Not online: the recording is held by the project and is not on Media Collections Online, YouTube or archive.org. Everything below is a paraphrase of a machine transcript, the weaker of this site's two transcript layers — see how it was made.
Audio recording made in Kolomya on 30 May 2012 with Shloyme Krotsch, a man from Ștefănești (Shtefaneshtsh) who later lived in Bessarabia. The first part opens with chat in which Kerler and others talk about a purim-shpil, a visitor, a synagogue and a Passover song, then Krotsch sings a Moldavian song and recounts his life: school and yeshiva in Ștefănești, tailoring, the Soviet takeover in 1940, and stories about the rebbe and a tailor and a general. Second half of an audio-recorded interview with Krotsch (Shloyme) in Kolomya, 30 May 2012, about his childhood in the town of Stefanesti (Shtefaneshti). It opens with the end of a story about a tailor and a general, then turns to dybbuks and golems, wedding singers and songs, and Jewish life in the town. Further stretches cover wine and drinking, Sabbath food, Purim customs and songs, bar mitzvah and the interviewee's birthday, and end with arrangements for a break.
Informal chat at the start. Kerler and the informant talk about a purim-shpil seen online, a man who leads excursions and whether he visited, and a Passover-related song. Others then talk about a synagogue upstairs and a person named Yashe, and S2 asks who funded the rebuilding of the synagogue; the answer is two friends from Ukraine who once lived in the town.
Krotsch sings a Moldavian song about the war ending and a return journey to Istanbul, then repeats it at Kerler's request so it can be recorded. A second song about Kishinev (Kesheneuv) and the German (Fritz) follows. Kerler says he will pass it on to Lemster.
Krotsch tells of a family member who lives in Israel and a wedding in Herzliya. Then he gives his own background: born in Ștefănești into a Yiddish-speaking home, a Jewish-Romanian school with Hebrew and Yiddish alongside Romanian, and three years in the yeshiva in the rebbe's courtyard. He left because of lack of money and became a tailor, then mentions the start of the war and the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in 1940. He recommends a fine synagogue in a Bukovina town (Radevits, Kerler suggests).
Kerler asks about the town of Bivolari (Bivolar), near Ștefănești, and its Yiddish name. Krotsch remembers the death of the Ștefănești rebbe when he was about seven or eight, when huge crowds came and water ran out. They discuss the building in Israel in the rebbe's memory and an impostor who claimed to be a Ștefănești rebbe.
S2 asks where Ștefănești is and whether it belonged to Romania; Krotsch says it did until 1940 and that he moved to Soviet territory in that year. He recounts working as a tailor in Moldavia/Bessarabia, where he came to out-do his former teacher Leyzer Karital (?), and how Moldavians liked him.
Short interruption by arrival of a person (Yase). Kerler then asks about the yeshiva in Ștefănești: why a rebbe from Bivolari was brought, how study was organised (no chavrusa, the rebbe translated Mishnah and Gemara into Yiddish), and the rebbe's son Mendl Breyer (?). Krotsch recalls people coming to the rebbe in great numbers, staying through the night.
Krotsch tells stories about cantors for the High Holidays and a singer named Gedalye. He then tells a story he heard from the Moldavian employer he worked for, Yude Leyb (Berke), about a man drafted for the front who saw the rebbe. A general sent him home with a command in Romanian, which the man took as a miracle. He also tells a story of a poor tailor, a military tailor, who was fetched to make a coat for a general. The story is left unfinished as the tailor goes to seek the advice of a righteous man.
The interviewee finishes a story about a Jewish tailor who has to make a garment for a general and fears being shot. The tailor goes to the rebbe in tears, and the rebbe's advice (to finish the work and take it to the general) leads to a bloody accident. The general's doctor then treats the tailor, who is rewarded with a good tip.
Kerler asks whether the town had a story about a dybbuk. The interviewee and others discuss what a dybbuk, a golem and a certain other term (unclear in the transcript) mean.
Kerler recalls the interviewee's earlier account of Jewish weddings in Stefanesti and the wedding entertainer (marshalik). The interviewee describes the musician Yankev Ber, who played the fiddle and sang, and sings the 'Kale, vayn' wedding song and an orphan's kaddish song. He names the visiting singers Tilik and Pusman, who sang in the synagogue, and a prayer house called 'Khevre ...' (name unclear). He talks about visiting Yiddish troupes and tells a Sholem Aleichem-style anecdote about a fish seller in the market.
Kerler asks about a song, and the interviewee tells a humorous tale of a man from Sevenen (?) known as Meir Sevener. The man boasts of his newspaper and of knowing the news from far away, including a boxing match. Kerler says he did not follow the rhymes and then turns to a break for food and rest.
Talk turns to selling a book (in Romanian but not in Yiddish). S2 asks whether the Jews of Stefanesti were religious and how they got on with the Christians, who lived around the town. The interviewee describes the antisemitic violence of 1938 and the Cuzists. Kerler and he compare Jewishness in America and in Russia after the war.
Kerler looks for his old booklet on Kale bazetsn. The interviewee sings a Yiddish drinking song about sitting in the tavern and being drunk. They remark that drinking is a Jewish custom but getting drunk is not.
Kerler asks what was drunk besides wine. The interviewee says only wine in Romania, unlike the Bessarabians, and talks about his father's wine trade and fixing prices. Merchants from America came to buy sheepskins. He also describes how the shtetl was run, with rich men.
He says the town had eight synagogues, none belonging to a single rich man. He recalls collecting money to help a poor bride and watching weddings under the chuppah, which the shochet Gershon Reynish officiated. Kerler asks whether the bride circled the groom.
Kerler and S2 ask about the foods of Stefanesti. The interviewee describes Friday and Sabbath cooking, with fish and a chicken soup simmered all day, then several kinds of sweet dishes (tsimes, among them one called goldanes (?)). Then he starts to recall a woman named Hanne and Purim.
He describes Purim shalach manos, then going round as a child with a homemade megillah and singing Purim songs, including one on the giving of the Torah and one for the host. Kerler asks about longer Purim plays. The interviewee describes mask disguises, including dressing as a Romanian peasant.
Kerler asks about his bar mitzvah, which was a small affair. The interviewee gives his birthday as eight days after Shavuot and is congratulated. Kerler suggests a break for food.