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.
Hershl Hartman's Oral History
Hershl Hartman, native Yiddish speaker and educational director at the Sholem Community in California, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on January 15, 2013 at Workmen's Circle in Los Angeles, California.
This interview was conducted in English and Yiddish.
Hershl Hartman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1929.
Video highlights from this oral history
Sholem Asch's Yiddish Dialect
1 minute 51 seconds
Secularizing Jewish Holidays
2 minutes 53 seconds
"My Mother Was a Bolshevik": Politics in My Yiddish-Speaking Home
1 minute 16 seconds
Lessons From Working with Holocaust Survivors
2 minutes 28 seconds
Hitler-Stalin Pact and Changing Perceptions of Russia
4 minutes 59 seconds
Teaching Yiddish Appreciation Through Music
1 minute 3 seconds
"Off-Broadway," A Phrase Courtesy of the Yiddish Theater
2 minutes 43 seconds
Shtot Oder Shtok?: Dialects & Interpreting for Hasidim on Phone Help Lines
1 minute 54 seconds
Drafting a Communist
10 minutes 49 seconds
The Language of Fighters
1 minute 15 secondsArtifacts related to this oral history
Hershl Hartman Portrait 1
Hershl Hartman Portrait 2
Hershl Hartman Portrait 3
Hershl Hartman Portrait 4
Hershl Hartman Portrait 5
Step by Step Contemporary Yiddish Poetry 1
Yiddish Poetry Books
Yiddish Poetry Books 2
Books About Yiddish 1
Books About Yiddish 2
Yiddish Class
Step by Step Yiddish Poetry 2
The Sun
Jacob Lewin
Drops of Joy
Itzki Manger's Megile
The Final Song
The (Un)forgotten Singers of Struggle
Jews and American Popular Culture
Coney Island 1
Coney Island 2
Coney Island 3
Coney Island 4
Shimele Soroker's Tale
Death of Shtetl
Portrait of Hershl Hartman 6
Workman's Circle Hollywood 1
Workman's Circle Hollywood 2
Workman's Circle Hollywood 3
Arbeter Ring emblem
Workman's Circle Hollywood 4
Workman's Circle Hollywood 5
More information about this oral history
Themes:
- Advice
- Family histories
- Childhood
- Jewish Identity
- Yiddish language
- Post-vernacular uses of Yiddish
- Immigration and migration
- Theater
- Music
- Literature
- Poetry
- Career and Professional Life
- Academia
- Education
- Jewish holidays
- Eastern Europe
- Soviet Union
- United States
- Politics and political movements
- Summer camp
- Cultural transmission
- Heritage
- Jewish community
- Urban
- Assimilation
- World War II
- Secular
- Hershl Hartman
- Camp Kinderland
- New York City
- Brooklyn
- Los Angeles
- California
- Sholem Community
- Arbeter Ring
- Workmen's Circle
- Jewish People's Fraternal Order - International Workers Order
- JPFO-IWO
- 1950s
- McCarthy Era
- Communism
- Socialism
- Bund
- Communist Party
- Veltlekh
- Hitler-Stalin Pact
Keywords:
Series:
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About the Wexler Oral History Project
Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded more than 500 in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture.
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