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.
Recording made in Debrecen on 7 June 2012 with the interviewee Réti, an elderly religiously raised man, with Kerler and at least one other team member present. It is the first of two consecutive files. It opens with chat about kosher salami and food for the local community. Then Réti talks about the Debrecen synagogue and rabbi, his Hasidic childhood village, yeshiva study and meals, Purim customs, and a Yosef-ha-tsadik Purim play. It ends with arrangements to send him kosher food and some muddled closing talk.
Opening talk about the informant's relatives in America and how rarely he hears from them. Kerler explains that kosher salami could not be brought across from Ukraine and Romania and will be sent another way. Kerler asks how Debrecen has changed in the five years since the last visit, and the informant does not say much. They mention the rabbi and the community, which does not bring kosher salami from Budapest.
Discussion of the current rabbi, who is over sixty, has lived in Debrecen for about five years and speaks Hungarian. They say a daily minyan meets, with a few men. Kosher food is hard to get in the city. The informant gets a daily hot meal from the community and does not cook for himself. Kerler asks about a Debrecen man who became pious in old age.
The informant tells of a man who opposed the rabbi and of the synagogue, which is only a short walk from his home. S3 says in Hungarian that they come from Budapest and are partly Jewish. The group then discusses the Orthodox synagogue and the beis medresh where prayers are now held.
The informant talks about his father Mordechai, a landowner with his own beis medresh and mikveh. The grandfather was Yonatan (?). The village near Matisherk (?) was Hasidic and followed the Kasheniye (?) rebbe, who came every year with thousands of Hasidim sleeping on straw. His father wore a beaver hat instead of a shtreiml.
The informant describes yeshiva study with a leading teacher in Fehérgyarmat (?) and in Balkan/Valkan (?). He recalls rising at five and going to the mikveh. The yeshiva had a canteen and he ate in rotation at householders' homes. He recalls that the head of the yeshiva, Lichtenstein (?), also ran a tallis factory, and that his son Hillel lives in Brooklyn, aged over ninety.
Talk about food in his yeshiva days. One passage is in Hungarian, about fat and cracklings. He disliked the crushed bundlekh (?) served on Thursdays. They discuss how cholent is cooked today, with meat, kugel and eggs.
Talk about gefilte fish and whether it was sweet in the old home, and about eating fish with the hands, like Hasidim. The informant remembers the visit of the Kasheniye (?) rebbe, who came once a year on a Sabbath. There was a large table in the courtyard where the shirayim fish was distributed.
Kerler asks about a Yiddish song in Hungarian about what will be eaten when the Messiah comes, and the informant tries to recall it. They then turn to the comic Purim kiddush, said in non-Jewish language, and to the Hasidim walking in the street. The informant describes a shochet named Kishmiklosh (?) and says the village women all wore sheitels. They discuss beards, the pre-war Jewish men and shaving.
The informant recites and describes the Purim play of Yosef ha-tsadik (selling of Yosef), including the verses beginning with Jacob and his sons. It lasted two hours and his brother, also named Yosef, took the part. It was performed in three villages. He also sings a song in which the Jews pray to be helped.
Kerler says the song is from the Yiddish theater in America and then asks about other Purim plays, such as Esther, Mordechai and Moshe Rabbeinu. The informant does not recall details and says he knows everything. There is an exchange about the story of Yosef and his brothers in Egypt.
Closing arrangements. Kerler proposes sending a kosher parcel from Budapest to the informant's address, and they note the address. The informant mentions a large Sabbath gathering. The last lines are muddled, with an English remark about stopping the recording.