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.
Part of a 2012 session in Kolomyia with Shloyme Krotsch, an elderly Yiddish speaker (recorded by audio), with a second man and a woman also present. It opens mid-conversation with talk about cursing in Yiddish versus Russian and non-Jews who sought blessings, then moves to the interviewee's family, his visit to Israel, songs and poems he remembers, and his experience praying in the synagogue. It ends with small talk about water and Budapest and a question about the Messiah. Second half of an audio interview with Krotsch in Kolomya, 30 May 2012. It begins with talk of the Messiah, Elijah's cup at Passover and cheder memories, then covers Jewish wedding dances. After that come a local man, Itsik Pepper, and a long run of songs, with Yiddish, Romanian and some Russian lines. The rest is a Chabad-rabbi anecdote, Kerler's travel plans, a hospital story, Gypsy and smuggler anecdotes, and the interviewee's wish to pray.
Mid-conversation about swearing. The participants say Russian is a good language for cursing and Yiddish is not. The informant recalls non-Jewish women coming to a Jewish man for charms and blessings and later returning to say they had been helped. He then says people today leave money for the synagogue, and that it goes toward the kiddush or the annual memorial for those shot in the forest.
Chat about the technical equipment and about the interviewer's Ukrainian-Polish and Hungarian teams. The informant jokes about young women and marriage and recites or sings a humorous song about courtship and Simchat Torah.
The informant says there were six children in his parents' family, three girls and three boys, and that his sister Rivke has died; he says Kaddish for her. He recalls being the youngest of the boys. He tells of his trips to Israel (Nahariya, Rehovot) and a grandson's wedding. The talk turns to his son, who lives in Kolomyia, and to the family name being carried on.
Kerler asks about a song about a girl called Pesele and about Ukraine. He explains that it is a song from the early 1920s written after the pogroms of 1918–19. They talk about pogroms and about Bessarabians, then drift to oil from Baku and its sale, and to water under the ground in Israel.
The informant tries to recall the words of an old song about an orphan bride and then recites a saying about a person's three tears. He says he learned a Hebrew poem at school and recites it. He remarks that his memory is no longer as good as it was.
The informant tells of a stay in hospital and of a doctor's eye treatment, and about the cost of an operation. He then recalls the pleasure of speaking Yiddish and a prewar Jewish town with its holidays and Hakafot. His mother had two names, Rochl-Leah. He says many non-Jews who worked with Jews spoke Yiddish, such as shoemakers and tailors.
The informant tells of his visit to Israel with relatives. He prayed Kaddish at a field, spent time in a restaurant, and was nearly stranded at a bus station. A woman from Belarus helped him get onto the right bus to Rehovot, where the family was waiting. Kerler and the others discuss the misunderstanding that followed.
The informant recites or sings a Zionist song urging Jews to leave Romania, Poland and Moldova for the new land. Kerler asks where he first learned it. He says he learned it at home and mentions his father's warnings against leftist circles and a sister's preparations to go to Palestine.
Kerler mentions a song about hakhshore (training) in a kibbutz and the informant recalls hearing it. They banter about who should sing and about the informant's voice.
The informant tells of a Monday service in the synagogue, where a man who knew nothing of Judaism wanted to put on tefillin and a tallit. A man named Daniel, whose wife is from Kolomyia, came from Israel and promised to bring tallitot and tefillin. The informant mentions an expensive set, said to cost about eight hundred dollars (?), and that nobody there wanted to take them.
Informal talk over a glass of water brought in, which they say comes from Hungary. The second man is from Budapest and Kerler's team bought supplies in Hungary. The informant mentions visits to Uzhhorod and Mukachevo. Kerler then asks what will happen when the Messiah comes, and the informant mentions a place in Jerusalem, which Kerler takes to be a market (?).
The interviewee talks about being in Jerusalem, a market place there where men were blessed with the tallit, and a sign about the Messiah coming soon. Kerler asks about tales of Elijah the Prophet, and the interviewee recalls the cup of wine for Elijah at the Passover seder as a child.
Answers Kerler's questions about Passover. He was the youngest and asked the four questions, and he remembers his cheder teacher and a beating at age two or three. He attended cheder until about eight and then school, not yeshiva.
Kerler asks about Jewish weddings and dances. The interviewee describes dances of the rich, including one with linked hands (a "zevarakhe" (?)). A second voice says men and women danced separately or together, and Kerler asks about a brugez dance between the in-laws and about dancing with tarts, which the interviewee does not recall. The talk ends with remarks on good relations between Jews and neighbours.
The talk turns to Itsik Pepper, a Yiddish-speaking man known in Chernivtsi and Stanislav. He learned Yiddish from his mother and is thought to have been born after the war. The speakers also mention a rift with a man named Kolesnik because Pepper does not attend synagogue.
Kerler asks for songs, including Romanian or mixed Romanian-Yiddish ones, and what will be eaten when the Messiah comes. The interviewee says God will provide, and a song about the Messiah coming soon comes up. He recites a children's song about a little fire burning in the stove and the teacher with the children, and the speakers recall matchmaking lines about becoming in-laws.
Kerler asks for romantic and love songs, and the interviewee and the second man sing lines of one about a mother and Itsik's marriage. Kerler asks what the interviewee sings, and the two speakers also mention a dream song and some new songs, including Moldavian ones.
Kerler explains how the recording will be used for research and put online, with users required not to use it commercially. He mentions a colleague's film that includes the drinkers' song and says Bessarabians from Kishinev sing it too. The talk then moves to Kishinev, Stefanesht (?) and Bucharest, and to tsadikim, the grave of a Kishinev figure he has seen, and a Belz rabbi.
Talk about Russian and Lithuanian-style Hasidim and the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar. The interviewee tells how he was said to have drunk heavily at an institute, was urged to become a Jew again, studied English and Hebrew in Budapest and Canada, and then rose to a position with Putin.
Kerler mentions meeting Asman (?) in Kiev and says he will be in Israel in the second half of December. The speakers discuss phone calls to Israel and America and a birth expected in August.
Kerler asks how many doctors the interviewee has been through. He tells of a sudden severe illness at night, a visit to a doctor and a hospital stay with examinations and medication. He recovered and went home after the Shavuot holiday.
The interviewee remembers a song about the war ending and everyone becoming rich, in which a man goes to Istanbul. Kerler explains the word for train station, and a variant of the song with a Gypsy as husband is mentioned.
The speakers discuss whether there are Gypsies in the town; they say not, and that there are many in Romania and Czechoslovakia. The interviewee tells a Romanian anecdote about a Gypsy blown into a garden who is caught tearing up onions. He says he learned it in Romania.
The interviewee offers a Russian song, then sings a Romanian song about a man drinking in the tavern and addressing his heart. Kerler discusses the meaning of the refrain word (heart or soul), and the interviewee explains the lyrics in Yiddish.
Talk about the village of Michelen (?), where most of the inhabitants were Jews, near the border. It is described as a place of smugglers (belegoles), who took goods over the Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian borders.
The interviewee tells a story of two poor boys on the border who got rich smuggling vodka and tobacco, and of a rich Jew who copied them. He hired a coachman who turned out to be an escaped thief, and the loss of the horses and wagon ruined him. Kerler asks about details, and at the end the interviewee says he wants to pray for about fifteen minutes.