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.

Yiddish Became a Burden During the McCarthy Era

Watch now:

Joseph Heller, summer 2013 Steiner student, speaks about the pressure to assimilate felt by his mother's family during the McCarthy Era, and how this pressure contributed to diminished use of German and Yiddish in the home.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Joseph Heller.

This excerpt is in English.

Joseph Heller was born in 1994.

Jump to map

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"Mieskeit! You Know What That Is?"

1 min 26 sec

Yiddish is Not Dead, It's Taken On a New Form

1 min 40 sec

"Hak Mir Nisht Keyn Tschaynik!": My Favorite Yiddish Phrase

1 min 18 sec

"All That Remains is a Dream" - The Bittersweet Nostalgia of "Vu Iz Dos Gesele?"

1 min 35 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: