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.

"Kop, Akslen, Kni, un Fis": Yiddish "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

Watch now:

Joanne Borts—Broadway singer and Yiddish activist—explains and demonstrates the Yiddish version of the English song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," that she teaches to children as part of a project she began called, 'Kids & Yiddish.'

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Joanne Borts.

This excerpt is in English and Yiddish.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"For Me, Yiddish Was Always the Language of Cool": Fond Memories of Camp Hemshekh

3 min 32 sec

"You're Absorbing a Piece of the World That May Not Be in Everyone Else's Line of Sight": A Typical Day at Camp Hemshekh, A Socialist, Yiddishist Summer Camp

4 min 16 sec

Zalman Mlotek, The "Cool" 'Shule' Music Teacher who Inspired a Broadway Singer

3 min 34 sec

The Three Yiddish Divas: A Globe Trotting Yiddish Music Group

2 min 35 sec

"So Much Acceptance": Jewish Diversity at KlezKanada

2 min 14 sec

"I'm Taking Back Yiddish": Removing the Guilt and Resentment that Became Associated with Yiddish Through Assimilation, the Holocaust, and Israel

5 min 32 sec

"If We're Not All Somehow Children of the Survivors, We Might Forget": New Ideas about Remembering the Holocaust

2 min 18 sec

The Yiddish Alef-Beys (Alphabet) to the tune of The Sound of Music's "Do-Re-Mi"

1 min 1 sec

Camp Hemshekh's Yiddish Anthem

1 min 16 sec

"Why Shouldn't We Also Bring the Language With Us?" Joanne Borts on Her Kids & Yiddish Program

1 min 34 sec

"To Me, Yiddish Was the Language of Secular Jews and Hebrew Was the Language Of Religious Jews": Associations with Yiddish and How They Changed Over Time

2 min 39 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: