Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2013 Expedition

AHEYM-2013-119 · Baia Mare

Baia Mare (Baia Mare / Siget in the project's index) 2013-05-20 11 min · 3 stretches · 3 questions about words Yiddish 92% Hungarian 8%

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 file from a longer session recorded in Baia Mare / Siget on 20 May 2013; the index names no interviewee. An elderly informant recalls childhood games in a Jewish courtyard, then songs and lullabies, then Hanukkah customs and food, with Kerler asking questions. The file begins and ends mid-conversation.

Stretches

00:01–05:06

The informant recalls childhood in a large courtyard shared by many Jewish families, where the children played noisily on Sabbath afternoons while the adults wanted to sleep. She describes a nut game with buttons thrown at a wall and a heavy ball, and the walnut trees in the yard. She says the children were all equal and got along, and tells of a child hit on the head by a thrown stone who bled and then went back to play. She mentions an uncle who lived nearby and had no children, and a family of seven children.

before the war Childhood Family history Home and housing Sabbath Jewish–non-Jewish relations

05:06–08:09

The informant says in Hungarian, quoted in the multilingual line, that the injured child did not cry and that parents should not interfere in children's quarrels. Kerler and the informant then talk about Yiddish songs, including a song about children and one that Kerler dates to the 1920s–30s. She recalls the lullabies her mother sang her to sleep with and says those songs comfort her.

before the war Songs and music Childhood Family history Stories, humor and sayings

08:09–10:40

The informant recalls her grandmother lighting Hanukkah candles (a count of sixteen (?) is mentioned) and the children receiving Hanukkah money from parents and neighbours until their bar mitzvah. Kerler asks what was eaten at Hanukkah: any food, including meat, and latkes of potato or other kinds. Kerler offers a Hungarian word for fried dough, and she says doughnut-like items (?) are made at the synagogue's Hanukkah event.

before the war Other holidays Food Family history Cultural terminology

Questions about words

09:36
What did people eat at Hanukkah? — Hanukkah foods
09:45
Anything special, latkes, no? — whether latkes were eaten at Hanukkah
10:00
And fonchikes (?) — whether she knows the fried-dough item and its name

Series: 2013 Expedition
Recorded: 2013-05-20, Baia Mare
Kind: conversational · prompts in Yiddish; Hungarian
Transcript: draft class, 1,383 words

Speakers, as the transcript identifies them

INFinformant
Elderly Yiddish speaker, apparently a woman, who grew up in a family with seven children in a courtyard shared with many Jewish families and with an uncle (00:01–00:53). She remembers her mother's lullabies and her grandmother's Hanukkah lights (07:06–08:19).
Dov-Ber Kerlerinterviewer
Asks about holiday games, Hanukkah customs and food, and comments on songs. At 10:05 he supplies a Hungarian word for the fried dough.
UNKother
A short passage (01:33–01:39) is recorded under this label and is probably Kerler or the informant, mid-sentence about the children letting people rest on Sabbath afternoon.

The interviewer's practice

Kerler follows the informant's reminiscences with short prompts and occasional lexical questions about Hanukkah customs and food.

Notes on the transcript

Informant's name and place are not given in this file. The 05:06 line carries Hungarian speech by the informant, reproduced in the multilingual line while the Yiddish line is noise. Some labels (UNK at 01:33) are uncertain.

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