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.

Rediscovering the Story of a Drowned Aunt

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Jack Wolofsky, co-founder of KlezKanada, relates the strange story of how random chance - with some "antiquing" and an article in the Yiddish Book Center's Pakn Treger along the way - reconnected him with the story of a long-lost relative.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Jack Wolofsky.

This excerpt is in English.

Jack Wolofsky was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1931.

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This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"In der Heym": Home Was Still Russia to My Grandparents After They Moved to Montreal

5 min 36 sec

The Keneder Adler and Imperial Tobacco

2 min 38 sec

"Before Wolosfky, a Settlement; After Wolofsky, a Community": My Grandfather Founded The Keneder Adler (Canadian Eagle), Montreal's Yiddish Newspaper

5 min 48 sec

The First Jewish Army in Two Thousand Years

2 min 34 sec

Singing Yiddish Folks Lider (Folk Songs) at Home

1 min 21 sec

Mischief at the Keneder Adler (Canadian Eagle) Yiddish Newspaper

3 min 49 sec

The Strike: Students Organizing Against Antisemitism in Montreal

4 min 37 sec

Authors at the Office of the Keneder Adler (Canadian Eagle) Yiddish Newspaper

3 min 28 sec

The Birth of KlezKanada

3 min 26 sec

Speak From Your Roots: On Culture, Heritage, and Making Life Meaningful

4 min 43 sec

Where? Why? What Does it Mean?: The Depth of Itzik Manger's Poetry

4 min 39 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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