Bente Kahan (born 23 September 1958) is a Norwegian solo vocalist, actress, musician, director and playwright, best known for her renditions and productions of

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

folk music and plays. Since 2002 she has lived and worked in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Biography

Kahan was born in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. Her parents are Holocaust survivors: her mother escaped to Sweden during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, with most of her family taken to Auschwitz and murdered there in 1942; her father, rabbi

Hermann Kahan Herman Kahan (born Chaim Hersh Kahan; 15 February 1926 – 13 February 2020) was a Romanian-born Norwegian businessman, rabbi, author, and Holocaust survivor. Early life Kahan was born into an Hasidic Jewish family in Sighet, Romania. Elie ...

(born as Chaim Hersh Kahan), a member of the

Satmar Satmar (Yiddish: סאַטמאַר, Hebrew: סאטמר) is a Hasidic group founded in 1905 by Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, in the city of Szatmárnémeti, Hungary (now Satu Mare in Romania). The group is an offshoot of the Sighet Hasidic dynast ...

hasidic sect, was born in Romania, and he was saved by an American soldier who saw his arm moving under a pile of dead bodies.Yiddish singer brings to life voices silenced by the Holocaust

Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.

Kahan is a graduate in performing arts at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

, and also at the

American Musical and Dramatic Academy The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) is a private conservatory for the performing arts located in New York City and Los Angeles, California. The conservatory offers both Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and two-year certificates in prof ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Career

Kahan sings mainly in

, but has also recorded and performed in

Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and a mix of Yiddish with Polish, Russian, Norwegian, Hungarian, German and English. Kahan started her career acting in 1981 at the

Habima The Habima Theatre ( he, תיאטרון הבימה ''Te'atron HaBima'', lit. "The Stage Theatre") is the national theatre of Israel and one of the first Hebrew language theatres. It is located in Habima Square in the center of Tel Aviv. History ...

theatre in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

and at the

Nationaltheatret The National Theatre in Oslo ( no, Nationaltheatret) is one of Norway's largest and most prominent venues for performance of dramatic arts. History The theatre had its first performance on 1 September 1899 but can trace its origins to Christiani ...

in Norway, performing for the first time as a singer in Oslo, for a play in

, the cabaret show ''Over Byen'', in 1983. Together with Ellen Foyn Bruun she has written three plays: Bessie (about blues singer

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and ...

) in 1986; Letter Without a Stamp in 1988; and ''Stemmer fra Theresienstadt'' in 1995—translated into German the same year and into English in 1997. In 1990, after serving in several Norwegian theatrical companies, she founded her own, ''Teater Dybbuk'' in

. In 2001, she moved with her husband and two children to Wroclaw. She is the current director of the Wroclaw Centre for Jewish Culture and Education.

Bente Kahan Foundation

Kahan came up with the Bente Kahan Foundation in 2006, aiming to furthering mutual respect and human rights through the perspective of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. Their first activity was the restoration of the

White Stork Synagogue The White Stork Synagogue ( pl, Synagoga Pod Białym Bocianem) is a nineteenth-century synagogue in Wrocław, Poland. Rededicated in 2010 after a decade-long renovation, it is the religious and cultural centre of the local Jewish community, under ...

in Wroclaw, the only synagogue in that city to have survived the

, as part of their efforts to preserve the 800 year-old-history of the Jews in

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...

. This was completed in 2010. Kahan was honored in 2013 with the ''Knight's Cross'' of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on al ...

, for her efforts on behalf of intercultural dialogue and for the rescue of the Jewish heritage of Lower Silesia.

Discography

* 1991: ''Yiddishkayt'' * 1992: ''Farewell Cracow'' * 1996: ''Stemmer fra Theresienstadt'' (Norwegian) * 1996: ''Stimmen aus Theresienstadt'' (German) * 1997: ''Voices from Theresienstadt'' (English) * 1998: ''Di Gojim'' (klezmer music) * 2000: ''Home'' (Yiddish, Ladino, and Hebrew) * 2005: ''Sing with us in Yiddish'' * 2016: ''Only A Human Being Bente Kahan Sings The Poetry Of Tadeusz Różewicz''

References

External links

*
Bente Kahan foundation at the White Stork synagogue

mic.no profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahan, Bente 1958 births Living people Musicians from Oslo Yiddish-language singers Klezmer musicians Norwegian Jews Norwegian expatriates in Israel Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian expatriates in Poland Tel Aviv University alumni European Ashkenazi Jews Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta People from Wrocław