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.
Camera file from the Rybnița (Ribnitz) session with Zbirzher, 26 June 2018, the fifth of seven consecutive files. It opens with the informant, in Russian, presenting and singing songs he composed himself. Kerler then asks about Yiddish songs, weddings, the Rybnița rebbe, the informant's parents and family, and kinship terms. The file ends with the informant singing an Odessa-style song (Rachil') and talking in Russian about his memory.
The informant, speaking mostly Russian, presents songs he composed himself, saying he took only one refrain from others, and sings them. Among them is a humorous song about Jews as businessmen, musicians and singers, 'Eto nash rodnoy yevrey' (the title is asked and given at 03:24). The song also mentions Moses and Newton, and Zhvanetsky as an Odessa humorist. Kerler asks for the title.
After thanks for the song, the informant sings a Yiddish song, 'Bay mir bistu sheyn'. Kerler asks what his grandmother used to sing, and the informant recalls lines of a lullaby-like song with words about Jewish blood and mercy. Kerler recites the lines about rescuing orphans, then asks about the song 'Margaritkelekh', which the informant does not know.
Kerler asks about Jewish weddings in the town. The informant says he attended one with a chuppah in 1946, but has forgotten the customs after seventy years. Kerler's questions about what was done after the chuppah get no answer.
The informant, partly in Russian, tells about the Rybnița rebbe (named Khaym Zalmen(?)). The rebbe was persecuted by the Soviet authorities as a religious man and left for America. He also served as a ritual slaughterer. He was invited to the informant's grandmother's house on Sabbaths, where he told stories and jokes. The informant recalls his own work as a biology and chemistry teacher, required to do antireligious work.
Kerler asks the informant to tell about the rebbe in Yiddish. The informant says he was an honest, pious man who spoke only Yiddish and some Romanian, came from Bessarabia/Moldova, and arrived in Rybnița during the war. He recounts a story of soldiers leading people to be shot, with the rebbe making them stand frozen like stone. Kerler asks about his sleeping little and praying many hours, and about his modest home with a small table, benches and a Torah scroll.
Kerler asks whether the rebbe had a minyan and whether people prayed with him on Sabbath. The informant says Rybnița had many Jews, with about thirty thousand inhabitants of whom fifteen thousand(?) were Jews, a Jewish shtetl. Asked how many remain, he refers Kerler to the Hesed. Kerler then asks about the custom of kapores.
Kerler asks about morning prayers such as Modeh ani. The informant, in Russian, says he never prayed, his parents did not know how, but his grandparents did. The talk turns to his father-in-law, but his answers are hard to follow.
Kerler asks about the informant's parents. His father Itsik was born in 1912(?) and was a coachman with horses (balagole). His mother was Khaye (Khayke), whose maiden name is unclear in the transcript (Aksenrad(?)). The informant was an only child. A sister who died aged one (of hunger?) is mentioned, as is his maternal grandfather Mordkhe (Aksel'rod(?)), whom he remembered from age eight, and aunts. Kerler asks about an older sister who married.
Kerler tests kinship terms and expressions: the word for a sister's child and the phrase 'a good brother'. The informant says he knows some Yiddish words and does not understand others. Kerler explains the phrase means a good friend, as opposed to a blood brother.
The informant sings the humorous Odessa-style song about Rachil' (Rakhilya), in Russian with Yiddish verses. Afterwards he speaks in Russian about training his memory by composing and singing. He tells of a payment visit at the society and of a woman from the Kishinev 'Joint' (?) who asked him about his family and was shown his song notebooks. He says his daughter lives in Germany. Kerler tries to steer back to Yiddish storytelling.