Internet Archive's in-browser video player requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

August Maymudes 16Jan2013 Yiddish Book Center

by: Yiddish Book Center (EliseK)

August Maymudes, Yiddishist and political activist, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on January 16, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

To learn more about the Wexler Oral History Project, visit: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story

To cite this interview: August Maymudes Oral History Interview, interviewed by Christa Whitney, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Los Angeles, California, January 16, 2013. Video recording, https://archive.org/details/AugustMaymudes16Jan2013YiddishBookCenter ( [date accessed] )

Abstract: August Maymudes, Yiddishist and political activist, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on January 16, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. His grandfather's surname came from an ultra-Orthodox sect that he belonged to in Ostrawa, Poland; August shows us the one photograph taken of this ancestor. His father emigrated to the United States at age eighteen, by which time he was no longer religiously observant. He became a latnik (patchmaker) who was estranged from his family after his frum (religiously observant) father caught him writing on Shabbos. August tells the painful story of finally meeting his grandfather many years later. He grew up in a secular home in and around Los Angeles. His parents spoke mostly Yiddish at home, but August never became fluent. He describes the political atmosphere and the cultural influences of the home he grew up in and the various Jewish organizations of the time and of the present day. His father trained as a Yiddish teacher at the Workers (then Workmen's) Circle and eventually became a shule (secular Yiddish school) teacher and the leader of the Yiddish branch of the International Workers Order (IWO) in Los Angeles. After spending a year in New York in a leadership position at the IWO, he returned to California and became a chicken farmer and later the west coast editor of the "Morgen Freiheit." August recalls his own political affiliations and experiences during the McCarthy era. His children went to school to learn Yiddish, but the language is not important to them now. He and his wife feel very little connection to Israel; much of the Jewish fund-raising in Los Angeles relates to Israel and not to preserving a Jewish cultural identity in this country. He ends the interview with a joke whose humor hinges on the fact that Yiddish remains an international language that brings people together.

Addeddate: 2014-05-15 18:55:55

Art-themes: Morgen freiheit

Artifacts: 72, 73, 74, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199

Citation: August Maymudes Oral History Interview, interviewed by Christa Whitney, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Los Angeles, CA, January 16, 2013. Video recording, [URL of interview] ( [date accessed] )

Color: color

Controlled-themes: Family histories | Childhood | Jewish Identity | Yiddish language | Yiddish learning | Immigration and migration | Radio | Press | Music | Career and Professional Life | Education | Eastern Europe | Soviet Union | United States | Politics and political movements | Cultural transmission | Jewish community | Assimilation | Travel | World War II | Books | Urban | Summer camp | Descendants of Yiddish personalities | Beyond the Books

Excerpts: 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955

Geographic-themes: New York City | New York | Brooklyn, New York | Los Angeles, California | California | Eastern Europe | Soviet Union | United States