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 Went On A Hunger Strike to Go to School

Watch now:

Emile Karafiol, attorney, tells a story his mother told him, about how she went on a hunger strike to convince her orthodox family to let her go to school.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Emile Karafiol.

This excerpt is in English.

Emile Karafiol was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1935. Emile died in 2019.

Other video highlights from this oral history

They Took My Passport: A Yiddish Speaker Visits Israel

2 min 39 sec

Oy Vey is a Slavic Expression

59 sec

My Mother Was an Orthodox Secularist

1 min 59 sec

"Like a Video Game, But Real": Experiencing the Bombardment of Bordeaux in 1940

1 min 56 sec

Listening to Holocaust Survivors' Stories

2 min 41 sec

History Of The Warsaw Cemetery Project

3 min 28 sec

My Mother Thought Yiddish Would Die Out. And Me? I'm Not Sure.

3 min 9 sec

Historical Interactions between Jews and Non-Jews in Poland

2 min 46 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: