Bente Kahan (born 23 September 1958) is a Norwegian solo vocalist, actress, musician, director and playwright, best known for her renditions and productions of Yiddish folk music and plays.
Her parents are Holocaust survivors: her mother escaped to Sweden during World War II, with most of her family taken to Auschwitz and murdered there in 1942; her father, rabbi Hermann Kahan (born as Chaim Hersh Kahan), a member of the Satmar hasidic sect, was born in Romania, and he was saved by an American soldier who saw his arm moving under a pile of dead bodies.
[1] Kahan is a graduate in performing arts at Tel Aviv University, and also at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, in New York City.
[2] Kahan started her career acting in 1981 at the Habima theatre in Tel Aviv and at the Nationaltheatret in Norway, performing for the first time as a singer in Oslo, for a play in Yiddish, the cabaret show Over Byen, in 1983.
[5] Kahan was honored in 2013 with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, for her efforts on behalf of intercultural dialogue and for the rescue of the Jewish heritage of Lower Silesia.