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.

A Cricket in the Mikvah

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Debra Weiss Yashinsky, special educator and daughter of Detroit-born Jewish actors, recalls a funny story about her going to the mikvah before her wedding and there being a cricket in the water. She later learned, that this was a sign of fertility.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Debra Weiss Yashinsky.

This excerpt is in English.

Debra Weiss Yashinsky was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1954.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

My Parents Were (Yiddish) Radio Actors

3 min 39 sec

Memories of My Grandparents

4 min 15 sec

Bumble Bees and Childhood Memories

3 min 36 sec

Sukkos: A Yashinsky Family Tradition

2 min 18 sec

Passing On The History of the Holocaust, Even Through Those Who didn't Personally Experience It

2 min 49 sec

Being Straightforward: Reminiscing On Her Mother, Elizabeth Elkin Weiss's Upfrontness

2 min 55 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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