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.

Using Yiddish in the Hospital

Watch now:

Elaine Trehub - retired Mount Holyoke College archivist - remembers one of the few times in her adult life she used Yiddish: to communicate with a German patient in a hospital room.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Elaine Trehub.

This excerpt is in English.

Elaine Trehub was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1928. Elaine died in 2018.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Interpreting Judaism: Being the Only Jew in the Mount Holyoke Library

1 min 46 sec

A Fish Out of Water: A Strained Relationship With The Jewish Community

3 min 43 sec

Smoking on Shabbos

1 min 38 sec

"Boy, What I've Lost!": The Most Beautiful Yiddish

2 min 29 sec

Finding Eastern-European Roots

1 min 24 sec

"Your Good Fortune Should Be As Beautiful As You Are": My Father's Yiddish Expression

1 min 42 sec

Blue Hill Avenue

4 min 42 sec

Three Decker Apartment Full of Family

1 min 47 sec

"Foreign Flavor" on Blue Hill Avenue

1 min 15 sec

My Grandfather Smoked on Shabbos

1 min 38 sec

My Father, The Locksmith

2 min 14 sec

Remarkable Women Teachers Led Me to Radcliffe

3 min 41 sec

Cambridge and Mattapan: Living in Two Worlds

3 min 18 sec

American and Jew: Negotiating Identities

3 min 27 sec

I Invented A Khanike (Channukah) Angel: Transmitting Jewish Identity To My Children

3 min 37 sec

Importance of Work, As A Woman

3 min 39 sec

Changes in Women's Colleges Over Time

1 min 47 sec

Two Strong Women At The Amherst College Archives

42 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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