Bas Sheva

Did You Know?

• Bas Sheva is the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Biblical name Bathsheba.
• She was born Bernice Kanefsky to the family of Cantor Joseph Kanefsky.
• She appeared in the 1950 Yiddish-American musical revue film Catskill Honeymoon.

Career

Bernice Kanefsky, who performed as Bas Sheva, was born on July 25, 1925, in the Bronx to a cantor father and grew up in Philadelphia. She trained her voice to become a cantor, as her family wanted, but chose instead to pursue popular music. Her stage name comes from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Bathsheba. She began singing in public in 1947, starting in the Borscht Belt of the Catskills for Jewish vacationers.

Her recording career began around 1950 with a few obscure singles that did not sell well. In 1950, she appeared in the film "Catskill Honeymoon." In 1953, bandleader Hal Mooney hired her as the lead singer for "Soul of a People," a Capitol Records album of traditional Jewish songs that sold well in the Jewish market, largely due to her performances. The next year, producer Les Baxter made her the star vocalist on his suite "The Passions."

A United Press review praised her flexible voice as fully meeting the project's demands. She performed multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show, which brought her acclaim in Montreal. In 1957, she planned an extended tour of England, France, South America, and Israel. Bas Sheva died on February 11, 1960, at age 34, from a diabetic reaction while performing on a cruise ship off the coast of South Carolina.