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.

World War One: My Family Flees Zamosc and Settles in Minsk

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Mark Gerstein, z"l - former high school history teacher and Wexler Oral History Project volunteer - describes how his family, caught between warring armies during World War I, fled from their home in Zamosc, Poland and settled in Minsk, Russia.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Mark Gerstein.

This excerpt is in English.

Mark Gerstein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1949. Mark died in 2013.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Decision to Immigrate to the United States

1 min 29 sec

Teaching the Holocaust and Jewish Identity

1 min 9 sec

Jewish Immigration: Examining the Categories on My Grandfather's Ship Manifest

2 min 20 sec

Taking a Course in Elementary Yiddish with Aaron Lansky

3 min 41 sec

Examining the Ellis Island Card

1 min 56 sec

Talk to Your Grandparents! The Importance of Asking Questions and Family History

40 sec

Sean Furgeson, a Good Yiddish Name: On How Officials Changed Names Upon Immigrating Through Ellis Island

1 min 33 sec

Visiting the Zamosc Synagogue in Poland

3 min 53 sec

Americanization of Jewish First Names In My Family

1 min 55 sec

The Jewish Cemetery in Zamosc

2 min 19 sec

Conveying Yiddish Expressions to the Younger Generation

2 min 33 sec

Mishugas and Mentch: Yiddish Expressions in American Movies

1 min 54 sec

An Assimilationist Impulse: My Jewish Family Celebrating Christmas

2 min 36 sec

Teaching Jewish Life and Values through Yiddish Literature

6 min 14 sec

"That's the Shul I Don't Go To": Choosing A Synagogue

2 min 37 sec

Students Grapple with the Meaning of the Holocaust

1 min 50 sec

Learning Social Distinctions in the Synagogue

2 min 22 sec

The Holocaust and Human Choice

4 min 39 sec

The Rabbi Told Stories in Yiddish on Yom Kippur

1 min 59 sec

The Continuum of the Jewish Past and Present

1 min 41 sec

Studying for His Bar Mitzvah

1 min 50 sec

"Better Dead than Red" - The Cuban Missile Crisis

2 min 20 sec

My Mother's Reaction when Jack Ruby Shot Lee Harvey Oswald

3 min 53 sec

"Bloody Sunday" in Selma and "Judgment at Nuremberg"

3 min 1 sec

"Would You Have Fought Hitler?": Jews and the Vietnam War

1 min 38 sec

1920 Pogrom in Zamosc, Poland

3 min 27 sec

November 15, 1969: Massive Anti-War Rally

6 min 27 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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