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.

My Secular Yiddish Bar Mitzvah

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Martin Broder, cardiologist and Yiddish speaker, describes his 1949 secular bar mitzvah that included speeches and reminiscing entirely in Yiddish - a one of a kind event that was written up in the Yiddish Forverts.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Martin Broder.

This excerpt is in English.

Martin Broder was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1936.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

She Called Me "Duckling": Remembering My Grandmother

1 min 24 sec

The Jewish Part of My Identity Had Nothing to Do With Religion: A Secular Yiddishist Home in Detroit

2 min 28 sec

Annual Shlep From Detroit to Brooklyn for the Passover Seder

4 min 19 sec

Sholem Aleichem and Arbeter Ring: Memories From The Yiddish Secular Schools

3 min 37 sec

Beethoven to Sidor Belarsky: Growing Up With Classical and Jewish Music

2 min 51 sec

The Best That We Can Do Is the Best That We Can Do: Transmitting Jewish Culture To Our Children

2 min 35 sec

How A Yiddish Folk Song Got Me Into The Chicago Symphony Chorus

4 min 50 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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