Bas Sheva

Who was Bas Sheva?

Bas Sheva, the stage name of Bernice Kanefsky, was a Jewish-American singer, prominent in the 1950s. Although she began singing Jewish traditional and cantorial music, her career branched out into popular music.

Bas Sheva was born Bernice Kanefsky, to a wealthy and prominent Jewish family in Philadelphia on July 25, 1925. She studied voice with the intent of honoring her family's wishes that she become a cantor. Her voice was extremely powerful and had extraordinary dexterity. However, instead of cantorial music, she decided to move into popular music, adopting the stage name "Bas Sheva", the Ashkenazi pronouciation of the Biblical "Bathsheba". Her career began in the Borscht Belt of New York's Catskill Mountains, performing for audiences of Jewish vacationers. Her recording career began around 1950 with a small number of obscure singles of standard hits, none of which sparked much commercial interest.

In 1953 Bas Sheva was engaged by bandleader Hal Mooney as the principal singer for the album "Soul of a People", a collection of traditional Jewish songs issued by Capitol Records.