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.

My Mother and Grandmother Lived in the Lithuanian Forest Before Coming to America

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Paul Berg, Yiddish activist, describes how his mother and grandmother were forced out of their home near Vilna before his grandfather could bring them to America.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Paul Berg.

This excerpt is in English.

Paul Berg was born in New York, New York in 1935.

Other video highlights from this oral history

It Makes Me Understand That I'm Not Safe: The Legacy of the Holocaust

1 min 55 sec

The Spirit of Yiddish in Young People

2 min 32 sec

My Grandmother Over-Worshiped Food

2 min 21 sec

I Can't Pay You Unless I Have Scissors: How My Grandmother Supported My Success in America

2 min 17 sec

My Stint as a Yiddish Actor

1 min 49 sec

Yiddish: The Essence of Jewishness

2 min 33 sec

My Tie to the Past: Yiddish

1 min 9 sec

Yiddish and Israel: It's Not Conflictual To Me

2 min 30 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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