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.

The Roles of Literature and Spoken Language in Transmission

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Zackary Sholem Berger - doctor by day, Yiddish translator, blogger, and activist by night - reflects on the importance of speaking a language, creating in it, and building institutions to support it.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Zackary Sholem Berger.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Zackary Sholem Berger was born in Washington, D.C. in 1973.

This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Rethinking the Idea of Yiddishland

3 min 14 sec

Without an Audience in Mind: Sholem Berger on Writing (Yiddish) Poetry

2 min 36 sec

Sholem Berger on the Importance of Being Open as a Yiddish(ist) Community

2 min 22 sec

Meeting Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter

2 min 29 sec

Itche Goldberg's Ideology

1 min 50 sec

Translating Dr. Seuss and other Children's Literature into Yiddish

3 min 2 sec

Yiddishism and Multifaceted Jewish Identity

4 min 15 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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