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.

Klezmer Banjo

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Henry Sapoznik - musician, scholar, and KlezKamp founder - describes starting to play klezmer music after having learned old-time banjo. He recounts discovering klezmer recordings that included banjos.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Henry Sapoznik.

This excerpt is in English.

Henry Sapoznik was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1953.

This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"My Goal Has Always Been To Break Out Of The Ghetto": Yiddish Content within American Culture

2 min 33 sec

Transplanting the Old Way

4 min 53 sec

It Was All Learned by Ear

1 min 43 sec

"Don't You Have None of Your Own Music?"

4 min 11 sec

"It Was Like Being Handed a Baton": YIVO in the 1980s

4 min 35 sec

The Growth of KlezKamp

2 min 55 sec

Junior Folklorists at KlezKamp

53 sec

"It's Something That's Yours": Yiddish Culture For Those Who Grew Up With It And Those Who Didn't

1 min 46 sec

Bringing Yiddish Back to the University of Wisconsin, Madison

2 min 54 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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