Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2012 Expedition

AHEYM-2012-185 · Kotyar, Khaim-Ber; Shikler, Maks

Chernivtsi (Chernovits in the project's index) 2012-06-01 9 min · 5 stretches · 1 questions about words Yiddish 97%

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.

Summary

Last of four consecutive audio files from a 2012 session in Chernovits with two men, Kotyar and Shikler (the index does not say which is which). The conversation is loose and informal: one man tells about drinking and a stay in a village, the other about Hasidim from Brooklyn, a mikveh and Jewish life in Bessarabia and Bukovina, then about sons abroad in Montreal and Israel. It ends with farewells.

Stretches

00:07–02:30

INF2 tells about a stay in a village or suburb, where he lodged with an engineer who drank heavily. The man died aged 49. Kerler and INF comment on Jews who can drink, and on Jews of the old, learned type before the war. INF mentions that a pioneer leader was at his school, where he worked, and INF2 recalls spending a month at a private dacha with villagers coming to buy.

before the war Stories, humor and sayingsDaily life (general) · Krakutshka (?)

04:25–05:29

Kerler asks about Jewish life in Bessarabia and Moldova before the Soviets, and INF2 says that 57 thousand Jews lived in the city. INF describes a street in Belz (?) with large shops that were burnt in the war. He says a groom can be found in Bukovina, and that people went off to America.

before the war Local Jewish historyDaily life (general)Work and tradesEmigration and relatives abroad · Belz (?), Bukovina, Bessarabia, Moldova

05:26–07:15

INF speaks about his son in Montreal, who works, has two children and married at 17 (?), and who comes to visit. INF2 has relatives in New York, and a sister who was a teacher of physics and mathematics writes of a rebbe in Brooklyn who gathers Bessarabians and has music played. Kerler is told about "shlshider" (?), clappers, and the talk turns to the other son.

07:09–08:59

INF says that his other son, a teacher in a school, often travels to Russia and Czechoslovakia, and that he studied in America. Kerler says he is more in Israel than in America. Kerler thanks them, says he will have to come again, and the session closes with farewells and wishes of good health.

life today Family historyEmigration and relatives abroadLife today · Ashdod (?), Russia, Czechoslovakia, America, Israel

Questions about words

  • 06:44
    Kerler repeats "shlshider" (?), the clappers, and asks about the word — the meaning of the word for a noisemaker (?)