בײלע שעכטער־גאָטעסמאַן: האַרבסטליד
Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman: Song of Autumn

The interview with this remarkable Yiddish poet, songwriter, and singer is conducted by folklorist/journalist Itsik Gottesman. The film is 72 minutes long.
In Song of Autumn, Beyle, who has played a central role in reviving and inspiring interest in Yiddish song and poetry among a new generation of artists, discusses her life and creative path: her upbringing in the Yiddish cultural milieu of Czernowitz (then Romania) as the daughter of a remarkable traditional folksinger and a passionate Yiddishist, the war years in Romania, her development as a modern Yiddish poet and songwriter in New York, and her views on Yiddish literature and creativity. What emerges is a rich picture of the world of a woman who recited poetry to the great Yiddish fabulist Eliezer Shteynbarg as a child, was part of a vibrant Yiddish enclave in the Bronx, and is the only Yiddish poet ever to be awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the top honor for folk arts in the United States.
Highlights include Beyle’s reciting several of her poems as well as singing several of her own songs, among them the favorites,”Mayn khaverte Mintsye” (My Friend Mintsye) and “Borekh-habo dir, khaver” (Welcome, My Friend).

Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman was born in Vienna in 1920 but she and her family left to settle in Czernowitz, Ukraine (then Romania), when she was a young child. Thinking she wanted to be an artist, Schaechter-Gottesman went to Vienna to study art but was forced to return to Czernowitz when the Germans invaded Austria in 1938. In 1941 she married a medical doctor, Jonas (Yoyne) Gottesman, and together they lived out the war in the Czernowitz Ghetto along with her mother and several other family members. She, her husband and daughter settled in New York in 1951.
Schaechter-Gottesman’s first book of poetry, Mir Forn (We’re Travelling) appeared in 1963. Her books, nine in total, have appeared regularly since then. They include poetry for adults, children’s books and song books. Her most recent book is Der tsvit fun teg: Lider un tseykhenungen (The Blossom of Days: Poems and Drawings), published by the League for Yiddish and CYCO Publishing, 2007. She has recorded three CDs of her songs and one recording of folk songs. Schaechter-Gottesman’s songs have been performed by Theodore Bikel, Adrienne Cooper, Theresa Tova, Lucette van den Berg, Michael Alpert, Lorin Sklamberg, Sharon Jan Bernstein, and others.

Itzik Gottesman is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. He has a Ph.D in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught Yiddish language, culture and folklore at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas in Austin. He is completing a website to make accessible his 700 cassette recordings of Yiddish culture in New York City. From 2000 to 2023 he was the associate editor of the Yiddish newspaper, Forverts. He is the author of the book Defining the Yiddish Nation: The Jewish Folklorists of Poland (2003). Since 2010 he has directed a blog, “Yiddish Song Of The Week,” featuring rare Yiddish folksong recordings.

The films are directed and edited by Josh Waletzky, director and editor of Image before My Eyes and Partisans of Vilna, and the editor of Emmy Award-winning Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler’s House. Among other awards, Waletzky is the recipient of the Silver Ducat at the Mannheim International Film Festival for Image and First Prize at the Anthropos International Film Festival for Partisans. Other editing credits include Peabody Award-winning Revolution! (1997), the A.C.E. Eddie Award-nominated The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2000), the Emmy Award-winning She Says: Women In News (2001).