Dance pioneer Orenstein dies

Yehudit Orenstein will be remembered as a creative choreographer and teacher whose students loved her.

By HELEN KAYE
Yehudit Orenstein, one of Israel's dance pioneers, died on Sunday at her New York home. She was 97. Her mother, Margalit, had established the first modern dance studio in the country in 1922. Yehudit and her twin sister Shoshana followed in their mother's footsteps and also became famous as dancers in the 1930s. They were known as the Orenstein Sisters and taught modern dance at the studio at 42 Ehad Ha'am St in Tel Aviv. Like her mother, Yehudit was a choreographer, creating dances for the then Israel Opera among the rest. She established the first teachers college, the first high school dance department and was a dance critic for the Hebrew dailies Ha'aretz and Davar for many years. She will be remembered as a creative choreographer and teacher whose students loved her. She is survived by a son and a daughter. • Helen Kaye