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.
The Beginning of A Catskills Career
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Peter Sokolow, a full-time professional musician active in Klezmer revival, describes his first gig in the Catskills playing in an Orthodox hotel and being treated like a non-Jew by the ultra-observant guests. He goes on to speak about his second Catskills job at a bungalow colony.
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
The Beginning of A Catskills Career
2 minutes 52 seconds
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
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:
- Jewish Identity
- Yiddish language
- Yiddish learning
- Yiddish scene
- Languages
- Hebrew
- Dance
- Music
- Klezmer
- Singing
- Jewish professions
- Holocaust
- World War II
- Secular
- Religion
- Old Country
- United States
- Jewish resorts
- Jewish community
- Shtetl
- Peter Sokolow
- Catskills
- Orthodox
- Orthodox Judaism
- Holocaust survivor
- Hasidim
- Hasidic Judaism
- parshas
- weddings
- simkhes
- bungalow colony
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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