Yehoshua Bertonov was an Israeli stage actor.

Biography

Bertonov was born in 1879 in Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, then part of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, and acted in the theatre in Vilna (Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

) from 1902 to 1911. He established a Jewish amateur theatre group that performed in the Sholem Aleichem theatre in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

. He was also one of the founders of the Habima Theatre in Moscow in 1918, and was a director of the first play performed in that theatre.

He emigrating to Mandate Palestine in 1928, together with the Habimah Theatre.

Awards and honours

• In 1959, Bertonov was awarded the Israel Prize
  Israel Prize
  The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
  
  , in theatre.
• The Bertonov Hall at the Habima Theatre is named after him.

Family

Bertonov's daughter is the Israel Prize winning dancer and choreographer

Choreography

Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...

, Devorah Bertonov, and his son was the actor and announcer, Solomon Bertonov.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients