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.

"Paris Is for Strolling, Moscow Is for Writing" according to Isaac Babel

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Andrei-Malaev Babel discusses his grandfather, writer Isaac Babel's, relationship with Russia and with France.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Andrei Malaev-Babel.

This excerpt is in English.

Andrei Malaev-Babel was born in Moscow, Russia.

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This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"He Makes You a Co-Creator": Reading Isaac Babel

3 min 1 sec

"Jewish in What Way?"

1 min 35 sec

Laughing at Oneself

1 min 30 sec

Babel and His Community

4 min

How Grandmother Met My Grandfather, Isaac Babel

5 min 37 sec

Jews in the Vakhtangov Theater

2 min 26 sec

"It All Became Words for Him": How Babel Recited His Own Work

1 min 59 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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