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.

"My Mother Never Really Left Europe": Yiddish Poet Ida Maze's Childhood Memories

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Irving Massey - son of Yiddish writer and organizer Ida Maze - tells how his mother spoke constantly about her life in Europe and sang songs in several European languages.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Irving Joseph Massey.

This excerpt is in Yiddish and English.

Irving Joseph Massey was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1924.

This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"She Wasn't Allowed To Go to Kheyder - She Listened from Behind the Door": Yiddish Poet Ida Maze's Early Education

1 min 4 sec

"I Saw Her as Beautiful, I Guess Everyone Else Saw Her as Interesting": A Description of Ida Maze

2 min 53 sec

He Called Himself the First Yiddish Modernist: A Description of Melech Ravitch

2 min 32 sec

Remembering Antisemitism in Montreal and Nazi Germany

2 min 53 sec

Ida Maze's Writing: Strong Sincerity and Moments of Powerful Feeling

3 min 33 sec

Ida Maze: The "Den Mother" of Yiddish Montreal

14 min 30 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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