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.

Sleeping Under the Stars: Living in the East Village in the Early 20th Century

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Sophie Meld, a 98-year-old retired social worker, describes the East Village of her childhood: the tiny apartment with no washroom, the diverse community around her, and sleeping on the roof when the apartment became too hot.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Sophie Meld and Murray Meld.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Sophie Meld was born in New York, New York in 1916.

Murray Meld was born in Daugavpils, Latvia in 1920.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"I Am A Yiddish Child": On Pressures to Not Speak Yiddish as A Child

2 min

Leaving Yiddish, and Returning

2 min 12 sec

Bearing Witness, Needing Retribution

2 min 50 sec

"It's Here to Stay": The Persistence of Yiddish

1 min 28 sec

Her Memories Were Very Mixed: My Mother's Early Years in Odessa

3 min 17 sec

Secrets to a Happy Marriage

4 min 28 sec

Love, War and a Car Wreck: The Beginning of a 70+ Year Marriage

2 min 56 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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