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 Mother's Reaction when Jack Ruby Shot Lee Harvey Oswald

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Mark Gerstein, z"l - former high school history teacher and Wexler Oral History Project volunteer - recalls how his mother expressed a fear that Jack Ruby, the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald, was Jewish. He speculates that this fear originated from her concern about antisemitism.

See more on how Mark's political identity was shaped by the period of history in which he grew up: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/video/1960s-formed-my-ideology-mark-ge…

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.

Other video highlights from this oral history