A Luminary of Yiddish Theater: Ida Kamińska (1899-1980)

As part of our ongoing year-long celebration in 2022 of #WomenInYiddish, and our #TheaterThursday series, we're presenting a short film about the Yiddish theater luminary Ida Kamińska.

Ida Kamińska (1899-1980) was a world-renowned Polish actress, director, and translator. As the daughter of actress and “mother of the Jewish stage” Esther Rachel and director Avrom Yitshok Kamińska, Ida was born into Yiddish theater and began her career at the age of five. She devoted her life to Yiddish culture and theater, producing more than 70 plays and performing in more than 150 shows.

Ida left lasting impressions on those who saw her perform. She is credited with helping to develop a Jewish-European style that brought Yiddish theater on par with the coexisting prestigious European theatrical traditions. After World War II, Ida returned to Warsaw to reestablish Yiddish theater. She served as the artistic director of the Jewish State Theater of Poland, which was later renamed in honor or her and her mother.

In this short, narrators interviewed as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project share stories of her stardom, which stretched from Warsaw to New York City and beyond.

Learn more about the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/wexler-oral-history-project

Видео A Luminary of Yiddish Theater: Ida Kamińska (1899-1980) канала Yiddish Book Center