Kerler and Hirsch discuss Jewish cemeteries and what they were called in Luduș (beys-oylem, beys-khayim, or euphemisms such as a 'good place'). They also discuss the sharp decline in the town's Jewish population and the Jewish graves left behind. Kerler then asks whether Hirsch remembers any Yiddish songs from Luduș.
The passage deals with the Luduș cemeteries, their Yiddish names and the Jewish population decline, and ends with a question about Yiddish songs.
Hirsch addresses cultural life in prewar Luduș. He recalls performances by Sidi Tal in Luduș in the early 1930. Hirsch describes the wealthy person who financed the shows.
Hirsch recalls that the Yiddish actress Sidi Tal performed twice in Luduș in the early 1930s, when he was about ten. He describes a wealthy Jew, named as Aron Moritz, who owned buildings, a restaurant or café and a theater hall with a stage. Plays were given in Hungarian and Romanian, and Moritz later emigrated to Palestine. Kerler ends by asking about Hirsch's work after the war.
Names the wealthy man as Aron Moritz and mentions the theater hall, the Hungarian and Romanian plays and his emigration.
Kerler asks Hirsch about his work after the war, but the answer is unclear in the transcript, apart from Hungarian remarks about Romanian business. Kerler then asks what he remembers from cheder, prayers and melodies, and Hirsch speaks of a Modzhitz-style melody (?), the cantor and the shoykhet. He says the synagogue stayed open after the war, while Communist Party members opposed it and came to the services at Rosh Hashanah.
The transcript shows only a question about work after the war, with no clear answer; the passage is mainly about prayer, melodies and party opposition to the synagogue.
Hirsch talks about postwar religious life in Dej during the Soviet period. He recalls how party members checked services. According to Hirsch, the Great Synagogue was active until 1990.
Hirsch describes postwar religious life under communism: party members checked the services, and about ten percent of the Jews who were Communists attended on the High Holidays. He says the Great Synagogue was used for prayer until about 1990, and mentions that some Jewish men died every month. Kerler then asks what brought him to Dej after the war and whether Jews returned to Luduș. Hirsch answers that the work brought him, and that few came back to Luduș.
Adds what brought him to Dej (work) and the question of Jews returning to Luduș.
Hirsch talks about the years after the war: Jews returning to Luduș and settling in Turda, Cluj and elsewhere, and the 23 August 1944 armistice. He recalls that many Jews emigrated to Israel and that his parents left in 1960, and talks about Romania being neither communist nor capitalist, with poor people and the postwar growth of industry. Kerler then asks about his family's religiosity, and Hirsch answers that his father was religious but modern, not Hasidic.
Covers returnees, emigration to Israel, the parents' departure and views on postwar and present-day Romania.
Hirsch talks about his family: his religious but modern father studied at a yeshiva in Oradea. Hirsch says he worked as a translator and speaks German, Romanian and Hungarian, and learned French at the lyceum. He explains that his wife's mother tongue is Romanian, with some Hungarian. Much of the passage, partly in Hungarian, is about Hungarian history and language in Transylvania, Cluj and the Hungarian university. It closes with a question about non-Jews in Luduș who spoke Yiddish.
Adds his language skills and work as a translator, and the long discussion of Hungarian and Romanian language and history in Transylvania.
Hirsch speaks about prewar life in Luduș and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He then addresses holiday celebration, including Passover and Yom Kippur, before the war. In particular, Hirsch recalls how he attended services with his father.
Hirsch speaks about prewar Luduș, including non-Jewish workers whose parents spoke Yiddish, and about holidays. He recalls the matzo factory and new clothes at Passover, the closed shops at Yom Kippur, and being taken by his father to the early-morning selihot services. He then discusses the Yiddish word for the Mureș river, the changing of Jewish family names, and a saying about birth and loss. He finally describes the seder, where he asked the four questions, the afikoman, and the Hebrew reading of the Haggadah.
Adds the matzo factory, the river-name question, the name changes and the Haggadah reading in Hebrew.
Hirsch reflects on the future of Jewish life in Romania, in Yiddish with Hungarian asides, then describes Luduș before the war. He lists Jewish shoemakers, tailors and bakers, says there was much poverty and many children, and names a wealthy wine dealer, Heller Moshe, along with Aron Moritz. He speaks of Jewish pubs and drinking at the seder, and of poor Jews in the villages. He also mentions bochers from villages being fed in Jewish homes on assigned days, poor people eating maize porridge, and pellagra.
Adds the wine trade, poor village Jews, the practice of feeding students on assigned days, and pellagra from maize porridge.
Hirsch speaks about his family and folk customs. He then addresses Hanukkah celebrations, as well as Purim celebrations and food customs. Hirsch then talks about Tisha B'Av.
Hirsch describes his family as semi-modern and recalls fears of the evil eye and the custom of quenching coals. He says Passover play-acting of the four questions and card-playing at Hanukkah were not practised, though children played with the dreidel. He explains that on Purim only children took part, with no purim-shpil, and that a honey pastry (called something like kindli, ?) was made. Costumes were not customary because of antisemitism. The passage ends with the beginning of a discussion of Tisha B'Av and what children did.
Adds evil-eye beliefs, the absence of Passover play-acting and card-playing, Purim costumes and antisemitism, and a closing discussion of Tisha B'Av.
