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.

"I give Chai"

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Arthur Klein, z"l - Brooklyn-born Navy veteran, retired hairdresser and former Yiddish Book Center docent - discusses one of the reasons he is no longer religious, explaining that he felt ashamed only to be able to donate eighteen dollars to the synagogue, while others gave thousands.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Arthur Klein.

This excerpt is in English.

Arthur Klein was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1924. Arthur died in 2014.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Running Phone Calls for Pennies

2 min 16 sec

Childhood Adventures

1 min 45 sec

Yiddish-speaking grandpas

1 min 16 sec

Dragging Ice Home From the Dry Dock

1 min 45 sec

I Thought Heartburn Was a Natural Thing to Have

2 min 58 sec

Outgrowing Religion

4 min 28 sec

Murder Inc.

1 min 21 sec

Nose Job for Twenty-Five Dollars

1 min 50 sec

A Smoking Rabbi

1 min 36 sec

A Pool Room Scam

1 min 54 sec

"What I Remember From The Great Depression"

2 min 13 sec

Being Aware of My Jewishness in the Navy

2 min 55 sec

Why He Works at The Yiddish Book Center

1 min 35 sec

"I cash old clothes!"

1 min 41 sec

The Shvits (Shvitz - sauna) at Coney Island

3 min 15 sec

Picking Out Live Chickens in Brooklyn

2 min 12 sec

Cut That Man Right Out of My Hair

2 min 23 sec

I Thought Heartburn Was a Natural Thing to Have

2 min 58 sec

Favorite Yiddish Phrase

59 sec

Finding Out About the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

1 min 13 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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