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.

Parade, Automat, and A Movie: Thanksgiving Day in Manhattan with Izzy and Mama

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Howard Nenner, retired professor of legal and political history, remembers childhood Thanksgivings, on which he, his grandmother, and his cognitively disabled cousin Izzy would have a special day out together.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Howard Nenner.

This excerpt is in English.

Howard Nenner was born in Bronx, New York in 1935.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

“A Certain Caché”: Why My Family Identified As Austrian

1 min 52 sec

Discovery in the Map Room: Finding My Family’s Shtetl

2 min 46 sec

Laundry in an East Bronx Kitchen

5 min 52 sec

"If You're Sleeping, You're Cheating!": How My Grandfather Observed Yom Kippur

1 min 9 sec

"Creative Kashres"

1 min 4 sec

A Code Language: Yiddish in My American Home

48 sec

"The Worst Christmas Present"

1 min 21 sec

Leftist But Cautious: My Father's Political Attitude During The McCarthy Era

3 min 58 sec

Kheyder? I Hated Every Moment of It

1 min 55 sec

Education, a Good Job, and a Fear of the World: Values My Jewish Parents Instilled

2 min 36 sec

"No More Religious, But A Lot More Jewish": How My First Trip To Israel Changed My Jewish Identity

4 min 41 sec

"The Biggest Mistake of My Life": Reflections on Child-rearing, Cultural Transmission, and Identity

3 min 56 sec

Connecting to the Jewish World: Why I Subscribe to the Jewish Daily Forward

1 min 2 sec

"It's Not the Hebrew That's Important to Me, It's the Yiddish": Visiting the Yiddish Book Center

1 min 19 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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