AHEYMאַהייםArchives of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories
Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2013 Expedition

AHEYM-2013-114 · Baia Mare

Baia Mare (Baia Mare / Siget in the project's index) 2013-05-20 11 min · 5 stretches · 6 questions about words Yiddish 90% Hungarian 9%

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

Camera-track file (10:40) from the 2013 Baia Mare / Siget session; the interviewee is not named in the index. An elderly woman is asked about words and sayings, her relatives, songs about the Messiah and wedding songs, her own wedding, the emptying of the town's Jewish community, Purim and the Passover seder, and Sabbath songs (zmires) and Modeh ani. Kerler leads the questions; other people in the room join in.

Stretches

00:00–01:01

Opening exchange. Kerler says the interviewee is the only person they could find in Siget (?). The informant says something partly in Hungarian. Kerler asks whether a word for a not very clever person was used in her home.

Informal Yiddish language and dialect · Siget (?)

01:01–02:53

The informant talks about cousins in Arad (?) and Sakmer (?). One of them visited, wanted to see photographs and took some away. A place name, Yanapol (?), is mentioned, and several short unclear exchanges with other people in the room follow.

Family historyPhotographs and documents · Arad (?), Sakmer (?), Yanapol (?)

02:53–04:24

Kerler and the informant discuss a parting phrase for a good journey and a winter sleigh road. Kerler then asks about a song about the Messiah, and the informant and S3 say there was no Hungarian version. They recall only a Yiddish line about the Messiah coming in a good hour.

Questionnaire Songs and musicYiddish language and dialect

04:24–07:50

Asked about songs sung at weddings, the informant says she married on a Friday and that the Sabbath meal followed, called shimel brakhes (?). She remembers children and grandchildren at weddings, the grandmother singing with them, and a song at the wedding canopy about the bride and groom, mentioning an exchanged bride. S3 speaks in Hungarian about the Jews having left. The informant says the young people left once they had children.

before the war Marriage and weddingsSongs and musicLocal Jewish historyEmigration and relatives abroad

07:50–10:40

Kerler asks what she remembers of Purim, and she recites a Purim rhyme about the women's hardships, which she identifies as the Purim play. Only the boys went around performing it. She then describes her father's Passover seder, where the children hid the afikoman and the finder asked for a gift. She does not remember seder songs but recalls Sabbath zmires sung after the midday meal, and Kerler asks about Modeh ani.

before the war PurimPassoverSabbathSongs and musicChildhood

Questions about words

  • 00:45
    Did people in your home say 'shaynderlishl' (someone not very clever)? — whether a word for a not very clever person was used
  • 04:24
    Were songs sung at weddings, e.g. a song about the groom? — wedding songs
  • 07:50
    What do you remember of Purim? — Purim customs and the Purim play
  • 09:36
    What song was sung at the Passover seder? — seder songs
  • 10:07
    Do you remember any of the zmires, e.g. Yom shabbaton? — Sabbath table songs
  • 10:22
    Do you remember Modeh ani? — the morning prayer