Bukshtein talks about his life during the war, when he was drafted in Siberia in 1942. He stayed in Siberia until 1944. He talks about the letter he wrote to his non-Jewish neighbor in Novoselitsa in order to learn about his family’s fate. Her neighbor informed him about his burned down house. He then exchanged letters with his mother, who returned to Novoselitsa from the Bershad ghetto. During his military service in Siberia, he met his Jewish wife Lucye.
Bukshtein recalls writing home to a non-Jewish neighbor in Novoselitsa after the liberation of the area, and learning that the family's house had burned down. He then received a letter from his sister, who had returned home, and learned that his mother, brother and younger sister had survived, while his father had been killed on deportation. In the army in Siberia he met his Jewish wife Lucye, whose family came from the Poltava region and had lived in Leningrad; he answers Kerler's questions about her.
Gives details of the wife's origins in Leningrad and the Poltava region.
Bukshtein talks about his life after the war. After his military service in 1947, he returned to his wife to Siberia and worked there until 1953. Bukshtein and his wife moved to Ivano Frankivsk, joining his sister and mother. In 1957 his mother and sister left for Poland and due to antisemitism in Poland in 1960, they left for Brazil. Bukshtein exchanged letters with them at the beginning, but he explains how he did not want to endanger his daughter’s studies by publicizing his relatives abroad. He only received a letter from his sister after Perestroika. Bukshtein saw his sister and aunt in Brazil in 1989 for the first time in 32 years. He stayed there for three months. Bukshtein recalls the Yiddish singing with his relatives in Brazil.
Bukshtein describes his return to Siberia after army service in 1947 and his move to Ivano-Frankivs'k in the early 1950s to join his mother and sister. They left for Poland, and he explains that he feared writing to relatives abroad because of his daughter's studies. After perestroika his sister wrote to him, and he visited Brazil via Frankfurt, seeing his sister after 32 years, and an aunt in São Paulo who was over a hundred years old. He recalls Jews gathering to sing Yiddish songs and the relatives' children speaking Yiddish and Portuguese.
Adds the São Paulo setting, the aunt Malke aged over a hundred, and the language of the relatives' children.
Bukshtein sings a Yiddish song about the joy of the Yiddish language, he composed the melody for. He then talks about contemporary Yiddish literature and reads a story by Avrum Karpinovich, published in “Vilne, mayne Vilne” [Vilna, my Vilna].
Bukshtein recites the words of a Yiddish song about Yiddish being spoken everywhere in the world, for which he composed the melody. Kerler asks where the text was published, and they discuss the newspaper. Bukshtein then reads a humorous story by Avrom Karpinovitsh (from his book on Vilna) about a doctor who has a patient complain in Yiddish instead of bad Polish. They talk about who reads Yiddish literature, and about the Hesed newspaper he receives from Kyiv.
Adds that the performance is a recitation of the song text, that the story is read aloud, and the discussion of the Hesed newspaper.
Bukshtein talks about his family. His father was a saddlemaker and born in the Novoselitsa region, living in Lipcani and Edinet. Bukhstein’s paternal aunt immigrated to America in 1937. Bukshtein then discusses his work during and after the war. The director of the tailoring factory ordered Bukshtein to take classes in mechanics. After completing his courses in Moscow, Bukshtein worked in this profession at the main mechanics factory in Siberia. After the war, Bukshtein returned to the tailoring profession and worked as a tailor’s cutter.
Bukshtein gives his parents' names and background: his father, a saddler (harness maker), was born in the 1880s in the Novoselitsa region and lived in Edinet and Lipcani. A paternal aunt left for America in 1937. He tells how, in the war, he was kept out of the army and trained as a mechanic at a clothing factory, with courses in Moscow. After the war he went back to tailoring and became a cutter, and Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for cutter.
Adds the exchange about the Yiddish word for cutter and the name of his grandfather and his own Israel status.
Bukshtein talks about his family. His maternal grandparents raised twelve children. His mother was a tailor and born in Edinet. The majority of his family was murdered during the war. Bukshtein then states how important it is to cultivate the Yiddish language and discusses Yiddish dialects. He continues to share information about his family. He grew up with four siblings. He then talks about his brother’s fate in a Romanian-occupied ghetto during the war, he learned from his mother. In particular, Bukshtein tells a story when his brother looked for food and he fell into icy water.
Bukshtein names his mother Khaye, a tailor from Edinet, and his maternal grandfather, who had twelve children. Most of the family were killed in the war. He discusses how important it is to keep Yiddish alive and compares dialects with Transcarpathian and Lithuanian Yiddish. He names his four siblings and recounts what his mother told him of his brother Shloyme's time in the Bershad ghetto, where the boy's feet froze after he fell through ice while going to get food from a non-Jewish villager. Kerler asks about a Yiddish word for Christmas.
Adds the discussion of Yiddish dialects, a question about the word for Christmas, and the siblings' names.
Bukshtein talks about contemporary Jewish life and food customs, before he discusses childhood memories of Edinet, specifically education. He describes how he went to religious school (cheder) during winter in Edinet and then in Novoselitsa. His family moved to Novoselitsa in 1928, where his grandfather and uncle lived. Bukshtein sings the well-known Yiddish song “Afn Pripetchik,” he calls from his childhood. Bukshtein studied at a Tarbut school for one month. He explains that the school’s director Greenberg encouraged his parents to pay for Bukshtein’s studies, instead of continuing his studies at the Yiddish Tarbut school. His parents could not afford a private school, so Bukshtein attended a Romanian school instead.
Bukshtein speaks about the small Jewish community in Novoselitsa today, then about food (brinza, mamaliga) in a poor family, with a toast and a chat about food at the table. He recalls his first cheder in Edinet at age four, walking through the snow, and then the cheder of Rebbe Mendl after the family moved to Novoselitsa in 1928. He sings a cheder song (Afn pripetshik), attended the Tarbut school for a month until the teacher Grinberg demanded fees, and then went to a Romanian school.
Adds the food chat and toast, the Rebbe Mendl cheder, and the Romanian school's director.
Bukshtein talks about his work as a tailor. He moved to Chernivtsi in 1937 in order to continue his tailor apprenticeship, he started in Novoselitsa. He studied for three years and recalls his foreman singing. Bukshtein then sings a Yiddish-Russian drinking song and talks about contemporary performances.
Bukshtein tells of his tailor's apprenticeship in Novoselitsa with Usher Roytman, who was also a cantor, and his fellow apprentices. In 1937 he moved to Chernivtsi to work for his sister's husband, a ladies' tailor, and learned some German there. He sings a Yiddish-Russian drinking song (the toast 'Lekhaim, mayne yidn') and tells how he set the words to a melody for a Jewish community event led by Meir Markovitsh.
Adds Roytman as a cantor, the fellow apprentices, and the background of how the melody was composed.
Bukshtein states that only Yiddish and Romanian were spoken in Novoselitsa. He recalls the Cuza government in the 1930s and the antisemitic pressure on shopkeepers and customers to speak Romanian, with a joke about a woman buying figs. He then tells about a visit by a cousin from Israel and his wife Mila, a Yiddish speaker from Vashkivtsi, and an anecdote of Mila speaking Yiddish with Hasidim on a plane. He also tells about a Chabad visitor who knew a relative, and about an older sister who went to Palestine after the war.
Adds the cousin's visit from Israel, the plane anecdote and the Chabad encounter; the description turns on the 1930s Romanian government.
