Boris (Berl) Goikhman

Kerler interviews Goikhman, who gives his name and birth in Pervomaysk on 1 January 1927. He tells of the 1933 hunger, his father's move to Birobidzhan, Russian schooling, factory work and mobilisation to Blagoveshchensk, and his mother's death in 1947. He came to Zhmerynka in October 1947 to his father's brother. He then recalls Pervomaysk as a large town with many Jews, synagogues drawing visiting cantors, and Yiddish-speaking Jewish and non-Jewish friends. He also recalls Sabbath, his mother's gefilte fish with sugar and pepper, Hanukkah gifts, latkes and Purim foods, and the Zhmerynka shul on Sovetskaya Street, later a children's library.

Kerler puts a series of dialectological questions to Goikhman, often prompting with Russian words. The items include words for ear, attic, potato, blue, luck, broth, groats, deaf, and cross, and Goikhman's memory of Litvak speech. Further questions concern Hanukkah and Purim customs, the word for 'mekhutn' (in-law) and similar family words. Goikhman then recites or sings in-law verses and the tailor song 'Bin ikh mir a shnayderl', and Kerler thanks him.

The catalogue entry is a bare label; the transcript shows the questionnaire items and the songs.

In a home in Sharhorod, Katz and Kerler talk with the householders while looking at old books, including a Pentateuch printed in Vilna in the 19th century. They discuss where to sit for the interview and how the family live today. The family also talk about the daughter's name and the old Jewish street. Much of the talk is garbled and some of it is in Russian.

The catalogue names Vaisman's home; the transcript shows the scholars handling a Pentateuch and discussing seating and the family's names.