Oral History Tools

Overview  |   Oral History Guide | Twenty Questions

"Everyone has a story," the renowned anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff taught us, and these stories "told to oneself and others can transform the world."

At the Jewish Women's Archive, we believe that every woman's story matters. By using oral history to record Jewish women's stories, we are documenting a vital part of our collective past. Whether the narrator is a woman who made a distinctive contribution, or one of countless "ordinary" women who spent their lives raising families and building communities, each of them has a story to tell that is worth preserving.

The Jewish Women's Archive's oral history program reflects this dual focus. Through our oral history projects, we are building a valuable body of materials that will provide insight into women's lives for scholars, educators, and others. Our oral history resources provide tools for individuals and groups to conduct interviews with the important Jewish women in their own lives.

• In Our Own Voices: A Guide to Conducting Life History Interviews with American Jewish Women is a comprehensive how-to guide for individuals and groups interested in interviewing women in their own lives. The guide features the Jewish Women's Archive's Topic Guide to Life History Interviews with essays by leading scholars and hundreds of sample questions.
• Twenty Questions to Ask the Important Women in Your Life provides a set of innovative questions for eliciting women's stories for use in your family, classroom, or community program.

The Jewish Women's Archive supports individuals and groups in learning how to use oral history to preserve women's life experiences. Please email for more information.