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.

Learning My First Posek At Age 15 In a Class Full of 2nd Graders

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Yaakov Wasilewicz, Jewish musician, describes what it was like beginning a traditional Jewish education at age 15. He started by going to 2nd grade until he could catch up to his age group. While studying with the second graders, he recited his first posek (Torah verse) and recounts that experience.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Yaakov Wasilewicz.

This excerpt is in English.

Yaakov Wasilewicz was born in Czestowa in 1988.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

From Poland to Yeshiva in America

3 min 21 sec

My Mother Agreed to Send Me From Poland to Yeshiva in America

3 min 8 sec

How My Mother Grew Up in Czestochowa After World War II

1 min 59 sec

My Mother Passed Down Religion and Culture to Her Community

2 min 54 sec

A Favorite Nign Learned at the Lauder Jewish Summer Camp in Poland

1 min 11 sec

What Makes Nigns Magic: Czestochowa Nign

4 min 37 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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