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.

"I Found the Light in the Darkness of Being a Jew": Spiritual Awakening in Upstate New York

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Jalda Rebling—Renewal Cantor and Yiddish performer—remembers celebrating Tisha B'Av as a German in America, and initially resisting the American Rabbi's sentiments, but over the course of the holiday's rituals, understood what he meant.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Jalda Rebling.

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 Commemoration of Anne Frank sparked a Career in Yiddish Performance

1 min 56 sec

"A Tool To Formulate Their Longing": East German Use of Yiddish as Resistance to Atomic Warfare

2 min 25 sec

"We Jews were scared.... our protectors had disappeared": Jewish Life in Post-Cold War Germany

1 min 14 sec

"I'm not part of the whole Klezmer business": The Generational Divide in Yiddish Music and the Preservation of Culture at the Yiddish Book Center

3 min 24 sec

"It was a Combination of Yiddish Dances, Music and Song": The Start of Renowned Yiddish Performer Lin Jaldati's Career in a Self-Started Performance Program in 1930s Berlin

2 min 48 sec

"They Gave Illegal House Concerts": Life of a Jewish Artist in the Underground in the Netherlands During Nazi Occupation

1 min 29 sec

"My Mom was Singing Yiddish Song in the Concentration Camp": Lin Jaldati's Yiddish Songs

2 min 35 sec

"On Stage She Was a Powerful Woman": The Internal Struggle of Renowned Yiddish performer Lin Jaldati

2 min 43 sec

"It's Very Difficult to Explain to People Who Don't Know": Jalda Rebling on Jewish Identity

2 min 21 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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