Born on 16 February 1888 in Czernowitz, Bukovina. Her father was a Gemara teacher and a religious slaughterer. She studied in a cheder and in a public school.

From her childhood, she was attracted to the theatre. Not being able to get in to the theatre, she used to stand outside the theatre where Yiddish troupes used to play.

She met the actor Shmuel Bendel, married him, and after three years, entered the chorus of Zelig Schorr in Stanislawow where she stayed for one season. Then she played in vaudeville one season with Pepi Litmann.

Then moving to Romania, she played one season with the Bleichmans, then in Lemberg with Podzamcze, again with him in Vienna and in Bad-Karlsbad, where the owner of the Yiddish variety Theatre in America, Sam Agid, saw her, took her in and brought her to America where she acted for five years, then in legitimate Yiddish theatre for one season with Sidney Hart in Cleveland, again for three years in Yiddish vaudeville, then three years in legitimate Yiddish theatre at New York's Lyric Theatre, in Boston some seasons with Glickman in Chicago, in the Lenox and Lyric theatres of New York, three more years with Julius Nathanson in Boston, some seasons with Glickman in Chicago, then in other Yiddish groups, where she played with success various character roles.

In her last years, R. was married with the prompter Meyer Braff.

She was sick for a long period and had to undergo several surgeries. She passed away on 5 May 1940, and she came to her eternal rest in the cemetery of the Yiddish Actors Alliance (at Mt. Hebron Cemetery -- ed.) in New York.

 

M. E.