Yitskhok Abramovich

Greetings and chat at the Hîrlău synagogue; Lemster and Kerler ask the man's age, name (Abramovich) and whether he was born in the town. Abramovich says the synagogue is nearly two hundred years old, that there were once six or seven synagogues and this was the great one, and that it was a Hasidic town with several rabbis and shochtim. Kerler asks how many Jews lived there before the war.

Includes the synagogue's age and the number of synagogues and shochtim; the catalogue's 'footage' is only the short opening.

Abramovich gives the prewar Jewish population of Hîrlău as over a thousand families (about three thousand Jews), and says he spent three years in a camp or ghetto in Transnistria while the town's Jews were deported. Kerler then asks about his childhood: a Jewish town of merchants and craftsmen where making a living was hard. His father was Baruch Abramovich and both parents were born in Hîrlău. A closing remark about a bundle and a coat is unclear.

Gives the population figure and his father's name.

The group goes inside the synagogue. Abramovich recites a few words of prayer and shows the women's gallery upstairs and the holes in the wall where Russian troops shot at a royal crown or emblem when they entered during the war. He recalls that on returning after the war the Jews found horses and straw, so the building had been used as a stable, and that they cleaned and repaired it, including the roof, with little money from the federation. Kerler and Lemster tell him they come from Israel (born in Moscow) and from Bessarabia.

Adds the bullet holes in the wall, the stable and the roof repairs, and the interviewers' own origins.

Abramovich describes Jewish Hîrlău before the war: tailors, shoemakers and other craftsmen, only a few rich men, seven synagogues including a tailors' synagogue, a Jewish street, and several rabbis and shochtim. The synagogue was spared when the town was bombed. People travelled to rebbes in Belcești, Pașcani, Satu Mare, Transylvania and Ștefănești; as a child he went to the Ștefănești rebbe with his mother, who asked for blessings for livelihood and health. Iași, with some sixty thousand Jews, and a question about burial customs are also touched on.

Adds the tailors' synagogue, bombing survived by the synagogue, and Iași's Jewish population.

Answers Lemster's questions on cemetery terms (holy place, field, beis-oylem). Abramovich says he spoke only Yiddish at home and learned Yiddish and Hebrew in a Jewish school, though he could not fully follow Yiddish books. He mentions Jewish libraries with works by Sholem Aleichem and Sholem Asch that were destroyed in the war, and prewar organizations such as Hashomer Hatzair and Gordonia.

Abramovich says the synagogue was built with money sent by American Jews and later repainted; as a boy he watched the painter at work and was chased away. The painter was a Romanian Jew from elsewhere. Lemster and Kerler then ask Yiddish terms such as pious Jew, honest Jew and serious Jew, and about removing the evil eye with quenched coals and water; Abramovich does not remember the details.

Adds the terminology questions and the evil-eye question; the painter is recalled as a visitor from elsewhere.

Kerler introduces the team to a woman, Shifra, who says she saw them in Iași the day before; they speak of passing through Hîrlău without knowing Jews lived there. Abramovich then talks about the Yiddish school with teachers brought by the community committee, and about the prewar kehile. He also went to cheder, where the rebbe's name sounds like Glik; he recalls the rebbe's strictness and mothers bringing food, and Kerler asks whether he remembers the modeh ani prayer.

Adds the Yiddish school with committee-appointed teachers and the community committee.

Abramovich says he has children and grandchildren, one a student, who know Hebrew better than Yiddish, and that his wife is also from the town. He has been to Bucharest and Hungary. Kerler and Lemster ask whether his wife and mother blessed the candles and what they said; the exchange is partly garbled, with Shifra and a woman's voice putting in remarks. The group then looks for somewhere to sit.

Adds that the grandchildren's Hebrew exceeds their Yiddish.