The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Tsene Rene

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Jean Baumgarten discusses the evolution and importance of the Tsene Rene, a book which served as a "women's bible" and made religious texts more accessible to women through the use of Yiddish.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Jean Baumgarten.

This excerpt is in English.

Jean Baumgarten was born in Paris, France in 1950.

This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Continuity Between Medieval and Contemporary Communities

2 min 31 sec

Isolation of Jewish Studies in Academia

1 min 27 sec

Medem Bibliotheque

1 min 47 sec

What is Ashkenazic Society

2 min 58 sec

Transmission: an Academic's Duty to the Community

3 min 6 sec

Are you a Yiddishist?

1 min 44 sec

Ashkenazic culture and subcultures

1 min 51 sec

Beginning of Yiddish Studies

2 min 19 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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