00:00–01:37
Opening greetings and introductions. Kerler states the date, 25 June 2018, and the place, Rybnitsa, and names the interviewee. The interviewers say they will speak a little Yiddish and ask about holidays, Passover first.
Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › Ryb Galperin
AHEYM-2018-053 · Galperin, Yankev
Rîbnița (Ribnitz in the project's index)
2018-06-25
149 min · 26 stretches · 7 questions about words
Yiddish 7% Russian 93%
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
Recording made in Rybnitsa on 25 June 2018 with Galperin, who answers almost entirely in Russian while the interviewers speak a little Yiddish. The first hour covers Passover in Rybnitsa in his childhood, then the Jewish traditions he saw in the family and the town. Much of it is about the pious figure he calls Khaym-Zambl (?), whom his mother visited, and then Yom Kippur, burial customs and his grandfather's death in 1971. Second half of an audio recording with Galperin in Ribnitz (Rybnitsa), 25 June 2018, conducted largely in Russian with scattered Yiddish from Kerler and the women. Galperin talks about the saving of a Hebrew inscription at the old Jewish cemetery, his father's family, the pogrom and wartime evacuation, and the killing sites near Ribnitz. After that come folk beliefs about the evil eye, the Yiddish school and amateur theater, and a discussion of consent forms and photographing. The recording ends with a visit to the courtyard of a former synagogue house and talk about the Soviet-era repression mass graves.
Stretches
01:37–09:18
Galperin recalls Passover matzo baking in Rybnitsa. It took place secretly in a house on Leningradskaya street, in the Russian oven of a man named Shulam (?), for fear of informers. He describes the rolling machine, the dough cut into sheets and put into the oven on a shovel, and his grandfather Khaim doing the work in an apron and white sleeves. He also mentions that matzo was later shipped to Rybnitsa in the 2000s. Several questions are asked about the oven, the shovel and the roles of men and women.
09:14–17:12
Galperin talks about Passover at home: the lamb bought at the market, the lack of special Passover dishes, and his mother kashering by boiling. His father came from a Bessarabian colony and wrote memoirs for the Joint. He recalls the July 1941 pogrom, his grandfather's advice and the family's flight to Uzbekistan. He then discusses cheder-type learning in the Bessarabian villages, the gymnasium in Soroki, his father's sisters, and his father's reluctance to return to the old home.
17:02–25:49
Galperin speaks of fears of the blood libel and arson at Passover, which he says have not disappeared, citing a modern incident with an educated colleague. He tells of treating colleagues to matzo, his father's work as a driver on the cement and metallurgical plant construction, and getting a telephone. He compares Rybnitsa matzo with Kiev matzo, and describes house cleaning, cherry liqueur at Purim, and a Purim song about the bottle.
25:49–33:29
He recalls a relative from Odessa, Khaim Davidovich, an honoured Civil War veteran who attended synagogue, and the listening to the radio. He describes the Hatgadya song at Passover, his grandfather's tears and the condolence broadcast naming the relative a friend of Israel. A package with an etrog arrived in 1975 in Kishinev, and he found a photograph in the party archive. He also speaks of the 1967 flood and moving to a new flat, and when he first saw an etrog.
33:20–48:44
Talk about the lack of a synagogue in Rybnitsa and the prayer houses. Galperin describes visiting as a boy the pious man Khaim-Zambl (?), who lived on Kuibysheva street in a barracks-type house with lamps and notes, with his mother bringing cookies, vodka and money. Memories of his appearance, with a beard and hat, follow, and of the cooperative building on Pobedy avenue. A hasidic man in a coat is recalled, and the book about Freyde Abramovich (?) is discussed. A stretch about a cemetery in America, where Khaim's grave is visited, is also included.
48:49–57:15
Galperin talks about who visited the pious man and why only old people dared. He tells of his father's belief in a force after near-miss accidents, his mother's fear of thunder, and the man's strict habits such as immersion in the Dniester at the new moon. He describes a yeshiva visitor from Israel who wanted to immerse at the same spot.
57:16–1:03:28
The talk turns to Yom Kippur in Rybnitsa. Galperin tells of an old Jewish woman who did not fast, and of observant women gathering in the vineyard arbour of the cooperative. He recalls Simchat Torah, how the holidays were known without calendars, and the month of visiting graves before Rosh Hashanah (a term he gives as kevarim (?)). Cemetery visits on Sabbath are forbidden.
1:03:28–1:13:12
He tells of Israeli visitors from Haifa who wanted to visit the mass graves, and explains cemetery rules, burial on Friday only before about two, and no visits to the cemetery on Sabbath. His grandfather died on 3 May 1971 and the funeral is described, with a closed coffin, a black cover with Hebrew and a Star of David, and washing. He tells of the pious man's non-involvement in burial disputes, a story of an adopted twin boy and the rule that children go to the cemetery only with relatives, ending with the 1963 death of his grandmother when he was five.
1:13:12–1:19:05
Galperin recalls his childhood. Children were not allowed in the cemetery unless accompanied. He remembers his grandmother's funeral in 1963 and the later destruction of the old Jewish cemetery. He and an acquaintance, Grisha Trost(?), hid the Hebrew inscription over the old funeral house and kept it safe. Around 2001–2 it was built into the cemetery wall. He also describes visiting a synagogue in Kishinev to have the text translated.
1:19:09–1:22:15
Galperin speaks about his father's family: a great-grandfather named Rabinovich from a village in the Soroki district(?) who was killed. Kerler asks about the word for 'honest' and the great-grandmother's surname. Galperin recalls his father's last memories of his grandfather praying with tefillin and of the pogrom that separated him from his brother. His father also told him about commerce without contracts.
1:22:13–1:25:33
Galperin describes how his father's generation sealed deals with a handshake and a wish of luck, and how someone who broke his word became socially unacceptable. He tells of fairs, a favorite saying of his father's, and how his father's memory of the pogrom stayed vivid. He reflects that he now resembles his father in how he treats the memory of the Holocaust.
1:25:33–1:31:47
Galperin tells of rescue and killing in wartime: a Jewish family hidden by a woman called Marika in a village near Ribnitz, and Berke Sher's suicide before a mass killing on the tobacco factory territory. A survivor in Kagul, Moldova, was traumatized all her life. Kerler asks about the name of the village, Tapola (?).
1:31:41–1:36:39
The name of Ribnitz in Yiddish is discussed, along with the nearby Jewish colony Yershonovka (?), settlements supported by the Joint, and nicknames for people from neighboring places. Kerler's contribution is on Sholem Aleichem's characters. Galperin recites a Yiddish poem he remembers about a half-broken house with a roof of straw and clay, whose children share crumbs a mouse could not carry away.
1:36:39–1:38:30
Kerler explains the Yiddish thanks formula 'yasher koyekh' and its reply, and the group discusses differences between Lithuanian and local Ribnitz Yiddish pronunciation, with an example about a saying on bitter misfortune and the word for dove.
1:38:30–1:47:38
Galperin recalls the shooting of Jews in a ravine and the pig-farm camp near the station Borshchi (?), the Romanian guards' cruelty, and a woman who survived thanks to a sewn-in coin. He also describes the failed evacuation of 1941 and his father's family's evacuation to Uzbekistan, with the pogrom, the boys' separation from their relatives and a Red Army soldier who ferried them across the river.
1:47:38–1:50:44
Galperin continues the story of his father and brother David during the war: in the North Caucasus they were taken in by local families, then travelled via Krasnovodsk to Turkmenistan. Decades later the Kolumbiy (?) family that had helped them was found again.
1:50:44–1:52:42
Kerler and Galperin discuss what 'a good Jew' means, in the sense of keeping commandments and not harming others, and the wish to be among Jews. Questions follow about graves of holy men and about the synagogue.
1:52:32–1:57:35
Folk beliefs about the evil eye and its cure: the red thread, the word for averting it, and the rhyme sequence. Galperin tells a story about an acquaintance, Yosya (?), and Elik Zinger (?) who cured him. Kerler asks about the term for a possessing spirit and other expressions.
1:57:31–2:05:51
Galperin talks about respect for Yiddish, his mother's schooling in the Jewish school and her reading, and the amateur Yiddish theater in Ribnitz, with its performers, such as the Voronskys and Greenshpun. The school ran roughly from 1924 to 1938–39, and its theater was housed in a former synagogue. A tailor and cobbler took part, one named Shmil Nusn Litvak.
2:05:51–2:07:45
Kerler's colleague asks about a custom when a child's first tooth falls out. Galperin cannot recall the words but remembers it was thrown up to the attic. A children's rhyme and a nursery rhyme about 'mazl' are discussed, and the session is brought to a close for the day.
2:07:44–2:10:22
Discussion with Galperin about consent and filming: what was agreed the previous year, whether forms are to be sent on paper or over the internet, and the fact that he has no internet.
2:10:10–2:16:24
The talk turns to Galperin's childhood in Turkmenistan and the red thread, then moves to the courtyard house in Ribnitz and its former residents, about 50 families, built from 1970. They also speak of the courtyard's role on Yom Kippur and customs such as not counting people. Galperin starts to tell of an old woman found weeping by the roadside who could only say a word that sounded like 'Petrol'.
2:16:26–2:19:11
Galperin tells of a Polish woman who helped a Jewish woman thrown from a Romanian cart, how she was taken to the camp at Kolbasna, and of the mass shooting there of over 3,500 people. A memorial was opened around 2002. Others discuss the prewar Jewish street and Shalom Aleichem street.
2:19:11–2:24:14
A search for the house address of a classmate's relative on Kuybyshev street, and Galperin's memories of the Gringshpun family and the old rabbi-figure who struggled to get a minyan. He recalls the arrest of three Jews and questions of who informed on them, including the bookshop director and a rabbi or shochet.
2:24:07–2:28:54
Galperin explains that he does not want to read archive files that might show Jews to have been responsible for the arrests. He then speaks of the memorial cemetery for Soviet-era repressed people from Moldova and of a Polish woman whose husband is buried there. The visit continues at a house with electric memorial lamps, and the stretch ends with Galperin giving his name and town.
Questions about words
- 05:41What is a 'shiber' (?) and was the shovel special? — a term for the baker's tool (?) and whether the shovel was special
- 1:00:50What was Yom Kippur called in Yiddish? — Yiddish name of Yom Kippur
- 1:02:31What was the visiting of graves called? — name of the custom of cemetery visits before Rosh Hashanah
- 1:16:52How was it said in Yiddish: going to a funeral or a commemoration? — Yiddish term for going to a cemetery/funeral
- 1:20:58What does 'erlekher yid' mean? — meaning of 'honest' / 'erlekh'
- 1:52:32Have you heard of a 'dybbuk'? — a spirit-possession term
- 2:05:51Was there a custom for the first tooth to fall out? — custom for a child's first tooth