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.

Papa, Not Daddy: Growing Up in a Yiddish Home

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Mindle Crystel Gross, native speaker and translator, retells how her parents made it very clear that theirs was an exclusively Yiddish home.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Mindle Crystel Gross.

This excerpt is in Yiddish and English.

Mindle Crystel Gross was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1934.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

A Yiddish Song: Reyzele

1 min 35 sec

"It's Current, It's Future:" Yiddishkeit is Waiting To Be Explored By Future Generations

1 min 24 sec

Lives in Translation: The Importance of Preserving Yiddish Narratives of Jewish Life

2 min 56 sec

What is A Yizkor Book?: A Translator Explains About Literary Memorials to Pre-War Jewish Life

55 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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