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.
Exploring the Hasidic Community: Going Full-Circle with My Interest in Religion
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Alec Burko - graduate student and staff member at the Yiddish Forverts - describes how he became more interested in religion after he started speaking Yiddish and how, after experiencing it firsthand, grew less interested.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Alec (Leyzer) Burko.
This excerpt is in Yiddish.
Alec (Leyzer) Burko was born in Carbondale, Illinois in 1978.
This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.
Other video highlights from this oral history
Exploring the Hasidic Community: Going Full-Circle with My Interest in Religion
3 minutes 5 seconds
Two Films That Touched My Soul: The Beginning of My Interest in Yiddish and Yidishkayt
2 minutes 30 seconds
Veteran Staff Members at the Forverts Yiddish Daily Newspaper
1 minute 38 seconds
At Least It Will Outlast Me: Possible Futures for Yiddish
3 minutes 9 seconds
Nahum Stutchkoff, renowned Yiddish linguist, and His Career on the WEVD Yiddish Radio
3 minutes 14 seconds
Meeting Isaac Bashevis Singer - At Six Months Old
1 minute 4 secondsMore information about this oral history excerpt
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About the Wexler Oral History Project
Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded more than 500 in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture.
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