Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2013 Expedition

AHEYM-2013-147 · Debrecen

Debrecen (Debretsin in the project's index) 2013-05-27 9 min · 5 stretches · 1 questions about words Yiddish 90% Hungarian 10%

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 an interview in Debrecen (Debretsin), 27 May 2013, with an elderly Yiddish-speaking man whose name the index does not give. The conversation moves from the local Lubavitch rabbi and the Friday-night recitation of the Song of Songs, through reading the Torah and the prayer book, to the name of the street and a relative's grandson who studies. It ends with mutual farewell blessings; the file begins and ends mid-conversation.

Stretches

00:00–01:20

The man says he never went to a doctor until he fell ill. Kerler asks about the former Romanian rabbi, and the man says the current Lubavitch rabbi comes from the Land of Israel and studies at the yeshiva in Pest. The man says the rabbi is not very observant, sends others in his place, and knows a little Yiddish and Hungarian.

01:00–03:14

Kerler asks whether the Song of Songs was read at Passover. The man says it is said every Friday night, and the two discuss its opening words and that God's name does not appear in it. They compare it with the Book of Esther and its allegorical reading as God's love for Israel. The man also mentions a passage said when there was no time for the full text (Yedid nefesh (?)).

03:14–04:53

They talk about the prayer book and the Torah, which the man says he cannot read well. Asked whether he reads the Torah in the synagogue, he says yes, but that he cannot sing. Kerler then says he will pass on greetings, and the man tells of someone who promised to send salami and forgot.

04:41–07:56

Kerler asks the name of the street or building, and the man names it (Chemetek (?)). They then talk about a young relative, the man's brother's grandson, who lives nearby, is a pharmacist (?) and studies, possibly at the Debrecen university. The talk is fragmentary and the details are unclear.

07:35–09:01

The man mentions that someone's father is a teacher and asks whether Kerler knows English. The conversation closes with wishes for health, strength and meeting again at joyous occasions.

Informal

Questions about words

  • 04:41
    What is the name of the building here? — name of the street or building