NORMAN LEAR ORAL HISTORY

NORMAN LEAR:Hello?

CHRISTA WHITNEY:Sholem-aleykhem [Hello]!

F:Hello, Christa.

NL:Sholem-aleykhem.

CW:Hello! How are you?

NL:I'm good. How are you doing?

CW:All right. It's great to have this time with you, to meet you in this way. Thanks so much for your willingness --

NL:My great pleasure.

CW:Well, are there any questions I can answer for you before we get into my questions?

NL:I have a thousand questions, 'cause I never met Christa before. (laughter) But this is your interview. We'll do mine next time.

CW:Okay, sounds good. So, I'll get started. I'll just do a little intro and jump into the questions.

NL:Okay.

CW:So, this is Christa Whitney and today is December 14th, 2020. I am here on Zoom. (laughs) I'm in Massachusetts, in Northampton, Massachusetts, with --

NL:Where in Massachusetts are you?

CW:In Northampton.

NL:In Northampton?

CW:Yeah, west --

NL:I went to college at Emerson. [BREAK IN RECORDING] (laughs) We lived in Chelsea when my father went to prison.

CW:Yes, yes, I read all about that. (laughs) Well, and where are you right now?

NL:I'm in Los Angeles.

CW:Okay, and do I have your permission to record?

NL:Yes, you do.

CW:Great. Well, I wanted to start by just asking about your family background. 2:00Do you know where your family came from in the Russian Empire?

NL:Yeah, they came from -- I used to remember the name of the city or where the -- they all from Russia, on both sides.

CW:And did you ever hear any stories about the Old Country?

NL:No, my mother was six when she was brought here by my grandparents. And my father was born in New Haven. His father had come here earlier. No, I never heard any old country stories.

CW:Do you have any sense of what life was like for them and why they came to the US?

NL:Well, I know that my mother's father came because (phone rings) -- and my 3:00mother, as I said, was six -- because they were suffering some kind of pogrom in -- gosh, I wish I could remember the name of the city. You know who has all that information, because I did his show with him, is Skip Gates.

CW:Okay.

NL:Henry Louis Gates, at Harvard.

CW:Yeah.

NL:He had all of that information about my grandparents and where they came from.

CW:Um-hm. So, when you were growing up, I know that you lived in various homes because of when your father was incarcerated. But what was sort of the atmosphere, the Jewish culture that you grew up in? How would you describe the 4:00type of Jewish atmosphere?

NL:I would describe it pretty much like the one I'm living right now. I am culturally Jewish, but I am not a religious person in terms of, you know, going to church or synagogue on a regular basis. I will now and again, with my son, attend High Holy services. But it's of a cultural nature. And my folks were Jewish in the same way. For example, my bar mitzvah was basically a party for my parents (laughs) and their friends because we lived in a three-bedroom apartment in New York at the time. It was shortly after my father had gotten free again. 5:00And I remember there was a bathtub full of ice and beverages for my parents' friends and family. And I, with the sixteen or eighteen or whatever dollars I had as a result of the bar mitzvah and bar mitzvah money, took the four friends that were with me to Coney Island for the afternoon. I spent my bar mitzvah money in Coney Island. But I mention that by way of saying it -- my bar mitzvah was more a party for my folks.

CW:Did you ever go to shul growing up?

NL:Temple Shaari Zedek in Brooklyn is where I was bar mitzvahed, so I did go to shul -- whatever was required of me on my way to the bar mitzvah.

CW:And what languages did you hear growing up?

NL:I heard English and Yiddish.

CW:And who -- when would you hear Yiddish? Who spoke it?

NL:I lived with my grandparents when my father was away, and they spoke a lot of Yiddish. I loved the sound of Yiddish and spoke some. Remember very little 'cause nobody else in my life has spoken Yiddish, but -- and I remember playing gin rummy on Friday nights. (laughs) Friday nights, you weren't supposed to play cards. But my grandparents and their in-laws, the parents of the woman married 7:00to one of their sons -- they had two sons and a daughter, my mother. And we used to play gin rummy on Friday nights. [BREAK IN RECORDING] My grandfather, my mother's father, went to shul on Saturday mornings, often. And I went with him often.

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

CW:Are there any phrases that you remember from -- maybe from your grandparents?

NL:Oh, my goodness, there should be some. I mean, I remember "Vos tit zikh -- what are you doing?" "Veys ikh vos -- who knows?" And those kind of expressions 8:00I remember well. I loved, I -- my grandmother spoke -- my mother's mother, with whom I lived, as I said -- spoke largely Yiddish. And I loved it, the sound of it, the feeling of it, and -- 'cause I adored her and I loved the way it tumbled out of her mouth.

CW:You -- could you tell me a little bit more about her, just describe Bubbie Lizzie, right?

NL:Bubbie Lizzie, yes. Elizabeth, Lizzie. She was a short, round, not very heavy -- couldn't even call her fat. But she was not slender. She had the greatest smile in the history of smiles. And she was all about love. She really -- I can 9:00see her bare feet on the linoleum floor in the kitchen -- she was rarely out of -- at least, I saw her rarely out of the kitchen. I remember clearly coming to see her some days before she passed, she -- my grandfather had been dead for some years. She was in a home and she was sitting in a wheelchair and she was strapped in the wheelchair 'cause she tended to sit out of it. And I remember walking in, ach, I can see it. And she was in this room, a number of women in wheelchairs and she was one of them, as I say, strapped. And I walked up to her, 10:00she had this -- never without this giant smile, this glorious smile. And she saw me coming in. I walked up, I said, "Bobe [Grandmother], it's me, Norman. How are you?" And I can't tell you how funny it was, the way she answered from her strapped body in a wheelchair. "How am I?" (laughs) You know, she was saying, at once, "How am I? You figure it out. Take a good look at me. Are you out of your mind?" I mean, all of that was inherent in, "How am I?" And I laughed under the -- even under those circumstances, I laughed. She wished me to laugh.

CW:And one of the things that you mention in your writing and elsewhere is this one phrase that I'm pretty sure comes from Yiddish, "Go know."

NL:Oh, "Go know," sure it does. But that's -- I don't remember the Yiddish. I don't know how to say it in Yiddish.

CW:"Gey veys."

NL:And it would be what?

CW:"Gey veys."

NL:Gey ve-- I never recall hearing it, you know? We --

CW:So, you heard that one in English?

NL:Yeah, but it sounded more like Yiddish even though it was in English. "Go know." (laughs)

CW:And what does that phrase --

NL:Yeah, yeah, they --

CW:-- how would you explain that one?

NL:(UNCLEAR) kitchen and tell my grandmother that the Dodgers won the pennant. And she didn't know anything about the Dodgers or the pennant. And so, her 12:00response was, "Go know." (laughs)

CW:And when you were growing up with her -- you mentioned her being in the kitchen. Was she a good cook? Did you have traditional Jewish food (UNCLEAR)?

NL:She was (UNCLEAR) made the best gefilte fish in the history of gefilte fish. I never had it again anywhere as good as my grandmother's. Look, there's a tear!

CW:Wow. I'm curious what kind of Yiddish culture you might have been exposed to growing up. Were there Yiddish newspapers around in any of the places you lived?

NL:My grandfather read a paper called "Forverts," "The Forward." That was a 13:00Yiddish paper. He read that every day. That's the only Yiddish paper. My folks didn't read Yiddish or would speak Yiddish. It was just the years I lived with my grandparents.

CW:And were you aware of Yiddish theater, Yiddish radio performers that -- in Yiddish?

NL:I was in New York, when we lived in New York, Sholem Aleichem, wasn't he a Yiddish actor?

CW:He's a writer, yeah.

NL:A wri-- he, Sholem Aleichem was a writer. And the actor I'm trying to think of --

CW:Maurice Schwartz, maybe?

NL:Mau-- yes, yeah. I saw him in several pieces. I, you know, I loved, loved, loved theater. So, I went with my grandfather to a number of matinees in Yiddish 14:00theater. Not a great number but, you know, a half a dozen or so over the years. Maurice Schwartz, (laughs) I remember a play that ended with another character -- Maurice Schwartz had either passed out or died, I don't remember. He was lying on the floor. And another actor in the piece had a final line which was, "And that's it from me" or something like that. And he had an exit line and he walked off the stage and the lights dimmed and so forth. When Maurice Schwartz played it, the other guy had his final line, started to walk off the stage, and Maurice Schwartz said, from the floor, said, "Wait, I'm getting my hat, I'll go 15:00with you." So, he had the last line. And I remember the story so well in terms of my grandfather talking about it, so well that I believed -- I'll never know actually but I believe I saw it one matinee. And I can't certify that but I believe I did.

CW:And so you were -- that would have been on Second Avenue, that --

NL:Yes, yes.

CW:Looking back, you know, if I had asked you at bar mitzvah age, like, what do you think of Yiddish, what would you have thought? What might you have answered?

NL:Well, if you had asked me that when?

CW:When you were bar mitzvah age, twelve or thirteen or something?

NL:Oh, I would have said something like, "Enchanting." I loved the sound of it. I loved hearing it. I loved the little bit I could speak of it. (PAUSE)

CW:And what, looking back again, what was the place of Yiddish in the world then? You know, particularly in New York and the cities that you were in?

NL:Oh, I don't know. It's just a little corner of my life, that corner that attached to them. My father's parents, I knew. My grandmother was around a long time. But none of his brothers or he, for that matter, none of them spoke 17:00Yiddish. So, I had it on one side of the family only. But I loved it. I loved Friday night, gin rummy games with my grandparents and the Sobels, their makhutonim. (laughs) I remember that word. Their in-laws.

CW:Would you have any big celebrations for Pesach for, like, seders or the High Holidays? Do you remember any, you know, doing --NL:Yeah, no, we had seders. We've been Hanukkah candles, even this year with only one -- well, I had one older daughter here and one younger daughter that came following -- but in the course of the Hanukkah days. So, we had a menorah and lit the candles.

CW:Going back to your youth, how did you feel about being Jewish when you were a kid and growing up?

NL:I felt culturally wonderful about it. I felt proud and I loved it. I remember wondering whether I should be afraid of it. When I was bar mitzvah age, in that area -- oh, it was when my father went to prison. He, oh, God, just before he went to prison, we bought, or he bought me, a crystal radio set. This side of my generation, I don't think anybody even knows about the crystal radio set. But it 19:00was a little crystal on a block of wood and it had what was called a cat's whisker, a little wire attached. And you would move the wire around the crystal, which is only that big, and pick up a radio signal. My father and I played with that radio and I came across Father Coughlin, who was an anti-Semitic priest, minister, priest out of -- I'm not sure now whether it was New Jersey or Illinois or -- but he was a major figure and a major anti-Semite. Was very well-known. Had a radio show, also. And, when my father was away, I remember 20:00listening to him and wondering if I would ever be affected, I, personally, as a Jewish kid. And I wasn't. I didn't -- I wasn't treated poorly as a Jew but I knew of it around me all the years. (PAUSE)

CW:Yeah, how was it? I mean, there -- you write about some of it in your wonderful memoir about just for -- you give the example of the quotas when you're thinking about going to college. I mean, can you, for younger people today, I think they might not understand, really, how institutionalized some of 21:00this --

NL:Oh, yeah.

CW:-- these policies were.

NL:Because the --

CW:Can you explain that?

NL:-- the quotas, I'd forgotten that, but when I was, yeah, you know, thinking about college in those years, the world knew -- I didn't know that it was printed and the individual college, you know, said it out loud but there was a quota, the -- a Jewish quota getting into this school and that school. They took only so many Jews. And there were some that took -- that didn't. I remember hearing about kids going to colleges, when I was younger than college age, Jewish kids coming to college, lying about being Jewish, saying, you know -- either not mentioning it or saying -- or lying altogether.

CW:So, was there a, when you were young -- you know, we'll get into another part of your life soon, but when you were young, was there any aspect of Jewish culture that you were particularly interested in or was important to you?

NL:Well, I was always -- I loved the menorah and the candles. I didn't feel I needed to use a menorah -- I have a menorah -- or anything, because I was Jewish and religious, but I was culturally Jewish and I liked it. I liked the ceremony, I liked the closeness we all felt as we lit the menorah and so forth. My kids 23:00enjoyed that, too. They, in their lives now, will, for the same reason, have a menorah, always.

CW:And to go back to your, you know, the members of your family that you were around who were immigrants, your grandparents, your mother, even -- what was the attitude towards the United States? How was, you know, the sort of immigrant experience in your family narrated or passed -- described to you?

NL:They were altogether in love with America and the American ideals, the American promise. I think I was very much impressed and very much involved in 24:00feelings about -- I remember going with -- the years I lived with my grandfather, standing on the corner at the smallest and sometimes largest of parades on American holidays. I remember that so well, holding his hand as -- and as the flag came by, sometimes with a little marching band, I can feel now, as I say it, I can feel his hand squeezing mine as the flag came by. (PAUSE) They were very patriotic, especially the grandparents. I remember my father served in World War I and the photographs, a couple of photographs of him in 25:00uniform, and I remember finding so touching. And when World War II came along, I was in college. It was a Sunday morning in Back Bay Boston, behind Emerson college. We were rehearsing a play when somebody came running down a fire escape to say that they had just bombed Pearl Harbor. I couldn't wait to enlist.

CW:Yeah, I'm curious about that period. I mean, how much did you know about what was happening to the Jews of Europe, you know, in -- at the beginning of the war, before --

NL:I don't feel I knew a lot, but I knew for a couple of years before the war 26:00that -- I don't remember how much I knew but I knew for sure -- and I'm toying in my mind with the word "persecuted." Did I know the word "persecuted" at that time or did I think they were just being -- they didn't want them living there and Jews were coming to America? But sometime before I actually joined the -- you know, enlisted, I knew that "persecution" was an applicable word.

CW:And, of course, you know, now we know and even at the time there was some 27:00awareness that the US wasn't necessarily, you know, welcoming Europe's Jews with open arms. Do you remember, you know, for example, the Lusitania being turned around and, you know, do you remember that?

NL:I don't remember what you're -- the reference you just made.

CW:Well, the --

NL:The what?

CW:-- the ship that was full of refugees that, you know, came across --

NL:Oh, that was the ship? Yeah, I -- no, I remember, you know, we were in love with FDR before the war. And, look, we -- I don't think it ever stopped until, you know, close to his death. But I do remember hearing that -- and refusing to believe that he wasn't doing enough, that he wasn't allowing every Jew that 28:00wished to come here, you know, admission to the United States. There was rumors about all of that, as I recall. And I was finding it so hard to believe because FDR was so meaningful to all of us. I remember feeling that overseas, also. And I remember being tortured, practically, by was he a good guy, a bad guy in that respect when he died.

CW:So, how, for you, personally, how does that kind of knowledge about just the -- I mean, looking back about the presence of anti-Semitism, how does that, you 29:00know, sort of interact with your feelings about the country with the patriotism that you, you know -- also is clearly present in you?

NL:Well, yeah, I flew -- I got credit for fifty-two missions, and actually was in a plane bombing cities, including Berlin, thirty-five times. So, I saw a good deal of action. And I remember, you know, bombing cities, I -- as the radio operator, I was closest to the bomb bay doors. So, I had the post that -- I stood up and bent over a little bit and had the clearest look at the bomb bay 30:00doors. And I was, you know, the crew member that would let the pilot know that the last bomb had left the bomb bay and he could close the door. So, I was always looking over and watching our bombs drop from the bay and then gather with all of the bombs from planes around us. So, I had the sight of hundreds of bombs dropping. And I remember thinking, imagining a table of a family, of Germans sitting around a table as the bombs dropped. And I remember thinking about this pretty much every time I looked over, and imagined a bomb hitting a table full of families having a lunch or -- and thinking, Screw 'em. And it's 31:00difficult even now not gritting my teeth as I say it because I remember my were teeth grit with, Screw 'em. And then, an hour later, on the way home, I would be reflecting on that and wondering if, in the course of my life, somebody came to me with a piece of paper that read, "Sign this and you will forever mean that you didn't give a damn if that bomb struck that family." And I thought, No, I couldn't sign that. But I was always aware that -- and thankfully, I was never 32:00tested. But I did feel, Screw 'em, when I saw the bombs leave the plane. I didn't give a damn. It was only later that I wondered, would I -- and I wouldn't. I sit here now, I would never sign that paper, but I wasn't tested as I was with the sight of the bombs dropping when I said, Screw 'em.

CW:And when you look back on that time, how much of that was about being Jewish versus just being part of this war where it was clear who the bad guys were?

NL:Well, it was clear as an American they were the bad guys and I was an American GI. But the fact of my Jewishness and the fact of their being persecuted, in addition to what they were doing in England and elsewhere and everything that led to the war -- so, I mean, certainly the part of me that was Jewish played a very big part in my feelings.

CW:Do you remember when you did become aware of, you know, what later became known as the Holocaust and the camps and all of that? Were you aware of that when you were in Europe as a -- you know, in service?

NL:Oh, yeah, yeah, I was aware of that. I was aware of that.

CW:Did you ever meet any survivors when you were in Europe? I know you were in Europe briefly after the war.

NL:I don't remember meeting them in Italy. I was stationed in Italy and flew over and landed at airports but never spent any time there after the war. I volunteered to stay over to fly men and supplies around. But it wasn't till a great many years later, just a few years ago when my friend, John Emerson, was the German ambassador. And John and Kimberley invited us to come over and spend a week with them, stay with them at the ambassador's residence. And we did that, 35:00and I remember sitting around a table with them and German friends, talking about the war and telling them how I bombed Germany and Berlin and how I felt about it, the story that I just told you. And the wonder of living long enough (laughs) to ever experience that, you know, was a conversation about history. It wasn't a conversation about -- it wasn't terribly personal.

CW:Wow. Well, as you sort of have lived such a long and illustrious life, I'm curious how, sort of looking back over your life, growing up with the Jewish 36:00family, you know, Jewish immigrant family with Yiddish present, how has that shaped you've become? What has been the sort of lingering effects of that -- those formative years and that Yiddish culture, that secular culture you were exposed to?

NL:You know, I think it's a question that can be better answered by people who know me well or even people who don't know me personally well but know me well from what they know of my life and career and what I've said in this conversation and in dozens of other conversations over the years about the war and so forth. Certainly, everything I was as a child was part of my desire to -- 37:00you know, I wanted to enlist. My mother begged me not to and I didn't for, I don't know, maybe the better part of a year as a result of her saying she'd die if I did. And finally, I couldn't resist it, at the expense of her -- everything she said that would happen to her if I enlisted. And I called her one day, I was at Emerson, and I said, "I'm enlisting, Ma. I just have to." And did I answer a question there? I don't know.

CW:Yeah, yeah, I think -- I'm curious a little bit more about the Yiddish 38:00culture side, you know? I mean, many people have written about the influence of Yiddish culture in terms of American, you know, American humor, American art and entertainment. I'm curious if you, for -- in your own work, if you see that as being an influence for you?

NL:I'm sure an enormous influence, but that's the question I think other people can comment on better than I can. I lived it but everything I was is what motivated the way I lived it. I mean, I was very much a -- you know, I won a contest called "The Constitution and Me." It was the American Legion oratorical 39:00contest, the very first one. I won it. It still continues to this day. The woman who wrote the play, "The Constitution and Me," won this last time. That happened to be the title of my -- in the first year of this contest, I won -- I don't remember now whether it was Hartford regional or the Connecticut -- but I won Weaver High School, Hartford, Connecticut, and then there was some regional -- and that's how I got to Emerson. I won a scholarship to Emerson. Oh, but that's not the story I wanted to tell.

CW:Oh, I know this -- I think it's in your memoir about what you wrote about, your experience coming from an immigrant background.

NL:Yes.

CW:Right?

NL:That was -- oh, I wondered in -- whether in my talk, "The Constitution and Me," I wondered whether the fact that I was the member of a race that saw hardship and persecution as the result of their ethnicity, whether I valued the Constitution more than somebody who didn't need it to protect their lives or their futures. That was what my talk was all about. And I've always wondered that, you know? Because I owed a little bit more than somebody who didn't ever have to think about that. I had an extra value on -- you know? But in any event, 41:00I served overseas. I was the only Jew in my crew but I was no more the American patriot or the, you know, the guy who wished to serve than any other member of my crew. We were as one in that way.

CW:Well, I know we don't have much time left but I wanted -- and this is, you know, of all the shows that people tend to ask you about, this is probably not typical. But because of the Yiddish bent, I want to ask you if you remember what it was like to work with Molly Picon on "Come Blow Your Horn." I know you were involved in getting her on -- in that picture. So, anything you remember about working with her, this Yiddish theater star?

NL:Where did it -- when --

CW:She was Mrs. -- she was Sophie Baker in "Come --" she was the mother in "Come Blow Your Horn," Molly Picon.

NL:Oh, no I remember Molly Picon really well. (laughs) And I don't remember her being in my film. And I remember wanting her in the film and I remember going to Ciro's, where she played one weekend, and I don't remember her being -- oh, my goodness, that's the funniest thing. So, she played what role? Who else --

CW:I mean, I'm pretty sure she was the mother in that. She was Mrs. Baker.

NL:Oh, oh, I'm mixing up my own films in my head. This was Lee J. Cobb's mother in the film, am I right? Oh, Lee J. Cobb's wife.

CW:Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

NL:Yes, Molly Picon.

CW:Well, what -- just tell me what you remember about her, 'cause for me, she's a big celebrity.

NL:Well, you're hearing me not remember a lot at all. (laughs)

CW:That's okay, you're allowed.

NL:But I remember I got her into Ciro's so that I could see her work before she got the role in the film. So, I had a lot to do with -- I might have even brought her out from New York, I don't remember that. But I learned -- I saw her, you know, in a Yiddish show, Off-Broadway. Molly Picon, my God. Azoy [So]!

CW:(laughs) Azoy. Well, one thing I noticed in your book and -- is that you have 44:00some Yiddish words sprinkled around and one of the places you have it is in mentioning this social group that you have, "Yenem Velt [The Other World]." I'm curious --

NL:Oh, yes.

CW:(laughs) -- in your friendships, you know, some of these people have similar backgrounds. How much, you know, Yiddish comes up when you all are hanging out?

NL:Well, "Yenem Velt" was a group -- I had a friend who owned one of the hotels in Las Vegas for a couple years. And during those years, he called me once and he said, "You know, the hotel has two homes: one in Palm Springs, one in La Costa. They're five bedrooms each, they're fully staffed. They're for high 45:00rollers. You're not much of a gambler but they're not used every weekend. And every weekend they're not used, they're fully staffed. Call! If it's open, you know, I'd love to have you be there." So, the Palm Springs -- I called Palm Springs once. The weekend was open and the group that became "Yenem Velt" -- I invited Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, the wittiest writer of all, Larry Gelbart, and Dom DeLuise. Five couples. And, I mean, we had the great laughing time of our lives, all of us. And so, for years, once or twice a year, maybe for six or 46:00eight years, we went away for a weekend. There were weekends when we arrived on Friday evening, woke up Saturday morning and had breakfast in our bedclothes and laughed so hard and so completely we never got out of the clothes. We got dressed to go home Friday -- I mean Sunday night. Oh, my God, those years. And we called ourselves "Yenem Velt," which is Yiddish for "The Other World." And Larry Gelbart once said -- he was in a -- stayed in the bedroom. He said he was writing a song and it sounded like he was working for hours and it took -- at the end of the afternoon, he came out and he had these sheets of paper with the words, the lyric. And he handed us all the full lyric and the song was, 47:00(singing) "Oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt. Oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt. Oh yenem velt" -- it never changed. (laughs) And we're sitting around the table the first night, we decided we would sing the song before every meal. And as we sat there side by side, Carl said, "Let's do this." He put his finger in the next person's ear. So, we all put our right hand in the ear of the guy sitting to our right and sang "Oh yenem velt, oh yenem velt." Couple of times a year for years.

CW:What an image! That's great, thanks. (laughs) Well, I know we --

NL:That's an image to close on! (laughs)

CW:Yeah, can I just ask one last question, which is --

NL:Please do.

CW:-- where do you see Yiddish now in the world and what does it mean to you personally? Where is it out in the world and where is it in you?

NL:You know, I don't hear it all now. I don't know anyone in my generation that's speaking Yiddish. So, from where I -- I've not answered this question or thought about this at all. I'm pleased to be thinking -- now I'm sad about the answer, but my parents' generation, in my view, seems to be the last generation 49:00to use it, Yiddish, somewhat. And my grandparents' generation was the last generation in my memory that used it a great deal. Every once in a while, somebody from Israel will be in my life, visiting from Israel or some friend of a friend or -- and we will -- that person may bring up the Yiddish or I'll bring up the Yiddish and we'll talk Yiddish a little and that's as close as I get it to it now.

CW:Well, a hartsikn dank, a sheynem dank, (laughs) thank you so much for taking the time.

NL:You're welcome so much and I'm very interested in your interest. (Christa laughs) In a world of subjects, you picked --

CW:Yeah.

NL:-- for me, a really sweet and romantic one.

CW:Well, thanks, yeah. Yeah, well, it's been a great part of my life so far. I love Yiddish culture, too, so -- (laughs)

NL:Well, you stay well and I'd love to hear more, you know? In a couple years, you might --

CW:Yeah.

NL:-- think of calling me again.

CW:Definitely.

NL:And I'd love to hear --

CW:Sure.

NL:-- from your end. I'd love to ask a dozen questions.

CW:Yep, anytime. I'm here. (laughs)

NL:Okay, thank you.

CW:Well, biz hundert un tsvantsik, zay gezunt [may you live to be 120, be well]. (laughs) Take care.

NL:You, too.

[End of interview]