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.

Are You Greenhorns?: Our Yiddish Passed as Old Country Yiddish

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David Epstein, a Yidish-Vokh participant, relates a story about speaking Yiddish in New York, as a born and bred Texan, and being mistaken for a "greenhorn" (new immigrant).

This is an excerpt from an oral history with David Epstein.

This excerpt is in English.

David Epstein was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1935.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Mariampol, Mexico City, and Marriage

1 min 39 sec

A Yiddish-Speaking Home in Texas

1 min 20 sec

How Asthma Brought My Jewish Family From Mariampol To Texas

2 min 10 sec

The Neighbor's Antisemitism

1 min 19 sec

Yiddish: A Vikhteke Sprakh (Important Language)

1 min 41 sec

Carrying Forward Jewishness

1 min 9 sec

Encounters and Reactions on a Visit to the Old Family Home in Bialystok

2 min 59 sec

Speaking Yiddish in the White House

1 min 58 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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