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 on 1 June 2012 in Chernovits (Chernivtsi) with two older men, Khaim-Ber Kotyar (born 1932, raised in Belts, Bessarabia) and Maks Shikler (INF2, a longtime Chernovits resident), with Kerler interviewing. The first half is mostly Chernovits topics: the monument to Jews shot in the war, Eliezer Steinbarg, writers, the Jewish cemetery, newspapers, and a German folk song. Kotyar then recalls his childhood in Belts, his father the tailor, his names, evacuation, cheder, holidays and Purim, and postwar Chernovits. It ends with signing of release forms. The file continues from AHEYM-2012-182 and runs on into AHEYM-2012-184.
The speakers talk about the Jewish cemetery and the monument in Chernovits to Jews shot by the Germans, among them Rabbi Dr. Marck from Hamburg. They then discuss the Yiddish writer Eliezer Steinbarg from Lipkan, his grave, and the stolen bronze plates. They also mention the Jewish tailor named Adolf Hitler, the cemetery watch kept by the combine, and the Russian word for vandalism. Kerler explains that he is not a journalist.
Kerler mentions his visits to Belz. Shikler lists the Chernovits German-language Jewish newspapers. Kerler states the date, 1 June 2012, and introduces Kotyar, who gives his birth year as 1932. They talk about the street once called by a word for prostitutes and about a Chernovits folk song with a rude refrain.
Shikler says he has many relatives in America (Brooklyn) who emigrated to avoid army service. Kotyar recalls postwar Chernovits with about eighty thousand Jews, the evening strolls and the languages heard on the street. Kerler's Yiddish is compared with German. A thin, partly garbled stretch follows on clothes-making and Russian prisons after the war.
Shikler sings a German folk song about a cow and a pig, twice, at Kerler's request so that it can be recorded. Kerler remarks that it is not a Yiddish song but has a Bavarian German character.
They discuss the Chernovits Jews, who were half German in culture, and the many Yiddish writers of the city. They mention Josef Burg, a tailor in Vizhnitz before the war who wrote Yiddish. They return to the cemetery, whose plates were stolen after the Soviet collapse by people from a suburb.
Kotyar was 7 when the war began. He recalls the central street in Belts, where his father had a kloyz, and women cooking soup that neighbors smelled. He talks about prewar Jewish life with many Jews and teaching of Torah. His father, a tailor, had eight workers at eight machines, mostly young Jewish men, many of whom were killed or left for Palestine as pioneers.
Shikler tells about an acquaintance, Dr. Merdinger, a Soviet German who served as a doctor with the Germans. He then describes the Volga Germans, who were sent to Kazakhstan, and says he himself was in Saratov.
Kotyar recalls Passover dishes taken down from the attic in his father's house and the borscht his mother made for Purim and Passover. Kerler asks about turkey at Purim. Kotyar mentions pastrami made from geese and a man who traveled to Belts on Shabbat to eat it. He says there are now almost no Jews in Belts and the young do not speak Yiddish.
Kerler says he is going to see a Yiddish-speaking woman in Romania. Kotyar tells of someone who came from America to Budapest, hired a driver and crossed the border into Romania at Sotchave (?) on the way to Bucharest, buying petrol. Shikler says there were 57,000 Jews in Chernovits before the war. Kotyar says his sons and relatives have gone to America or Israel.
Kotyar says his sons know a little Yiddish from their grandfather, who is buried in the Jewish cemetery. He talks about his father David, a tailor from Belts, and his mother. He explains that Jewish boys were given two names, and that he is named after his grandfather, David Benkhamber (?). Shikler is the family name.
Kotyar tells of the war years spent in evacuation in a village in Central Asia (the name is unclear). His father came back from the army, and in 1943 he returned to Belts, then moved on in 1945. He says he kept his reading and writing in Yiddish through cheder with a melamed named Shlomo, and mentions a Jewish school and a Jewish gymnasium in Belts. He also mentions that children from Belts and Kishinev were sent to Transylvania.
Kotyar recalls Hasidim near Bucharest and his parents going to a rebbe with questions, for instance about a chicken. He names his grandmother Sime (?) or Leah, who lived with them, and says the Germans shot the old people. He answers Kerler's questions about his mother's challah baking and the salting of meat.
Kotyar talks about Purim: shalakhmones, children going round with Purim plays, and a carnival. He mentions the gan and cheder he attended. He then describes postwar Chernovits, with homeless people occupying empty houses, and the Jewish theater, including the singer Sidetal. Shikler recalls seeing a Sidetal concert poster in Saratov in 1941, and Kerler mentions the Kiev Yiddish theater. Kotyar says the Yiddish theater was closed in 1948, and that there was also a Jewish school.
Kotyar says there were many synagogues in the old days, whereas today there is one; Shikler says 57 in Chernovits. Shikler mentions the Bukovina singer Josef Schmidt, who gave concerts in Chernovits before the war, and Kerler asks about visiting cantors. Kotyar recalls the crowded Yom Kippur services and says a Rabbi Meir from America paid for a mikveh.
Brief talk on Friday and Shabbat and on practical arrangements, partly in Russian or Romanian, with some unclear exchanges. Kerler then asks whether Jewish weddings with klezmer musicians and a singer were held after the war and what the master of ceremonies was called.
Kotyar mentions the shames at weddings and women who played in the klezmer bands. The rest is the closing of the session, with Kerler arranging the signing of release forms in Russian and Romanian and Kotyar giving his address in Chernovits.