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.

What's Everyone Laughing At? A Curiosity About Yiddish

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Vivi Lachs, social and cultural historian, performer, and Yiddishist, describes how the origin of her curiosity about Yiddish was wanting to understand the Yiddish speeches given at bar mitzvahs when she was growing up.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Vivi Lachs.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

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

Other video highlights from this oral history

"Dray Shvester (Three Sisters)": A Yiddish Song Reveals Something about the History of Jewish London

3 min 34 sec

Approaching Yiddish Song and Story as an Historian

1 min 35 sec

Vivi Lachs Sings "London bay nakht (London at Night)"

3 min 16 sec

Vivi Lachs Sings "Freg nit keyn katshanes (Don't Ask Silly Questions)"

7 min 49 sec

Differences of Language and Class Between the German and Polish Sides of My Jewish Family

1 min 7 sec

Mixing Melodies at the Shabbos Tish: Enjoying Different Tunes for the Same Song

3 min 26 sec

Losing Religious Faith—and Encountering Shakespeare

6 min

The History of Jews of England Revealed through Yiddish Poetry

2 min 22 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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