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.

The FBI Came Looking For My Grandmother: My Family's Communist Connections

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Lawrence Bush, Editor of Jewish Currents magazine, talks about growing up in a Jewish Communist household, and recalls the FBI visiting his childhood home in search of his grandmother.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Lawrence Bush.

This excerpt is in English.

Lawrence Bush was born in New York, New York in 1951.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Meeting Revolutionaries In SIberia, Escaping, Then Returning To Russia: My Grandmother's Story

2 min 39 sec

A World Unto Themselves: The Yiddish Secular World Of My Parents And How It's Changed

1 min 37 sec

God, and Mighty Mouse Too: Reflections of Reluctant Atheist Lawrence Bush

2 min 29 sec

Let's Not Let God Be The Gatekeeper: The Humanist Artist's Spin On The Talmud

2 min 29 sec

The Currency Of Yiddish Language And Culture

2 min 42 sec

Worship Should Be The Secondary Activity Of Our Community: Jewish Identity As A Guidance For Life

5 min 15 sec

Working With Rabbi Alexander Schindler Toward His Acceptance of the Gay Community

2 min 20 sec

Looking To Creativity As Central To The Future Of Jewish Culture

3 min 24 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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