Volf Tsalevich Leibel

The team and Dorfman come to Leibel's apartment and are greeted. They explain the project of recording Yiddish speakers (from an American university) and mention that they recorded Brandler the day before. They discuss how hard it is to find Jews to interview, and fit the microphone.

The formal interview with Leibel begins. He gives his surname and first name, and says he was called Volf at home and by an older name (unclear in the transcript).

Leibel gives his birth year (not clear in the transcript) and recalls prewar Rivne as a Jewish town with many small synagogues, and the street where he lived. His grandfather Moshe was a tinsmith and his father kept a cellar shop dealing in old things. He describes the state gymnasium, where he sat at the last bench next to a prince's son, a religion lesson and a discussion on Zionism. He finished in 1939, expected to go to Warsaw, and after the Soviet entry studied for two years before being drafted.

Adds the gymnasium, the religion lesson and the Zionism discussion; the university detail in the catalogue is not clear.

Leibel recalls being sent to the front with the Red Army and seeing German vehicles near Berezhtsi (near Kremenets), where he saw a Jew praying in a window, and reaching Pochaiv. He was taken to the Kharkiv region and, in 1941–42, to Sweden-bound (?) Polish Jews were sent east; he became a sergeant and fought at the Third Ukrainian Front, where he was wounded and commanded a unit. In 1945 he was sent to a lieutenants' school, which was then disbanded, and he was demobilized.

Gives detail on a fellow soldier from Łódź and on the cadet school's disbandment.

Leibel speaks about his return to the institute in L'viv and finishing his studies, after which he was assigned to work. He met his wife in 1948 in a Jewish family; she taught Yiddish. They had a son, and both the son and wife have since died. Kerler clarifies that a woman relative is a cousin of the wife. Leibel then begins to say he attended synagogue on holidays and fasted on Yom Kippur in Soviet times.

Leibel addresses his observance in Soviet times, when he fasted on Yom Kippur and took off as much time from work as possible. He worked at one institution for 43 years and was kept on after reaching seventy; after retirement he went to synagogue daily. A Ukrainian friend warned him he was being watched, but Leibel regards the synagogue as a piece of the Land of Israel.

Gives the duration of employment (43 years) and the warning about surveillance.

Leibel begins mid-thought about being taken into the army and leaving his elderly parents alone, and about how much they suffered. He gives the names of his parents and two sisters and says he was the only son. He states that his father was born in Rivne, without a year, and names grandparents and a grandfather, some of the names unclear in the transcript. He also mentions a rebbe from a village visiting the synagogue on a Sabbath.

names parents, sisters and grandparents, and begins with his parents left alone when he was drafted

Leibel sings the Passover song "Echad Mi Yodea" and then the end of the Seder song about the kid (Chad Gadya), at Kerler's request. Kerler asks about the sense of a word in the song and about Yiddish words for prison, and Leibel answers. He then recalls singing zemirot on Friday night.

includes Kerler's word questions and Friday-night zemirot

Leibel recalls Sabbath songs and says peasants passing from the town to the village would stop by their house and hear the family singing on Friday night. Kerler asks him to sing again and asks what other songs they sang. Leibel then begins a story about getting up early before gymnasium with his tefillin bag.

adds the tefillin bag and morning routine before gymnasium

Leibel speaks about his traditional childhood home and about his father working in the cellar of a textile store. He lists organizations in Rivne, including Betar, a Zionist group (names garbled) and a Hasmonea football club, and a Maccabi club. He explains that gymnasium pupils were forbidden to join political organizations and had to study. Kerler asks in what language the Betar and Bund booklets were written; Leibel says Yiddish.

adds his father's work and the Hasmonea and Maccabi clubs

Leibel describes his early education: cheder with Reb Nisl, whose wife was Breydl, then Polish school. In the evenings a Jewish tutor named Mandelbaum came to teach him at home. Kerler asks about the language of his reading, and Leibel recalls Hebrew texts, a Talmud story about Kamtsa and Bar Kamtsa, and writing letters in Yiddish.

Leibel mentions Yiddish and Zionist newspapers before the war. He says his uncle was a tailor and that his parents worked in a shop all day, warming themselves with a pot of coals in winter, supporting the family on very little. He then recalls returning to Rivne after demobilization, finding few Jews left, and mentions a milkman who remained.

Leibel talks about Rivne after the war: the Jewish street was nearly empty, a local milkman traded with peasants, and he felt a longing to return there. He then answers Kerler about his father's prayer habits, recalling carrying the tallis bag beside him as a child. He also mentions the special cap required at his gymnasium.

Leibel talks about Purim and holiday celebrations at the Jewish gymnasium, which taught in Polish, with choir, young people and outings to the woods. He describes a library, apparently the "Matsha Shkolna" (?), where he borrowed books daily. He says his father examined him on Sabbath on what he had to recite. Kerler then asks how people spoke Yiddish in Kremenets as against Rivne.

adds the library and the father's Sabbath examination

Answering Kerler's questions, Leibel says there was no Yiddish library, only a Polish one, and that he read Polish books at home while his parents were at work. He recalls Yiddish newspapers read in connection with the synagogue. Kerler asks about dialect forms, the verb "to come" and a word for Purim, and about the word "tsenerene" (?).

includes Kerler's dialect-form and word questions

Leibel describes his mother baking for the Sabbath on Friday morning, with challah and cakes, going to the synagogue women's section, and lighting candles. Asked about his grandmothers, he remembers Khaye Hinde, who sold hay (?) in small quantities by weight for her living. He says he does not remember much of Sabbath at his grandparents' but that Jewish life was good though not easy.

Leibel explains what an honest, good Jew means in his Yiddish, while Kerler adds comments on the Temple and the messiah. He recalls his grandmother Rivke and says his grandfather Avrom died earlier. He then describes Yiddish theater and films in Rivne, including a performance of The Dybbuk, two cinemas, and a film Jews boycotted, and then answers about cheder until age seven.

adds the grandparents, the two cinemas and the film boycott

Leibel says he attended cheder until age seven and was then sent to the Polish primary school, after which he continued in the Polish system. He recalls playing football against Christian teams at school, with a Jewish side against non-Jewish boys, and a fight with a non-Jewish boy.

Leibel sings a Yiddish drinking song, in which a Jew enters a tavern and a non-Jew gets drunk. Talk of Sabbath challah follows. Kerler asks about a toilet, and a second voice asks whether the cheder was a good one. The rest is largely garbled.

adds Kerler's side questions and the challah talk

Kerler asks about the taste of his mother's gefilte fish. Leibel then tells how the Red Army arrived in Rivne in 1939 just before Yom Kippur. After synagogue he met a young Jew from Poland who had not eaten for two days, and took him home and fed him. Kerler asks whether the grandparents stayed in Rivne, and the rest is chat about refreshments.

adds the Yom Kippur episode and the Polish refugee, and ends with drinks being offered

Asked what was drunk on Purim, Leibel says he does not remember, and talks about observing kosher rules and the words for dairy and meat. Kerler asks about differences between Yiddish in Lviv and in Rivne, and about kleyn and shayn. A second voice asks about songs with Hebrew and Yiddish words. Cake and drinks are also being offered.

adds kosher terms and Lviv versus Rivne Yiddish

Leibel sings a Yiddish song about Hasidic and wealthy Jews, and says the Soviet regime closed synagogues so that people prayed in small minyanim in homes. Asked about klezmer, he says his father once wanted him to learn the clarinet. He describes his own wedding under a canopy at the Lviv rebbe's house, with two witnesses, and answers Kerler on weddings, matchmakers and the absence of Yiddish-speaking non-Jews in Rivne.

adds his own wedding at the Lviv rebbe's house, the witnesses, and the matchmakers

Leibel recites lines of Polish poetry from his school years and names a Polish poet. Questions follow on relations between Jews and non-Jews in the gymnasium. He says each was proud of his own background, that they studied together and were friends but not close ones, with a non-Jewish classmate who may have been a Nazi sympathizer (?). Kerler then asks about Purim players.

adds the Polish poems and the classmate's identity

Leibel recalls Purim players going from house to house and being given coins. Kerler asks whether there were longer plays. The passage then turns to Russian talk and refreshments: Kerler tells a Russian-speaking person present that the visitors are from America and are recording Yiddish, and drink is offered.

adds the Russian-language exchange and refreshments

Kerler, Leibel and a second voice talk about something being handed over or set up, partly in Russian, with remarks about the view. The catalogue says the camera records Leibel's apartment, but the transcript shows only this talk.

adds the conversation heard over the footage

A few seconds of unclear exchange between Leibel and a second voice; the transcript does not show what is being said or that an interview is being set up.