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 Jewish, Lesbian Experience of Second Wave Feminism and Yiddish Activism

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Irena Klepfisz, lesbian poet and writer, reflects on how the intersections of her identity, as a Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, Lesbian, and feminist, has influenced her role in Yiddish culture and Jewish feminist poetry.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Irena Klepfisz.

This excerpt is in English.

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This interview is part of the Beyond the Books: Yiddish writers and their descendants series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Constructing an Identity Apart from My Hero Father: Irena Klepfisz's Memories of the Arbeter Ring Shule

5 min 27 sec

Growing up in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Amalgamated Houses

2 min 48 sec

Irena Klepfisz's Poetic Inspirations, both Yiddish and English

3 min 8 sec

My Path to Writing Bilingual Yiddish-English Poetry

6 min 56 sec

Irena Klepfisz on the Queerness of Contemporary Yiddish Culture

6 min 46 sec

My First Impressions of the Yiddish Book Center

2 min 53 sec

"The History That's Never Taught": On the Complexities of the Search for Yiddish Women Writers

6 min 57 sec

Suddenly I was a Holocaust Survivor: A Child Survivor's Experience of American Holocaust Memorial Events

5 min 54 sec

My Father, Michał Klepfisz’s Role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

3 min 10 sec

Irena Klepfisz on Jewishness and the Jewish Labor Bund

4 min 36 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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