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.

"Overnight, My Name Became Known": Breaking into the Hebrew Actors' Union

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Fyvush Finkel, z"l - comedian, actor, and singer - paints a picture of the climate surrounding young, Yiddish actors in New York City. He reflects on how he was able to break into the closed Hebrew Actors' Union, only with the support of Peysekh Burshteyn.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Fyvush Finkel.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Fyvush Finkel was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1922. Fyvush died in 2016.