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.

Listening In On Conversations Of New Immigrants From Russia

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William Robin - temple administrator and WWII veteran - recalls how he quietly squatted in his grandfather's house on Sundays to listen to the newly-arrived immigrants from Russia speak to each other in Yiddish.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with William Robin.

This excerpt is in English.

William Robin was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1922. William died in 2021.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

A Lot of Yiddish In My Home

2 min 33 sec

The Reform Synagogue from an Orthodox Perspective

1 min 8 sec

Memories from A Providence, RI Kheyder (Cheder)

2 min 3 sec

We Would Run Through the Irish Neighborhood

2 min 41 sec

Orthodox Shul

1 min 11 sec

The Jew and Non-Jew

1 min 48 sec

Ham and Cheese Sandwich

1 min 55 sec

Being A Jew in the Army

2 min 59 sec

Food Memories

3 min 34 sec

No Dairy for Peysakh, Just Matzoh and Schmaltz

2 min 2 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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