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 Yiddish Mouse: My First And Only Original Yiddish Poem

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Ethel Taft, social worker and daughter of Yiddish writer and teacher Israel Gubkin, fondly remembers a Yiddish poem that she wrote as a child.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Ethel Taft.

This excerpt is in English.

Ethel Taft was born in New York, New York in 1931.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

The writings of Yiddish essayist and poet Israel Gubkin

3 min 25 sec

Israel Gubkin's passion for teaching

1 min 51 sec

Israel Gubkin's devotion to Zionism and Yiddish

1 min 37 sec

Israel Gubkin's sense of sadness at the decline of Yiddish schooling and camping

2 min 8 sec

Government as a Supportive Entity, Not Punitive: The Political Values of the Israel Gubkin Family

2 min

"I Remember My Father Opening the Letter and Turning White": Becoming Aware of the Holocaust

2 min 35 sec

"Yiddish Talks By Itself": When English Fails Me

1 min 35 sec

"I'm So Sorry You Didn't Teach Me Yiddish.": Regretting Not Passing Along Yiddish To The Children

2 min 41 sec

For A Democratic and Jewish Homeland

2 min 32 sec

Habonim Summer Camp 1948-1950

2 min 46 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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