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.

Bilingual Conversations With Our Father, Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon

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David Simon and Miriam Forman, son and daughter of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, recall how they usually had bilingual conversations with their father where he would address them in Yiddish and they would respond with English. Miriam argues that, at least in her case, speaking to him in English constituted an act of defiance.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Miriam Forman and David Simon.

This excerpt is in English.

Miriam Forman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1936. Miriam died in 2019.

David Simon was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1924.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

“The Whole House Was Him”: Growing Up in the Shadow of Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon

2 min 4 sec

A Captive Audience: Private Readings With Solomon Simon

1 min 16 sec

Solomon Simon, An “Eydl Mentsh”

2 min 27 sec

Peysekh (Passover) Seders at the Home of Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon

3 min 47 sec

Our Father Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon Never Received the Recognition He Craved

2 min 24 sec

Our Father Solomon Simon’s Search for a Secular Kehile (Jewish Community) through Yiddish

1 min 54 sec

The World Is Not Lawless: Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon’s View At The End Of His Life

2 min 5 sec

“The Reluctant Prophet”: The Death and Will of Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon

5 min 28 sec

Striving For Justice, and Other Important Lessons From Our Dad, Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon

2 min 50 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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