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.

"They Invented the America They Wanted to be a Part Of": Jewish Assimilation in the Early 20th Century

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Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and writer, describes his attempt to be an American modeled after the movies, and what assimilation meant to young New York Jews during the Great Depression.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Jules Feiffer.

This excerpt is in English.

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