The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Getting Cowgirls to Speak Yiddish: My Particular Brand of Activism

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Eleanor Reissa, singer, explains that she has never thought of herself as a Yiddish activist, but that she has developed her own methods for keeping the language relevant, including directing her non-Jewish cast members with Yiddish instructions.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Eleanor Reissa.

This excerpt is in Yiddish and English.

Eleanor Reissa was born in Brooklyn, New York.

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Summers at the Bungalow Colony

2 min 24 sec

Reciting Kaddish For My Father From Onstage

1 min 12 sec

"My Ego is in English, but My Heart is in Yiddish": Reflections on a Bilingual Career

2 min 57 sec

"It Ain't Your Bubbie's Yiddish Anymore": Eleanor Reissa Reflects on the Yiddish Artistic World Today

3 min 29 sec

"Remember That You Stand On The Shoulders of Other People"

1 min 44 sec

"Ver Iz Nishtu (Who is Not Here)": Growing Up as a Child of Holocaust Survivors

2 min 21 sec

"I Speak How I Speak": Shifting Among the Dialects of Yiddish

53 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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