Not online: the recording is held by the project and is not on Media Collections Online, YouTube or archive.org. Everything below is a paraphrase of a machine transcript, the weaker of this site's two transcript layers — see how it was made.
Camera-track recording made in Warsaw on 17 June 2018, apparently a conversation between Dov-Ber Kerler and Jacob "Kobi" Weitzner, who works at the Yiddish theater in Warsaw. It is not a conventional interview: the two reminisce about Weitzner's film studies and stay in America and about Chone Shmeruk, then discuss the Warsaw Yiddish theater and the 1968 emigration. The last third turns to Yiddish today, learners of Yiddish and young people from Hasidic backgrounds. Krol, named in the index, is not identifiable in this file.
Weitzner recalls his dealings with the scholars Shmeruk and Sachs (names as heard), his chance to study film abroad, and his move to America. He mentions work in New York, American universities and a one-thousand-dollar grant. Kerler helps with dates and recalls writing letters for him. They discuss the period around his doctorate, the years 2004–2005 (as heard) and Shmeruk's urging him to come to America.
A joke is told about a bandit's funeral, in connection with Peretz. The talk moves to Friedman, a colonel dismissed from the military who knew good Yiddish and became Yiddish supervisor at the theater. They also discuss the theater's and the Jewish union's leadership under Shmeruk (as heard), and an old woman who cannot write.
Weitzner describes his current work at the theater, where he is called a literary leader, and the Yiddish texts and translations needed for guest tours. They discuss missing script pages and the importance of actors versus text. Chaim Reiper (as heard) is named. They talk about a devoted communist, a Polish patriot, who stayed in Poland and said that Jews were not loved there. Kerler recalls translating for a Sejm member at Oxford in the 1980s.
They discuss Dovid Katz's translation of a history of the Yiddish theater and the events of 1968, when many Polish Jews, including Holocaust survivors, were forced to leave. A short English-language passage appears that reflects this theme. They also discuss whether the Yiddish theater is aimed at non-Jewish audiences and a thousand-year history of faith conversion.
Kerler raises an expression used to compliment beautiful children, understood as a protection against the evil eye, and explains its use. The topic then moves toward the theater.
They discuss the Polish tradition of state-supported theater, the finances of the Yiddish theater, and the actors Reiper, Szydłowski, Wałczak and others. An actor with a phenomenal memory is recalled, and a Passover-related anecdote about him. They also mention the last plays performed in Yiddish, including a Lida (?) piece, and Shmeruk's fondness for his young male students as sons.
They mention Natie Kahn as one of Shmeruk's closest students. Kerler says Shmeruk was angry with him for a year or two after he left for Oxford. They speak of a film made by Kahn (name as heard) which Kerler found on YouTube.
Weitzner says that in older age he has become something of a singer, though his children dislike it when he sings at home. They discuss the difficulty of Yiddish without Polish and Hebrew elements and how Yiddish is learned through reading and listening. Kerler recommends learning style from Sholem Aleichem.
Weitzner speaks of a Swedish book publisher interested in Yiddish, with a name given as Ulyansky (?), and of his own animated film. They talk about finding funding for a European Yiddish theater and a possible partnership with an Argentinian. They discuss Paris and Sweden, and Weitzner says there is no contact with Moscow or Russia.
They discuss who remains active in Yiddish today. One poet in Petersburg is mentioned, and a Yiddish publisher. They also note that Yiddish is stronger in Israel, where a prominent person knows no Yiddish. The question of why former Hasidim do not appear in Yiddish theaters is raised.
Kerler tells of a young man from a Hasidic family who approached him in a mall (name as heard: Blumenthal) and who studies at a conservative seminary. He also tells of friends in Jerusalem who learned Yiddish at universities, among them a man from a Satmar background who found Peretz hard because of the Hebrew-component words. He discusses the Hungarian variant of Polish Yiddish, and how Miriam Ofman met secular ex-Hasidim who stay in the community for the sake of family and surroundings.