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.
“A Symbol of What Was Jewish Culture for Me”: My Uncle, an Auschwitz Survivor, was Funny
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Raphael Roginski, musician and activist, describes the Frankfurt in which he spent his early childhood: a strange city populated by wild cast of characters and characterized by constant change.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Raphael Roginski.
This excerpt is in English.
This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.
Other video highlights from this oral history
“A Symbol of What Was Jewish Culture for Me”: My Uncle, an Auschwitz Survivor, was Funny
2 minutes 18 seconds
Gambling in Yiddish: Growing up in Frankfurt in the 1970s and 80s
4 minutes 46 seconds
“An Amazing Place”: Red Lights, Trauma, and Yiddish in 1970s and 80s Frankfurt
7 minutes 46 seconds
Everything Had “A Flavor of War”: My Later Childhood in Post-WWII Poland
6 minutes 13 seconds
"You Can't Understand the Music Without Yiddish"
2 minutes 4 seconds
“Finding Space for Another Language in Polish Monoculture”: Using Yiddish in How I Present My Music
1 minute 59 seconds
“Who Am I, A Ghost?”: Making Sense of Multicultural Polish Past
3 minutes 25 seconds
Raphael Roginski on Countering the “Fetishization” of Jewish Culture and Music in Poland
5 minutes 44 seconds
Raphael Roginski: Improv in Sejny, Poland
2 minutes 55 seconds
Raphael Roginski: Improv #2 in Sejny, Poland
4 minutesMore information about this oral history excerpt
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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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