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.

Discovering My Jewish Name

Watch now:

Gella Schweid Fishman, z"l, Yiddish teacher and activist, explains how she found out she had a Jewish name.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Gella Schweid Fishman.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

My Father's Immigrant Family

2 min 15 sec

“It Was Nothing to Be Ashamed Of”: Growing Up During the Depression

3 min 37 sec

“From Under My Zeyde’s Tallis on Tisha B’av: Finding the Sholem Aleichem Shule

4 min 20 sec

Correcting My Father's Yiddish

1 min 9 sec

Sexism in the Shules: Women in the Sholem Aleichem Yiddish Schools in New York

2 min 46 sec

My First Shabbos Traditions

2 min 25 sec

"Add, Don't Subtract": Our Family Motto

1 min 6 sec

Language and Identity: Joshua (Shikl) Fishman’s Work

2 min 14 sec

On The Leftist Yiddish Poet, Rukhl Fishman

2 min 5 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: