The Wexler Oral History Project

The Wexler Oral History Project, is a part of the Yiddish book center in Amherst Massachusetts. There they have collected many books, pamphlets, passports, and many testimonials to create a better understanding of the immigration experience of American Jews. The website has many testimonials filmed by the Wexler project. One in particular caught my attention however, and that was the story of Leo Weitzman. Who came with his family in 1951, after surviving the Warsaw Ghetto "by just days" and years in the "Displaced Persons" camps that the Allies established. Weitzman describes not only a bewilderment with the sky scrapers of New York City, but the immediate culture clash he witnessed between the new Jewish immigrants, and the "Americanized Jews" of previous migratory waves. A phenomenon that the book and our class has briefly touched on.  I include a short part of his interview, the rest of which can be found on the website, and their youtube channel.