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.

Two Stubborn People: Tensions with Avrom Sutzkever Over The Spelling of My Name

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Michael (Mikhel) Felzenbaum, Yiddish writer, talks about his professional relationship with the Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever. He tells a story of their biggest conflict (over the spelling of his name) and the phone called that resolved it not long before Sutzkever's death.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Michael (Mikhel) Felzenbaum.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Memories of Music From My Childhood in the Soviet Union

3 min 32 sec

Next To the Bishop's House: Memories of Visiting My Aunt and Uncle in Czernowitz

3 min 11 sec

Florești: Memories of a Jewish Childhood

4 min 46 sec

Yiddish Writer Michael (Mikhel) Felzenbaum Remembers Learning to Read and Write in Yiddish

2 min 50 sec

Shloyme Shvayster: My Yiddish Editor and Mentor

55 sec

Amateur Yiddish "Fans" vs. Professional Yiddish Writers: Michael (Mikhel) Felzenbaum Reflects

2 min 30 sec

"A Velfisher Kadish (A Wolf's Kaddish)": Michael (Mikhel) Felzenbaum Reads His Poem About the Month of Av

5 min 34 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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