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 Gliklekher Mentsh (A Lucky Man)

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Israel Milkow, a retired IT professional, recounts his observations of the differences in working culture between the Old World and the New, and talks about being "a gliklekher mentsh"- a lucky man.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Israel Milkow.

This excerpt is in English and Yiddish.

Israel Milkow was born in Slonim, Poland in 1935.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

"Mit a pekl afn pleytse" (With a Bag on His Back): Reflections on Jewish Wandering and Israel

3 min 19 sec

Advice: Living a Good Life, Even on the Cloudy Days

2 min 31 sec

"If You Want To Eat Latkes, Wait For Hanukkah": On Jewish Identification, Especially After The Holocaust

2 min 7 sec

What Once Was Will Never Be Again

2 min 31 sec

Fleeing Poland: A Journey to Samarkand

4 min 6 sec

Life in a Children's Home in Uzbekistan During World War Two

3 min 6 sec

"Under Jewish Jurisdiction:" Rescue by the Jewish Underground in Poland

1 min 40 sec

American Relatives' Lives in 1910s Dorchester

3 min 17 sec

"I Called Myself a Yiddishist"

1 min 2 sec

Discovering Secular Yiddish Literature in the Yeshiva

3 min 53 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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