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.

Joanne Borts's Oral History

Joanne Borts, renowned Broadway singer and Yiddish activist, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on August 21, 2014 at KlezKanada in the Laurentian Mountains, Quebec, Canada.

This interview was conducted in English and Yiddish.

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Video highlights from this oral history

"Why Shouldn't We Also Bring the Language With Us?" Joanne Borts on Her Kids & Yiddish Program

1 min 34 sec

"To Me, Yiddish Was the Language of Secular Jews and Hebrew Was the Language Of Religious Jews": Associations with Yiddish and How They Changed Over Time

2 min 39 sec

"For Me, Yiddish Was Always the Language of Cool": Fond Memories of Camp Hemshekh

3 min 32 sec

"You're Absorbing a Piece of the World That May Not Be in Everyone Else's Line of Sight": A Typical Day at Camp Hemshekh, A Socialist, Yiddishist Summer Camp

4 min 16 sec

Zalman Mlotek, The "Cool" 'Shule' Music Teacher who Inspired a Broadway Singer

3 min 34 sec

The Three Yiddish Divas: A Globe Trotting Yiddish Music Group

2 min 35 sec

"So Much Acceptance": Jewish Diversity at KlezKanada

2 min 14 sec

"I'm Taking Back Yiddish": Removing the Guilt and Resentment that Became Associated with Yiddish Through Assimilation, the Holocaust, and Israel

5 min 32 sec

"If We're Not All Somehow Children of the Survivors, We Might Forget": New Ideas about Remembering the Holocaust

2 min 18 sec

"Kop, Akslen, Kni, un Fis": Yiddish "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

1 min 10 sec

The Yiddish Alef-Beys (Alphabet) to the tune of The Sound of Music's "Do-Re-Mi"

1 min 1 sec

Camp Hemshekh's Yiddish Anthem

1 min 16 sec

More information about this oral history

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