Kofmansky explains different elements of the synagogue, before the formal part of his interview begins.
From the machine transcript
The rabbi explains symbols in the synagogue's decoration to Kerler: the depiction of the prophets, the women's gallery above, the arrangement of Stars of David and the months, and animal figures. Kerler relates the animal figures to a saying about being strong like a lion and swift like a deer. Kerler then asks him to tell about himself.
Names specific figures and symbols; Kerler's remarks on a saying.
Kofmansky, was born 1946 in Chernivtsi, provides personal information and talks about his family. His grandfather Chaim Sholem was a rabbi from Bălți. Kofmansky attended a private school and studied with a private religious tutor in the afternoons. He then talks about contemporary religious life and the synagogue, as well as shares more about his family. Kofmansky studied physics at the Chernivtsi University. Kofmansky raised a daughter and a son, who lives in Israel.
From the machine transcript
The rabbi says he was born in Chernivtsi in 1946. His parents came from Siberia, and his grandfather, a rabbi (a Belz Hasid, as the discussion suggests), taught him religion in the afternoons. He studied physics at the university and became a professor. He describes rebuilding the synagogue's kitchen and mikveh, daily minyan, and the small size of the community, which is shrinking through emigration. He names his parents, and a son in Israel and a daughter who teach. He talks about links with Chabad and Rabbi Zalman Abelsky in Moldova. Kerler explains the Indiana project.
Covers the synagogue's community size, Lubavitch and other contacts, the physics professor and Rabbi Abelsky, which the catalogue does not mention.
The camera records footage of the synagogue, before it records town footage.
From the machine transcript
Kerler and others finish with the synagogue, and Russian phone talk about the crew's plans follows: leaving a book and going on to Moldova that day. The Yiddish in this stretch is largely garbled.
Mostly Russian phone conversation about plans rather than footage.
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Roza (Reyzl) Ovsheevna Shternberg, born 1924 in Khotyn. Shternberg, nee Kerzhner, talks about her family. Her father, a merchant, was born in Khotyn. Her mother was also born in Khotyn. She explains that her parents worked for the well-off Jewish merchant Bordeynik. He had business contacts to America (also see MDV 418). Shternberg recites a Purim shpiel, she remembers from her Yiddish teacher. Shternberg then talks about life today and sings a Yiddish song about love.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg starts the formal interview by naming relatives and friends from a list she has written. She gives her father's name as Yeshayahu, a merchant from Khotyn, and says her mother was also from Khotyn. Both parents worked for a wealthy merchant named Bordeynik. She recites a Purim play verse she remembers from her teacher, and tells of dressing up as a child and going from house to house. She sings a song about a youth in a kibbutz or hakhshara, and Kerler asks for another song.
Includes first mention of the song with kibbutz words.
Shternberg talks about her family, in particular her sister who was in the Zionist organization “Hashomer.” She explains that her sister went to Palestine before the war, but returned Khotyin when the war broke out. Shternberg grew with three sisters and one brother. She then sings the melody of the well-known Yiddish song “Vu bistu geven?” (where were you) with a different text, dealing with kibbutz.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about her sister, a member of Hashomer, who went to Palestine but returned to Khotyn when the war started. She also gives her family name (Kerzhner), her mother's name (Nekhe) and her grandparents' names, Leah and Hersh. She names three sisters and a brother, and tells what happened to them in the war: evacuation and Siberia. She sings the kibbutz text to the melody of "Vu bistu geven", and Kerler asks about a Yiddish expression for a non-Jew.
Gives the grandparents' and siblings' names; also has a short Yiddish-language exchange.
Shternberg briefly discusses childhood memories of her hometown Khotyn, before she talks about her life during the war. She attended a Romanian school and explains that twice a week the Yiddish teacher Yanever would visit the school, whereas the non-Jewish students were taught by a priest during that time. Shternberg recalls how her teacher would compose songs for holidays. She then remembers the words for a Passover and Hanukkah song her teacher composed. Shternberg then sings a number of well-known Yiddish songs.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg describes Khotyn as a commercial town with many Jews. She tells how the town was bombed in the war and how the Jews in prayer shawls begged the Germans not to burn it. Her father was killed. She also recalls the Romanian school, where her Yiddish teacher Yanever came twice a week while the Christian children had religion lessons with a priest. She recites the Passover and Hanukkah songs that he composed, and sings other songs, including a Shavuot song of the cheder. Kerler asks whether non-Jews became Jews in Khotyn; she says this was not known.
Adds the wartime bombing of Khotyn and the singing, with Kerler's question on non-Jews becoming Jews.
Shternberg briefly discusses holiday celebration and sings a Yiddish song about life in poverty and love.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about Purim customs and the throwing of beans (?) at the synagogue or cheder. She sings a long humorous song about a poor teacher who emigrates to America and falls in love, then loses his bride at the wedding. Kerler and she discuss a film or theatre piece and other songs.
Shternberg talks about prewar Jewish weddings in Khotyn and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg answers Kerler's questions about Jewish weddings in Khotyn. She recalls the chuppah, dancing, and the badkhn, who sang for guests and the musicians' pay. She mentions a custom of a song for the in-laws and the music played for the wedding. Kerler asks about the word for the pay, and about non-Jews in Khotyn who spoke Yiddish; she says many of them were servants of Jews.
Shternberg shows family photographs and talks about her family. Her son lives in America. Shternberg then talks about prewar Jewish life in Khotyn and childhood games, as well as political organizations. Shternberg remembers how she attended meetings of political organization on Sabbath because school was not on. She then discusses Yiddish literature.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg looks at family photographs with the interviewers and says her son lives in New York, America; a sister, Sarah (surname unclear), was killed by the Germans. She is asked about Khotyn synagogues and trades, childhood games (including a circle game), and the Jewish youth organizations of the town. She says she went to meetings on Sabbath because there was no school, and she recalls Yiddish reading, including Sholem Aleichem, and sings a Friday-night song.
Also covers a sister killed by the Germans, childhood circle games, and a Friday-night song.
Shternberg discusses food customs, in particular koshering meat. She recalls how she went with her mother to the mikva and discusses religious customs on Sabbath. Shternberg also mentions folk remedies.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg describes how her mother salted and koshered meat, soaking it in water, and baking challah and bread for Sabbath. She recalls going with her mother to the mikveh, and her mother's blessings over the candles and her Sabbath prayers. She and Kerler discuss taking challah, and she talks about folk remedies, including one for a ailment she calls hiccups or a fit (the term is unclear), and the pouring of coals, which her mother did not believe in.
Also covers challah baking, the mother's candle blessings, and pouring coals as a folk practice.
Shternberg talks about her life during the war. She was imprisoned in the Kopayhorod ghetto. Shternberg then sings two songs in Russian, she wrote during her imprisonment in the ghetto, before she continues talking the difficult life in the ghetto. She then sings a Yiddish song, she heard in the Kopayhorod ghetto.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about the war years, when she was held in a camp from July until March at Kopaihorod (the name is garbled). She sings two songs in Russian that she composed there, and describes hunger, her mother bartering for bread and potatoes, and local non-Jews warning of gendarmes. She also sings a Yiddish song she heard in the camp, and speaks about praying in the camp and Yiddish among younger people today.
Also covers her mother bartering for food, praying in the camp, and Yiddish among younger people.
Shternberg talks about life after the war and her return to Khotyn. She explains that non-Jewish neighbors took her house apart and used the land as potato fields. Her family moved into an abandoned house. She helped cleaning and restoring houses. Shternberg took care of the business, after her co-worker was drafted for military service, and never returned, and continued to work for forty-four years.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg recalls returning after the war to find her house gone, with non-Jews having taken it apart and planted potatoes. She describes moving into abandoned houses, cleaning and organizing them, and her work with a young man who was drafted and killed without further word. She says she continued working for forty-four years, and Lemster asks her about Jewish weddings.
Shternberg sings wedding songs and recalls the Moldavian cantor Fushman, who performed at a synagogue in Chotyn. Shternberg then sings a number of Yiddish songs about Eretz Israel and observant life, she remembers from Fushman.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg sings and talks about wedding songs and songs she loved from childhood, recalling a cantor from Moldova named Fushman who gave concerts at the Khotyn synagogue. She sings several songs she says she learned from him, about a pillow, a drunkard and Eretz Israel, as well as a song lamenting the decline of synagogue life. Kerler asks about his occupation and about cassettes of songs.
Also includes Fushman as a visiting cantor and songs about the decline of synagogue life.
Shternberg talks about prewar Yiddish culture and Eliezer Steinberg, before she discusses contemporary Jewish life.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about prewar Yiddish culture and Eliezer Steinberg, a Yiddish writer, though the passage is hard to follow. She describes the Sabbath gatherings at the Hesed today, and the Yiddish theater in Khotyn, where touring artists from Moldova and Romania performed; she mentions a Sidi Tal performance (?). Kerler thanks her at the end.
Also covers Khotyn cinema and traveling theater, and current Sabbath gatherings at the Hesed.
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Roza Ovsheevna Shternberg. Shternberg sings a couple of Yiddish songs about the good relationship between mother and daughter and about dowry.
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks with Kerler about the recordings being kept in an American university archive and about her son having seen them on the internet. She then sings songs about a mother and the world in which young men sell themselves for money, and about a bride and her dowry.
Also includes talk of the archive and the internet before the songs.
