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.

In the Mail Was Our Visa: A Special Yom Kippur in Switzerland

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Frieda Johles Forman – feminist translator, editor, and writer – describes a memory of celebrating Yom Kippur in Switzerland, when the visa her parents had applied for finally came.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Frieda Johles Forman.

This excerpt is in English and Yiddish.

Frieda Johles Forman was born in Vienna, Austria in 1937.

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This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Some Wonderful Yiddish Phrases from the Jewish Religious Calendar

4 min 18 sec

Anthologies of Yiddish Women Writers Translated into English

5 min 56 sec

Languages at a Jewish Orthodox Camp at a Swiss Refugee Camp

1 min 41 sec

Pesach in Switzerland

1 min 48 sec

Getting into Jewish Feminism Through My Yiddish Past

4 min 16 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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