The camera cuts to the continuation of a formal interview with Lipovetskiy. He talks about his life and family before the war. His father owned a horse and wagon and then worked at a wheel factory. Lipovetskiy's great-uncle moved to Eretz Yisrael.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy talks about his family and the street in Chișinău where they lived before the war. His father had horses and a wagon and then worked at a factory (name unclear). He names his mother and her father, a rabbi, and recalls a great-uncle who went to Eretz Yisrael in the 1880s (?) and died there, and his grandmother, who sent him to talmud torah.
The passage also covers his mother's and grandmother's names and his great-uncle's emigration.
Lipovetskiy speaks about his prewar education at a Yiddish school and religious school (talmud torah). He attended Yiddish school until 1940. He also speaks about his and his family's life during World War II. His mother worked at a cotton factory during Soviet occupation. Lipovetskiy's family evacuated together with factory workers to Chechnya, where they stayed for two years. His father was drafted into the Red Army. He then describes the evacuation experience working on kolkhozy in different places, including Kizlyar, Dagestan and Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, Lipovetskiy stayed until 1944.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy describes his Yiddish school and talmud torah education and the closing of the talmud torah under the Soviets. His father worked at a leather factory and his mother at a cotton-wool factory. He recalls evacuation with the factories to the Caucasus (Chechnya), a kolkhoz near Kizlyar and then Kazakhstan, where they stayed until 1944; his father served as a soldier. He mentions an encounter with Kazakhs who did not know what a Jew was.
Also mentions his father serving first in the Romanian and then in the Red Army.
Lipovetskiy speaks about his return to home to Bessarabia in 1944. He then addresses prewar religious life, including synagogue structure. He describes how the cook's synagogue offered meals and gave out food on Passover. He then recalls the rabbi of this synagogue and his visits to the talmud torah school.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy tells of his return to Chișinău in 1944 and the end of the war. He describes the many prewar synagogues by trade, including the cook's synagogue that gave out food on Passover. He recalls Rabbi Tsirelson, his visits to the talmud torah and the gifts of clothing he brought. He describes a ritual slaughterer's street and the yeshiva.
Also describes Rabbi Tsirelson, a shoykhet and the yeshiva on the street.
Lipovetskiy talks about his education at the talmud torah school. He then speaks about postwar religious life and the restoration of the former bookbinder's/glazier's synagogue. Lipovetskiy also addresses local emigration.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy describes the seven-class talmud torah, which was closed when the Soviets arrived. He explains that the synagogue where they sit was a shared glaziers' and bookbinders' prayer house. Jews returning after the war collected money and restored it, and he says it is now the only synagogue. He mentions the emigration of many Jews to America and Israel and speaks bitterly about the killers of Jews.
Adds the shared glaziers'/bookbinders' synagogue and the postwar Jewish emigration.
Lipovetskiy talks about his education at the Yiddishs school "Vaysman." He also addresses catering at the talmud torah and Yiddish school.
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about his Yiddish school, which is called Vaysman after its director. Instruction was in Yiddish apart from one lesson in Romanian. The school and the talmud torah gave meals, kosher and paid by rich people. He explains the Romanian-derived word for money and its Hebrew equivalent, and cannot recall the poems studied.
Lipovetskiy touches upon his life in evacuation during World War II. He evacuated to the Kostanay district in Kazakhstan. He then returns to his Yiddish school education, as well as his Russian-language education in evacuation.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy briefly mentions evacuation to Kazakhstan, in the Kostanay district. He returns to the Yiddish school, where Romanian was also taught, and describes the Russian-language lessons in evacuation with a German teacher. After the war he finished school and became a teacher.
Lipovetskiy speaks about his life and work as school teacher after the war. He then discusses contemporary religious life and his family, before talking about his life today.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy says he became a physical-education teacher after the war. He talks about prayer, noting that he attends the synagogue daily, that few Jews come, and about his health. He mentions that his children live in Israel, his pension, and the cost of housing and heating today.
Lipovetskiy discusses prewar Jewish life, including institutions, in Chişinău. He also mentions the support of the Joint Distribution Committee before the war. Lipovetskiy then talks about life today.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy recalls prewar Jewish life in Chișinău: shops and factories, rich Jews helping the poor, and the institutions of a burial society, a mikveh and the large synagogue. He describes the Joint-supported Jewish hospital and clinic. He then talks about postwar shortages and rationing, and about where he lives now and the young people's lack of work.
Lipovetskiy discusses his childhood memories and games with Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson. He then addresses different Jewish groups and dialects, as well as contemporary religious service.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy recalls childhood games with Rabbi Tsirelson, the reading of the Shema at a newborn's bedside, and his bar mitzvah. He discusses how Yiddish differs among Jews of Russia and the local Jews, as well as Bukharan, Georgian and Lithuanian Jews. He talks about the Russian-speaking rabbi's Sabbath sermons and says he understands Yiddish. A Russian-speaking woman briefly takes part and the interviewer hears a Hebrew-Yiddish exchange.
Adds a discussion of Yiddish dialects and the rabbi's Russian sermons.
Lipovetskiy speaks about childhood games. He then sings a Yiddish song about a tailor's work, before turning to Jewish occupations before the war.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy remembers childhood games such as hiding games with a ball. He recites or sings a Yiddish song about a tailor and a Romanian cap. He then speaks about Jewish trades before the war, mentioning tailors' and butchers' synagogues and the difference between a butcher and a shoykhet for poultry, and the kosher marking of meat.
Lipovetskiy explains how his mother salted meat and talks about his family. His parents were also born in Chişinău.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy explains how his mother salted meat to draw out the blood. He talks about his grandmother, daughter of a rabbi, who studied in Yiddish and died in the 1940s, and about visiting the graves of his relatives. He gives the names of his parents' siblings and grandparents; his parents and grandparents were born in Chișinău.
Lipovetskiy talks about his family. He grew up with two sisters and one brother. He also touches upon prewar Passover celebrations and his talmud torah school education.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy talks about his siblings (a sister, a brother and another sister who died) and says he was the youngest of four. He recalls the Passover seder and the four questions asked by his father and grandfather. He tells how the talmud torah taught in Yiddish and Hebrew and the melamed spoke Yiddish.
Lipovetskiy talks about the contemporary community. He then speaks about the relationship between Jews and non-Jews before the war, before addressing his life during the postwar Soviet period.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy remarks that today's Jews in the community do not know Yiddish. He describes prewar relations with non-Jews, with Romanians calling Jews by a Romanian word and not allowed into the synagogue. He then speaks of postwar hunger, Stalin's rationing and cards, and the cosmonaut Gagarin.
Lipovetskiy talks about prewar holiday celebration and food customs.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy lists the Jewish holidays and answers questions on food customs, such as dairy dishes on Shavuot and cheese pastries and blintzes, and on the Purim headgear, gifts and shalakhmones.
Lipovetskiy speaks about prewar Passover and Hanukkah celebrations. He recalls how to play dreidel, before speaking about Yiddish cultural life before the war.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy describes a head covering of the kind a woman wears, in connection with a religious obligation. He explains the number of Hanukkah candles and the money children received from parents and friends. He recalls the metal dreidel and a Yiddish theatre troupe, including an actress named Sidi Tal from Bessarabia who later lived in Chernivtsi, in answer to Kerler's questions about Purim performances.
Adds the Purim players and the actress Sidi Tal.
Lipovetskiy addresses prewar theater performances, as well as his childhood memories of kindergarten.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy answers questions about Purim and Hanukkah-time performances, saying he remembers little and mostly saw actors in a theatre. He recalls attending a kindergarten, called by a Romanian name, where Jewish children were fed and played with balls. Kerler elicits the Yiddish and Romanian words for 'ball', and Lipovetskiy says he is unwell. Kerler then asks him to recall prewar life in Chișinău.
Adds the elicitation of words for 'ball' and Lipovetskiy's ill health.
Lipovetskiy shares an episode about his life under Soviet occupation before the war. He then explains the location of his childhood home.
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy tells a story from the first Soviet period, before the war. As a boy he was given cherries or plums by a Russian officer buying from a neighbour's shop, and he worried about what his family would say. He then says which street he lived on and describes a nearby canal and a bathhouse, and Kerler thanks him and closes the interview.
Adds the anecdote about food from a Russian officer and the bathhouse.
