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.

Saul Rubinek On the Languages of His Youth

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Saul Rubinek, actor, talks about growing up speaking a mix of joual, a French-Canadian dialect, and Yiddish—and only later English.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Saul Rubinek.

This excerpt is in English.

Saul Rubinek was born in Föhrenwald, Wolfratshausen, Germany in 1948.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"It Was the Americans Who Taught Us How to Politicize Our Needs": The Vietnam War and Canadian Theater

7 min 6 sec

"I Wasn't Gonna Do a Comedy Routine": Filming The Quarrel in Jewish Dialects

8 min 27 sec

Returning to the Polish Village Where My Parents Survived the Holocaust: Making of So Many Miracles Documentary

11 min 51 sec

I Did Not Write This Book to Be Exclusionary: Negative Experiences with Second Generation Groups and A Desire to Connect On A Human Level

5 min 9 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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