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 Poet Alter Esselin’s Three Names
Watch now:
Joe (Yosl) Esselin, z"l, playwright and son of Yiddish writer Alter Esselin, explains the origin of his father's pen name.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Joe (Yosl) Esselin.
This excerpt is in English.
Joe (Yosl) Esselin was born in Los Angeles, California in 1923. Joe (Yosl) died in 2016.
This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.
