Medved provides personal information. She talks about life today and her family. Her father worked as 5:15 until the war and was killed fighting in the Red Army. She describes how her father perished.
From the machine transcript
Opening talk about addresses and phone numbers, and Medved's hearing and Yiddish speaking. She explains her Yiddish and says she was born in Miskivka (name unclear) in the Kryzhopil district, in 1927. Her father was named Borukh and her mother Lea, and her father was killed in the war; she describes his journey by rail and the bombing of a train. She also talks about her son, daughter-in-law and Yiddish today.
The catalogue omits the Yiddish-language talk, her mother's background, and the train journey.
Medved talks about her life before the war. She moved to Odesa in 1932. She then discusses childhood memories. When she was five years old, her family moved to Bershad due to her father’s work assignment. Medved also addresses her grandfather’s work as a textile merchant.
From the machine transcript
Medved says she moved to Odesa in the 1930s and recalls that her family came to Bershad from Miskivka when she was small; her father's work and a grandfather who was a trader are discussed. Her maternal grandfather, a textile and shoe merchant, was shot. Her mother's sister Rakhil is mentioned.
Adds the grandfather's name, Marke, his trading trips to Łódź and Warsaw, and his death by shooting.
Medved recalls how her father sang in Russian. She also remembers Yiddish tailor songs, she heard during her childhood. Medved then talks about her family, in particular her grandfather.
From the machine transcript
Medved recalls her father singing, in Russian and Yiddish, including a tailor song; she recites a few lines. She then talks about her grandfather, who had a red beard.
Medved talks about her childhood memories in Bershad. She grew up with two siblings. She also addresses the Great Hunger of 1932/33. Medved then talks about her life during the war in evacuation. Her family worked on a kolkhoz.
From the machine transcript
Medved recalls a childhood sledding accident in Bershad and the 1932–33 famine and 1939 hunger in Odesa, and how Jews helped one another. She tells of evacuation to a kolkhoz by way of Orenburg and Chkalov regions, where she worked and was fed with milk and kasha. She also reflects on good and bad people regardless of nationality.
The famine is dated by her to 1939 (?) in the transcript; includes the evacuation journey and reflections on people.
Medved discusses her childhood memories in Bershad. She then talks about her life in Odessa in the 1930s. She attended Ukrainian schools in Bershad and Odessa.
From the machine transcript
Medved recalls childhood in Bershad: a neighbor's dog, and her father's wish for respect from neighbors. She says that non-Jews also spoke Yiddish in the shtetl and talks about languages in school and at home. She attended Ukrainian schools in Bershad and Odesa; Kerler asks about life in Odesa in the 1930s.
Adds non-Jewish Yiddish speakers and language use.
Medved talks about her family, in particular her mother. She recalls sayings from her mother.
From the machine transcript
Medved gives her mother's birth year (1895) and recalls her mother's sayings in Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian; she explains one Yiddish saying. Kerler mentions his travels to Israel and England, and asks about further proverbs, including one about many governments and few blessings.
Includes Kerler's asking for proverbs and his own remarks.
Medved answers a number of questions about cultural terminology and linguistic questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
From the machine transcript
Questions on Yiddish words and phrases: the meaning of dibbuk and golem, how to say 'alive but sick', and 'come here or go there'; Kerler asks the meaning of 'aber'. Medved says she never attended a Yiddish school and learned Yiddish from her parents. Kerler then asks about children's games in Bershad.
Medved discusses childhood friends and holiday celebrations. In particular, she mentions a girlfriend, who spoke in the Tatar language. Medved met her in evacuation on a kolkhoz on Crimea. Medved tells a proverb in the Tatar language.
From the machine transcript
Medved talks about neighbors and friends of different nationalities and holidays in Bershad, and about friends in Odesa, one of them now in Israel. She describes her Tatar girlfriend from the evacuation, with whom she spoke Yiddish and Tatar, and recites Tatar sayings and a Tatar anecdote about kisel.
Adds a girlfriend from Odesa now living in Israel and the Tatar anecdote.
Medved talks about her life during the war. She evacuated to Crimea and then the Stalingrad region, where she was liberated, and returned to Odesa in 1946. Medved then talks about her life after the war. After graduating from an institute in Odesa, Medved worked in Makhachkala for 43 years.
From the machine transcript
Medved says that after evacuation her family was liberated, and she returned to Odesa in 1946, studied, and worked 43 years in Makhachkala. She mentions that contact with relatives abroad was lost during the war.
Adds lost contact with relatives abroad.
Medved talks about her Tatar childhood friend, as well as her family and friends. She raised two children.
From the machine transcript
Medved talks about her close friend from Makhachkala, who was like a sister, and about relatives in Belarus. She also mentions mobile phones and the internet, and raising two children. Kerler then asks for an anecdote.
The friend appears Russian here, while the catalogue says Tatar.
Medved tells an anecdote that takes place at a cinema in Odesa. She then talks about her family and learning the Yiddish language. Medved then talks prewar Yiddish cultural life and Yiddish schools. Her father participated in the local Yiddish theater in Horodkivka. Medved lists several theater pieces and recalls a performance by Clara Young at a summer theater in Leninogorsk in 1943. She also remembers performance by Anna Guzik in Makhachkala in the 1960s.
From the machine transcript
Medved tells an anecdote about two Jews who go to a cinema in Odesa. She talks about her mother's literacy and her cousin who learned from her, a Yiddish school in Odesa, and prewar Ukrainian schools. She recalls Yiddish theater, her father's acting in Miskivka and the plays performed, a Clara Young concert in Leninogorsk in 1943 and Anna Guzik in Makhachkala. She also mentions a kommunalka and an apartment with a sea view.
Adds the Odesa home and sea-view flat.
Medved talks about her life after the Perestroika, when she returned to Odesa. She then talks about her school education and addresses cultural performance in Odessa after the war.
From the machine transcript
Medved speaks about her time in the east, with the many Dagestani peoples and their languages and Russian as the common language. She mentions learning some Kazakh and Tatar, and a teacher's remark when she entered the seventh grade. Kerler then asks about a performer's visit to Odesa after the war, and the passage ends with a remark about her husband understanding Yiddish through his grandmother.
The transcript shows Dagestan languages, Kazakh and Tatar, and a visiting performer; the return after Perestroika is only touched on.
Medved talks about food customs, in particular gefilte fish.
From the machine transcript
Medved talks about gefilte fish, made from pike for the Sabbath, and about how Russians in Odesa also make it. Kerler asks whether sugar was added, and she recalls her mother's cooking in Bershad'. She also describes a fish dish her mother made from her husband's catch, and Kerler asks for a Yiddish word for it.
Medved discusses prewar holiday celebration, including food customs. She also mentions the Yiddish theater in prewar Bershad and a kosher butcher in prewar Odesa.
From the machine transcript
Medved recalls Passover celebrated with Russian neighbors and the Yiddish theater in Bershad', which her father loved to attend. Kerler asks about Purim and Hanukkah food and customs, and she describes her mother's fish cutlets and the cooking method. She also mentions buying live fowl and a shoykhet in Odesa before the war.
Also covers Passover with Russian neighbors, Hanukkah latkes and Purim, and her mother's cooking of cutlets.
Medved recalls songs in Yiddish and Russian. She then talks about Jewish doctors before the war.
From the machine transcript
Medved recalls songs sung before the war, in Yiddish and in Russian, including a song about Birobidzhan and a kolkhoz. She talks about Jewish kolkhozes, including in Crimea, and tells a joke about a Jewish kolkhoz worker. She then says that the best doctors before the war were Jews, including one named Rabinovitsh (?) in her courtyard.
Also covers Jewish kolkhozes and the joke, besides songs and doctors.
Medved addresses her mother’s cooking before the war. She then talks about prewar trial about Jewish slaughter customs.
From the machine transcript
Medved speaks about her mother's kosher cooking before the war, taking fowl to the shoykhet and soaking and salting meat. She then tells about the Beilis-type blood-libel trial, in which a Russian writer defended the Jews and explained Jewish meat practices.
The trial is a blood-libel (Beilis) case, with Korolenko's defense of the Jews.
Medved talks about prewar Jewish life, in particular her father’s religiosity. She then talks about her family and her work as a port dispatcher.
From the machine transcript
Medved says her father did not go to synagogue but went to the cemetery twice a year for the yortsayt, and she gives his ethical summary of religion in Russian. Asked about her family, she names two brothers, Yitskhok, who died in Israel, and Khayim, and says her mother did not work. She describes her work as a port dispatcher in Kazakhstan, sending materials by rail and ship.
Medved recalls the best moments of her life and responds to the question with an anecdote.
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the best time of her life, and Medved first answers in Russian, then says life goes in stripes, black and white. She tells an anecdote about two Jews meeting and talking of good and bad days. Kerler thanks her at the end.
