Burah (Burekh) Cohn

Kerler sets up the interview with Burekh Cohn, who comes from Sulița, 25 km from Botoșani. Cohn says he spent the war in Tiraspol (?), and Kerler states the date and place for the recording.

The forced-labor detail is only touched on.

Cohn gives his birth date, 5 October 1927, and talks about his family in Sulița. His father Yidl was a cobbler, both parents were born in Sulița, and he had two brothers. His grandfather Mordechai was a poor shoemaker who sang and told stories, and he names his grandmothers.

Names his grandparents and says his grandfather fell in the First World War.

Cohn recalls a hard, poor childhood in Sulița. He attended the Jewish school from 1936 to 1940 and names his teachers, from Bessarabia. He read Mendele and Sholem Aleichem and lists the Zionist movements, saying he was active in Drakh Habonim.

Cohn talks about the Zionist youth group meeting place and its literary sessions, and about the songs sung in Yiddish and Hebrew. He recalls a Hebrew song and a Yiddish song, and says his mother sang Sabbath songs. He names his mother's mother as Gitl.

Cohn says the teacher Balter taught Jewish holidays and customs at the Jewish school. He describes Sabbath at home: his mother baked challah and made the Sabbath, and he explains what the Sabbath means.

Cohn says about 150 Jewish families lived in Sulița, with five synagogues, one named after Reb Moshele, and some Hasidim. He describes Passover customs, Purim baking and masked visitors, Purim songs and a purim-shpil he took part in, and giving money to the poor.

Cohn talks about childhood friends, among them non-Jews. He names a Romanian apprentice in his father's workshop who spoke Yiddish, and then describes Jewish weddings, including the klezmer Hershl Hidler, who was also a badkhn.

Cohn describes Tisha b'Av and the children's games, and recalls prayers learned from his mother. He mentions the Havdalah and Hanukkah customs and foods such as latkes, and Shavuot dairy food, and describes Hoshana Rabbah in the synagogue.

Cohn lists the town's trades, such as tailors, carpenters, coopers and tinsmiths, with no fire brigade. Zionists brought Yiddish and Romanian papers, there was a Zionist club with a lending library, and Yiddish theater troupes visited, as did Purim performances.

Cohn says the community called a rabbi from Sighet after the old rabbi, Reb Moshele, died. He then answers terminology questions on rabbi and rebbe and on visits to a tsadik, and on Jews from Galicia and Lithuania.

Cohn answers questions on the taste of his mother's gefilte fish, on schnapps, drinking on the Sabbath, kiddush and Sabbath meetings. He is asked the word for a dybbuk.

Includes a questionnaire word, the dybbuk.

Cohn answers questions about the meaning of Yiddish and Romanian words. These include dybbuk, golem (including the phrase about sitting like a golem) and terms for a Jewish cemetery versus a non-Jewish burial ground or field. Kerler also asks how a field or cemetery is called in Romanian.

Includes the golem and dybbuk terms and the Jewish and non-Jewish cemetery vocabulary.

Cohn tells how he was taken to Tiraspol with his father during the war. They broke stones in a quarry and spread them on roads under Romanian guards, with beatings, hunger and no German guards. His mother and two brothers stayed in Botoșani. He recalls being beaten by a Romanian gendarme for stealing food from a field. They were brought home as the Russian front approached, in 1944.

Adds the father's separate work group and the theft-of-food beating episode.

Cohn says Jews sang Yiddish songs in the labor camp, then sings a Yiddish song about walking hungry and cold and sleeping on boulevard benches. He repeats it at Kerler's request.

Cohn speaks about the great hunger in Romania just after the war and the Joint, which ran soup kitchens in the Jewish towns. He describes life under Ceaușescu as very bad, with Jews fared worse. He moved to Botoșani in 1941, a few days before the war, because Jews were no longer allowed to live in the royal towns. Houses were set on fire. After the war he worked as a metalworker and glazier, and is asked for the word for window glass.

Adds the Ceaușescu years and the expulsion with burning of houses.

Cohn answers a question about the word for a windowpane. He then explains he fell in love with his wife and met her in Botoșani. He describes the wedding, with a rhymester-entertainer named Finyele (?) and a badkhn. The musicians were a klezmer band, including some Christians, led by a Jew and playing modern and Yiddish songs.

Adds the wedding band and the badkhn, and the question on window glass terms.

Cohn answers questions about postwar Jewish life in Botoșani. There were many Jewish doctors, who spoke Romanian and Yiddish at home. He names synagogues, including the High Synagogue, a Passover (?) synagogue and a carpet-makers' synagogue. Kerler then asks about the words 'parves' and similar terms, with an unclear exchange.

Cohn recalls prewar lectures in Suliţa, where Zionist speakers came to talk, among them Jabotinsky, who came from Chernivtsi (80 km away) and spoke in Polish-style Yiddish. Another speaker, a Mr. Zekler (?), spoke in Romanian Yiddish about going to the Land of Israel. Many people emigrated. There was a hakhshara and Cohn was a halutz, and he recognises a pioneer song.

Adds the hakhshara and Cohn's own halutz past, and the Yiddish of the speakers.

Cohn describes visiting Suliţa now, where the Jewish cemetery remains but no Jews live, though relatives come from Israel. He recalls prewar life there as hard and the winters as a disaster, with a lack of firewood. A relief committee gave wood to the poor. Some Jews farmed their own fields. The town had a Jewish doctor named Gras (?) but no lawyer.

Adds the Jewish doctor in Suliţa and visits to the cemetery today.

Cohn sings again the song about walking hungry and cold and sleeping on boulevard benches. Kerler thanks him afterwards.