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.

What Once Was Will Never Be Again

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Israel Milkow, a retired IT professional, talks about the bittersweet and ephemeral nature of Jews' past in the Old Country.

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

This excerpt is in Yiddish and English.

Israel Milkow was born in Slonim, Poland in 1935.

Other video highlights from this oral history

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

A Gliklekher Mentsh (A Lucky Man)

1 min 29 sec

Discovering Secular Yiddish Literature in the Yeshiva

3 min 53 sec

"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

More information about this oral history excerpt

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