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.

"Isadora Duncan was a part of our family lore."

Watch now:

Miriam Bienstock, z"l, co-founder of Atlantic Records, tells her uncle, Mani Leib's, story about the Isadora Duncan dancer who showed up to a party with her abusive poet boyfriend. Leib would later tell his niece that he had to break up a fight between the couple, ultimately chasing her poet boyfriend to the Bronx.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Miriam Bienstock.

This excerpt is in English.

Miriam Bienstock was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1923. Miriam died in 2015.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Family Housing Rentals

2 min 28 sec

Experiences with Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

1 min 58 sec

Visiting Israel in Early Years

1 min 25 sec

Molly Picon and Death of a Salesman in Yiddish

1 min 22 sec

Sewing Dress for School Graduation

1 min 29 sec

My Uncle, Yiddish Writer Mani Leib

2 min 44 sec

Elvis: "He was a perfect southern gentleman."

45 sec

"A Yidishe shiksah?" (A Jewish non-Jew?)

1 min 25 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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