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.

They Said They Didn't Want Yiddish Anymore

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Arturo Kerbel-Shein, Yiddish language activist, recounts how he began organizing his fellow students in protest against his day school abandoning Yiddish classes. Though Arturo and his friends were able to keep their own Jewish History class in Yiddish, the school later dropped Yiddish as a subject.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Arturo Kerbel-Shein.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Arturo Kerbel-Shein was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1988.

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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

A (Jewish Mexican) Family that Values Tradition, but Isn't Religious

1 min 37 sec

The Jewish Community in Mexico

3 min 12 sec

Learning Yiddish in a Jewish Day School in Mexico City

1 min 37 sec

Yiddish and Hebrew in Mexico

2 min 45 sec

On the Decline of Yiddish Language Education and Rise in Assimilation in Mexico

3 min 22 sec

To Be Jewish and Mexican

1 min 52 sec

"We're Also a Part of Mexico": The Jewish Mexican Community

3 min 48 sec

Youth for Yiddish in Mexico City

3 min 7 sec

Independent Yiddish Undertakings in Mexico

2 min 28 sec

Isaac Bashevis Singer and Magical Realism: My Favorite from Yiddish

2 min 4 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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