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.

A Soapbox on Every Corner: Memories of the Depression

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Ruth Dropkin, daughter-in-law of Celia Dropkin, shares memories of walking around Brooklyn during the Depression and seeing people orating on soapboxes on every corner.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Ruth (Warshavsky Zeitlin) Dropkin.

This excerpt is in English.

Ruth (Warshavsky Zeitlin) Dropkin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918. Ruth (Warshavsky Zeitlin) died in 2020.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Meeting Celia Drokin at a Bungalow Colony

3 min 20 sec

Family Remembrances of Celia Dropkin

1 min 57 sec

"A Voice That's Worth Hearing": Celia Dropkin's Poetry

4 min 8 sec

Reading Celia Dropkin's Poem Tsu May Zun (To My Son)

3 min 47 sec

Thoughts on Yiddish

2 min 19 sec

Celia Dropkin's Painting Debut

1 min 41 sec

Childhood Neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn

2 min

More information about this oral history excerpt

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