The 1983 Israel Prize for dramatic art has been awarded to Shmuel Rudensky, a Russian-born actor who has portrayed a wide range of characters on stage since the earliest days of theater in Israel, the Ministry of Education and Culture announced last night. Rudensky, 80, will receive the award on Israel Independence Day next spring, as a tribute to his life’s work.
He was born in Smargon, a town near Vilna, Lithuania, which was then part of Russia. He immigrated to Palestine in 1924 and after working as an agricultural and construction laborer, he joined local theater groups, commencing a long theatrical career. He is best known for his roles as Tevya the milkman, which he played for many years in Hamburg in the German version of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.