David speaks about contemporary Jewish life. Then the formal interview begins and David provides personal information. He then discusses childhood memories and his education. He attended a Talmud Torah school.
Kerler sets the date and introduces the interview with Iosif David, president of the Botoșani community, who was born in Botoșani in 1935. David recalls his early childhood before the war. He studied in a Talmud Torah, learning to read, Chumash and Hebrew. He cannot remember the name of his rebbe.
Kerler's introduction of David and his birthplace; the first lines are an exchange about an old synagogue.
Fragmentary talk in Yiddish and some Russian while the camera is running. A voice mentions the old great synagogue, and Lemster and Kerler talk with a local speaker about Passover in a village and about remembering things. There is a remark about not walking in front of the camera and a story about Jews and a dance venue. The speech is too garbled to follow in detail.
The team meets Sami Kurtsberg (see MDV 304, 305, 306 in Siret collection) in front of the synagogue.They then go inside in order to set up the interview with him, while he talks about contemporary Jewish life in Siret.
A long talk in Yiddish, apparently with a local man (probably Kurtsberg), about the small Jewish community of Siret. Only a dozen Jews are left, there is no minyan, and the speaker is one of the few who speak Yiddish. He tells of a man whose father died in Bershad and who became a president in Nazareth after the departures for Israel in the late 1940s. He also tells of a boy deported with his grandmother to Ukraine in the Transnistria deportations, and of a Rădăuți widow who married quickly to avoid being taken. Interleaved are chat about a bottle and about smoking.
The catalogue mentions meeting Kurtsberg and setting up; the transcript shows mostly an account of Siret Jews, deportations and emigration, and the speaker's identity is uncertain.
A speaker recalls working in Rădăuți in 1953 with several colleagues, whom he names. Then the speaker asks the visitor whether he is a professor and what he teaches.
A short exchange about the subject taught: history, in Romanian and English, and the American town of Bloomington. A man then says in Russian that he once spoke Russian better than Romanian, and Lemster responds. The footage cut outside mentioned in the catalogue is not apparent from the speech.
A chat about history as a teaching subject and about the speaker's languages.
A chat in Yiddish with an older man, probably Rabbi Kofmansky, who exchanges good wishes with the team and says he is from Chernivtsi. There is talk of payment and of a very old man of 101 who still speaks. The conversation ends with a request to tell the team about the synagogue.
A guide, presumably Rabbi Kofmansky, shows the team the Chernivtsi synagogue and says that Chernivtsi had around eighty synagogues before the war and far fewer afterwards. He points out the painted decoration. It includes the sukkah and the guests (ushpizin) in order, Joseph's dream, Jacob, Abraham, Moses at the Red Sea and David. He explains how worshippers stand facing the elders depicted.
A walk through the painted figures and the ushpizin order, with the prewar number of synagogues.
The team arrives at Iosif Kunovich Burg's apartment and set up the interview with him. The team informally chats with Burg (see MDV 405, 406, 408, 414, 419 in Chernivtsi collection).
The team arrives at Burg's apartment and sets up. There is informal chat about a woman who speaks good but somewhat literary Yiddish and about names. A Russian aside mentions an earlier visit to Shiryov (?) in December. Burg then offers to talk and says he did not need to exert himself the day before.
Burg talks about his work and recent publications in Italy and Germany. He speaks about a contemporary ceremony honoring Burg's work, which took place in Chernivtsi .
Burg talks about his recent publications: eight books have already appeared in Germany and a book in Italy, in Florence. He describes the previous day's presentation of two new books in Chernivtsi, attended by local notables, the governor's representatives, the mayor and the Romanian consul general. Speeches were in Ukrainian, Russian, German, Romanian and Yiddish, with Shaye Kleiman a rare Yiddish speaker present. A guest from the Austrian national library's literature archive also visited. Burg was carried down the stairs and was exhausted and ill afterwards.
The speakers and languages at the ceremony, the guest from the Austrian archive and Burg's exhaustion afterwards.
Burg retells the anecdote he told at the ceremony, about a Jew who found a purse full of money on the Sabbath and prayed. A miracle made it Thursday around him while it remained Sabbath where he stood. He used it to ask the audience to keep the event short. He then tells of a lonely friend who phoned him in December and died within days, and says he cannot sleep or leave the house for three years.
A friend's call and death, and Burg's own frailty.
Burg speaks about his life today: he is very infirm and cannot read even with glasses, which he wore for many years. His wife Nina goes out and the two are alone, and their daughter lives in Germany. Asked about her family name he gives it as Abalensky (?) and the patronymic as Amidovna (?). Kleiman will read to him the booklet Kerler brought, and he has also received a piece about Moshe Hilman (?). He ends with a prayer not to be left helpless in old age.
Nina's maiden name and patronymic as the transcript hears them, and the booklet Kerler brought.
Burg speaks about being forgotten after he is gone. He mentions a series about Joseph and says the new generation will not know about Yosef Burg, though his writing is tied to Bukovina and the Carpathians, and mentions an article about him by Mishe Lev. He complains that he can no longer walk or write. Kerler then asks about the word pares for money. Burg knows it from his father and neighbours in Vizhnitsa (?) and thinks it may be Bessarabian but does not know its origin.
Burg's reflections on his legacy and a question about the word pares, rather than a retelling of the Torah story.
Burg addresses Hasidism. In particular, he describes a charity summer project for children near Vishnitsa, organized by Eliezer Steinberg before the war. Burg recalls stories by Steinberg regarding the camp.
Kerler raises Hasidism, and Burg answers by describing a summer colony for poor children near Vizhnitsa, set up each year before the war by Eliezer Steinberg, where Burg was a boy. He tells Steinberg's legend of the Baal Shem, who came each Friday to a waterfall to bathe, and of the abyss between two mountains that closed up for him; a Ukrainian rider challenged him. He also mentions Dovbush (?), the Carpathian outlaw, and a newspaper article about a meeting.
Details of the Steinberg camp and the Baal Shem legend.
Burg considers the word parshe/parshes, which Kerler asked about. He suggests a link to the Torah portions of the Chumash and perhaps to leaves, but is unsure. He and Kerler then conclude the interview with thanks and farewells.
Camera footage of a village house in Moldova, with a man guiding and commenting mostly in Russian. He shows the bedrooms, carpets and pillows from a dowry, a sofa where Lemster once slept, the kitchen with its stove, the bathroom and the ironing room. The hostess comes in and shows photographs of her late husband and grandson and offers vodka and home-grown tomatoes. The guide jokes that such tomatoes are not found in America, and Kerler and Lemster join the banter.
