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.

Fighting Tragedy With Poetry

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Joe Esselin, z"l, playwright and son of Yiddish writer Alter Esselin, recites his father's poem "Ai-le-lu" and explains how his father chose to deal with dark subjects in his writing as a means of confronting and defying life's daily struggles.

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.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Yiddish Poet Alter Esselin’s Three Names

3 min 7 sec

My Father, Yiddish Poet Alter Esselin’s Writing Rituals

2 min 40 sec

Alter Esselin’s Religious Observance

1 min 8 sec

Losing My Yiddish to Monolingualism

2 min 15 sec

"The Foreman Is Always Watching": Alter Esselin's Work Ethic

1 min 56 sec

"They Don't Know That There's a Shelley on the Roof": A Carpenter-Poet's Craft

1 min 55 sec

"Words Are the Heart of Humanity": My Father's Legacy

1 min

Why My Father Was Wrong About the Future of Yiddish

4 min 17 sec

Alter Esselin, Zalman Shazar, and the Jewish Community of Milwaukee

5 min 20 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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