Moshe Halevy

Moshe Halevy was born in 1895 in Mscislaŭ

Moshe Halevy was born Moshe Wolfovich Gurevich in 1895 in Mstislav, then in Russia and today in Belarus. His father, Yaakov Gurevich, was a wealthy merchant. He studied in a cheder and received a Hebrew education, then finished a secondary school in Nizhny Novgorod.

During World War I he moved to Moscow. He joined the Habima theater when it was founded in 1917. In 1925 he recruited actors in Kyiv for a new workers' theater he planned in the Land of Israel, and then immigrated.

In 1925 he founded the Ohel Theater, choosing its name with Hayim Nachman Bialik. He trained a group of 22 young actors, who first performed in 1926 at the Herzliya Gymnasium hall. He served as the theater's director and manager and worked in the spirit of the Stanislavsky method.

From 1932 to 1937 he directed the Adloyada procession in Tel Aviv. In 1954 he set up a theater studio called Dohan. He also wrote plays and a memoir.

He was first married to Hana Rovina. In 1927 he married actress Leah Deganit, and their daughter was singer Ohela Halevi. He died in 1974 and was buried in Kiryat Shaul cemetery.