00:00–01:40
Opening of the recording: the woman tells a fable-like tale about a nightingale and a dove who competed, and the nightingale won. This is followed by a short Hungarian aside. The transcript is fragmentary here.
Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2012 Expedition
AHEYM-2012-200 · Freundlich, Rivke
Cluj-Napoca (Kloyzenburg in the project's index)
2012-06-05
87 min · 28 stretches · 12 questions about words
Yiddish 94% Hungarian 6%
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
Interview with Rivke Freundlich, a Satmar-born widow, recorded in Kloyzenburg (Cluj) in June 2012. After a fable-like opening, she describes the Jewish community of Satmar and her family's business. She recalls the 1944 deportation to Auschwitz that killed her parents, then her children and grandchildren abroad. She also speaks about Yiddish as the mother tongue, Elie Wiesel, her singing teacher from Riskove and the song collector Max Eisikovits. A Yiddish song is sung, followed by Purim customs in Satmar. Second half of an interview with Rivke Freundlich in Kloyzenburg, recorded on 5 June 2012, with Kerler asking and one or two other people in the room. She talks about travel abroad, Passover and Sukkot customs, her late husband and her family. She also covers the Yiddish-speaking remnant in the community, her mother's family and the Kalov rebbe, life under communism and her wartime experience. The recording closes with the evil-eye cure and other folk remedies and thanks.
Stretches
01:40–05:49
Asked by Kerler about Satmar, Freundlich says she was born there. She describes a town of about 40,000 inhabitants, around 14,000 of them Jews. Its Orthodox community included Ashkenazim and Sephardim (?), and she names its rabbi, Weinberger (Karmiel (?)). She recalls living next to the Bixad rebbe, with her father donating a garden for his beit midrash. She also mentions the family's Satmar business in the 'white house' building.
05:49–10:52
Freundlich recalls the family business until 1942, when its license was withdrawn by the Hungarian authorities. In 1944 the family was liquidated and sent to Auschwitz. Her parents were killed young, and her two brothers have since died (one lies in Satmar, one lived in the New York area). She is the only one left. She tells of a man named Zalman Leibke who was killed in the Danube after going for a walk from a hotel on a trip to Pressburg. She stresses the family's strict observance, including leaving a patch unpainted in memory of the Temple, and says she has been a widow six years with two children.
10:52–21:15
She talks about her children and grandchildren: a daughter in Ottawa and a son who is a doctor and a musician. They donated a Torah scroll, and Freundlich names Hebrew names tied to the gift. Kerler asks how often the son visits and what language they speak, and she says they speak Hungarian although they understand Yiddish. She relates her father's views on why a physician should not be called by the rabbinic title, and mentions a grandson who is a lawyer. A woman from Timishare (?) is mentioned in connection with the daughter and her family.
21:15–26:41
Kerler asks where she learned so many songs, and she begins to answer with a woman from Sighet. The talk turns to the community's phone number, how long Kerler stays in Kloyzenburg, and his trip to Gross Wardein (Grosswardein). She says almost no Jews or Yiddish speakers remain in Satmar and Gross Wardein, though Gross Wardein has a rabbi, Ernfeld. Asked about R. Yoyelshl (the Satmar rebbe (?)), she says she had nothing to do with him, since the Bixad rebbe was her rabbi. She says she can no longer travel to the graves of her grandparents in Satmar.
26:41–29:36
Freundlich says the Jews left after the war for Israel and elsewhere. She recalls her father, a clever man with secular schooling, who refused to be a rabbi because of communal strife. She says that when five people were counted as Yiddish speakers, only some remain. She insists that Yiddish is the mother tongue, not Hebrew or the holy tongue.
29:36–33:29
The talk moves to a Yiddish-speaking survivor who calls himself an atheist, and to Elie Wiesel, whose speech on television she saw. She recalls Buchenwald, the liberation of about four hundred children and their placement in France, and Wiesel's Nobel Peace Prize. She also says that surnames such as Wiesel, Perl and Pestinger mark a Maramureș origin.
33:29–38:52
Freundlich tells who taught her to sing: an illiterate, very pious relative from Riskove who spoke only Yiddish and knew many beautiful songs. She names Max Eisikovits, a director of the Hungarian theater and an academy rector, who went to Maramureș and collected Yiddish folk songs. Kerler asks when and where, and she says he came from Timishvar (Timișoara) after the war to Kloyzenburg. His cousin George Eisikovits lives in Kloyzenburg, and another cousin lived in Baia Mare. She gives details of the family, including his mother, the daughter of an Orthodox priest.
38:52–42:20
They discuss George Eisikovits as a singer and engineer, and she says her own son sings and plays four instruments (piano, violin, trombone, saxophone) in a jazz band and a symphony, and has performed in Brussels and abroad. Kerler asks how many songs she remembers. She says she once led the whole country as moderator for her daughter's choir and wanted them recorded, but can no longer sing. A Hungarian aside mentions Gabi, who is learning Yiddish.
42:20–43:06
At Kerler's request, Freundlich recites or sings the verses of a Yiddish song that begins with 'Lomir ale in eynem'. The other voice joins in on single words, and she confirms the verses belong to the same song.
43:06–44:14
Kerler asks about Purim plays in Satmar, and she recalls children going from house to house, the shalakhmones gifts of money, and a short Purim rhyme. He asks about a chimney-sweeper character with a text; she is not sure. Together they say a Purim rhyme about falling on the beard, the nose and the head and breaking a glass.
44:14–44:33
Short exchange in which Kerler says he goes to Israel twice a year and will go again in three weeks. He asks whether she has been to see her daughter and son there.
44:33–46:03
Freundlich mentions her travels abroad, including Toronto, Montreal and other Canadian places. She says a friend in Montreal who was with her in the camp had phoned. The friend comes from Maramureș, and the friend's cousin, from Kloyzenburg, works with the community.
45:54–48:45
Kerler asks about the children's habit of stealing a piece of matzo at the seder, and she speaks of the afikoman. She describes keeping something until the following year, to be eaten only on Passover eve. Kerler also asks about preserves made after Sukkot, and she says something was made with vinegar. She says she can no longer walk and does not know whether the family built a sukkah.
48:42–50:31
Freundlich speaks of her husband, who came from Kloyzenburg. She gives his name as Chaim Yosef, son of Menachem (the surname Zwieber is doubtful). He was a tailor, a footballer and a singer at funerals. They look at his photograph and discuss his age at death (about 87 or 88) and that he died six years ago. They also look at his gravestone inscription.
50:18–52:18
She explains that she has not considered moving to her children so as not to burden them. Her son is unmarried, and her daughter has a son and a household full of worries. She prefers to sit alone at home. She has visited Israel and has relatives in Jerusalem, including a sister-in-law (Winkler Miriam) and Dr. Lustig. After her brother died, a relative went to Jerusalem from Flushing in America.
52:12–54:23
Kerler asks what the children used to throw into people's hair, the plant that stuck there. She names it in Hungarian-sounding form as something gathered from trees or bushes and thrown into the hair. Kerler and S2 discuss the name and the reason for the custom, and the Hungarian speakers comment in Hungarian.
54:23–56:30
Freundlich says it is hard to speak Yiddish now because she has forgotten much and has few people to speak it with. The two others who remain, Krausz and Grünfeld, are older than she is, and she never visited their homes. There is talk of a call to learn Yiddish that drew few takers. Someone high in government is mentioned in passing, and the talk turns to travelling by car. S3 speaks Hungarian, and the stretch is partly unclear.
56:11–1:00:42
She tells of her mother's family from the Szabolcs/Nirmada area and of the great tsadik, the Kalov rebbe, who wrote in Hungarian and left money to be thrown into his grave. She mentions Minister Kállay Miklós living in Kalov. Her mother had eleven brothers, two of them in Nirekaza. Her grandfather held about a thousand yoke of land and a firm (Weinstock) and ran a factory whose rights were taken after the anti-Jewish laws. The Hungarian landowner Tildy Zoltán later took it over. Asked why the Kalover rebbe did not speak Yiddish, she says little Yiddish was spoken in Hungary, unlike Poland, Maramureș, Satmar and Moldova.
1:00:42–1:02:58
She says Yiddish is the mother tongue and Hebrew the holy language, and that few came to learn Yiddish. She says Krausz works for the community. Kerler asks what a 'farbeter' is, and she says he stands before the lectern. She adds that on Friday evening there is no service and on Shabbat morning they make a minyan. Kerler then asks for words of a poem. She says she can no longer sing, speaks a few lines, and says she does not remember more.
1:03:01–1:06:22
Asked about life after the war under the communists, she says her family kept apart from the regime. They did not use the word tovarishch (comrade) and addressed people as 'Herr Doctor' or 'Frau Professor'. Her daughter and the teachers kept to religious holidays and did not become party members. She says communists lived well while others suffered, and that many Jews joined the party and many then emigrated, with the state being paid for those who left.
1:06:12–1:07:22
Asked how Jews lived with Christians, she speaks of Hungarian boys and her Christian friends, then and now. She says it was harder with the Jews, with her sisters and brothers, and that she had nothing to do with them.
1:07:22–1:12:32
Asked for memories of her Satmar youth, Freundlich describes her father's home and his pride in his holy books, and the ritual slaughter that took place there. She describes the Gemaras torn up by the Hungarians. Both her grandfathers gave Torah scrolls, and one travelled to the Belzer rebbe (Wolf Weinstock) for Shabbat Hanukkah. She describes a small Jewish community of about 4,000 people in Nirmada, with three doctors and two pharmacies, most Jews being merchants. Kerler asks the Yiddish name of the town, which she gives as Nirmade, and says Yiddish was spoken in families there.
1:12:27–1:15:56
Kerler asks about the journey to the Belzer rebbe, and she says her grandfather went for Shabbat Hanukkah. Kerler then asks about going to a 'good Jew' for a blessing; a Hungarian term is discussed and unclear. She describes the Bixad rebbe (a tsadik), who blessed the congregation after Kabbalat Shabbat, ate one egg a day and wore a fur coat even in summer. People could ask him for a blessing for the sick, and a minyan prayed for a full recovery.
1:15:56–1:19:19
Asked about Satmar hasidim in America, she speaks of the Bixad rebbe's son 'Tsadikl' who came to Brooklyn and befriended her brother. The rebbe's other children included a son, Chaim Moshe, and a daughter, Matele, married to the maggid of Timișoara. Chaim Moshe was in Timișoara under the Hungarian government, survived the Holocaust and reached America without his wife and children. Her brother is named Yitzhak, son of Zalman Leib, and was in forced labour. The lines also mention a cousin, Oscher Weltz, connected to the Budapest rabbi.
1:19:14–1:21:04
Freundlich confirms that she was taken to Auschwitz, where she stayed only six weeks before being sent to a labour camp at a war factory. She was liberated on 30 April 1945 and afterwards returned to Satmar. She married in 1946 and states her full given names (Sarah Rivke Rachel Leah).
1:21:04–1:25:33
Kerler asks whether the evil eye was 'spoken away' in Satmar, and Freundlich describes the cure of extinguishing coals or sulphur matches in water. She describes the counting formula recited up to nine and the water sprinkled at the entrance door. She also describes smearing the sick person's feet and heart. Bread crumbs could be used instead when no coals were at hand. She adds that a sick child was sometimes symbolically sold. S2 and S3 speak partly Hungarian and mix in other words.
1:25:33–1:26:46
Kerler thanks Freundlich, and she answers that the community people Krausz and Grünfeld can be spoken with, that Krausz is a cantor-type prayer leader and Grünfeld goes to the minyan, and that they speak Yiddish. S2 thanks her warmly and Kerler apologises for tiring her, closing the interview.
Questions about words
- 21:15Where do you know so many songs from? Who taught you so many songs? — the source of her song repertoire
- 40:45How many songs do you remember? ten, twenty? about a hundred? — size of her song repertoire
- 42:27Do you remember all the words of the song? How does it go? — the text of the song 'Lomir ale in eynem'
- 43:06In Satmar did they perform Purim plays? Do you remember any? — Purim play custom in Satmar
- 43:35Did you hear anything about a chimney sweeper, someone disguised as one with a little song or text? — a Purim chimney-sweeper disguise and text
- 48:08What does 'kitn' mean? — the meaning of a word she used in connection with what was made after Sukkot
- 52:53Was it called 'budikes' or 'buzikes'? — the name of the plant (bur) the children threw into people's hair
- 1:01:17What does 'farbeter' mean? — meaning of the term for a prayer leader
- 1:04:15What does 'elf tarsh' (tovarishch) mean? — meaning of the word she used, 'comrade'
- 1:11:58What was the town called in Yiddish? — the Yiddish name of the town of four thousand people, of which a thousand were Jews (Hungarian Nirmada)
- 1:13:46How do you say 'a good Jew' in Hungarian? — the Hungarian equivalent for a tsadik or 'good Jew'
- 1:21:31Was there a custom of speaking away the evil eye in Satmar? — whether the custom of removing the evil eye existed and how it was done