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.
"He Tried to Pass As A Recent Immigrant": How My Dad Learned Yiddish
Watch now:
Debra Caplan, Ph.D. candidate in Yiddish, details how her father's desire to fit in to his new Orthodox school drove him to learn Yiddish from a local Rabbi from Vilna.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Debra Caplan.
This excerpt is in English.
Debra Caplan was born in North Wales, Pennsylvania in 1985.
This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.