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.

Father's Childhood Stories From Tishevitz, Poland

Watch now:

David Shtern, son of Yiddish writer Sholem Shtern, shares stories of his father's childhood in Tishevitz, Poland, including stealing potatoes from a neighboring farm, losing his brother in World War I, and hearing Trotsky announce that there was no antisemitism in the Soviet Union.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with David Shtern.

This excerpt is in English.

Jump to map

This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Identity Theft and Father's Escape from Poland

2 min 51 sec

"He Put Himself Forward": Stories of Father, Sholem Shtern, Talking to Strangers and Promoting His Own Work

2 min 26 sec

My Father's (Sholem Shtern) Funeral and The Inconvenient Location of His Grave

1 min 58 sec

My Father Sholem Shtern's Writing Places, Style, and Philosophy

4 min 11 sec

"He Inevitably Had A Rolled-Up Newspaper In The Pockets Of HIs Suits": Father's Physical Appearance

2 min 20 sec

"Our Parents Worried About The Fate Of The World": Growing Up With Immigrant Parents

2 min 42 sec

Parents' Relationship, Memories Of Walks With Father

2 min 43 sec

Sholem Shtern's "The White House," A Novel in Verse

6 min 12 sec

Opening Poem of The White House in Yiddish

4 min 3 sec

Sholem Shtern's Politics in "The White House" and other writings

3 min 22 sec

Why People Should Read Sholem Shtern

4 min 50 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: