Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2013 Expedition

AHEYM-2013-024 · Oradea

Oradea (Nagyvarad in the project's index) 2013-05-16 7 min · 5 stretches · 2 questions about words Yiddish 79% Hungarian 21%

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

Short camera-track file (about 7 minutes) from the 2013 expedition in Nagyvarad, with an elderly woman and a second person. It opens with a brief exchange about food, then Kerler asks about Purim, and the woman talks about Yom Kippur fasting, her late husband and her grandmother's synagogue. The last minute turns to Hungarian and garbled speech.

Stretches

00:01–00:55

Brief exchange between the woman and a second person, apparently about food and offering something to eat. The transcript is largely unclear.

Informal

00:55–02:21

Kerler asks about Purim. The woman recalls people going around in disguise and the boys in the street. She seems to mention a small cloth she made for herself, but the details are unclear, and Kerler's questions about throwing things at Purim get no clear answer.

before the war Purim Childhood

02:21–03:50

The woman talks about her late husband. In his last years she no longer wanted to fast on Yom Kippur, but he would not let her stop. He fasted himself, did not pray in Yiddish but said a short Hungarian prayer at night, and asked her each evening whether she had prayed.

life today Other holidays Family history Religious life (general)

03:50–06:02

Kerler asks whether she remembers her mother saying the prayer at the end of the Sabbath. The woman describes her grandmother going to the big synagogue, dressed in an apron, and being led home. Her parents attended a Zionist prayer house, and as children they too had to fast on Yom Kippur.

before the war Sabbath Synagogue and prayer Other holidays Family history Childhood

05:44–06:47

The woman switches into Hungarian, apparently on the telephone. The recogniser's Hungarian lines mention visitors from America who keep asking about the Holocaust and her family's past. The Yiddish lines for this stretch are garbled.

Informal life today · America

Questions about words

00:55
Do you remember Purim? What did one do on Purim? — memories of Purim customs
03:50
Do you remember your mother saying the prayer 'God of Abraham' at the end of the Sabbath? — the custom of the end-of-Sabbath prayer

Series: 2013 Expedition
Recorded: 2013-05-16, Oradea
Kind: conversational · prompts in Yiddish
Transcript: draft class, 1,001 words

Speakers, as the transcript identifies them

INFinformant
Elderly woman. Her husband is no longer alive. She recalls her parents attending a Zionist prayer house and her grandmother going to the big synagogue. Near the end she speaks Hungarian, apparently on the telephone, mentioning visitors from America.
S2other
A second person in the room who echoes and adds words in the exchange. Possibly a family member.
KERLERinterviewer
Asks about Purim and the blessing said at the end of the Sabbath.
UNKother
Unassigned voice that interjects briefly.

The interviewer's practice

Kerler prompts with short cultural questions about Purim and the end of the Sabbath and repeats key words to help the speaker recall.

Notes on the transcript

File begins and ends mid-conversation. The index gives no name. The final minute contains the woman's Hungarian speech, likely a telephone call, alongside garbled Yiddish output.

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