Opens with chat in Russian and Yiddish about a visiting group and a local Jewish community figure. Kerler then asks for personal data: the parents' birth years (the mother born 1901 (?) and the father in the 1890s, with some confusion), the mother as a housewife, and the siblings. Burshtein had an older sister, born 1922 (?), and a younger brother named after the grandfather, who now lives abroad (?). Kerler then moves on to ask about Sobolivka.
Opens with chat about visitors and a community figure, and Kerler's question on Yiddishkayt, before the family questions.
Burshtein discusses his childhood memories of Jewish Sobolivka, including occupational structure. According to him, the non-Jews lived in the countryside around town. Burshtein then speaks about Passover celebrations and describes how he carried the dough for matzo baking. He then addresses prewar religious life during the 1930s. Burshtein specifically talks about secret private services after the synagogue was closed down.
Burshtein describes Sobolivka: about a thousand Jews in the middle with non-Jews in the villages around. He names the Jewish occupations (sugar factory workers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, glaziers, traders) and the women's cooking. He recalls helping to bake matzo at thirteen, carrying the dough to the oven at his grandfather's house. He says young people were discouraged from going to the one synagogue, which was closed in the mid-1930s.
The grandfather's daily prayer and the continued private minyan after the closure are also covered.
Burshtein names his grandfather Mendel, who served eight years in the army under Nicholas, partly in the Caucasus. There he met a fellow townsman, later the local priest, and the two stayed friends all their lives although the grandfather refused non-kosher food. Kerler asks about the grandfather's death before the war (in the 1940s (?)), whether the town had a Jewish bathhouse or monastery, and the Yiddish name for the Christian church.
Adds the grandfather's army service and Kerler's questions on Yiddish terms for church and monastery.
Burshtein speaks about his life before the war. He addresses the synagogue visits with his grandfather on Sabbath. Burshtein explains how his grandfather would pick him up from school every day during Passover, so he would not eat any bread. Burshtein then speaks about prewar Soviet Yiddish life, including his school education.
Burshtein recalls going with his grandfather to the synagogue on Sabbath and staying with him during Passover so that he would eat no bread. Kerler asks about the Yiddish for 'interesting'; Burshtein attended a Yiddish school for four years with a Yiddish club and council whose papers were in Yiddish, though the village council used Ukrainian. He cannot recall the songs or literature from the school.
Adds a Yiddish word question and the school's songs and literature.
Burshtein recalls a Yiddish song about driving to Odesa. He then talks about his childhood years, including friends. Burshtein also speaks about his postwar school education at a Ukrainian night school. He then studied at a technical college in Lviv.
Burshtein recalls a Yiddish song line about travelling to Odesa to an aunt, and with Kerler's prompting tries to sing it. He says people in town spoke Yiddish with friends, Ukrainian mainly with villagers, and he had both Jewish and Christian friends. He studied in Ukrainian before the war and in night school after it while working, received a certificate with distinction, and studied at a technical college in Lviv.
Burshtein speaks about prewar holiday celebration, including Passover, Hanukkah and Yom Kippur. He also shares his recipe for gefilte fish and describes holiday food customs.
Burshtein talks about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at his grandfather's house, and his father not praying. Questions from a second voice and Kerler cover the Passover seder and its foods, gefilte fish and how it was made, and Hanukkah money and food. Also covered are tashlikh on Yom Kippur and the Ninth of Av.
Adds Tisha b'Av and tashlikh, and questions from a second voice.
Burshtein answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Burshtein also talks about food customs on Passover, as well as shares Yiddish proverbs.
Kerler puts questionnaire items for Burshtein to translate from Russian into Yiddish: greetings and times of day, requests and thanks, crying, weather, kinship and everyday words, and late. Burshtein also explains what is baked for Passover, and what a Jewish or non-Jewish head or luck means. The passage ends with some sayings and rhymes.
Includes Passover foods and sayings on luck and a Jewish head.
