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 Father Was a Deserter from the Kaiser's Army

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Adina Gordon, art historian and Yiddish speaker, describes her father's background, how he deserted from the Kaiser's army in World War I, and how he immigrated to America with his cousin's papers.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Adina Gordon.

This excerpt is in English and Yiddish.

Adina Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1929.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Religion Was Part of Every Minute of Their Lives

3 min 15 sec

Gefilte Fish Was Built into my Bones

1 min 32 sec

A Different Variety of Yiddish

1 min 3 sec

Visiting Relatives in Vilna

6 min 52 sec

If Your Family Life Is Not Jewish, Your Child Will Not Be Jewish

2 min 28 sec

Bobe Rivke's Life

1 min 38 sec

The Baking of Bobe Rivke

3 min 26 sec

My Mother Described the Pogrom of 1909

1 min 54 sec

"They Said She Wasn't Really Married to Him"

1 min 24 sec

My Father's Store Was On the Way to Ebbets Field

3 min 6 sec

Buying Chicken from the Poultry House

2 min 24 sec

It Was Always Yiddish First

1 min 46 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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