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.

Discovering Hebrew in Moscow

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Ber Kotlerman, native Yiddish speaker from Birobidzhan and professor of Yiddish language and literature at Bar-Ilan University, speaks about his first interaction with the Hebrew language in Moscow, as a young student.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Ber Kotlerman.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Ber Kotlerman was born in Irkustk, Siberia, Russia in 1971.

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This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"An Entirely Different World": First Impressions Upon Arriving in Israel from Moscow

1 min 55 sec

"A Spirit I'm Not Sure Exists Anywhere Else": Working with the Yiddish Writers' Union in Tel Aviv

3 min 39 sec

A New Look at my Home Town, Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast

3 min 4 sec

The Academic World and the Haredim: A Future for Yiddish

2 min 50 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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