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.

Mark Gerstein's Oral History

Mark Gerstein - former high school history teacher and Wexler Oral History Project volunteer - was interviewed by Christa Whitney on July 5, 2012 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Mark passed away on November 20, 2013 - may his memory be a blessing.

This interview was conducted in English.

Mark Gerstein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1949. Mark died in 2013.

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Video highlights from this oral history

Jewish Immigration: Examining the Categories on My Grandfather's Ship Manifest

Teaching the Holocaust and Jewish Identity

Examining the Ellis Island Card

Taking a Course in Elementary Yiddish with Aaron Lansky

Sean Furgeson, a Good Yiddish Name: On How Officials Changed Names Upon Immigrating Through Ellis Island

Talk to Your Grandparents! The Importance of Asking Questions and Family History

Americanization of Jewish First Names In My Family

Visiting the Zamosc Synagogue in Poland

World War One: My Family Flees Zamosc and Settles in Minsk

The Jewish Cemetery in Zamosc

Conveying Yiddish Expressions to the Younger Generation

Mishugas and Mentch: Yiddish Expressions in American Movies

An Assimilationist Impulse: My Jewish Family Celebrating Christmas

Teaching Jewish Life and Values through Yiddish Literature

"That's the Shul I Don't Go To": Choosing A Synagogue

Students Grapple with the Meaning of the Holocaust

Learning Social Distinctions in the Synagogue

The Holocaust and Human Choice

The Rabbi Told Stories in Yiddish on Yom Kippur

The Continuum of the Jewish Past and Present

Studying for His Bar Mitzvah

"Better Dead than Red" - The Cuban Missile Crisis

My Mother's Reaction when Jack Ruby Shot Lee Harvey Oswald

"Bloody Sunday" in Selma and "Judgment at Nuremberg"

1920 Pogrom in Zamosc, Poland

"Would You Have Fought Hitler?": Jews and the Vietnam War

Decision to Immigrate to the United States

November 15, 1969: Massive Anti-War Rally

Artifacts related to this oral history

Father's Ellis Island Card

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