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 Effects of Anti-Religious Soviet Forces on Jewish Life in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania

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Roza Bieliauskiene - teacher at the Jewish school in Vilnius, Lithuania - remembers how all religious were suppressed during Soviet times and how that anti-religious attitude affected the Jewish community and Yiddish language.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Roza Bieliauskiene.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Roza Bieliauskiene was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1956.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Why I'm Writing a Jewish History Book in Lithuanian

1 min 39 sec

Yiddish is Bobe-loshn (Bubbie's language), Not Mame-loshn: Difficulties of Teaching Yiddish in Jewish School in Lithuania

2 min 2 sec

The Impact of the Holocaust on Lithuania

3 min 31 sec

"People Will Not Think in Yiddish Anymore"

2 min 16 sec

"How Can You Permit This?": On Growing Up in a Yiddish-speaking Home in Post-WWII Vilnius

3 min 53 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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