Ze'ev Revach, Leah Keonig to light torch on Independence Day
The popular actor and award-winning actress will light a torch at Israel's 70th Independence Day ceremony. Both of the actors have become well known names in Israeli culture, on theatre stages and movie screens.
Leah Koenig was born in Lodz, Poland, to a well known family of actors. After World War II, the family immigrated to Romania, where Koenig studied acting at the Academy for Arts.
At the age of 17, she started appearing on the stages of Bucharest's Jewish Theatre. In 1961, she immigrated to Israel, and it didn't take long before she joined the national Habima Theatre.
Throughout the years, she played dozens of lead roles in classic and modern plays including: "The Ketuba," "Miral'eh Efrat," "Mother Courage and her Children," "The Blood Wedding," "Filumena Marturano," "The Visit," "A Tour Guide in Warsaw," "Driving Miss Daisy," "A Simple Story." Among the one-woman-shows she did were "Stars Without Sky," and the monodrama "Oscar and Aunt Rosa." In 1987 she was awarded with the Israel Theatre Award.
Ze'ev Revach, the Culture Ministry said, "is one of Israel's comedy giants, on the screen and on the stage."
Revach was born in Rabat, Morocco and immigrated with his family to Jerusalem, where he was educated on Jewish tradition and the Torah.
"Revach is one of the pillars of Israeli culture—an actor, producer, comedian and director—his work in the cinema and theatre will be forever engraved in our hearts," the ministry went on to say.
"Revach has been appearing on Israel's screens and stages for years. In his special artistic way and through the eyes of his immortal characters, he expresses his endless virtuosity to tell our story, to make us laugh, and to move us."
Revach was "excited, happy and thrilled" when he learned of the honor bestowed upon him. "My life's calling is to make people happy and this announcement went out in this joyous day to the Mizrahi Jews and to the entire Israeli nation," he told Ynet. "I thank God to have come to this moment, and I'll do my best to make the Israeli nation as happy as I've done so far. The announcement was a huge surprise, and I'm ecstatic."
Culture Minister Regev said Saturday that e was delighted to deliver the good news to Revach. "Ze'evik was brought up on the Torah's values in a Zionist environment since he was born. He symbolizes the arts' incredible diverse ability to penetrate the hearts of the masses. A lot of quotes taken from his movie and stage characters have become a part of our daily discourse and are an essential part of our slang," she said.
"Ze'evik is moving, charismatic and hilariously funny. Ze'evik, the people love you and wish you many more years of making the public laugh," added Regev.
"Your life's story and roles you've portrayed throughout the years entail the stories of the North African immigration, of inexhaustible cultural wealth, and of an authentic Israeli creation, a creation the nation can relate to, a creation influenced by our sages, and which originates from Israel's boulevards, markets and squares," Minister Regev concluded.
