Pnina Gary
Israeli actress and theatre director (1927–2023)
title: "Pnina Gary" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1927-births", "2023-deaths", "people-from-nahalal", "jews-from-mandatory-palestine", "israeli-people-of-ukrainian-jewish-descent", "israeli-stage-actresses", "israeli-film-actresses", "israeli-women-dramatists-and-playwrights", "israeli-women-theatre-directors", "jewish-theatre-directors", "jewish-israeli-actresses", "burials-at-nahalal-cemetery", "20th-century-israeli-actresses", "21st-century-israeli-actresses", "20th-century-israeli-jews", "21st-century-israeli-jews", "israeli-theatre-directors"] description: "Israeli actress and theatre director (1927–2023)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pnina_Gary" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Israeli actress and theatre director (1927–2023) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Pnina Gary |
| native_name | פנינה גרי |
| native_name_lang | Hebrew |
| image | Pnina Gary - Tzavta - 2765.JPG |
| caption | Gary in 2011 |
| birth_name | Pnina Dromi |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Nahalal, Mandatory Palestine |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| resting_place | |
| occupation | |
| spouse | |
| children | 2, including Meirav Gary |
| relatives | Michael Cohen (grandson) |
| :: |
| name = Pnina Gary | native_name = פנינה גרי | native_name_lang = Hebrew | image = Pnina Gary - Tzavta - 2765.JPG | caption = Gary in 2011 | imagesize = | birth_name = Pnina Dromi | birth_date = | birth_place = Nahalal, Mandatory Palestine | death_date = | death_place = Tel Aviv, Israel | resting_place = | years_active = | occupation = | spouse = | children = 2, including Meirav Gary | parents = | relatives = Michael Cohen (grandson)
Pnina Gary (; Dromi; 24 September 1927 – 2 August 2023) was an Israeli actress and theatre director.
Biography
Pnina Dromi was born and raised in Nahalal, Mandatory Palestine, the daughter of Yosef Dromi (previously Kotlar) and Tzipora Ostrowski. Her parents made aliyah from Ukraine in 1919. Gary attended to Nahalal Agricultural High School (), and later the teachers' seminar to become a kindergarten teacher.
In March 1948, during Israel's war for independence, just a few days before she was supposed to marry Eli, the son of Rachel Yanait and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (later to be the second president of Israel), her Palmach member husband-to-be was killed in in the fields of their kibbutz, Beit Keshet.
In September 1948, trying to recover from the outcome of the Beit Keshet battle, she volunteered to participate in an expedition of teachers to the DP camps around Munich. She was sent to help set up kindergartens in the camps and work with Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. Six months later, she was sent to reside in Ulm, in order to do the same work in the DP camps around Stuttgart.
In Munich, she met her husband, , a Jewish American journalist, who reported from the camps. They married in Germany in late 1949 and two weeks later moved to Israel. The couple had two daughters, Dorit and . Through Meirav, she is the grandmother of rapper Michael Cohen.
Gary wrote a weekly column for Davar, an Israeli newspaper, for two years.
Pnina Gary died in Tel Aviv on August 2, 2023, at the age of 95.
Artistic career
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Pnina_Gary_-1953-_New_York.jpg" caption="Pnina Gary in New York, 1953"] ::
From 1953 through 1957, Pnina Gary studied acting in New York, in the private schools of Herbert Berghof and Lee Strasberg, and took lessons in the Actors Studio. After their return to Israel, in 1959, she co-founded the Zavit Theater, which was active for nine years and among others produced Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit", featuring Gary herself. During those years, she also acted in various theater shows produced by other theaters in Tel Aviv.
In 1968, Gary joined HaBima as an actress, until 1980. From 1981 through 1990 she was the artistic director of the Orna Porat Theater. She adapted a number of novels to theater, by the most renowned Israeli novelists: Amos Oz, Sami Michael, Shulamit Lapid, Tzruya Shalev and Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
Pnina Gary's film appearances as an actress include: The Dock (1960), Dreams (1969), Death Has No Friends (1970), Ariana (1971) and the BBC's A Dinner of Herbs (1988).
In 2006, she received an award for her life's work from both the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Education and ASSITEJ.
In 2008, Gary wrote and directed the one-woman show An Israeli Love Story, based on her own true life story between 1942, when she first met Eli Ben-Zvi, and 1948, with the tragic ending of their relationship. The play is still performed by Adi Bielski, who won the Israeli Best Actress Award in Fringe Theater in 2009.
The play was translated to English and performed at The Leeds Jewish International Performing Arts Festival in 2009, at London's New End Theatre from May 18 to June 6, 2010, and at the National Arts Centre in OttawaJennifer Mcintosh, An Israeli Love Story in Ottawa, yourottawaregion.com. August 24, 2011. Sabine Gibbins, An Israeli Love Story Coming to Ottawa Sept. 7-8 September 1, 2011, Ottawa South EMC.Patrick Langston, A bounty of plays this month September 4, 2011, The Ottawa Citizen. as well as Montreal, Toronto and Washington, D.C.,Laura Cutler, About Love and Israel – An Israeli Love Story, September 9, 2011, American University website. in September 2011. The show was also performed in the Harold Green Jewish Theatre in Toronto in 2014.
In 2011, Gary directed "Tmol Shilshom" (Only Yesterday), the novel by Shmuel Yosef Agnon which she adapted to theatre, and in 2012 Gary staged "My Name is Yuda", a poetry theater show based on the poems of Yehuda Amichai, which also featured Adi Bielski. "My Name is Yuda": The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai at Tzavta, midnighteast.com. Accessed December 4, 2022.
In 2013, Gary directed in Paris the French production of "An Israeli Love Story" (in French) under the name Une histoire d'amour israélienne, played by French actress Estelle Grynszpan.
In 2015, Gary published an autobiographical novel in Hebrew under the same title as the Hebrew title of the monodrama "An Israeli Love Story". The book was published under Schocken Books.
In 2016, the Hebrew language film, Sipur Ahava Eretz-Israeli (An Israeli Love Story) was released, directed by Dan Wolman and starring Adi Bielski based on Gary's life's story and the monodrama by the same name.
References
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Pnina_Gary_-1958-Estelle_Rigault(No_Exit).jpg" caption="Pnina Gary as Estelle Rigault in "[[No Exit]]", Tel-Aviv 1958"] ::
References
- [https://www.ishim.co.il/p.php?s=פנינה+גרי Pnina Gary’s filmography] (in Hebrew)
- Yocheved Miriam Russo, [https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=172250 Love in troubled times], ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'', April 2, 2010
- [https://www.ynet.co.il/entertainment/article/bkbqq600ih אשת התיאטרון פנינה גרי הלכה לעולמה בגיל 95] {{in lang. he
- ''McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama'', 1984, p. 322.
- [http://www.cine-holocaust.de/cgi-bin/gdq?efw00fbw000144.gd "The Dock"] {{Webarchive. link. (August 7, 2011 , cine-holocaust.de. Accessed December 4, 2022.)
- {{IMDb title. 0140970. Dreams
- {{IMDb title. 0179756. Death Has No Friends
- {{IMDb title. 0066782. Ariana
- {{IMDb title. 1685488. A Dinner of Herbs
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090202131939/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/415484?view=cast ''A Dinner of Herbs''], ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift. Accessed December 4, 2022.
- link. (June 25, 2010 , HaniTheater.com. Accessed December 4, 2022.)
- [http://www.offwestendtheatres.co.uk/index.php?where=new_end&showid=511 ''An Israeli Love Story''], offwestendtheatres.co.uk. Accessed December 4, 2022.
- [http://www.jewishtribune.ca/uncategorized/2011/09/06/israeli-play-comes-to-montreal Israeli play comes to Montreal] {{webarchive. link. (September 27, 2013 Sep 6, 2011, ''[[The Jewish Tribune (Canada)). The Jewish Tribune]]''
- [http://shalomcanada.com/1668/israeli-love-story-by-pnina-gerry-september-15-730-pm/ ''An Israeli Love Story'' – September 15] {{webarchive. link. (April 2, 2012 August 29, 2011, ShalomCanada.com)
- link. (March 29, 2012 by Lisa Traiger, September 7, 2011, ''[[Washington Jewish Week]]''.)
- [http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/one-woman-production-depicts-epic-love-story/ One woman production depicts epic 'love story'] {{Webarchive. link. (November 7, 2012)
- [http://www.tocentre.com/studio/AnIsraeliLoveStory ''An Israeli Love Story''] {{webarchive. link. (February 26, 2014 at [[Toronto Centre for the Arts]] website.)
- [http://tdm4.perso.sfr.fr/histoiredamourisraelienne.htm "Une histoire d'amour israélienne"], at "Théâtre Darius Milhaud" website.
- {{IMDb title. tt6077176. Sipur Ahava Eretz-Israeli
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