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.

Going for Egg Cream During Show to Evade Gerry Society

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Shirley Schachter Katz, a child singer and performer for Yiddish vaudeville, tells the story of the time her mother took her out for an egg cream during a performance while the Gerry Society (now the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) came to the theater to make sure no children were performing.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Shirley (Shifra) Schachter Katz [Schachter].

This excerpt is in English.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

A Typical Day at the Bungalow Colonies in the Catskills

2 min 46 sec

Brookside Hotel Musical Group & Learning Music with Abe Schwartz

4 min 18 sec

Rehearsal at the Jewish National Theater

3 min 11 sec

Hymie and Irving Jacobson

2 min 40 sec

WEVD and Sholom Secunda

4 min 20 sec

"Mama, Stop Your Worrying": A Yiddish Song

1 min 19 sec

Description of Shows in the Catskills

1 min 41 sec

Learning Music as a Child

2 min 3 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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