Ben Bonus (, 1920–1984) was a prominent American Yiddish theatre and Broadway actor and Yiddish language singer of the twentieth century. He and his wife Mina Bern were credited with keeping Yiddish theatre alive in United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Biography Early life Bonus was born as Baruch Bonus on November 9, 1920 in Horodenka, Stanisławów Voivodeship, Poland, which had until the end of the First World War been part of Galicia, Austria-Hungary. His parents were Meier Bonus and Sheyne Reyzl "Rosa" Katz. His father was a baker who later became a fruit seller. During this time he learned to sing with private lessons. He studied in Cheder until the age of 12 and then studied in the local Polish Gymnasium; during this time he began to perform in children's troupes. For a time he also apparently ran away from home to live in Lvov, singing in courtyards for money, and toured for a bit with Shtshogol's troupe before going home to finish his studies at the Gymnasium. Although his obituary in the New York Times as well as the Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre state that he was brought to the United States in 1929 by an aunt who visited Poland, this appears to be incorrect. He is listed as arriving in the United States in May 1938 on the Polish ship Pilsudski at age 17, under the care of his aunt Mary Schachter, who was a U.S. citizen. His aunt operated a successful bedding business in the Bronx. Bonus's parents and siblings were subsequently killed in the Holocaust in Horodenka. Acting and musical career Not long after arriving in the United States, Bonus performed with the Goldfaden Theatre (funded by the International Worker's Order), and started to give concerts and sing Yiddish songs on the radio with Arnold Jaffe. Apparently Bonus learned a lot from the actor Jacob Ben-Ami during this time. Herman Yablokoff also later said in his memoirs that he had been a theatre teacher to Bonus, and had been astonished by his voice at a young age. He also met his first wife, Pepie Bonus (née Sonnenreich) in an acting class; they married in 1940 and were listed in the census of that year as residing in the Bronx with Pepie's two brothers Morris and Jack. That year his first son was born. In 1942 he joined the Ben Ami troupe in Detroit (managed