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.

Feeling at Home in Business School

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Irv Zuckerman discusses how he decided to go to Business school, even though his mother wanted him to become a lawyer.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Irv Zuckerman.

This excerpt is in English.

Irv Zuckerman was born in New York in 1924. Irv died in 2019.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Working With Refuseniks

2 min 37 sec

His Mother's Mistrust of His Career

1 min 51 sec

Racism and Antisemitism in the Work Place

3 min

"My Mother Did Not Allow Me To Run with the 'Trombeniks'": How My Childhood Made Me a Clumsy Soldier

2 min 42 sec

"We didn't win the war, the war won the war"

1 min 47 sec

"My Name Isn't Irving"

1 min 30 sec

An Unexpected Encounter with a SS Major After World War II

2 min 15 sec

Being Held Back in First Grade

2 min 14 sec

Making a Hard Job Easy

3 min 55 sec

What Being a Jew is All About

1 min 56 sec

"From that moment on, my mother adopted her and ignored me"

4 min 6 sec

Renting Rooms on Brighton Beach

2 min 27 sec

"Rome Is Gone and We're Still Here": Proud of My Jewish Heritage

2 min 17 sec

"People who are Jewish wait to be drafted, Jews enlist"

3 min 4 sec

'It's time you should buy Claire a watch"

2 min 4 sec

A Plan to Get Killed

1 min 22 sec

Father's Landsmanshaft

1 min 3 sec

Antisemitism in His Infantry Unit

2 min 44 sec

What We Did With the DPs

1 min 37 sec

"Bist a Yid?"

3 min 17 sec

"Why is the word 'Jew' so frightening?"

1 min 17 sec

Helping the Greenhorns

1 min 58 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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