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.

Rena Trefman Cobrinik's Oral History

Rena Trefman Cobrinik, writer and educator, was interviewed by Saul Hankin on March 27, 2014 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This interview was conducted in English.

Rena Trefman Cobrinik was born in Bronx, New York in 1933.

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Video highlights from this oral history

Dancing in the Streets: Celebrating the Founding of the State of Israel

1 min 16 sec

"Emotionally, It Has Never Left Me": Impact of the Holocaust

3 min 24 sec

Kvelling Over the Kinder's Yiddish

2 min 36 sec

Language-Learning Through Song

2 min 16 sec

Living in a Not-Very-Jewish Neighborhood

1 min 41 sec

Yiddishe Shule, Not Hebrew School

1 min 46 sec

What's a Mentsch?: Transmitting Jewish Values through A Yiddish Word

1 min 40 sec

Memories of Yiddish LIterature and Song at Shule

1 min 31 sec

"Right-On-The-Nose Kind of Language": Yiddish Being Used in Major English Newspapers

1 min 19 sec

Artifacts related to this oral history

Portrait of Rena's Parents

Candlesticks handmade in Russia, brought over by Rena's family

Family Portrait in Floral Frame

Family Portrait Up-Close

Framed Painting Portrait of Old Woman in a Black Headscarf

Framed Painting Portrait of Old Man with Beard in a Yamulke

"Paris one Valentines Day" Rena's story about mother celebrating Valentines day

Rena's Writing - a story about mysterious, old portraits

Rena's Grandmother

More information about this oral history

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