Efim Davidovich Shvartsburg

Shvartsburg talks about the remaining Jews of Skvyra who still speak Yiddish: a few very old people, among them a woman of eighty-eight who barely leaves her house. He also mentions a woman who survived the war with a non-Jewish family and no longer speaks Yiddish. Kerler and he discuss who the best Yiddish speaker in town would be.

adds the discussion of who still speaks Yiddish.

Shvartsburg says that his grandparents and parents spoke Yiddish at home and that he understood it but spoke little himself. He has been the head of the Jewish community in Skvyra for fourteen years and has no one to speak Yiddish with. Kerler remarks that he remembers the language well.

Shvartsburg tells what he knows of Jewish Skvyra before the war from his grandmother's and parents' stories and from a book. The town had a large Jewish population, a dozen or so prayer houses, and a Jewish center. The Jews who lived there, about a thousand, were shot by the Germans, and Jews have since left for Israel, America and Australia.

adds the figures on the prewar population, the shooting of Jews, and later emigration.

Shvartsburg describes the grave of Itsik Twersky, the father of Rebbe Dudl Twersky, who lies there with two children, and how Hasidim found the neglected site. He is an engineer by training and built the site for the Hasidim. He also built a large synagogue in Skvyra with a hotel for 120 people and two mikvehs. A few Jews remain in the surrounding villages, among them three who were hidden as children and have forgotten Yiddish.

adds the Twersky family and the three villagers who lost their Yiddish.

During the tour of the synagogue complex, Shvartsburg explains that he designed it from pictures brought by Americans of the old synagogue, and that building it took four years because money was short. He describes the hotel, the mikvehs, the large prayer hall and the size of the building. He also mentions pilgrims, the Twersky Rebbe's visits, and an American claim to the property that was settled for money. Kerler asks about visitors, the Berdychiv rebbe and the minyan on Sabbath.

adds the American pictures and money claim, pilgrims, and Sabbath minyan.

The tour continues with talk about fundraising, including a portrait and the Chabad rabbi's contribution, and about the burial place of Itsik Twersky. Shvartsburg recalls that a synagogue was built in 1860s (?) and that the Soviets later closed it. Kerler asks about the postwar period and who still prayed there.

Shvartsburg speaks about religious life in Skvyra under the Soviets, when circumcisions and weddings were held quietly. He says most Jews do not speak Yiddish today, and that his own children and wife do not. Asked by a member of the team, he also discusses the town's shoykhet before the war.

adds the shoykhet and Yiddish among his children.

On the drive to the grave of Rebbe Itsik Twersky, Kerler and Shvartsburg talk about the large hotel built for the Hasidic pilgrims, who come in large numbers on Yom Kippur, and about the town's river, which Kerler asks whether it is a river or a lake. Russian directions are given to the driver.

At the grave, Shvartsburg explains how he secured the site with a gate and how it was remembered by non-Jews. The old Jewish cemetery was destroyed during the war and its gravestones used by non-Jews. A brickworks now stands on the land. Kerler asks what is on the site of the old cemetery.

adds the destroyed cemetery and brickworks.

At the site, Shvartsburg and others talk about the memory that elderly non-Jews kept of Rebbe Itsik Twersky and his two children, a boy and a girl, who are buried there. Water and the buried children are mentioned. Kerler asks whether his grandparents told him anything about this.

adds the non-Jewish memory of the rebbe.

Shvartsburg talks about his grandparents. One grandmother came from Pavoloch and the other from Kyiv. His grandfather Yokhanan Kogan was killed by the Germans, and the other grandfather's family was large. The family went to the rebbe before the Soviets, and the grandmother told him of Jewish life in Skvyra. He has two sons and talks about the war years when Jews were killed.

adds his grandparents' origins and his two sons.

Shvartsburg explains that about 1,200 Jews were shot in Skvyra in three massacres within six days in September 1941. In 1947 their bones were gathered and buried in the new cemetery under three stones, and he says no marker stands at the killing sites. He also says that few Jews were left, many having been evacuated. Then he talks about Jews and their children today, including intermarried families and two grandchildren studying in Zhytomyr.

adds the numbers and the 1947 reburial.

Shvartsburg and the team return to the van and drive through town, with directions in Russian, while a plan or memorial is mentioned. Much of the Yiddish is garbled.