Archives
The Rena Costa Center for Yiddish Studies possesses some private archives of well-known Yiddish performers such as Dina Halpern, Emma Shaver and Hertz Grosbard, as well as the archive of the author and journalist Efraim Shedletzki.
Dina Halpern (1909-1989) 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. She first became famous in the 1930s for her roles on the Yiddish stage in Poland, as well as in Yiddish-language films. After the war she performed with great success in Yiddish theaters in the U.S., especially in Chicago, where she made her home; and toured internationally, both as a guest star and a director of Yiddish troupes. Also well known for her recitations, she was highly regarded as an interpreter of classic and contemporary Yiddish poetry. Halpern won the Itzik Manger Prize in 1988.
