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.

"You'll Be an Engineer of Hearts": How Jakub Rotbaum Convinced Me to Become an Actress Instead of an Engineer

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Lea Szlanger, a Yiddish actress born in Poland, describes how a conversation with Jakub Rotbaum—a famous Yiddish theater director, actor and painter—convinced her to go into theater instead of pursuing a career as an engineer.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Lea Szlanger.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Lea Szlanger was born in Kalisz, Poland in 1932.

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

More information about this oral history excerpt