Klara Peisekhovna Shmid

Kerler and Lemster settle in at the start, and Shmid is asked in which American city her brother lived (New York). She names him as Moshe Glikman (?) and mentions his two sons. Kerler then announces the date and place of the interview as the last of the expedition.

Brother in New York, the date and the setting of the interview.

Kerler introduces Shmid and checks her address in Chișinău and the name on her documents (Khaye, Peisekhovna). The interview formally starts.

Shmid gives her Yiddish name (Khayke), which was changed to Khaya in Russian, and her birth year (1917 (?)). Kerler also asks for her telephone number.

Shmid says she knows of her brother's departure for America in the mid-1910s only from her mother, and that she raised one daughter, now dead. Kerler asks about her childhood in Onitskan: her father Pesakh worked on the land and kept a village shop with kerosene, oil and manufactured goods. She was the youngest of seven children, and names her sisters Rakhel and Manya and her brothers Yisroel and David.

Names the siblings and describes the father's shop alongside his work on the land.

Shmid says her family went to the city for the High Holidays and synagogue, while Passover was spent at home with matzo bought and a chicken slaughtered. She started school at seven. After four village classes she moved to her eldest sister Rakhel in Chișinău and continued studying there. Rakhel owned a bakery.

Shmid describes Onitskan as a small village, not a district centre, where her father worked the land and ran a shop, travelled to the city for goods, and the sons later helped him. Kerler asks how many Jewish families lived there (the answer is unclear). Shmid describes the Passover seder at home with her father leading, and her brother David's names.

Passover seder at home and the brother David's names.

Shmid names her mother Faige, who finished gymnasium, and remembers how her parents met. She cannot recall when her mother died. She says her parents and brothers were evacuated from the village, and mentions her son-in-law Misha, who lives with her. Kerler establishes seven children (three sons, four daughters) and asks about a visit by her brother from America and about her grandmother.

Covers the visits of the American brother and her grandmother.

Shmid recalls childhood games with little stones and says her mother Faige, who came from Chișinău and had finished gymnasium, sang well, although she cannot recall the songs. She says her parents met at a wedding. She speaks of her sisters' marriages and of her brothers: David worked in the village and Yisroel went to the daughter in America, where he died.

The mother's singing and the fates of the brothers, including Yisroel's death after a trip to America.

Shmid says she met her husband Aron, a native of Chișinău, while living at her sister's, and married before the war (?). She attended a vocational school in the city and says she learned Yiddish there but Romanian in the village school. Kerler asks about the languages of instruction (the answers vary), and about her reading Yiddish books and using a library.

The husband Aron and the languages of the vocational school.

Shmid says her late daughter and son-in-law Misha lived with her, and she lives with him now. In Onitskan there was no synagogue; a cantor was hired for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and services were held in the mill, and afterwards people emptied their pockets. She remembers little of Simchat Torah, and for Purim speaks of baking hamantashen and sending sweet gifts. Few Jews lived in the village. She does not know what a Purim shpil was.

Covers Rosh Hashanah and the cantor in the mill, Simchat Torah, and her life with her son-in-law.

Kerler asks about her life in Chișinău before the war, but Shmid remembers little. She says she lived at her sister's, studied at the vocational school, and had Jewish friends from the district. Kerler clarifies that the Orgeyev district (zhudets) is larger than a raion. She talks about reading and the Yiddish theatre and photographs from Israel and America.

Friends, reading, Yiddish theatre and photographs.

Kerler puts questions about the meaning of cultural terms: dybbuk, golem (including a clay golem) and Litvak. Shmid answers hesitantly, giving Russian equivalents and Yiddish explanations for some and not knowing others. The talk is mostly Yiddish with a few Russian prompts.

Shmid says the postwar years were hard after the evacuation, with no house on return, and she cannot recall much about the prewar years. She describes her wedding after the war (?): the chuppah, friends, dancing, kugel and fish, and breaking a plate at the engagement. She speaks of her devout parents, who took the family to the city for the High Holidays, and again of the cantor in the mill, where a room was made into a prayer space. Lemster asks about wedding dances and customs.

Wedding details and the postwar return, and the synagogue made in the mill.

Shmid says she has not sung since her daughter died, though she once sang at home. She talks about life today and her memory. Kerler asks about her engagement: the tenaim were written and a plate broken, with no dancing at an engagement but dancing at the wedding, and the interval before the wedding varied.

At Kerler's request Shmid describes how she makes gefilte fish: cleaning, boning and chopping the fish, adding many onions, eggs and matzo meal, with only a little pepper, salt or sugar. She says sweet fish was the custom at weddings. Lemster asks about stuffed derma, which she never made, and about stories of Hershele Ostropolyer, which she has heard of but hardly read.

Shmid mentions her son-in-law and then answers Kerler's questions about drinking in the village: Jews drank on holidays but were not drunkards, unlike the non-Jews. Her father took a small glass on Sabbath. She calls her parents' home very Jewish, and says the family went to the city for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, staying with relatives and later with the married children in Chișinău.

Starts with her son-in-law and adds the Sabbath drink and the family's observance.

Lemster asks Shmid about a Yiddish word and about the 'good Jews', wonder-working rabbis who visited the village and whom people travelled to see. Kerler asks whether her father taught her Yiddish or prayer. She says no; she learned in Chișinău at her sister's, at a vocational school where Yiddish was taught but not Hebrew. Kerler then starts a question about a remedy against the evil eye.

Adds her schooling in Chișinău and the question about Hebrew.

Shmid recites a spoken charm against the evil eye, in which a woman going to the field meets Elijah the prophet. Kerler has her repeat it, notes the three spittings, and tries to get her to recall who meets Elijah. Others in the room help prompt, and she complains that she forgets with age. Lemster asks about a word and about quenching coals, and she explains the coal-heated iron and how the coals were put out.

The catalogue's 'anecdote' is a charm recited on request, and the passage also covers irons heated with coals.

Shmid recalls the coal-heated irons of her childhood home and her older sister's bakery in the city, which sent sacks of coals home. She names her sisters, says there were seven children, and says one brother went to America. She says she speaks Yiddish with her relatives. Lemster and Kerler then ask the meaning of 'dybbuk' and 'golem'; she knows the latter as a madman.

Adds the bakery, her sisters and brothers, and the 'dybbuk'/'golem' questions.

Asked about Purim, Shmid names baked goods such as hamantashen and baklava. She does not remember Purim songs or a Purim play, only masks worn by children. She describes the few Jewish families in her village and her father, who worked the land, took produce to the city and gave each of his seven children a dowry. Her mother came from Chișinău, could not speak Moldovan at first, and was later loved by her non-Jewish neighbours.

Adds the village's few Jewish families, her father's work and dowries, and her mother's move from the city.

Lemster asks about halutsim; Shmid understands another word and describes the village monastery and non-Jewish holidays in the middle of the village. She recalls going to school in the city after her sister's marriage. She tells how her brother left at eighteen on a ship ticket sent by an aunt, and how he came back twice and died after the second visit. Kerler asks whether this is the brother from America. At the end Gordin offers to talk about Purim.

The transcript points to America rather than Eretz Yisrael; it also covers the monastery and non-Jewish holidays.

Shmid recalls Purim gifts of food sent from her sister's bakery in Chișinău to the groom during her engagement. She describes Sabbath at home, where her mother blessed the candles and was somewhat religious. She speaks of her maternal grandfather, who was something like a lawyer, her parents' village and city origins, how they met at a wedding and her father sent a matchmaker, and Yiddish as the home language. Kerler and Lemster then discuss with each other what to ask Gordin, and she praises her son-in-law.

Adds her parents' origins and courtship, and the exchange about interviewing Gordin.

Kerler asks Shmid not to touch the microphone, then asks about her work. She finished a vocational school and worked after the war in a factory in Chișinău, perhaps a knitwear factory. Lemster again asks about a word, and she tries once more to recall the Elijah charm and what place the woman was going to, and Kerler suggests the cemetery. She complains of forgetting, praises her son-in-law, and apologises that she has no baking to offer her guests.

Adds the factory work and vocational school, and the retried charm.