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.

"Yiddish Was Their Life": Legacy Left By Yiddishist Parents

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Bella Kuper Sanderson, Toronto Yiddish teacher who was born in Siberia and grew up in a Bundist household, discusses her parents' strictness about speaking Yiddish in the home and the appreciation she now has for the value of Yiddish that they passed on to her and her sister.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Bella Kuper Sanderson.

This excerpt is in English.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

From Poland to Siberia, Siberia to Cuba: Journeys of a Jewish Family During and After World War Two

4 min 57 sec

"The Workmen's Circle Was Our Family": Growing Up In a Jewish Socialist Household in Montreal

2 min 3 sec

Reading the Fir Kashes Written By Her Father

2 min 54 sec

Replicas of Parents' Houses in Stoczek, Poland

2 min 30 sec

Studying Acting With Chayele Grober

1 min 6 sec

Taking Theatre Classes at School With Dora

1 min 48 sec

Poetry Reading, Drawn From Malka Lee Poem and Translated Into English

5 min 42 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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