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.

"To Me, Yiddish Was the Language of Secular Jews and Hebrew Was the Language Of Religious Jews": Associations with Yiddish and How They Changed Over Time

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Joanne Borts—Broadway singer and Yiddish activist— discusses how her secular childhood home gave her an idea of Yiddish that later changed as she was exposed to more types of religiously observant Jews.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Joanne Borts.

This excerpt is in English.

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.