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.

Yiddish Songs Locked in the Closet

Watch now:

Bente Kahan, Jewish-Norwegian performing artist, talks about her father's relationship to song, and about a very special book he has.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Bente Kahan.

This excerpt is in English.

Bente Kahan was born in Oslo, Norway in 1958.

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Performing Mordechai Gebirtig at Yad Vashem

5 min 2 sec

“How Will We Remember the Jews of Europe?”: Bente Kahan on Memory, History and the Scar of the Holocaust in Poland

4 min 3 sec

Bente Kahan and Jidisz far Alle

3 min 1 sec

Bente Kahan Sings Reyzele by Mordechai Gebirtig

2 min 39 sec

“Above the Town”: A Yiddish-Norwegian Cabaret

1 min 40 sec

"He Wanted Us to Become People of the World, But Not Forget Who We Are”: Bente Kahan Sings the Yiddish Song that Reminds Her Most of her Father

4 min 40 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: