The camera cuts to a formal interview with Tsilia Borisovna Khaiut, who was born in 1917 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Her father, a shoemaker known as Berl Adeser, was also born in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Khaiut’s mother Rukhl was born in Bessarabia, a fact which causes her to remark about the dialect difference between her Yiddish and that of Bessarabia, as well as the killing of Bessarabian Jews in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy during the war. Khaiut’s maternal grandparents and their family immigrated to the United States during the Tsarist era and she remembers how her mother used to receive dollars from them, with which they paid rent. When Soviets took power, Khaiut remarks, however, the official exchange rate made these remittances worthless and contact between these familial branches ceased. Khaiut had two sisters, Ester and Ronya, and a brother, Khoskl (who moved to Israel) all of whom have died. Khaiut also talks about her education in Soviet Yiddish schools and the traditionally religious life at home during her youth. Before beginning her formal education at ~4-5 years old, Khaiut studied with a melamed (private religious teacher) named Mendl. The melomdim were the very poorest people in the shtetl, and she tells a joke/anecdote about their poverty. Her first son (b. 1938, d. at age of 42) also learned with a rabbi. Khaiut has another son who still lives in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, as well as four grandchildren in Ashdod, Beer-Sheva and elsewhere. Khaiut shares her views of child-rearing and the difference between children today and in her youth. In her home as a child everything was done “Jewishly”. Khaiut discusses her marriage and family life, including the custom of taking off a bit of dough from the khale (challah) and burning it. She speaks about the curriculum of Soviet Yiddish schools, recalling for instance "Vi bisti geveyn ven dus gelt iz geveyn" (Where were you when there was money) as one of the songs they learned. In school she studied writers, such as Sholem Aleichem and Itsik Fefer, as well as sciences and mathematics, algebra and chemistry all in Yiddish. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. During the war, Khaiut lived in the ghetto in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and was transferred to a camp in Transnistria. She relates how she would dress as a Ukrainian woman and buy goods in the bazaar, taking off the yellow star that identified her as a Jew, but was nevertheless hit by a German on one of these outings. At this time, her husband was serving on the front with the Red Army. Khaiut also recalls a number of recipes of Shabes (Sabbath) foods, including: yukh (chicken soup), tsimes fasolyes (bean stew), kigel (casserole), and different kinds of fish. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ashdod, Beer-Sheva.
From the machine transcript
Khaiut gives her details: she was born in 1917 and her father Berl, a shoemaker, and her mother Rukhl, from Bessarabia, are discussed with Kerler. She notes that Bessarabians speak Yiddish differently and recalls the fate of Bessarabian Jews after the war; she also recalls her grandparents and the relatives who emigrated to America and sent dollars. She names her siblings (two sisters and a brother who went to Israel) and her son born in the 1930s who died at 42, and mentions grandchildren in Israel. She talks about the Soviet Yiddish school, the teacher Mendl and her childhood cheder, Jewish home life and Soviet pioneers and songs, and answers questions on Yiddish terms for Soviet institutions and foods (kigel, gefilte fish). She also tells of the ghetto and Transnistria, where she dressed as a Ukrainian to sell goods at the bazaar and was beaten by a German while her husband was in the Red Army, and gives her mother's fish recipe.
Adds the details of her son's cheder teacher, Soviet school teachers and subjects, the bazaar episode and the fish recipe.
Continuation of formal interview with Tsilia Borisovna Khaiut. She details other foods that her family would eat on shabes (Sabbath).
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what was cooked for Sabbath in a pot in the oven, and Khaiut explains the Sabbath cholent (heard as tshalnt and shulnt) and potato pudding made from grated potatoes, and why no fire could be lit on Sabbath. They then turn to Hanukkah, when the family ate whatever they had: fish, fried foods, dumplings, latkes and pea-filled pastries (gorokhvinikes).
Also covers potato pudding, Hanukkah foods and the question of which Yiddish word for the dish she used.
Khaiut shows off a gorokhvinike, or pea-filled pastry and her chopping knife for fish.
From the machine transcript
Khaiut shows a pea-filled pastry she made, and her special chopping knife for fish. Kerler asks how chopped fish is made, how long the fish was chopped, and whether she calls it chopped fish or gefilte fish. They also discuss how the skin is taken off the fish.
The transcript centres on the term for chopped versus gefilte fish and on chopping time.
She then demonstrates how to make gefilte fish, using a knife and newspaper. Khaiut also explains some aspects of pre-war Jewish life in the town, including how each profession had its own synagogue and brought in guest cantors from time to time. Khaiut remembers Sidi Tal’ and various Yiddish theater troupes that came to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy before the war, putting on plays such as Sholem Aleichem’s 200,000. After the war, Jewish artists, such as Iosif Kobzon, also visited the town. Professor Kerler asks the interviewee about how she dealt with the potential contradiction of attending a Soviet Yiddish school, while maintaining a religious practice at home. She states that it's a lie that they made fun of religion and/or religious people in the schools. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, Khaiut reports, many of the synagogues in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy were closed down. Khaiut then recalls several food and gaming customs associated with holidays, such as Shavuot, Chanukah, Purim, Passover, Sukkot and Yom Kippur. Khaiut can still read in Yiddish, and even reads Professor Kerler’s interview notes out loud. Her son Sema understands and speaks some Yiddish. Khaiut then shares some Yiddish idioms and sayings. Both of her sons are circumcised. When her second son was born in 1946, she got a moyl (mohel) from Chernivtsi to come and circumcise him. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. Khaiut also talks in detail about her own pre-war Jewish wedding, which featured Jewish klezmorim led by “Moyshele der Puker mit der Muzike” (Moshe the drummer with the music). At her wedding, as at others, there was a chuppah, and the bride circled the groom accompanied by her parents. Berl Sanver presided over the occasion as a kind of master of ceremonies/badkhn, and spoke with rhymes and songs. Khaiut also shares more of her linguistic knowledge as well as recipes for tsimes (stew) and fludn (dessert).
From the machine transcript
Khaiut demonstrates making gefilte fish with the knife and newspaper, then answers Kerler on prewar Jewish life: the family's rented house, candle-blessing, a separate synagogue for each trade, guest cantors, Sidi Tal' and other visiting artists such as Kobzon, and Sholem Aleichem's 200,000. Kerler asks whether the Soviet Yiddish school was hostile to religion; she denies it and says the synagogues were closed in the 1930s. She recalls food and games for Shavuot, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover and Yom Kippur. Kerler then asks about fasting, language on the street, her son, Yiddish books, folk sayings and her son's circumcision. Later come the rabbi and melamed, burial places, then her wedding with the musician Moyshele the drummer, the badkhn (Berl Sanver, name unclear) and the chuppah, ending with a long run of vocabulary questions and recipes for tsimes and flodn.
Beyond the catalogue it includes the fire brigade with a Jewish commander, the visit of her son, a mohel brought from Chernivtsi, and the question of good burial places.
Khaiut gives the team samples of her homemade rose jam, all the while sharing more of her profound knowledge of culinary customs and recipes. The interviewee also remembers folk remedies from babkes (folk healers). Khaiut then shares her romantic history with her husband, who was in fact her second suitor. Her husband Khayem had received a Moscow residency permit, but after three years writing letters back and forth with Khaiut, he returned to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy to marry her in 1937. Khaiut then shows old photos of her and her husband. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Chernivtsi
From the machine transcript
Khaiut shows rose jam she makes for baking, then recalls folk cures and charms from village healers (babkes). She tells how she turned down one suitor and then met her husband Khayem, who left for Moscow with a residence permit, and shows photographs of him. Kerler asks about the Yiddish newspapers and library she used before the war, and then puts a long run of vocabulary items for her to render into Yiddish: words for ghost and golem, thanks, greetings, colors, house, courtyard, deaf, ear, later/higher/faster/nearer, and breathing.
The final stretch is a long vocabulary elicitation, beyond the catalogue's mention of jam, healing and her courtship.
