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.

The Policeman and the Horse Thief

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Helen Yelen - wife, mother, grandmother, and friend - tells how a policeman was killed in the line of duty and how his wife did not receive a pension because she would not allow an autopsy.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Helen Yelen.

This excerpt is in English.

Helen Yelen was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1917. Helen died in 2015.