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/theater/13bern.html}}</ref><ref name=NYTKvell>{{cite news|title=Kvelling Over a Matriarch of the Yiddish Theater|first=Corey|last=Kilgannon|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 12, 2010|accessdate=January 13, 2010|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/nyregion/13yiddish.html}}</ref> was a Polish and American actress. She was a star of the Yiddish theater.<ref name="Queen of mamaloshen">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110607000008/http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/pen-ultimate-queen-of-mamaloshen-1.261876 Queen of mamaloshen]</ref>
==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.<ref name="forverts">Ben-Avraham, Michael (September 8, 2006). "[https://yiddish2.forward.com/node/11.html Mina Bern: Portret fun a yidisher bine-kinstlerin]" (Mina Bern: Portrait of a Yiddish Stage Artist) {{in lang|yi}}. ''Forverts''. Retrieved March 30, 2018.</ref> In 1930, through her relative Moishe Broderzon, she shortened her name and auditioned successfully to join the Ararat Yiddish cabaret theater in Łódź,<ref name="Queen of mamaloshen"/> 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.<ref name="Zylbercweig">Zylbercweig, Zalmen (1959). "[https://archive.org/stream/nybc201091#page/2295/mode/1up Bern (Bernholts), Mina]" {{in lang|yi}}. ''Leksikon fun yidishn teater'' [Lexicon of Yiddish Theater]. With the assistance of Jacob Mestel. New York: Elisheva. Vol. 3, column 2296.</ref> 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)<ref name="forverts"/> 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.<ref name="Zylbercweig"/> 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.<ref name="Queen of mamaloshen"/> She married actor and producer Ben Bonus. Living in New York City, she and her husband operated the Village Theater, which ran Yiddish performances.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kafrissen |first1=Rokhl |title=Yiddish in Israel |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/yiddish-in-israel |publisher=Tablet |accessdate=8 April 2020 |date=7 April 2020}}</ref> She recorded songs in Hebrew.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}
She died in 2010, and was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens. <ref>{{cite news|last1=Berger|first1=Joseph|title=Mina Bern, Versatile Yiddish Actress, Dies at 98|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/theater/13bern.html|accessdate=17 April 2016|newspaper=New York Times|date=January 13, 2010|page=A29}}</ref>
==Awards== Bern received an Obie Award in 1999, for her performance in ''Sweet Dreams'' (''Zise khaloymes''), at the Folksbiene.<ref>Leon, Masha (January 11, 2010). "[https://www.forward.com/news/123197/mina-bern-yiddish-theater-doyenne-dead-at-98/ Mina Bern, Yiddish Theater Doyenne, Dead at 98]". ''Forward''. forward.com. Retrieved March 30, 2018.</ref>
==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== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0075957}} * [https://forward.com/news/123536/remembering-mina-bern-star-of-the-yiddish-stage/ Remembering Mina Bern, Star of the Yiddish Stage] at [https://forward.com/ Forward]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bern, Mina}} Category:1911 births Category:2010 deaths Category:People from Bielsk Podlaski Category:People from Belsky Uyezd (Grodno Governorate) Category:Polish Jews Category:Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Category:Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American stage actresses Category:Jewish American actresses Category:Jewish cabaret performers Category:Yiddish theatre performers Category:Polish cabaret performers Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American women Category:Obie Award recipients Category:Burials at Mount Hebron Cemetery (New York City)