The interview with Shor begins. He talks about life today, before providing personal information.
The interview with Shor begins. He and Kerler talk about the heat and his sleepless night, and Kerler notes that it is Tisha b'Av. Kerler then starts collecting biographical data, asking for his name and patronymic.
Shor provides personal information.
Shor gives his Hebrew and Yiddish names and patronymic; Kerler repeats the name Naftole.
Shor provides personal information and speaks about his family. Shor's father was also born in Bershad and was a leather and fur worker. His mother was also born in Bershad. Shor grew up with two brothers, one of whom moved to Australia and one sister, who made aliyah.
Shor gives biographical data: born in Bershad' in 1922 and lived there up to the war. His father, Pinkhes, was born in Bershad' in 1890 and was a furrier sewing felt. His mother, Reyze, was born there in 1893 (?) and was a housewife. Of the three siblings, Shmuel died in Australia, Hershl worked as a lecturer at a medical institute, and the sister Khayke died in Israel.
The transcript adds the siblings' names and fates, the father's trade and the parents' years of birth.
Shor discusses his life and education before the war. He attended a Yiddish school for four years and finished his school education at a Ukrainian school. Shor then speaks about his Yiddish school education. He also writes Yiddish words on a piece of paper.
Shor says he attended a Yiddish school for four years before moving to a Ukrainian school, and that he can read and write Yiddish. He recalls a teacher, Khirge (?), and writing wall slogans and posters in Yiddish. Kerler asks about subjects such as grammar and about writing the words for Sabbath and friend; Shor writes or spells them.
The transcript adds teachers, wall slogans and posters, and how the words Sabbath and friend were written.
Shor answers questions about cultural terminology.
Kerler asks Shor about terminology from the Soviet period (the words kulak and kolkhoz), and about what he read in the Yiddish school. He asks whether a line of a Yiddish poem sounds familiar, and the answers are unclear.
Shor lists Yiddish writers, before reciting from his prayer book.
Asked about Soviet Yiddish writers, Shor names Itsik Fefer; Kerler suggests Markish, Dovid Bergelson and others. Kerler urges him to answer in Yiddish rather than Russian. Shor then recites Hebrew prayers (Shema and a Passover section) from memory or from his prayer book.
Shor speaks about prewar Sabbath celebrations, including food customs at home.
Asked how his mother kept the Sabbath, Shor lists Sabbath food: fish, meat, bean dishes and cold jellied dishes. The fish was carp (?), and he and Kerler discuss the names for gefilte fish and chopped fish. The end is interrupted by Russian and side remarks.
Shor shows cooking tools.
Brief exchange about cooking utensils that Shor has shown. Kerler asks whether a frying pan is called by a certain Russian-Ukrainian name in Shor's Yiddish and asks about the words for a chopping knife and a pan.
Shor addresses religious customs and prayers before the war. He recites the morning prayer "Modeh ani." Shor then addresses his religious school (cheder) education at the age of six.
Kerler asks Shor about morning prayers and who taught them to him. Shor says he went to cheder at the age of six and stayed there three or four years. He recalls studying Genesis (Bereshit), Humash and Rashi.
The transcript does not clearly show the recitation of Modeh ani; it shows the cheder studies of Humash and Rashi.
He demonstrates prayer techniques he learned in cheder. He recites the "Shemoneh Esrei."
Shor recites the Shemoneh Esrei prayer from memory, as learned in cheder. Kerler praises his praying and remarks that cheder taught better than the school. Shor says he can write Yiddish and knows many songs, and Kerler asks for Yiddish folk songs and children's rhymes.
Shor recalls ditties and songs from the cheder, including macaronic Hebrew-Yiddish songs and off-color songs. Shor then shows family photographs.
Shor recites cheder rhymes and ditties, including a macaronic Hebrew-Yiddish verse about meat (basar) and humorous nonsense rhymes. He mentions that many songs existed in the ghetto-era (?) setting. Kerler then turns to photographs, and Shor shows pictures of himself and his wife at a resort and of his family, including a brother.
The photographs include resort pictures of Shor and his wife and a brother.
Shor recites the Four Questions of Passover with his Yiddish translation, as well as other parts of the Haggadah. He then shows his father's machzor (prayer book used on the High Holidays).
Kerler asks Shor to say the Four Questions as he asked his father, and Shor recites them in Hebrew with Yiddish translation and other Haggadah passages. A second voice asks when he got his prayer book. Shor shows his father's books, including a book of Selihot printed in Poland (Przemyśl is named), and Kerler asks about a word for mixing up the prayer book.
Shor says someone gave him a prayer book; his father's Selihot volume from Przemyśl is examined.
Shor recites prayers in Hebrew (lashon kodesh) and Yiddish from the machzor.
Kerler asks for the Yiddish word for a section or line of the prayer book (ray) and its meaning. Shor reads aloud from the book in Hebrew and Yiddish, a passage about visiting graves of the righteous before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Shor sings Yiddish songs about love and leaving home from his childhood. He then sings the Passover songs "Echad mi yodea" (who knows one) and "Chad gadya" (one little goat).
Shor sings Yiddish songs from his youth, including a humorous school song and love songs about heartache. He then sings Passover songs, Echad mi yodea and Chad gadya, partly in Hebrew and partly in Yiddish. He explains that people said them on the following days. A Russian interruption briefly breaks in.
Shor addresses prewar Passover celebrations at home, before he sings snippets from "Vu zenen mayne zibn gute yor?" (where are my seven good years).
Kerler asks about singing at home at Passover and about Soviet-era parodies; Shor mentions Russian songs but little else clear. He sings a few lines of the Yiddish song asking where the seven good years have gone. Kerler then asks about Yiddish theater.
Kerler also asks about songs mixing Russian and Yiddish.
Shor touches upon prewar cultural life, before speaking about Yom Kippur celebrations. Vyogdner also addresses postwar religious life during the High Holidays in Bershad.
Kerler asks about Yiddish theater and Yiddish artists who visited, and about the Kol Nidre melody. Shor says one does not sing on Yom Kippur but only prays. Kerler recalls cantors brought to Bershad' for the holidays in the 1960s (?) and the fees paid.
Cantors engaged for the High Holidays in Bershad' are discussed along with the postwar visiting Yiddish artists.
Shor addresses Hanukkah food customs. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
Kerler asks Shor about Hanukkah foods, latkes (tatshiklekh), and what they were made from. He then asks questionnaire items: how to say a Russian phrase meaning "there is no money", "my head hurts", "tasty", "I am going on the road", and the words for sour, sweet and building a house.
The transcript shows Hanukkah latkes followed by a questionnaire of Russian phrases to translate into Yiddish.
Shor speaks about religious life after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
Opens with a remark that the first seder in Bershad' after Soviet rule took place in 1991 (?). Kerler then runs through dialectological questionnaire items, asking how words and phrases are said in Yiddish. These include words for hunger and tiredness, forms of address and politeness, kinds of vessels, flour, colours, a deaf person, a healthy person, the verb 'to breathe', and 'from another town'. Answers come mainly from a second voice, with Russian words used as prompts.
The transcript shows a remark about the first seder after Soviet rule at the start, not discussion of religious life after the Soviet collapse.
They talk about the contemporary community in the region, before the team returns with Vygodner to the van and drives to the Bershad synagogue. The camera collects footage of the former Jewish neighborhood.
Brief talk with a community member about the present community and who still speaks Yiddish, including a woman in her seventies. Mostly in Russian, the group drives toward the synagogue, and the guide mentions the synagogue's caretaker, a man from Tomashpil. At the end Kerler is introduced to a woman, Zhenia Sheindl.
The transcript names a caretaker from Tomashpil and the introduction to a woman called Zhenia Sheindl.
The camera collects outside footage of the synagogue, while the team meets Kozak.
Outside the synagogue the guide, speaking Russian, points out broken windows and rubbish, and notes that Kozak has arrived. Kerler asks about Jews who are still connected to the place.
The team, Vygodner and Kozak enter the synagogue and he gives a tour. The team also chats with community members.
Inside the synagogue the team meets community members and Kerler is introduced. They speak of a Passover supported by Chabad and of a man from Tomashpil. They also talk about the age of the synagogue, a memorial connected with a young man killed in the war (?), the women's section upstairs, and religious books. Much of the speech is garbled and includes a recogniser loop.
The transcript adds a Chabad-supported Passover, a man from Tomashpil, and the women's section.
Vygodner talks about prewar religious life and prayer books. The camera then continues to collect synagogue footage, before Vygodner addresses contemporary religious life.
Vygodner talks about prayer books and holy books from the old synagogues of the town. He then discusses how many Torah scrolls are kosher in Bershad' and nearby, and mentions a visit to Zhytomyr. The surrounding speech is garbled or in Russian.
The transcript shows talk about Torah scrolls and where they are kept, which the catalogue does not mention.
An unidentified community member talks about prewar Jewish life in Tomashpil. He was born 1945 in Tomashpil. They also discuss Yiddish sayings. The camera then continues to collect synagogue footage and they discuss contemporary religious life.
Questions about Tomashpil: a man there, born in 1944 (?), recalls a Jewish community of about three hundred (?), with prayer in a private house and no synagogue. Kerler asks about the idiom of standing like a candle in prayer. Others mention a visit from an Israeli ambassador or secretary, and the passage ends with Simchat Torah in the synagogue in the 1950s.
The transcript shows an idiom about standing in prayer and the Israeli visitor's question.
Vygodner speaks about postwar religious life in Bershad, particularly Simchat Torah in 1958. Kozak then talks about prewar religious life, particularly Yom Kippur.
Vygodner recalls the large Simchat Torah celebration in the synagogue in the late 1950s, carrying the small Torah scroll with his grandfather while people kissed it. Kozak is then asked what she remembers of the synagogue before the war and starts to tell of Yom Kippur and donations of money.
Kozak talks about her life after the war, after returning from evacuation in Central Asia. She recalls how the community wanted to support her family; but states that her mother refused. Kozak then addresses prewar and postwar religious life, particularly the High Holiday celebrations at the Bershad synagogue.
Kozak recalls coming back from evacuation poor and barefoot, and being offered money by the community at Yom Kippur, which her family did not want to take. She describes the women's section and its separate door, fasting before and after the war, and the weekly Sabbath gatherings. Kerler remarks on the synagogue's survival through Soviet times, and Vygodner says it was the tailors' synagogue.
The transcript adds the women's section, fasting, and the tailors' synagogue remark.
Vygodner talks about the history of the synagogue, particularly its restoration and use after the war. It was the tailor's synagogue. He also recalls his grandfather's attending of services.
Vygodner discusses the history of the synagogue: its closure and reopening, the Jewish community in wartime Romanian rule (?), and the Soviet authorities' wish to close it. He recalls his grandfather and the ten men needed for a minyan, and mentions a book on the shtetls of the Khmelnytskyi region which says the building is about two hundred years old.
The transcript adds the Soviet attitude to closure, the minyan and the shtetl book.
The camera collects synagogue footage, while Vygodner gives a tour. They then move the conversation outside. Kozak and Vygodner speak about prewar Jewish life.
Vygodner explains the layout of the synagogue interior, including the central platform, the ark and the old door, mostly in Hebrew terms and Russian. They then speak outside about the old Jewish street, a fire, and the streets of Bershad' where several thousand Jews lived. Family names tied to trades such as weavers, found in the cemetery, are mentioned.
Items of the dialect questionnaire asked here; each link plays the moment.