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.

Yiddish Culture Was Their Religion: Founders Of The Montreal Jewish Public Library

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Eva Raby - former director of the Montreal Jewish Public Library - describes the origins of Montreal's Jewish Public Library, "biblyotek un folks universitet", and how Yiddish culture was like a religion for secular families like hers.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Eva Raby.

This excerpt is in English.

Eva Raby was born in Montreal, Québec, Canada in 1942.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

History Behind The Multilingual Holdings Of The Montreal Jewish Public Library

3 min 59 sec

Recorded Lectures at the Jewish Public Library

6 min 13 sec

The Origins of the Yiddish Talking Books

58 sec

Yiddish: As Great a Language as All the Major Languages

2 min

Any Yiddish Writer that Came to Montreal Visited Our Home

1 min 21 sec

Named After a Yiddish Research Institute: The Stories Behind My Name, Eva

2 min 11 sec

My Father Heard Trotsky and Lenin Speak

1 min 13 sec

My Grandfather Said Go To Canada, Now!: The Famous Roskies Family Immigration Stories

5 min 13 sec

Storytelling at the Jewish Public Library

2 min 38 sec

How I Came To Record Kinder Klangen Children's Music Tapes

3 min 41 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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