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.

Punishment for her Left-Handed Father

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Betty Sorkowitz, daughter Yiddish activists and founders of the Sholem Aleichem Institute in Detroit, remembers a story from her father about his childhood in Bialystok, Poland, about being punished for left-handedness.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Betty Sorkowitz.

This excerpt is in English.

Betty Sorkowitz was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1927.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Chaim Grade: A Bombastic Character

2 min 41 sec

My Memories of Rokhl Korn

2 min 57 sec

She Paid His Passage and Sponsored Him Herself, Against Her Family’s Wishes: My Parents’ Story

2 min 3 sec

Anti-Semitism in Pre-War Poland: My Mother's Story about a Jewish Man at the Train Station

1 min 36 sec

When Yiddishists Came to Visit Us in Detroit

3 min 11 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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