Bookstore Glossary Library Links News Publications Timeline Virtual Israel Experience
Anti-Semitism Biography History Holocaust Israel Israel Education Myths & Facts Politics Religion Travel US & Israel Vital Stats Women
donate subscribe Contact About Home

Shari Lewis

(1934 - 1998)

Shari Lewis was bron Phyllis Hurwitz to Ann and Abraham Hurwitz on January 17, 1934, in New York City. Her father was a founding member of Yeshiva University in New York City.

Through the encouragement of both of her parents, Shari began performing at the age of thirteen when her father taught her magic acts with Jewis content. As a youth, she had lessons in acrobatics, juggling, piano,violin and ventriloguism. She studied piano and violin at New York's High School of Music and Art, dance at the American School of Ballet, and acting with Sanford Meisner of the Neighborhood Playhouse. She attended Columbia University for one year, then left college to become a performer.

In 1952, Lewis and her puppetry won first prize on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television show. In March 1956, she and Lamb Chop appeared on Captain Kangaroo and by 1960 she had her own television program.

After twenty-seven years' absence from American television, the Public Broadcasting System approached her abotu reviving her television show. Lamp Chop's Play-Along, seen on PBS stations and reproduced in video, grew out of PBS interest and Lewis's discontent with commercial television.

The video Lamp Chop's Special Chanukkah was released in 1996 and recieved the Parent's Choice award of the year.

Among her awards are twelve Emmy Awards, the Dor L'Dor award of the B'nai B'rith (1996), three Houston Film Festival awards, the Peabody Award (1960), the Silver Circle Award of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (1996), the Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence (1996), two Charleston Film Festival Gold Awards (1995), the Houston World Festival silver and bronze awards (1995), the New York Film and Video Festival Silver Award (1995), the Monte Carlo Prize for the World's Best Television Variety Show (1963), and the Kennedy Center annual award for excellence (1983).

Shari Lewis died in 1998 of pneumonia while being treated at Cedars-Sinai Hospital at the age of 65.


Sources: Jewish Women in America