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.

We Forget How Hard It Is To Really Learn Yiddish

Watch now:

Paul (Hershl) Glasser - Forverts columnist and former Dean of the Max Weinreich Center at YIVO - discusses how hard it is for students of Yiddish to truly master the language, especially if they don't live in a Yiddish-speaking community.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Paul (Hershl) Glasser.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Paul (Hershl) Glasser was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Klal Shprakh Is Not "Dead"- the Problem Is They're Not Learning Yiddish well!

1 min 19 sec

Remembering Yankl Blank, Teacher At Arbeter Ring (Workmen’s Circle) Yiddish School

2 min 1 sec

Yiddish Connects Me to Generations of Jews

2 min 30 sec

How I Learned Yiddish

2 min 53 sec

Like A Son: Mordkhe Schaechter’s Projects Live On

6 min 15 sec

Mordkhe Schaechter's House and Kartotekn

1 min 46 sec

There Should Be Something of Yiddish in the Middle

1 min 6 sec

Why Did I Become Interested in Yiddish and Not My Cousins?

56 sec

Yiddish was the Fourth Language at YIVO

57 sec

Can You Be a Yiddishist Without Teaching Your Kids Yiddish?

2 min 9 sec

I Really Learned Yiddish Living on Bainbridge Ave. with The Gottesmans

55 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: