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.

Inside or Outside: Closed Circles in the Yiddish World

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Zohar Weiman-Kelman--scholar of Queer Studies, Yiddish Studies, and Jewish literature--reflects on the Yiddish world's "closed" nature. They discuss how historically and even now, radical politics and new Yiddish speakers are often excluded by rigorous academics who hold the keys.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Zohar Weiman-Kelman.

This excerpt is in English.

Zohar Weiman-Kelman was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1982.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"Making Babies in Other Ways": Beyond Heteronormativity, Essentialism, Survival in Transmission

3 min

Who is Irena Klepfisz?: Mentor, Lesbian Yiddish Poetess

2 min 19 sec

Yiddish Rebelliousness, Pleasure, Corporeality of the Past

2 min 22 sec

"Look Through Yiddish at the World": Advice for Those Interested in Yiddish

1 min 13 sec

Finding Yiddish through Women Writers

3 min 48 sec

Speaking Directly to the Bubbies: Transmission Between Jewish Lesbian Writers and Yiddish Poetesses

2 min 32 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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