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.

Medicating Away Creativity: A Retrospective on the Life of the Artist

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Melanie Lewis, great-niece of Yiddish actor and founder of the NYC Yiddish Art Theatre Maurice Schwartz speaks about a program she attended in Santa Fe New Mexico titled "Creativity and Madness".

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Melanie Lewis.

This excerpt is in English.

Melanie Lewis was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1949.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

The Early Life of Maurice "Moishe" Schwartz

4 min 57 sec

The Life of an Actor: Family and Personality

4 min 1 sec

Marinating in Jewish Culture: Life in Brooklyn

1 min 21 sec

The Hollywood Blacklist: Animosity and Censorship During the McCarthy Era

3 min 28 sec

Answers to the Present from Lessons of the Past

2 min 26 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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