Oral Histories

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

Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded more than 1,300 in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture. The interviews in our growing collection are conducted in Yiddish and/or English with narrators of all ages from a variety of backgrounds. For more details on how to search and browse the oral history collection, see the user guide, below. As you explore the collection, you'll find native Yiddish speakers, world-renowned klezmer musicians, grandmothers, descendants of Yiddish writers, students, and more. The interviews are focused life histories, covering family background, involvement with Yiddish language and culture, Jewish identity, and the transmission of culture and values across generations and communities. You can find full-length (one- to two-hour) interviews and shorter (one- to five-minute) excerpted highlights through the narrator index or by searching for a topic that interests you.

Oral history excerpt

It's Strange to Everyone Else, It's Not Strange to Me: Reflections on Being a Black Jew

Anthony Russell, singer, describes his experience as an African American Jew, which is sometimes surprising to others but feels natural to him.

1 min 42 sec

Oral history excerpt

My Jewish, Lesbian Experience of Second Wave Feminism and Yiddish Activism

Irena Klepfisz, lesbian poet and writer, reflects on how the intersections of her identity, as a Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, Lesbian, and feminist, has influenced her role in Yiddish culture...

10 min 17 sec

Oral history excerpt

South Philly's Jewish Shopping District

David Berg, a South Philadelphia native, remembers the shops and vendors of his childhood growing up in the city's Jewish neighborhood.

1 min 24 sec

Oral history excerpt

"Papa's Cheese": The Jewish Immigration Story of a 100-year-old Wedge of Cheese

Musician Clare Burson narrates the story of her "papa's cheese," a surviving wedge first given to her great-grandfather in 1890s Lithuania, and explains how it inspired her.

5 min 59 sec