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.

"Everything was about der heym (back home)": My Grandfather's Nostalgia for the Shtetl-Life of Lite

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Zvi Jankelowitz, Director of Institutional Advancement at the Yiddish Book Center, talks about the nostalgia for the Old Country of Lite (Lithuania and Latvia) that he overheard during his childhood in South Africa.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Zvi Jankelowitz.

This excerpt is in English.

Zvi Jankelowitz was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1956.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

"Not the Hands of a Maid": How My Grandmother Ended Up in South Africa

1 min 22 sec

The Fate of the Last Jews of Kruk, Lithuania

2 min 17 sec

An Unforgettable Journey: From South Africa to Brooklyn by Boat, 1936

2 min 28 sec

My Father's Sense of Duty as a Lawyer in Apartheid South Africa

4 min 38 sec

Great Food! - Well, Great If You're From Lithuanian Heritage

2 min 47 sec

Kibitsing in Xhosa: Childhood Memories from the Jewish Kitchens of South Africa

1 min 32 sec

May 4, 1968: Shimon Peres Quizzed Me in Hebrew in Our South African Living Room

2 min 58 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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