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.

That's When Yiddish Saved My Life

Watch now:

Paul Kaye - Navy veteran and officer on the Haganah ship Hatikvah - tells how, after his ship was captured by the British and brought to Cyprus, he and a fellow crew member avoided capture by posing as displaced persons.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Paul Kaye.

This excerpt is in English.

Paul Kaye was born in New York, New York in 1927.

Jump to map

Other video highlights from this oral history

Sailing Towards Palestine

3 min 48 sec

Blowing Up a Prison Ship

4 min 3 sec

Paddy Fitzgerald Saved My Life

1 min 47 sec

"I Looked for Khanike (Channukah) Candles in the Window": Buying My First House

1 min 17 sec

Yiddish Picks Up the Language of the Country

1 min 4 sec

The Word "Davka"

1 min 5 sec

A Bar Mitzvah at Age Twelve

1 min 11 sec

Delicacies of a Kosher Home

1 min 28 sec

I Spoke Both Languages Always

1 min 19 sec

He Says, "I'm Joining the Navy, Paul, Come On!"

1 min 56 sec

Would You Like to Help Your People?

2 min 3 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: