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.

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

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Gella Schweid Fishman, z"l, Yiddish teacher and activist, shares and explains the saying she lived by and taught to her children.

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

Discovering My Jewish Name

2 min 30 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

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: