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.
Reflecting on a Secular Jewish Upbringing
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Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, talks about his secular upbringing in Crown Heights and his mother's unique political philosophy.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Peter Sokolow.
This excerpt is in English.
Peter Sokolow was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940.
This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.
Other video highlights from this oral history
Reflecting on a Secular Jewish Upbringing
4 minutes 59 seconds
“I Found Out I Could Play Tunes on That Thing”: The Beginning of A Music Career
3 minutes 9 seconds
What’s a Club Date?: Peter Sokolow Explains
2 minutes 26 seconds
The Beginning of A Catskills Career
2 minutes 52 seconds
Working with Dave Tarras
1 minute 40 seconds
Mentors in Jewish Music: the Epstein Brothers and Sydney Beckerman
9 minutes 35 seconds
Peter Sokolow Remembers Humorously Bad Gigs
6 minutes 29 seconds
"It's Not Hip To Be Authentically Jewish": Klezmer Trends and Fusion
5 minutes 8 seconds
What is Klezmer Revival?
1 minute 21 seconds
Peter Sokolow, Klezmer Fats
3 minutes 4 seconds
My Father's Piano
1 minute 32 seconds
"Rumania, Rumania"
4 minutes 5 secondsMore information about this oral history excerpt
Themes:
- Family histories
- Childhood
- Jewish Identity
- Languages
- Hebrew
- Jewish education
- Secular
- shabbat, shabbes, sabbath
- United States
- Politics and political movements
- Jewish community
- Urban
- Assimilation
- Food and culinary traditions
- Peter Sokolow
- Brooklyn
- New York
- Crown Heights
- New York
- New York City
- New York
- Communism
- American Labor Party
- Chabad
- Chabad Lubavitch
- Nusach Ari
- Williamsburg
- kashrus
- Brooklyn Jewish Center
- Hebrew school
- Conservative movement
Keywords:
About the Wexler Oral History Project
Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded more than 500 in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture.
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