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.

Mocking the "Polish" Grandma: Growing Up with Anti-Diasporic Sentiment

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Tal Hever-Chybowski, historian and teacher of Yiddish and current director of the Paris Yiddish Center Medem Library, recounts how his Israeli family's anti-Diasporic attitudes found expression in their perceptions of his grandmother as "Polish." This, he explains, meant seeing her as "funny, grotesque, weak," and more. The only talk of Europe and the family's European history pertained to these stereotypes and antisemitism -- in short, why Europe is bad.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Tal Hever-Chybowski.

This excerpt is in English.

Tal Hever-Chybowski was born in Oakland, California in 1986.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Becoming "The Jew": Experiencing Philo and Anti-semitism

6 min 9 sec

Paris: My Mecca of Yiddish

3 min 55 sec

Only With Superlatives Can One Describe Niborski

2 min 4 sec

Deconstructing the Notion of a "Dead Language"

2 min 18 sec

Yiddish as an Answer to Questions of Jewish Identity

1 min 41 sec

Coming Back to the Past to Create the Future

1 min 24 sec

Advice for Serious Students of Yiddish

1 min 12 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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