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.

Mark Gerstein's Oral History

Mark Gerstein - former high school history teacher and Wexler Oral History Project volunteer - was interviewed by Christa Whitney on July 5, 2012 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Mark passed away on November 20, 2013 - may his memory be a blessing.

This interview was conducted in English.

Mark Gerstein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1949. Mark died in 2013.

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Video highlights from this oral history

"Bloody Sunday" in Selma and "Judgment at Nuremberg"

3 min 1 sec

1920 Pogrom in Zamosc, Poland

3 min 27 sec

"Would You Have Fought Hitler?": Jews and the Vietnam War

1 min 38 sec

Decision to Immigrate to the United States

1 min 29 sec

November 15, 1969: Massive Anti-War Rally

6 min 27 sec

Jewish Immigration: Examining the Categories on My Grandfather's Ship Manifest

2 min 20 sec

Teaching the Holocaust and Jewish Identity

1 min 9 sec

Examining the Ellis Island Card

1 min 56 sec

Taking a Course in Elementary Yiddish with Aaron Lansky

3 min 41 sec

Sean Furgeson, a Good Yiddish Name: On How Officials Changed Names Upon Immigrating Through Ellis Island

1 min 33 sec

Talk to Your Grandparents! The Importance of Asking Questions and Family History

40 sec

Americanization of Jewish First Names In My Family

1 min 55 sec

Visiting the Zamosc Synagogue in Poland

3 min 53 sec

World War One: My Family Flees Zamosc and Settles in Minsk

2 min 54 sec

The Jewish Cemetery in Zamosc

2 min 19 sec

Conveying Yiddish Expressions to the Younger Generation

2 min 33 sec

Mishugas and Mentch: Yiddish Expressions in American Movies

1 min 54 sec

An Assimilationist Impulse: My Jewish Family Celebrating Christmas

2 min 36 sec

Teaching Jewish Life and Values through Yiddish Literature

6 min 14 sec

"That's the Shul I Don't Go To": Choosing A Synagogue

2 min 37 sec

Students Grapple with the Meaning of the Holocaust

1 min 50 sec

Learning Social Distinctions in the Synagogue

2 min 22 sec

The Holocaust and Human Choice

4 min 39 sec

The Rabbi Told Stories in Yiddish on Yom Kippur

1 min 59 sec

The Continuum of the Jewish Past and Present

1 min 41 sec

Studying for His Bar Mitzvah

1 min 50 sec

"Better Dead than Red" - The Cuban Missile Crisis

2 min 20 sec

My Mother's Reaction when Jack Ruby Shot Lee Harvey Oswald

3 min 53 sec

Artifacts related to this oral history

Father's Ellis Island Card

More information about this oral history

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