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.

"What Are You Coming Back To?": Going Back to the Ancestral Town

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Jeffrey Veidlinger, professor of Jewish studies, tells the humorous story of visiting the town where his family originated from (or so he thought). Laughing about the pitch dark afternoon sky and his father's phone call with the mayor in Hungarian, Jeffrey works through the meaning in a "meaningless" experience.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Jeffrey Veidlinger.

This excerpt is in English.

Jeffrey Veidlinger was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1971.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"There Are Still People There": Interviewing Soviet Jewry in the Small Shtetls

1 min 24 sec

Stories of Survival: Interviewing for the AHEYM Project

2 min 22 sec

The Importance of Food

1 min

Maintaining a Sense of Jewishness While Living In A Small Town

2 min 41 sec

Jewish Education through the University

2 min 33 sec

Diversity in the Indiana University Classroom

2 min 19 sec

Yiddish is a Fast Growing Language

1 min 36 sec

Different Relationships with Yiddish in Different Countries

2 min 57 sec

Advice: Take Advantage of the Opportunities

2 min 34 sec

In Third Grade They Added Yiddish and French: Languages in My Bialik School

1 min 38 sec

That's When I Found Some Documents in Yiddish

1 min 45 sec

I Was Amazed There Were Still Yiddish Speakers in These Regions

3 min 8 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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