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.

Sadly, Our Yiddish Does Not Have a Future

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Marvin Zuckerman, retired English and Yiddish professor, explains why he does not think secular Yiddish has a future, comparing the rich Yiddish culture of his childhood with how few opportunities he has to speak Yiddish today.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Marvin Zuckerman.

This excerpt is in Yiddish and English.

Marvin Zuckerman was born in Bronx, New York in 1932.

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This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

My Parents Stole Across Borders to Get to America

3 min 5 sec

We Had World Literature in Yiddish in our Apartment

2 min 7 sec

Politics at the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative

2 min 41 sec

The Arrival of Yiddish-Speaking Children Refugees from Poland

2 min 55 sec

Discovering Western Yiddish

2 min 59 sec

The Values of The Bund, A Jewish Socialist Movement

2 min 1 sec

Marvin Zuckerman on Writing a Yiddish Primer

1 min 29 sec

What People Don't Know About Yiddish Literature

2 min 7 sec

When Sidor Belarsky Performed at a Union Benefit

2 min

Isaac Bashevis Singer, "Not a Typical Yiddish Writer"

3 min 56 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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