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.

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

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David Simon and Miriam Forman, son and daughter of Yiddish author and Jewish educator Solomon Simon, discuss how their father never felt that his work received the recognition it deserved, and David speaks to his efforts to ensure that his father's legacy would live on after his death.

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

Bilingual Conversations With Our Father, Yiddish Writer Solomon Simon

1 min 39 sec

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

3 min 47 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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