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.

A Native Yiddish Speaker from Vilna's Thoughts on the Future of Yiddish

Watch now:

David Botwinik, Vilna-born composer and Yiddish-language activist, reflect on the status of Yiddish and what needs to be done to insure its future.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with David Botwinik.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

David Botwinik was born in Vilna, Lithuania. David died in 2022.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

David Botwinik Remembers Joining a Choir in Lithuania as a Young Boy

1 min 53 sec

Becoming a Cantor at the Age of Eleven in Vilna, Lithuania

2 min 27 sec

Jewish Music Conservatory

3 min 21 sec

Postwar Kibbutz in Lodz

4 min 14 sec

Working as a Music Copier

1 min 58 sec

"It Should Be Just Like a Photograph": Collecting Ghetto Songs with Shmerke Kaczerginski

2 min 46 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: