Leonard Nimoy - Jewish actor best known for his role as Spock on the Star Trek science fiction series - explains the Jewish story behind the hand-gesture he made famous through his role as Spock in the Star Trek science fiction series.

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project is a g...

Yes, Leonard Nimoy speaks Yiddish. Learn more about Leonard (Leyb) Nimoy from his Jewish roots in Boston's heymish West End neighborhood to his brief stint working with famous Yiddish theatre maven Maurice Schwartz in these video highlights from the Wexler Oral History Project's interview with t...

As a young child, Anthony (Mordechai Tzvi) Russell sang along to opera records—the beginning of an artistic journey that eventually led him to Yiddish folk songs and the repertoire of the legendary Sidor Belarsky.

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project is a growing collection of i...

Born in Belarus in 1893, Ida Maze came to Montreal with her family when she was a girl and soon began writing lyric poetry, much of it for children, which was published in books as well as in Yiddish journals and newspapers. Maze was also deeply involved in cultural activities in Montreal’s Jewis...

“It’s not “Jewish,” it’s Yiddish”- Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman was a central figure in a vibrant Yiddish world based in the Bronx, New York. Her poetry, songs, and artwork are foundational to the canon of that tradition. The legacy of her creative output spans two centuries, multiple continents, a...

Alter Esselin, a carpenter and Yiddish poet, was born Orkeh Serebrenik in the small town of Tchernigov, Russia. Esselin, who published his poetry in three books and many Yiddish journals around the world, spent years travelling around the United States as a journeyman before settling in Milwaukee...

Peter "Klezmer Fats" Sokolow likes the “real sound”—the Jewish sound. But how many musicians are left who appreciate klezmer music as an art form and not a nostalgic artifact? In this short film, Sokolow retells his compelling life story, from growing up the son of a musician in New York, to perf...

The Yiddish Book Center presents "Who Will Remain?", a new feature documentary included in The Wexler Oral History Project! | Attempting to better understand her grandfather Avrom Sutzkever, Israeli actress Hadas Kalderon travels to Lithuania, using her grandfather’s diary to trace his early life...

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens oral history. In this segment, we explore Solomon Simon’s children’s literature and work as a Jewish pedagogue.

According to his family, Solomon Simon was a unique ...

The prolific Yiddish writer Solomon Simon was born Shlomo Simonovich in a shtetl in what is now Belarus. At 13, he went to his first of several yeshivas in Poland. His studies were interrupted by the threat of the mandatory conscription into the Russian army, which he avoided by fleeing to the Un...

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens oral history. In this segment, we explore Simon’s philosophical views on Jewish identity and tradition.

Simon set out to create a Jewish community without ritual or...

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens oral history. In this segment, we explore who he was in his family life, through the memories of his descendants.

One of Simon's greatest legacies is a large family...

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens of oral history. In this segment, we explore Solomon Simon’s shifting relationship to religious practice and education throughout his life.

Solomon Simon was born S...

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens oral history. In this segment, we explore his relationship to the United States.

The descendants of Solomon Simon love to tell the tale of his chosen birthday, July...

The Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project presents a portrait of a prolific writer and Jewish thinker, through the lens oral history. In this segment, we explore the other side of the writer’s life, his career as a dentist.

How does a prolific writer in Yiddish pay his bills in New Y...