Anniversaries & holidays
4.09.1899

Birthday anniversary of Ida Kamińska

Ida Kamińska was born on September 4, 1899 in Odessa as the second child of the creators of the Jewish theater – Ester Rachel, and Abraham Izaak Kamiński. She was an actress, director and translator.

Ida's life has been connected with the theater from the very beginning. As a child, she went with her parents to performances in smaller and larger cities in Poland, and in Tsarist Russia. At the age of six, she first appeared on stage. She also helped as a prompter and stage manager, set up the lighting, and controlled the curtain.

In the following years, she tried her hand at the stage in Vienna. However, she did not achieve the expected success there. Upon her return, she performed with her parents' troupe in performances in the provinces. She focused on working on a serious repertoire. She also took up directing and translating plays. She played with her mother and husband at the Central Theater.

In 1924, Ida starred in the first Jewish film made in Poland after World War I – "Tkijes Kaf" (Yiddish: The Vow, based on Peretz Hirschbein) directed by Zygmunt Turków. Together with Turków, she created the theater company "Warszewer Jidiszer Kunst Teater" (Warsaw Jewish Artistic Theatre, in short: WIKT). They staged an ambitious repertoire, such as "The Brothers Karamazov," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky or "The Inspector General," by Nikolai Gogol. The group also presented the audience with contemporary repertoire and adaptations of novels. After parting with Zygmunt Turków, Ida ran her own band, with which she traveled around Poland. In 1938, she settled in Warsaw, where she joined the Nowości Theatre.

The outbreak of World War II found Kamińska in Warsaw. After the capitulation of Warsaw, together with her daughter, son-in-law (Adolf (Adi) Rosner) and second husband – Meir (Marian) Melman, she managed to get to Lwów. There, in 1940, she organized a theater company and ran a state theater.

After the aggression of the Third Reich against the Soviet Union, Kamińska and her family settled in Kyrgyzstan. All the time she organized theatrical performances. In 1944–1946, Kamińska moved to Moscow, where she worked in radio. At the end of 1946 she returned to Poland. She was involved in the reconstruction of the Jewish theater. She performed on Jewish stages in Wrocław and Łódź. In 1948, she became the director of the Jewish Theater in Łódź. In 1949, the Jewish stages of Wrocław and Łódź were merged into one State Jewish Theater, under the direction of Ida Kamińska. In the following years, she tried to move the theater to Warsaw, and it was only in 1955 that she succeeded.

In 1968, Kamińska decided to leave Poland. She went to Israel for a short time, but would finally settle down with her family in New York. She tried to create her own Jewish scene there. However, the plan failed to materialize. She visited Poland in 1975, on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Ester Rachel Kamińska. She died on May 21, 1980 in New York.

Watch this biography on her life. Please adjust CC for ENG subtitles.