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.

Why "Yiddish Alone is Not Enough" for Sore-Rukhl Schaechter

Watch now:

Rukhl (Sore-Rukhl) Schaechter—editor of the Forverts and daughter of Yiddish linguist Mordkhe Schaechter—explains why she believes that it is not enough to understand and speak Yiddish, and why she therefore became more "frum" (religiously observant).

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Rukhl (Sore-Rukhl) Schaechter.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Growing Up in "Bainbridgivke," a Small Yiddish World on Bainbridge Avenue

2 min 2 sec

Mordkhe Schaechter as an Academic, Activist and a Man

3 min 23 sec

"It Wasn't Cool": The New York Yiddish Scene of Rukhl Schaechter's Youth

3 min 31 sec

The Beginnings of Yugntruf: Youth for Yiddish

1 min 58 sec

Rukhl Schaechter's Beginnings at the Forverts (Yiddish Daily Forward)

1 min 59 sec

"What News?": The Nerve-racking Beginning Mordkhe Schaechter's Advanced Yiddish Class

2 min 7 sec

Mordkhe Schaechter's Depressive Tendencies

2 min 46 sec

Daily Work at the Forverts (Yiddish Daily Forward) Newspaper

2 min 2 sec

The Forverts Goes Online: How A Yiddish Daily Newspaper Has Changed

6 min 14 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: