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.

Bel Kaufman, z"l, Remembers the Passing of her Grandfather, Sholem Aleichem

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Bel Kaufman, z'l, granddaugher of Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, was a child when her grandfather passed away. She tells the story of how she found out and what her mother wrote in response to the loss.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Sherwin Kaufman and Bel Kaufman.

This excerpt is in English.

Sherwin Kaufman was born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1920. Sherwin died in 2019.

Bel Kaufman was born in Berlin, Germany in 1911. Bel died in 2014.