Identity card of the actress and one of the founders of Habima Theater, Hannah Rovina, along with an interesting handwritten letter addressed to the Mayor of Jerusalem on the back of an invitation to the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the Jerusalem Theater building.
Rovina’s identity card, issued in Tel Aviv, includes her personal details filled in by hand, her signature, and her passport photograph.
An emotional letter handwritten by Rovina to Jerusalem Mayor Mordechai Ish-Shalom, penned on the reverse of the invitation to the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the Jerusalem Theater – October 1964: “Prepare, prepare for Habima in Jerusalem, sanctify yourselves, purify yourselves for Habima in Jerusalem…” – thus we sang, the early pioneers of Habima, more than forty years ago in exile. And Jerusalem was a distant dream. I loved the city from my early childhood, from the school bench in my little town, and I never believed the day would come when I would see it. I will never forget my heartbeat when I first ascended to Jerusalem, the performance of ‘The Eternal Jew’ on a primitive stage. And now, the laying of the cornerstone for the Jerusalem Theater building. I am saddened that I cannot be present at this celebration. I pray that the building will rise in glory, for the honor of the city and the entire land.” (The letter is unsigned).
Hannah Rovina [1888–1980], Israeli theater actress, was one of the central and iconic figures in the history of Hebrew stage. Born in Minsk (in present-day Belarus), she joined the Habima troupe in Moscow at the start of her career — which was, in fact, the world’s first Hebrew theater, and was among its founders. In 1928, she immigrated to the Land of Israel with the troupe and became one of the founding pillars of Hebrew theater in the country. Her most famous role was that of Leah in The Dybbuk by S. An-Sky, in which she portrayed, with dramatic intensity, the girl possessed by a spirit, a performance that turned her into a legend in her own lifetime. Rovina was known as “the mother of Hebrew theater, ” and her poetic, pathos-filled acting style helped shape the stage language of Israeli theater for generations.
Wear to the identity card. Overall good condition.
