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.

"The Dream of Assimilation:" Shrimp for Kol Nidre, Pizza for Yom Kippur

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Dorothy Goldstone, a writer and Yiddish Book Center volunteer, speaks about how her family's success in business allowed them to be a "perfect American family, the dream of assimilation," whose Yom Kippur observance involved departing early from the shul her grandparents founded for a break fast of pepperoni pizza.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Dorothy Goldstone.

This excerpt is in Yiddish and English.

Dorothy Goldstone was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1948.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Bathtubs and A Love Child: A Colorful Jewish Family History

2 min 25 sec

A Confusing Experience of Being Jewish within the Assimilationist Atmosphere of the 1950s in the U.S.

3 min 47 sec

Hearing Yiddish is "Like Somebody's Wrapping Me in a Blanket and Hugging Me"

2 min 1 sec

Thanks to Prof. Yerushalmi, Excitement Over Jewish History

2 min 39 sec

Learning About the Holocaust at Age 14

3 min 13 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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