Ruth Emmerman Peizer -€“ 18-June-2001 - Weaving Women'€™s Words

About this film

Oral historian Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Ruth Peizer on June 18 & August 6, 2001 in West Seattle, Washington as part of the Jewish Women's Archive "Weaving Women's Words" project. Ruth Peizer's love affair with Yiddish began when her parents, Riva and Abraham Immerman, sent their only child to Chicago's Arbeiter Ring [Workmen's Circle] school at age nine, and then to the Sholem Aleichem Institute where she graduated valedictorian at age 18. Since moving to (West) Seattle in 1949, Ruth has become Seattle's preeminent Yiddish instructor, teaching at the University of Washington in the 1980s and through the Jewish Federation today. Ruthâs knowledge of Yiddish has impacted her entire life through Yiddish culture including her adoration of Yiddish theatre, literature and music. Yiddish has also opened many doors all over the world for Ruth and her husband, Dr. Samuel Peizer, from her sponsorship of Russian refusniks seeking asylum in Seattle to her sending humanitarian aid to the Baltics since 1992. Ruth Peizer photo: Credit Joan Roth. Joan Roth's website In the early 2000s, the Jewish Women's Archive conducted oral history interviews with 30 Jewish women living in Baltimore and a…

Directors & creators

Jewish Women'€™s Archive

Subjects

Yiddish; Education

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