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.
Becoming "The Jew": Experiencing Philo and Anti-semitism
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Tal Hever-Chybowski, historian and teacher of Yiddish and current director of the Paris Yiddish Center Medem Library, explains that, as an Israeli immigrant in Germany, anti-semitism (a different sort than what his grandparents were exposed to) has been a force that's prompted him to explore questions of his own Jewish identity. He shares a anecdote in which a Swiss pastor displays a bizarre fascination with his Jewishness, reducing him to an exotic Other, before making a hateful joke at his expense.
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.
This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.
