Reizl Bozyk

Reizl Bozyk (May 13, 1914 – October 1, 1993), also known as Rose Bozyk and Róża Bożyk, was a Polish-born American actress who spent decades as a central figure in Yiddish theatre. Born in Bydgoszcz, Prussian Poland, she came from a theatrical family: her mother, Lea Lewebrowska, was an actress performing in Joseph Lateiner's operetta The Jewish Heart at the time of Bozyk's birth, and her father, Abram Lewebrowski, was a character comic. He died when she was thirteen. Bozyk began performing with her mother's troupe at approximately five or six years of age.

In 1935, Bozyk married actor Max Bozyk, and the two became an inseparable performing partnership on the Yiddish stage. They were working in Argentina in 1939 when Nazi forces overran Poland; a son they had left behind in Poland was killed. The couple arrived in New York City in 1941 and went on to appear together in hundreds of Yiddish productions over nearly three decades, frequently performing in the Borscht Belt during summers. Bozyk built her reputation playing comedian roles and, later, the familiar mother or mother-in-law figure, often drawing the most attention in ensemble productions.

In 1970, following a performance at New York's Town Hall, Max Bozyk collapsed and died. That same year, Reizl appeared on Broadway in Light, Lively and Yiddish, her sole credited Broadway production. After her husband's death, she continued performing, touring the country in Yiddish revues and appearing at Town Hall alongside Israeli star Mary Soreano in all-star revues.

Bozyk's introduction to mainstream American audiences came through the 1988 film Crossing Delancey, directed by Joan Micklin Silver, in which she played the interfering grandmother of Amy Irving's character. She also appeared in the Law and Order episode "Night and Fog," which aired in the show's third season. In 1989, she took her first stage role performed entirely in English, appearing in the comedy Social Security, directed by Peter Lowey at the Forum Theater in Metuchen, New Jersey. The following year she recreated her Crossing Delancey role on stage in Florida and was preparing for another tour when she died.

Bozyk died on October 1, 1993, at St. Vincent's Hospital Medical Center in New York City, at the age of seventy-nine. She was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.