LibGuides: Jewish Studies: Oral Histories

Oral Histories

Oral history is a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral histories today are generally conducted as recorded interviews which are then transcribed, and catalogued for placement in a library or archive. Oral histories are a means of accessing and preserving the stories of people whose experiences may have been underreported or unrecognized. They are particularly useful in preserving and accessing tacit knowledge, collective memory, and minorities or marginalized people.

American Jewish Committee Oral History Collection
A 25-year project that began in the 1960s. 350 of the transcripts have now been scanned and digitized.
AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive
A collection of filmed interviews with Jewish survivors & refugees from Nazi Europe who rebuilt their lives in Great Britain. The interviews are not available to view online but may be seen by getting in touch with the collection holders.
ASJM Oral History Project
Focuses on personal narratives from the American Soviet Jewry Movement. The project aims to capture this period of American Jewish history and its great impact on individuals, politics and the movement of Jews to escape oppression in the Former Soviet Union.
BC Jewish Community Archives: Oral History Online Library
The Jewish Museum of BC's Oral History Collection represents a cross-section of the BC Jewish community, including entrepreneurs, academics, professionals, volunteers, immigrants, and more. 900 recordings to date (March 2022).
Jewish Counterculture Project: Oral Histories
This project focuses particularly on the havurah movement, an effort to reinvent Jewish communal worship and social life outside the framework of traditional synagogue denominations and structures.
JIMENA Experience Oral History Program
The Mizrahi and Sephardic Oral History project preserves memories and documents traditions from the Jewish diaspora in southeast Europe (Turkey and the Balkans), the Middle East, and North Africa.
Newspapers and Oral History: Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada
Archives include more than 500 oral history tapes. They range from 20 to 90 minutes in length, and cover a variety of topics including: Early Pioneers, Holocaust, World War II, Business, Arts, Sports, and others. Contact Centre archivist for assistance.
Sephardi Voices UK
A project to record and capture the experiences of Jews from the Middle East, North Africa and Iran who settled in the UK.
Wexler Oral History Project
More than 1000 in-depth video interviews, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and Yiddish language and culture.