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.

"He Tried to Pass As A Recent Immigrant": How My Dad Learned Yiddish

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Debra Caplan, Ph.D. candidate in Yiddish, details how her father's desire to fit in to his new Orthodox school drove him to learn Yiddish from a local Rabbi from Vilna.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Debra Caplan.

This excerpt is in English.

Debra Caplan was born in North Wales, Pennsylvania in 1985.

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This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Birobidzhan: A Bizarre Meshing of Worlds

1 min 53 sec

Yiddish as a Foreign Language

2 min 13 sec

Yiddish Became Language of Currency: Studying Yiddish in Lithuania

1 min 19 sec

The Vilna Troupe and Transnational Yiddish Art Theatre

2 min 25 sec

Ruptured Transmission: Why I Speak Yiddish With My Son

2 min 27 sec

The Importance of Academics

1 min 55 sec

Advice for Yiddish Learners

1 min 1 sec

My Parents Created The Jewish Home They'd Wished They'd Had

1 min 39 sec

On The Spot, He Decided to Marry Her Six Children and All

1 min 54 sec

Being a Repository

1 min 9 sec

Community of Like-minded People: The Role of Yiddish Language Programs In Transmitting the Culture

1 min 25 sec

He Really Wanted His Cream Cheese and Lox

1 min 15 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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