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.

Suddenly I was a Holocaust Survivor: A Child Survivor's Experience of American Holocaust Memorial Events

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Irena Klepfisz, lesbian poet and writer, considers the traumatic experience of moving to the United States as a child, and specifically her experience at Holocaust memorial ceremonies, during which she often was asked to participate as the daughter of her deceased father, Michał Klepfisz, hero of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Irena Klepfisz.

This excerpt is in English.

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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

My Father, Michał Klepfisz’s Role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

3 min 10 sec

Irena Klepfisz on Jewishness and the Jewish Labor Bund

4 min 36 sec

Constructing an Identity Apart from My Hero Father: Irena Klepfisz's Memories of the Arbeter Ring Shule

5 min 27 sec

Growing up in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Amalgamated Houses

2 min 48 sec

Oral history excerpt

My Jewish, Lesbian Experience of Second Wave Feminism and Yiddish Activism

Irena Klepfisz, lesbian poet and writer, reflects on how the intersections of her identity, as a Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, Lesbian, and feminist, has influenced her role in Yiddish culture and Jewish feminist poetry.

English

Irena Klepfisz's Poetic Inspirations, both Yiddish and English

3 min 8 sec

My Path to Writing Bilingual Yiddish-English Poetry

6 min 56 sec

Irena Klepfisz on the Queerness of Contemporary Yiddish Culture

6 min 46 sec

My First Impressions of the Yiddish Book Center

2 min 53 sec

"The History That's Never Taught": On the Complexities of the Search for Yiddish Women Writers

6 min 57 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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