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.

"Two Lives With One Man:" Memories of Menke Katz

Watch now:

Troim Katz Handler, daughter of Yiddish poet Menke Katz, recounts how she was reunited with her father after years of estrangement and how, despite his absence from her childhood, they maintained a close relationship in his later years.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Troim Katz Handler.

This excerpt is in English and Yiddish.

Troim Katz Handler was born in Los Angeles, California in 1927.

This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

The Experience of Menke Katz, Yiddish-Speaking Poet, in Israel at at Time of Strong Anti-Yiddish Sentiment

1 min 50 sec

What's In a Name: Menke Katz on Changing Names and Changing Destinies

58 sec

A Strange Arrangement: Growing Up With My Yiddish-Speaking Grandparents So My Father Could Write

2 min 5 sec

Dual Consciousness: Growing Up In A Blended Religious and Secular Home

2 min 26 sec

Born Under the Bed During a Pogrom: Stories From My Family Before Coming to America

1 min 26 sec

Satmar and the Future of Yiddish

1 min 1 sec

The Jewish Community of Passaic, New Jersey

1 min 45 sec

The JPFO-IWO: The World of the Yiddish Intelligentsia

4 min 15 sec

My Mother, Khashke Katz, Was Also A Writer

1 min 24 sec

“How Strange That I Didn’t Recognize You!”: Meeting My Father, Poet Menke Katz, After Years Apart

1 min 20 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: