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 Streets, People, and Smells of the Toronto Jewish Community

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Marlene Hait, raised in a Yiddish home by survivors of the Holocaust, describes the close-knit Jewish community of her childhood and spending time at Jewish businesses in Kensington Market in Toronto.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Marlene Hait.

This excerpt is in English.

Marlene Hait was born in Landsberg am Lech, Germany in 1946.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

"If Not Higher:" Discovering Jewish Values Through Yiddish Literature

3 min 5 sec

Learning From the Past: Advice to Future Generations

52 sec

A Lingua Franca Everywhere: Speaking Yiddish and Opening Doors

1 min 34 sec

Ties That Bind: The Global Network of a Polish Shtetl's Descendants

3 min 45 sec

A Community Divided: Tensions Within Toronto's Jewish Community

3 min 55 sec

Beyond Anatevka: The Challenges of Documenting Yiddish Life without Yiddish

2 min

The Yiddish Burlesque Theater in Toronto

2 min 8 sec

Yetsies Mitsrayim: My Childhood Home as a Meeting Place for Holocaust Survivors

1 min 30 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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