Reizl Bozyk (born 13 May 1914, Poland – 1 October 1993,

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

, USA), also known as Rose Bozyk and Róża Bożyk, was a Polish-born American actress of the

Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues ...

. Her claim to mainstream fame was her sole film role, playing the interfering grandmother of

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Joan Micklin Silver Joan Micklin Silver (May 24, 1935 – December 31, 2020) was an American director of films and plays. Born in Omaha, Silver moved to New York City in 1967 where she began writing and directing films. She is best known for ''Hester Street'' (197 ...

's film ''

Crossing Delancey ''Crossing Delancey'' is a 1988 American romantic comedy film starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert. Joan Micklin Silver directed it, drawing upon a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay. The film also features performances from ...

'' (1988). She also appeared in a memorable ''

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'' episode "Night and Fog" which aired in season 3.

Life and career

Reizl Bozyk was born into a stage family in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

, Poland, where her mother, the actress Lea Lewebrowska, was acting in

Joseph Lateiner Joseph Lateiner (1853 – 1935) was a playwright in the early years of Yiddish theater, first in Bucharest, Romania and later in New York City, where he was a co-founder in 1903 with Sophia Karp of the Grand Theater, New York's first purpose-buil ...

's operetta ''The Jewish heart'' (''Dos yidishe harts''). Her father, Abram Lewebrowski, a character comic, died when she was only three years old. At a very young age, she began acting with her mother's troupe. In 1935 she married actor Max Bozyk. Bozyk was an enduring star of the Yiddish stage in New York City, appearing in hundreds of productions, often as a comedian and later as the familiar mother or mother-in-law character who often stole the show. She began acting in the Yiddish theater in Poland at the age of 5 or 6, performing first with her parents and then with Max Bozyk, whom she later married. Max and Reizl Bozyk were performing in Argentina in 1939 when the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

overran Poland. They had left behind a son in Poland, who was killed. They came to New York City in 1941. For nearly three decades, they were inseparable on the Yiddish stage, starring in one play or revue after another. Summers were spent performing in the

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. In an interview when ''

'' opened, Bozyk joked that the 37 years spent with her husband had been like 74 because they'd spent their entire days and nights together. In 1970, after a performance at New York's Town Hall, her husband collapsed and died. Reizl continued to appear in performances, touring the country in Yiddish revues. She went on to appear in New York's "Town Hall" with the celebrated Israeli star Mary Soreano and all-star revues. In 1989, she played her first stage role in English, appearing in the comedy ''Social Security'' directed by Peter Lowey at the Forum Theater in

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. The following year she recreated her ''Crossing Delancey'' role on stage in Florida, and was due to tour again when she suddenly died.

Death

She died at St. Vincent's Hospital Medical Center in New York City, aged 79, from undisclosed causes. She was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bozyk, Reizl Actresses from New York (state) American stage actresses American people of Polish-Jewish descent American film actresses Jewish American actresses Polish emigrants to Argentina Polish stage actresses Yiddish theatre performers 1914 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American actresses Argentine emigrants to the United States Argentine people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish Argentine actresses Burials at Mount Hebron Cemetery (New York City) 20th-century American Jews