Mihai Freundlich

Freundlich talks about poor peasant visitors from Maramureş who came to Baia Mare and other towns in Transylvania, and about how Jewish households fed and lodged them over the Sabbath. He describes how the synagogue beadle arranged hospitality for them. He also discusses who spoke Yiddish in the region, including non-Jews, and a Maramureş maid who spoke Yiddish with the children. He mentions that Hungarian replaced Yiddish among his own friends after the yeshiva.

The catalogue entry omits the discussion of non-Jews speaking Yiddish and the maid from Maramureş.

Kerler asks Freundlich how pickles (cucumbers) were made in his home area, and the two discuss the method, containers, brine and the local word for the jar. Freundlich also discusses the present state of the Jewish community in Oradea and Cluj, assimilation and intermarriage, and the links between the communities. The passage also includes a long, hard-to-follow stretch about an earlier interview and a communal office.

The catalogue entry does not mention the stretch on assimilation and communal ties, nor the long digression about an earlier interview.

Freundlich recalls his years at yeshiva, living in poverty with an aunt and eating each day at a different Jewish home. He describes the weekly round of meals, including Sunday leftovers from the Sabbath, a rich friend's home, a widower's home with small children, and a Sabbath at a monastery-side village with a minyan. He contrasts the black bread there with the white challah at home.

The catalogue does not mention the aunt who sheltered him or the round of meals at other households.

Freundlich sings a Yiddish song about green beans eaten every day of the week and the grave on which a page of Mishnah will be studied. He explains the custom of learning Mishnah during the week of mourning and speaks about a tailor friend and a barber's son. He and Kerler discuss boiled milk and the bread and milk the friend brought.

The passage also covers the Mishnah-study custom during mourning and the discussion of boiled milk.

Freundlich sings the song again, and Kerler asks him about other songs. He says he learned a song from a fellow prisoner, discussing where the man came from, which appears to be Bistriţa and then the Gura Humorului border area. The man's origin is somewhat unclear in the transcript. He begins to sing the verses of "Baranovich".

The catalogue entry does not include the geography of the friend's home area.

Freundlich sings the folk song about Baranovich that he learned from his friend while they were in prison. Kerler asks in which year this was and where the friend was from. Freundlich says the friend came from Bistriţa (?) and that they met in Baia Mare.