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.

Stella Adler and A Flag is Born

Watch now:

Tom Oppenheim reflects on his grandmother Stella Adler's role in Yiddish theater as inseparable from her activism—a view Stella instilled in her student Marlon Brando. Her influence led Brando to his Broadway debut role in Ben Hecht's A Flag is Born, a political play meant to raise money for European Jews after World War II.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Tom Oppenheim.

This excerpt is in English.

Tom Oppenheim was born in New York, New York in 1959.

Jump to map

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Tom Oppenheim Describes Stella Adler, His Grandmother

2 min 29 sec

Stella Adler's Career Path

4 min 26 sec

"It Was This Impersonal, Powerful, Uncompromisable Artistic Standard Just Coming At You": Descriptions of Stella Adler's Classes

6 min 25 sec

Stella Adler's First Theater Memory and Her Capacity to Identify Strongly With Others

1 min 28 sec

Responsibility of Theater Actors to Raise Themselves and Their Audiences Up

2 min 8 sec

The Importance of Imagination in Stella Adler's Philosophy and Work

3 min 48 sec

Harold Clurman Got Inspiration from the Adler Family

1 min 37 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: