Actress Leah Shlanger Dies

On March 8, 2023, the famous Israeli actress, radio host, singer and journalist Leah Shlanger passed away at the age of 91. Her Yiddish radio broadcasts were heard for many decades on the New York radio WEVD and the Israeli station Kol Yisrael. During the last years of her life, she published essays in the American Internet magazine Yiddish Branzhe.

Shlanger was born in 1932 in the Polish city of Kalisz. Soon after the war-time evacuation to the USSR, she returned to Poland, and then has been living in Israel since 1957. During her lifetime, the actress performed in more than 50 Yiddish and Hebrew plays, as well as in several films.

On March 9, Mendy Cahan, the director of the Tel Aviv organization Yung Yiddish, posted on Facebook an excerpt from a talk with Leah Shlanger that took place a year before her death. The same video excerpt has been also published by the Yiddish Forward. It was filmed by the Israeli director Geert van Kesteren who stated that in the near future he is planning to create a documentary about the actress.