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Arthur Klein was interviewed by Christa Whitney on October 12, 2011 at the Yiddish Book Center.
Arthur Klein’s interview paints a vivid picture of early twentieth century life in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where he grew up. Arthur provides meticulous details about his childhood in Brownsville. He describes his grandparents as Jews from Russian who often spoke English, but occasionally slipped into Yiddish. His parents were English speakers, but his neighborhood was a Jewish, or as he sometimes calls it, a Yiddish neighborhood. Arthur recounts how his grandparents came to own apartment buildings, and his own attempts at scrounging up a few cents. Street games and Jewish food provide the backdrop for many of Arthur’s favorite memories. Nearly the first half of the interview goes over such memories as Arthur explains that he grew up in a real ghetto neighborhood, where people “really lived for each other.”
The latter half of the interview, though often slipping back to Arthur’s childhood, focuses on the time of the Depression, Arthur’s 3 ½ year service in the Navy, and life in the 40s and 50s. In this section of the interview Arthur describes his life as greatly affected by the economic downturn and the war. Arthur is careful to describe his time in the Navy as the first time he noticed that he was Jewish. Having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood, Arthur had never really thought about his identity, until he came across men who had never met a Jew before. Arthur describes the way he met his friend “The Moose,” a man who went up to Arthur looking for his horns.
The end of the interview goes over Arthur’s life as a hairdresser; a profession he took up when he couldn’t get into college after the war, even with the GI bill (and because of it). He briefly talks about his children, his move to Long Island, his first salon, his wife, his life in Florida, and finally his time spent at the Yiddish Book Center. Arthur ends his interview showing pictures of his youth, his diplomas, and the speech he wrote for his Bar Mitzvah.
To learn more about the Wexler Oral History Project, visit: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story
To cite this interview: Arthur Klein Oral History Interview, interviewed by Christa Whitney, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, October 12, 2011. Video recording, http://archive.org/details/ArthurKlein12october2011YiddishBookCenter ( [date accessed] )
Arthur Klein’s interview paints a vivid picture of early twentieth century life in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where he grew up. Arthur provides meticulous details about his childhood in Brownsville. He describes his grandparents as Jews from Russian who often spoke English, but occasionally slipped into Yiddish. His parents were English speakers, but his neighborhood was a Jewish, or as he sometimes calls it, a Yiddish neighborhood. Arthur recounts how his grandparents came to own apartment buildings, and his own attempts at scrounging up a few cents. Street games and Jewish food provide the backdrop for many of Arthur’s favorite memories. Nearly the first half of the interview goes over such memories as Arthur explains that he grew up in a real ghetto neighborhood, where people “really lived for each other.”
The latter half of the interview, though often slipping back to Arthur’s childhood, focuses on the time of the Depression, Arthur’s 3 ½ year service in the Navy, and life in the 40s and 50s. In this section of the interview Arthur describes his life as greatly affected by the economic downturn and the war. Arthur is careful to describe his time in the Navy as the first time he noticed that he was Jewish. Having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood, Arthur had never really thought about his identity, until he came across men who had never met a Jew before. Arthur describes the way he met his friend “The Moose,” a man who went up to Arthur looking for his horns.
The end of the interview goes over Arthur’s life as a hairdresser; a profession he took up when he couldn’t get into college after the war, even with the GI bill (and because of it). He briefly talks about his children, his move to Long Island, his first salon, his wife, his life in Florida, and finally his time spent at the Yiddish Book Center. Arthur ends his interview showing pictures of his youth, his diplomas, and the speech he wrote for his Bar Mitzvah.
To learn more about the Wexler Oral History Project, visit: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story
To cite this interview: Arthur Klein Oral History Interview, interviewed by Christa Whitney, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, October 12, 2011. Video recording, http://archive.org/details/ArthurKlein12october2011YiddishBookCenter ( [date accessed] )
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Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project
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