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.

A Refugee's First Impression Of The Montreal Peretz Shule

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Chana Szlang Gonshor, who was born in 1919 in Warsaw and survived World War Two in Siberia, recalls her first impression of Jewish life in Montreal: the charitable Principal Zipper of the Peretz School.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Chana Szlang Gonshor.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Chana Szlang Gonshor was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1919. Chana Szlang died in 2021.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

"The Gypsy-Life is Cheerful": Yiddish song from the Medem Sanatorium

2 min 3 sec

Chana Szlang Gonshor Sings "Working Lads" by Yosl Mlotek

1 min 56 sec

Chana Szlang Gonshor's Arrival in Halifax

2 min 10 sec

"Children's Republic": The Medem Sanatorium

1 min 30 sec

A Typical Day At The Medem Sanatorium

2 min 33 sec

1932: Communists Attack the Bundist Medem Sanatorium

3 min 17 sec

Remembering a Poor Jewish Home in Pre-War Warsaw

2 min 21 sec

Chana Szlang Gonshor Sings "The Worker's Marseillaise" in Yiddish

1 min 23 sec

A First-hand Account Of The Medem Sanatorium

5 min 29 sec

Passing Yiddish Down In The Family

1 min 27 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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