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.

The Tree of Life by Chava Rosenfarb: A Synopsis

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Goldie Morgentaler, daughter of Yiddish writer Chava Rosenfarb, describes her mother's 3-volume novel about life in the Lodz Ghetto, entitled The Tree of Life.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Goldie Morgentaler.

This excerpt is in English.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

Chava Rosenfarb Was a Loving, Warm-Hearted Mother

Getting to Know a New Side of My Mother, Chava Rosenfarb, Through Translating Her Works

Chava Rosenfarb's Observant Grandparents' Reactions to Their Daughter Becoming An Atheist Bundist

Chava Rosenfarb's Writing Style

Getting a Job Teaching Yiddish by Knowing How to Say "Orange"

"They Had No Sense That It Was a Language": American Jews' Dismissive Attitude Towards Yiddish

Chava Rosenfarb's School Years in Lodz

Parents' Experiences in the Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Chava Rosenfarb's Talent for Painting, Murals, Sculpture, and Tapestry-Making

"She Was a Beautiful Woman": Chava Rosenfarb's Physical Appearance

Chava Rosenfarb's Social Presence and Dislike of Chitchat

Chava Rosenfarb's Recreation of Her First Poems, Originally Destroyed by Nazis

Throwing My Mother's Yiddish Writing Down the Incinerator as a Child

Interactions with Yiddish Writers in My Childhood

More information about this oral history excerpt

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