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.

Places of Yiddish in the Jewish Organizational World

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Eli Batalion, co-creator of YidLife Crisis, reflects on the place of Yiddish in Jewish organizations today. He explains what he calls the "political tinge" of Yiddish, which is a primary reason for Jewish organizations rejecting Yiddishism and Yiddish language into their cultural politics.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Eli Batalion.

This excerpt is in English.

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Food of Another Era

4 min 9 sec

Hipster Yiddish: YidLife Crisis Co-Creator on Yiddish in the 21st Century

2 min 7 sec

The Importance of Names

2 min 58 sec

Yiddish, French, and English: The Place of Ashkenazi Jewish Culture in Quebec

4 min 18 sec

A Fabricated Political Polarity Around Yiddish

1 min 43 sec

Places of Yiddish in the World Today

5 min 28 sec

As Serious as Any of the Religious Texts: My Attitude Toward Yiddish Growing Up

1 min 19 sec

My Great-Grandmother Was the Leader of the Family

1 min 55 sec

The Yiddish Valedictorian

3 min 6 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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