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.

"I Love You From a Distance": My Grandmother's Yiddish "Spell"

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Pavel Lion aka Psoy Korolenko, singer-songwriter, recalls how his grandmother cast her Yiddish "spell" on him as a child.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Pavel Lion (Psoy Korolenko).

This excerpt is in English.

Pavel Lion (Psoy Korolenko) was born in Moscow, Russia.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"Akhtsik Er un Zibetsik Zi (He at 80, She at 70)": An Example of Psoy Korolenko's Multilingual Songs

4 min

"Tell the True Story About You and Yiddish": Advice for Newcomers to Contemporary Jewish Music

3 min 55 sec

The Appeal of Yiddish

1 min 52 sec

The Origins of My Art Name "Psoy Korolenko": Vladimir Korolenko, Anti-Anti-Semitism, and Coptic Saints

5 min 57 sec

"My Parents Told Me That The Barry Sisters Were German": Growing Up Unaware of but Curious About My Jewishness in the Soviet Union

5 min 28 sec

"Foreign Languages? They Act Much Like Spells": Cultivating Multilingualism in My Work

5 min 49 sec

"It's the Best Job, and the Best Fun": Why I Make Music

54 sec

"Re-actualization" in Contemporary Klezmer

1 min 41 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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