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.
Anita Barlow's Oral History
Anita Barlow, retired teacher and school librarian, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on October 10, 2013 in Edmond, Oklahoma.
This interview was conducted in Yiddish.
Video highlights from this oral history
"What? There are Jews in Oklahoma?": Being Part of A Small, Close-Knit Jewish Community
3 minutes 10 seconds
My Father Would Sing a Song Called "Yome Yome"
1 minute 35 seconds
My Father Read Classic Literature in Yiddish Translation—and Years Later Discussed It with his Aynikl (Grandson)
1 minute 49 seconds
A Mother-Son Yiddish Translation Project
1 minute 23 seconds
My Teacher and Classmates Helped Me Learn English
1 minute 50 seconds
When We Arrived in Oklahoma, My Secular Father Ran Straight to the Synagogue - Jewish Refugees First Impressions of Oklahoma
2 minutes 12 secondsMore information about this oral history
Themes:
- Advice
- Family histories
- Childhood
- Jewish Identity
- Yiddish language
- Yiddish learning
- Coming back to Yiddish
- Yiddish scene
- Yiddish speaker
- Immigration and migration
- Theater
- Singing
- Literature
- Books
- Newspapers
- Holocaust
- World War II
- Education
- Religion
- Secular
- Synagogue
- Soviet Union
- United States
- Western Europe
- Eastern Europe
- Cultural transmission
- Heritage
- Antisemitism
- Urban
- Rural
- Jewish community
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About the Wexler Oral History Project
Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded more than 500 in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture.
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