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.

"Saturday Night was like a Salon at Our House": Growing Up in the Feinberg Household

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Harriet Bonfeld, educator and daughter of Yiddish poet and journalist Leon Feinberg, describes a typical social gathering with her parents' friends, Yiddish "intelligentsia" from Itzik Manger to Chaim Grade.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Harriet Bonfeld.

This excerpt is in English.

Harriet Bonfeld was born in Bronx, New York in 1946.

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This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"Religion is a very personal thing." (transmission)

2 min 1 sec

A Yiddish Education ("I felt very proud.")

1 min 41 sec

"But We Knew Him on All Sides": Why We Wanted to Talk About Our Father

48 sec

Our Yiddish Seder (Yiddish Passover seders)

1 min 49 sec

"He Used To Call Me Meydele": Fond Memories of my Father, the Yiddish Writer Leon Feinberg

1 min 39 sec

"Yiddish is still a part of my life."

53 sec

"He was Very Dapper": Memories of Yiddish Poet Leon Feinberg

1 min 12 sec

"They Were Happy Memories": Living with Our Father, a Yiddish writer

1 min 34 sec

Dreydl with Dad

1 min 17 sec

Coming to Terms with Realities of Communism (Father Happy in the U.S. and Dissillunsioned with Communism)

1 min 57 sec

My Father's Story of Storming the Winter Palace

1 min 30 sec

My Advice to Future Generations (advice Love and Honor your parents)

41 sec

"I always felt different."

1 min 14 sec

Cooking for Seven

1 min 9 sec

"Everyone always looked up to him..."

1 min 1 sec

The Languages We Spoke at Home (parents' languages)

1 min 4 sec

Yiddish Will Never Die

55 sec

"He was very loving and devoted to us." (Remembering father)

1 min 53 sec

Undzer Kamp

2 min 45 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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