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.

“Sometimes I Get Hung On Things”: Isaac (Ying) Halpern On Reading His Father Moyshe-Leyb’s Poetry

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Isaac "Ying" Halpern, the son of Yiddish poet Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, talks about a favourite line of his in his father's poem "Memento Mori," and how it reflects his father's masterful command of Yiddish dialects.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Isaac (Ying) Halpern.

This excerpt is in English.

Isaac (Ying) Halpern was born in New York, New York in 1923.

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


Other video highlights from this oral history