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.

My Grandmother was the Only One Crying: Leaving Our Shtetl

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Sara Tepper, Yiddish speaker born in Poland, recalls the day she and her family began their journey to America. The day they left their shtetl, Kletsk, the entire town came out and Sara will never forget it.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Sara Tepper.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Sara Tepper was born in Kletsk, Russian Empire in 1922.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

My Childhood in the Shtetl of Kletsk, Poland

2 min 15 sec

Refusing the Women's Section at the Synagogue

1 min 59 sec

A Eastern-European Jewish Immigrant Girl's First Week of American School

1 min 23 sec

A Bathroom? A Radiator? What Luxury! A Jewish Immigrant from the Shtetl of Kletsk Arrives in New York

1 min 37 sec

Funny Things about My Last Name

1 min 24 sec

Saving a Yiddish Library: Becoming a Zamler and Connecting with the Yiddish Book Center

3 min 12 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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