Kolomyya(Kolomya in the project's index)2013-05-2211 min · 5 stretchesYiddish 100%
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
A ten-minute camera file from the 2013 Kolomya session, with no interviewee named in the index. It opens with chat about places (Botoșani, Ștefănești (?)), Jewish numbers in Romania and Poland, and synagogues in Budapest. An older man then recalls a Hungarian woman he exchanged money with, sings a song about a Jewish land and a lighter song about a mekhutn and potatoes, and ends with a few remarks on his Romanian youth and antisemitism.
Stretches
00:00–02:36
Kerler asks whether the man ever lived in or visited Botoșani and Ștefănești (?). They discuss Jewish population figures for Romania and Poland. Kerler then describes the many synagogues in Budapest, including the large Reform synagogue, and notes serious antisemitism in Hungary.
The man recalls a trip to Maramureș (?) where he exchanged money with a beautiful Hungarian woman who spoke some Romanian. Kerler, S2 and the man go on to talk about beautiful women in Ukraine and Russia.
The man sings a song about Jews wanting a land of their own and returning to Israel, with a refrain about leaving Poland and Romania. Kerler praises it. The surrounding talk is partly garbled, with a remark about a van.
The man sings a lively song about a mekhutn (in-law) arriving, with potatoes and dancing. S2 mentions a song about Romania and what people eat there, and Kerler asks about it. The man says it was written in America.
The man says he lived in Romania until seventeen or eighteen and studied in a yeshiva. He says Romanians did not like Jews and that killing a Jew was thought acceptable. The remainder, about money, a film and the crowded flats, is largely unclear.