Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2013 Expedition

AHEYM-2013-004 · Debrecen

Debrecen (Debretsin in the project's index) 2013-05-15 51 min · 12 stretches · 11 questions about words Yiddish 95%

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

Second of two consecutive camera files from a 2013 session in Debrecen (index date 2013-05-15; no name in the index) with an elderly Yiddish-speaking woman and other people in the room. Kerler questions her about food (bundlekh, cholent, pastries, challah), words and beliefs (dybbuk, golem, evil eye, a good Jew), and relatives in Israel. He then works through a Hungarian-Yiddish song and fragments of the Friday-night kiddush and Hebrew texts, and ends by arranging a return visit.

Stretches

00:00–04:00

Kerler asks about meals and how the informant was received. She tells of bundlekh with greaves or liver, and of what went into the Sabbath cholent (sausage casing, beef). A passage follows about cholent cooked with pork in a restaurant and whether it could taste Jewish.

04:00–08:36

Questions about sweets and baked goods: filled kiflekh and delkerlekh (with cheese), lekakh made with eggs, and kirkhn (?). The discussion then turns to Sabbath bread, barkhes versus challah, and the dough portion taken for challah.

08:11–11:45

Kerler asks about non-Jews who converted and about a visit to Israel. The informant has never been there, though she has relatives there; after the war a relative came from Israel to Debrecen or Ravatsh (?). She talks about a grandson who died in Israel, and Kerler asks what a good Jew and a good place mean.

15:05–20:37

Kerler shows a text to the camera and asks her to read it. A passage follows about being filmed in the synagogue (?), the memorial prayer lists of the dead, a mask from Israel, and the morning prayer. Kerler says he cannot find the full text.

19:54–25:26

Elicitation of food and descriptive words: chocolate, "a nice" person, and shindelish(l) (?), which Kerler analyses as a single word. Then the word retesh/armash retesh (?), which they discuss as a Hungarian or Armenian (?) fruit preparation made from apples (?).

25:02–28:46

Kerler asks about the evil eye, a child being harmed by praise, and an incantation or charm against it (?). Replies about the restaurant and about appearing suspicious are hard to follow.

30:53–32:45

She sings or recites a Hungarian song about messianic peace, Jerusalem, and girls who will not need dowries or make-up. Kerler asks what the words are for, and a remark on grace after meals follows.

Singing Songs and music · Jerusalem

32:40–43:03

Kerler asks for the Friday-night kiddush and its Hebrew text word by word and writes it down. The informant gives pieces, and they work through lines referring to Passover, matzah, maror and a Sabbath-day section, with Kerler repeating them.

42:54–47:50

Fragments about Purim and the messiah's month are discussed, and the informant repeats a Hebrew text with Purim lines which Kerler writes down.

47:50–51:05

Kerler arranges to return in about twelve days, around the 27th, and says he will put the words in order. A remark about visiting honored Jews and a request to use the toilet follow.

Informal

Questions about words

  • 01:12
    Was there a song about bundlekh? Monday bundlekh, Sunday bundlekh? — a song about bundlekh
  • 01:22
    What was put into the cholent? — cholent ingredients
  • 04:09
    What are kiflekh? — meaning of kiflekh
  • 05:27
    What kinds of lekakh were made? — types of lekakh
  • 07:34
    Was challah the name for Sabbath bread, or barkhes? — term for the Sabbath loaf
  • 10:53
    What does a good Jew mean? — meaning of 'a good Jew'
  • 12:51
    What is a dybbuk? — meaning of dybbuk
  • 13:24
    What is a golem? — meaning of golem
  • 22:38
    What does shindelishl mean? — meaning of shindelishl (?)
  • 24:01
    What do you call retesh in Yiddish? — Yiddish name for a fruit preparation (?)
  • 25:02
    Did people believe in the evil eye? — belief and charm against the evil eye