{{Short description|Australian theatre actress and director}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} thumb|right|Rachel Holzer '''Rachel Holzer''' ({{langx|yi|רחל האָלצער}}; 1899 – November 14, 1998) was an internationally acclaimed Australian Jewish theatre actress and director.<ref>{{cite book |last= Shain|first=Milton |title= American Jewish Year Book, 1999|year=1999 |publisher=The American Jewish Committee| chapter=Australia}}</ref>
== Life == Holzer was born in 1899 in Kraków, Poland. Her parents were Anna Holzer (born Blatt) and her husbands Ignacy (Isaac) Holzer. Her mother was a home maker and her father was a house painter who led the local Yiddish Workers’ Union.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Rokhl Holzer |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/holzer-rokhl |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Jewish Women's Archive |language=en}}</ref>
She appeared in ''Di Emese Kraft'' a play by the Russiam American playwright Jacob Gordin when she was six. It is said that this experience created her ambitions to become an actress.<ref name="Jewish Women's Archive" />
She attended Krakow Polish Drama School, graduating in 1925. She was an actor with the Polish National Theater and worked in Yiddish Theater throughout Poland. She was married to the playwright Chaim Rozenstein.<ref name="Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation">{{cite web |title=Rachel Holzer (1899-1998) |url=https://www.monash.edu/arts/acjc/yiddish-melbourne/biographies/biographies-rachel-holzer |website=Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation |access-date=18 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Jewish Women's Archive">{{cite web |title=Rokhl Holzer |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/holzer-rokhl |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=18 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
In 1939 Holzer and her husband arrived in Melbourne as part of a world tour.<ref name="Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation2">{{cite web |title=Yiddish Theatre in Australia |url=https://www.monash.edu/arts/acjc/yiddish-melbourne/culture/yiddish-theatre-in-australia |website=Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation |access-date=18 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref> While Holzer was performing in Australia, the Germans invaded Poland. Holzer would remain in Australia for the rest of her life.<ref name="Jewish Women's Archive"/>
Holzer had a successful career in the theater in Australia as an actress and director. One of her most important performances was in 1966 when she recited Yevgeny's Yevtushenko's Babi Yar in poetry. He was there as she performed his poem for 6,000 people which told how thousands of Jews had been massacred by the Nazis. She used her skills to speak in the voice of a mother whose children were killed. The audience and the Australian were moved.<ref name=":0" />
She often worked at the Dovid (David) Herman Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.<ref name="Jewish Women's Archive" /> She retired in 1977.<ref name="Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation" />
Holzer died in Melbourne on November 14, 1998, at the age of 99.<ref name="Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation"/><ref name="Jewish Women's Archive"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0392804}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holzer, Rachel}} Category:1899 births Category:1998 deaths Category:Australian stage actresses Category:Australian theatre directors Category:Australian women theatre directors Category:Jewish theatre directors Category:Jewish Australian actresses