The team sets up the interview with Shaia. He then provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with a sister, who lives in Iaşi, and a brother, who lives in Israel. Shaia then talks about his education and provides more information about his family. He attended a Romanian school and recalls how difficult it was for him to speak Romanian at first. His father was tailor. His mother, born in Gertsa, Ukraine, was also a tailor and helped out Shaia's father. Shaia then talks about the fate of his wife's family during World War II.
Setting up the interview, Shaia gives his family name, his Jewish and civil first names, and where he was born. He mentions his sister in Iași and his brother in Israel. Yiddish was the home language, and he found the Romanian school hard at first. His father was a tailor, and his mother, from a place whose name is unclear in the transcript (Hertsa?), helped him as a seamstress. He then describes how his wife's family, from Noua Sulița (?) in Bessarabia, was deported under the Soviets and Romanians and how one child died.
The deportation story concerns his wife's family from Bessarabia and a child who died on the way.
Asked about his childhood, Shaia describes the 1940 pogrom in Dorohoi as he and his brother heard it. Two soldiers, one Jewish and one Christian, were killed. The Jewish soldier was buried in the Jewish cemetery, and soldiers fired on the Jewish funeral procession. He cannot give the exact numbers killed. At the end Lemster asks about school and the year 1941.
Details the soldiers' funeral and the shooting of Jews; year uncertain.
Shaia speaks about attending cheder for several years, learning Hebrew and prayers, and recites the morning prayer. He names his teachers, including Reb Yosele, and says some of the children were from Bessarabia. He says singing was not part of cheder, and the passage ends with a brief exchange about his age.
Shaia talks about his school education and work. He attended a Romanian school until tenth grade and was then trained as hatter. He then talks about his family, particularly his sons.
Shaia says he went to the Romanian school until the tenth class and then learned to make hats, becoming a hat-maker and section head. He worked through the communist period. He has two sons. One lives in Iași and has two daughters. The other lives in Israel and married a Christian doctor, who faced difficulties over recognition of her medical credentials, and both returned to Romania. The passage ends with Lemster's question about the word dybbuk.
Includes his sons' families, the Israeli son's marriage and the daughter-in-law's professional problems.
Shaia answers questions about cultural terminology and dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also addresses prewar Purim celebrations and religious life in Dorohoi.
Shaia answers questions on Yiddish terms: the meaning of the insult dybbuk, golem, and Yiddish equivalents of Romanian words like 'bridge', 'stairs', 'flowers', 'shop', and 'cemetery'. He doesn't remember some Yiddish equivalents. He also answers about songs sung at work, Purim in shul with masks and noisemakers and a Purim song, and about the Stefanesti rebbe. He repeatedly says he spoke only Yiddish at home.
The elicitation items (dybbuk, golem, Romanian-Yiddish word pairs, Purim customs) go beyond the cultural terminology named in the catalogue.
Isidor remembers Shaia's father. Shaia then addresses prewar life and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. In particular, he remembers his father's non-Jewish apprentice.
Isidor remembers Shaia's father, a lock tailor who was very careful with a child, then addresses the non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. The Yiddish-speaking apprentice from a village learned the trade from Shaia's father, married in 1941 (?), was conscripted, and was sent to a disciplinary unit. Lemster and the speaker discuss a Yiddish word of doubtful meaning in the story.
The story of the non-Jewish apprentice who married and was sent to a disciplinary unit.
Lemster thanks Shaia and ends the interview with good wishes. The remaining time is footage of a synagogue and informal chatting, partly in Romanian and Russian. There is talk about a hat, and Isidor invites the team to visit his home.
The team chats with Isidor outside and then walk with him, while he talks about prewar Jewish life in Dorohoi. Isidor also addresses the Dorohoi pogrom in 1940.
Walking outside with the team, Isidor points out the former Jewish streets and says Dorohoi is more truly Jewish than Iași. He names the Jewish owner of the large mill and the former large synagogue and describes the 1940 pogrom, caused by soldiers from Chernivtsi. A Jewish soldier who shielded his officer was honoured, and soldiers were shot for it.
The interview with Isidor continues in his home. He addresses Jewish life in the immediate postwar period. He then talks about the plans regarding a museum about the history of Moldovan Jews.
Isidor tells of Jewish life after the war: after deportation about three thousand Jews remained, many emigrated to Israel in the 1950s–60s, and there were two shuls after the war. He describes a planned museum in the synagogue about the Jews of northern Moldavia, funded by the federation. In the closing minutes he starts to talk about his childhood and the interview proceeds at his home with an offer of cognac.
Gives the scale of postwar emigration and funding of the planned museum.
Isidor gives his name and his Jewish name Toybi. His father Moyshe was a grain merchant from a town whose name is unclear in the transcript (Kiriliv?) and was shot in 1939 (?) or 1944. The transcript is unclear on the date.
The date of the father's death is unclear in the transcript.
Isidor discusses his childhood memories and provides more information about his family. His mother was a 49:09. He grew up as an only child. Isidor then talks about his life after World War II. He studied to become a Romanian teacher.
Isidor says his early childhood years, up to age four, were spent in Transnistria. His mother, Khale, was older than his father and died a natural death. He was an only child and does not remember his grandparents. After the war he was a student and became a Romanian teacher. He had a melamed at home but studied alone, and he now studies Shulkhan Arukh.
Isidor addresses postwar religious life and his religious education at a cheder for three years in the early 1950s in Dorohoi. Isidor also studied with a Hebraica professor. Isidor then explains how the community would gather at his home for religious services.
Isidor recounts postwar religious life in Dorohoi, where lay cantors led the services. Once the cantor fell ill before the High Holidays, he was pressed by his strict mother to lead prayers himself, which was his debut. He studied at a cheder for about three years just after the war, then with a Hebrew professor, and he was elected president of the community. He also explains how local Jewish traders used to gather at his home for religious services.
Includes his debut as cantor, his election as community president, and the traders' gatherings.
