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.
"Yiddish!? What Do You Want Yiddish For?" - Attitudes toward Yiddish in Israel
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Adi Mahalel, lecturer of Yiddish Studies at the University of Maryland, speaks about the negative attitude towards Yiddish that he faced growing up in Israel, whether it be from his staunch Hebraist mother who wouldn't put up with his father's occasional Yiddish phrases, older people who considered it a language of the Galut (Exile / diaspora) or the dismissive college professors that he encountered in his early academic career.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Adi Mahalel.
This excerpt is in English.
Adi Mahalel was born in Haifa, Israel in 1979.
This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.
