Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2013 Expedition

AHEYM-2013-144 · Debrecen

Debrecen (Debretsin in the project's index) 2013-05-27 11 min · 5 stretches · 2 questions about words Yiddish 98%

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 of a 2013 session in Debretsin: an elderly man answers Kerler's questions about Purim and Sabbath customs of his youth. It opens mid-conversation with an informant reciting or singing the Joseph play (a Purim play), then covers Sabbath-meal songs and food, Purim songs and plays, small coins, a Purim play at the yeshiva, weather, and the postwar years, which the informant calls very hard.

Stretches

00:00–02:54

The informant recites or sings a text about Joseph and the angel, apparently from the Joseph (Purim) play, with Kerler repeating and checking lines. They work out lines about risking his life for his father's honor.

Recitation Purim Theater Songs and music

02:23–04:47

Kerler asks what was sung at the third Sabbath meal (zmires, seudah shlishit), and the informant sings or names a song. They then discuss cholent and what went into it, including a mention of corn, which Kerler says is not what 'korn' means in Yiddish. The informant also mentions drinking.

before the war Sabbath Songs and music Food Cultural terminology

04:37–07:53

Kerler asks about Purim songs and the short rhymes boys sang going from house to house. The informant says children went to every house with a piece of a Purim play to earn a little money. They discuss the smallest coin and what was given for a play, and the Joseph play as a long play performed in a hall or in village and small town alike.

before the war Purim Theater Songs and music Poverty and economic conditions Cultural terminology · Moldova (?)

07:44–09:30

The informant says the yeshiva students put on short Purim plays and went round the houses, receiving money and drink. Kerler cites a rhyme asking for a glass of wine. A short exchange on good and bad times follows.

before the war Purim Religious education Theater Food · Nirmde (?)

09:22–10:40

They discuss the strange weather, with heat and rain, and Kerler suggests it may be a sign that the Messiah is coming soon. Kerler then asks what life was like after the war; the informant answers briefly that it was very hard.

life todayafter the war Liberation and return Jewish identity and attitudes

Questions about words

05:49
What was the smallest coin you had? How do you say 'coin'? — the smallest coin and the word for it
06:28
And before the war, what were the coins? — prewar currency

Series: 2013 Expedition
Recorded: 2013-05-27, Debrecen
Kind: conversational · prompts in Yiddish
Transcript: draft class, 1,146 words

Speakers, as the transcript identifies them

Dov-Ber Kerlerinterviewer
Leads the questions and supplies prompts and sung lines.
INFinformant
Elderly man who recalls Purim plays and songs. He studied at a yeshiva in a place Kerler gives as 'Nirmde (?)' (07:44), and speaks of the postwar years.
UNKother
A single word from an unassigned voice.

The interviewer's practice

Kerler asks about Purim customs, often supplying rhymes and leading prompts; a few questions about the names of coins.

Notes on the transcript

File begins and ends mid-session. The informant's speech is brief and heavily garbled in places, so details of the Joseph text and Sabbath songs are uncertain.

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