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.

My Advice to Yiddish Students: Make Up Your Own Words

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Charles Corfield shares his advice to future students of Yiddish, giving credit to the diversity of the language. He asserts that the question is not whether or not what you're speaking is Yiddish, but rather "where it is Yiddish."

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Charles Corfield.

This excerpt is in English.

Charles Corfield was born in Wales, United Kingdom in 1959.

Other video highlights from this oral history

A Virtual Shtetl

2 min 8 sec

When the Jewish Bulb Flickered On

1 min 46 sec

The Barrier to Yiddish Has Dropped Dramatically

3 min 7 sec

The Highest Shul in America

2 min 32 sec

Yiddish Hidden in English

1 min 21 sec

A New York Jewish Experience

2 min 26 sec

Listening to Yiddish Music while Training for Ultra-Marathons

1 min 41 sec

Spectacular Climbs

2 min 55 sec

A Shtetl in New York

1 min 45 sec

Reconstruction Becomes Excavation: 11th Century Jewish Community

3 min 53 sec

Favorite Yiddish Phrase: Something Terribly Everyday

48 sec

Keeping up with Yiddish through Forverts

47 sec

Everything is Debatable

1 min 33 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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