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.

I Couldn't Wait to Enlist: Norman Lear Remembers Pearl Harbor and the U.S. Entering World War Two

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Norman Lear, television writer and producer, explains where he was when he learned Pearl Harbor had been attacked and his subsequent eagerness to enlist in the American military.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Norman Lear.

This excerpt is in English.

Other video highlights from this oral history

My Jewish Immigrant Grandparents' Sense of American Patriotism

2 min 1 sec

Norman Lear on Love of Hannukah

1 min 24 sec

Antisemitism on the Crystal Radio

2 min 37 sec

He Had to Have the Last Line: Norman Lear Remembers Seeing Maurice Schwartz Perform on Second Ave.

2 min 7 sec

Norman Lear Fondly Remembers His Bubbie Lizzie

2 min 44 sec

"I Loved the Way It Tumbled Out of Her Mouth": Norman Lear Remembers Yiddish from His Grandparents

1 min 46 sec

Forming the "Yenem Velt" Group: "We Had the Great Laughing Time of Our Lives"

2 min 49 sec

It Was Basically A Party For My Parents: Norman Lear Remembers His Bar Mitzvah

1 min 19 sec

Norman Lear's Reflections on Yiddish Today

1 min 35 sec

Does Being An Ethnic Minority Make Me a More Patriotic American? Norman Lear Reflects

2 min 18 sec

Moral Quandaries: Norman Lear Reflects on Bombing Germans During World War Two

5 min 12 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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