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.

"A Holy Mission": The Urgent Need to Translate Yiddish Literature

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Rachel Rojanski, Professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University, reflects on the future of Yiddish and urges that the translation into Hebrew and English of the "treasure" that is Yiddish literature.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Rachel Rojanski.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Rachel Rojanski was born in Israel.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"I Told Him I Could Read Yiddish": The Teenager's Lie that Lead to My Lifelong Academic Involvement with Yiddish

3 min 46 sec

(Re)Interpreting the History of Yiddish in Israel: Theatre, Literature, and Language

3 min 12 sec

Mystery or Hilarity: Attitudes toward Yiddish in Israel versus the United States

3 min 16 sec

"Our Parents Were Galutim (From the Exile), and We Were Israelis!": Negative Attitudes Toward Eastern Europe

2 min 15 sec

"If They're Reading Letste Nayes, They're Really Uneducated People": Attitudes Toward Yiddish in Israel

1 min 6 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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