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.

“The Pain Became Real”: Acting Out Female Jewish Characters on Film

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Dorota Liliental, actress and great-granddaughter of ethnographer Regina Liliental, describes the importance of playing female Holocaust victims in movies, and the simultaneous importance of finding characters that portray living Jewish culture.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Dorota Liliental.

This excerpt is in English.

Dorota Liliental was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1964.

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Get to Know the Nation: Regina Liliental, Jewish Ethnographer of the Early 20th Century in Poland

2 min 56 sec

“Even Though It's Unique, It's a Part of This Constellation”: Jewish History as Part of Polish History

2 min

“She Had Such an Inquisitive Mind”: Dorota Liliental on Her Great-Grandmother, Regina

2 min 50 sec

“I Feel Safe”: My Interest in Learning Yiddish

2 min 18 sec

Dorota Liliental Sings Oyfn Pripetshik

1 min 45 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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