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.
Lea Szlanger's Oral History
Lea Szlanger, a Yiddish actress born in Poland, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on June 12, 2014 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
This interview was conducted in Yiddish.
Lea Szlanger was born in Kalisz, Poland.
Video highlights from this oral history
Emotional Torture of Jewish Men in Bialystok by Nazi Soldiers
1 minute
"A Modne Gefil" (A Strange Feeling): Visiting Warsaw in Search of Relatives After World War II
2 minutes 13 seconds
Everything is Chance: A Survivor Offers Her Thoughts on How People Survived the Holocaust
1 minute 26 seconds
High Heels in the Sand: A Young Actress's First Impression of Israel
2 minutes 21 seconds
"You'll Be an Engineer of Hearts": How Jakub Rotbaum Convinced Me to Become an Actress Instead of an Engineer
1 minute 3 seconds
Learning from Joseph Buloff
2 minutes 11 seconds
Yiddish Theater in Israel
2 minutes 12 seconds
Shimon Dzigan and Yisroel Schumacher As I Knew Them
1 minute 41 seconds
"There was No One Like Her": Ida Kaminska
2 minutes 29 seconds
My Career as Yiddish-Speaking Actress in Poland and Israel
3 minutes 41 seconds
Fantasy with Truth: Working and Drinking Coffee All Night with Joseph Buloff
2 minutes 8 seconds
Yiddish Theater in Israel when Yiddish was Suppressed
1 minute 45 seconds
Performing with Joseph Buloff in Israel
3 minutes 19 seconds
A Yiddish Radio Show in Israel
2 minutes 11 seconds
"It's Not Important Why": A Revived Interest in Yiddish in Israel Today
2 minutes 50 seconds
Words of Advice from a Veteran Performer for Actors Coming into Yiddish Theater
1 minute 35 secondsMore information about this oral history
Themes:
- Family histories
- Childhood
- Yiddish language
- Yiddish scene
- Yiddish speaker
- Hebrew
- Theater
- Music
- Singing
- Radio
- Career and Professional Life
- World War II
- Education
- Israel
- Eastern Europe
- Soviet Union
- Russia
- Yiddish Book Center
- Yiddish personalities
- Jewish community
- Urban
- Kalisz
- Kalish
- Poland
- Krakow
- Warsaw
- Lower Silesia
- Wroclaw
- Shimon Dzigan
- Yisroel Schumacher
- Buloff
- Ida Kaminska
- Yiddishpiel
- Ida Kaminska Yiddish Theatre
- Habimah
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1970s
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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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