This tape consists of a formal interview with Aba Davidovich Kaviner, born in 1921 in the town of Derazhnya, Ukraine. He received a double education in his youth, graduating from a Soviet Yiddish school, while simultaneously attending a yeshiva. At 19 years of age, he was drafted into the Red Army, a year before the war broke out. With his entire family killed, after the war, Kaviner moved to Khmel'nyts'kyy, where he got married. His wife died four years ago. Kaviner shares his attitudes towards “loshn-koydesh” (the “holy tongue” of scripture) that he learned in yeshiva, in comparison with the “Sephardi dialect” of Modern Israeli Hebrew.
From the machine transcript
After some opening talk about arranging the meeting, Kaviner confirms his birth in Derazhnya, where he finished ten classes of school while studying in a yeshiva in parallel. He was drafted into the army a year before the war, lost his parents and family, and came to Khmel'nyts'kyy, where he married; his wife died four years earlier. The interviewers explain who they are and where they work, and Kaviner comments on his knowledge of Ashkenazi versus Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation and says he knew loshn-koydesh from the yeshiva.
Adds the informal opening exchange about the visit, the interviewers' identities and the discussion of Sephardi versus Ashkenazi Hebrew.
Kaviner describes prewar Derazhnya as a "yidishe shtut” (Jewish town) full of artisans and craftspeople. Kaviner completed a Soviet Yiddish school in 1939 just before it was closed. At the same time, he learned in a yeshiva, stating he had “no childhood” because he spent so much time studying. The yeshiva was an open secret that the authorities “pretended not to know about,” according to Kaviner. Once the yeshiva was closed down in 1934-5, it went underground and continued to function clandestinely until 1939. The director and teachers were able to receive successful employment after the school was closed because they were very intelligent, educated people. There were also semi-secret “kheyder” schools (religious schools for young children) that operated in the town until approximately 1932. After this, melamdim (religious teachers) continued to teach children in private homes. The yeshiva was Hasidic, but associated with no particular rebbe, except the Baal Shem Tov. Kaviner states that the shtetl had about 5000 Jews. He also lists all the significant rebbes that were active in the region.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner describes Derazhnya as a Jewish town of artisans and some merchants, poor but cheerful. He talks about the Yiddish school closed in 1939 and the yeshiva he attended in parallel, which the authorities knew of but tolerated before closing it; its teachers took other jobs, and kheyders went private until the war. He names the head of the yeshiva (David Nissenbaum) and many rebbes of the region (Medzhybizh/Baal Shem Tov circle, Zinkiv, Volodarka(?), Chernobyl, Bratslav), and says about 5,000 Jews lay in the mass graves.
Adds the named yeshiva head David Nissenbaum, the kheyders going private, and the list of rebbes with their lineage.
Kaviner briefly describes the yeshiva curriculum.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner lists what was studied in the yeshiva (Rashi, Gemara, Tanakh, Mishnah, Midrash) in answer to Kerler's questions. He then begins to recall the counting song about the numbers one to five.
He recites the traditional Passover song “Ekhod mi yoydeyo” in loshn-koydesh.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner recites the traditional counting song (Ekhod mi yoydeyo); the transcript for this stretch is almost empty. Kerler then asks how Purim was celebrated.
He describes how Purim was celebrated in his town, emphasizing that it was observed in people’s homes and not in a collective community-wide manner. He also mentions singing, dancing, the wearing of costumes and the sending of “sholekh-hamunes” (traditional Purim gifts).
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says Purim was celebrated at home rather than communally, with costumed visitors, purim-shpil, dancing, singing, and sending shalekh-munes. The visiting masqueraders sang Hasidic and Hebrew songs, which he was too young to remember. Kerler tries to prompt him with known Purim rhymes, and then turns back to the rebbes.
Kaviner comments on the concept of “gite yidn” (righteous Jews), and talks about pilgrimages to various rebbes. He also tells a story about his great-grandfather, the rich merchant Yidl, and his dealings with the town’s dishonest khevre kadisho (burial society).
From the machine transcript
Kaviner explains that people traveled to rebbes and good Jews for blessings, and tells a story about his great-grandfather Yidl, a rich merchant and Zinkiv Hasid, who was made to join the dishonest burial society by the Zinkiv rebbe, who knew from afar what was going on in Derazhnya. When asked, he says he knows many stories of the Baal Shem Tov.
Kaviner shares a detailed story/folktale about the Baal Shem Tov [Besht] and his encounter with a hospitable, impoverished innkeeper.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner tells a long tale of the Baal Shem Tov and an honest innkeeper near Brody who lodged him. The Besht left a note for a Yankl in Brody, the innkeeper forgot it and was later ruined, and found it when asked for his last bottle of vodka. He delivered it to the newly chosen synagogue warden Yankl.
He also tells a short story about the Vildeniker Rebbe and another tale about the Baal Shem Tov, about reviving a girl from the dead.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says the Volodarka(?) rebbe's grave is in a small house that survived the Germans, and people still send notes there. He then starts a tale of the Baal Shem Tov and his coachman Aleksei, in which the Besht has a dead girl buried with a golem to test whether she is revived.
Adds the grave of the Volodarka(?) rebbe in a small house surviving the war.
He tells a longer tale about how the Baal Shem Tov story saved the life of Aleksei Dorbush.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner continues with a long tale of the Baal Shem Tov, who lived as a hermit in the Carpathians healing people and animals. He saved a man frozen in the snow who turned out to be the orphan Aleksei, who had worked for a landowner, burned the estate after the landowner killed the woman he loved, and then became the Besht's coachman. Kerler praises the story and asks about unfamiliar words, and Lemster asks if he knows more such stories.
The tale in fact continues from the previous one and ends with Kerler asking about words in it.
Kaviner details the history of the first writings by and about the Besht and their connection to Nakhmen Bratslaver.
From the machine transcript
Asked for a story of the Bratslaver, Kaviner explains that the Baal Shem Tov wrote no books himself. He says his grandson Moyshe Khayim Efrayim wrote the theory of Hasidism and Nakhmen of Bratslav continued it, discussing the Besht's descendants, with Kerler asking for the title of the book.
Kaviner reports that he knows all these stories from his reading them in Yiddish both before and after the war.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he knows the Baal Shem Tov stories from reading them himself in Yiddish, since there was no one to tell them. After the war he obtained two Yiddish books of Besht tales, and read stories of good Jews in Hebrew in a collection.
Kaviner lost all his childhood friends in the war. In the postwar period, he had a daughter; his grandson now works in Hesed (a Jewish communal organization). His grandson is uncircumcised because there was no one to perform the ritual.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says his yeshiva study partners all perished in the war and he does not know how he survived himself. After the war he had a daughter and now has a grandson who works in Hesed; the grandson was not circumcised because there was no one to do it.
Adds the study partners lost in the war.
During Kaviner’s childhood, even under the Soviets, his town still had circumcisions performed and traditional wedding ceremonies. The last rabbi of the town was Rov Mekhl Rozhanski, who played violin and worked as a moyel (performing circumcisions).
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says that until 1939 weddings under the canopy and circumcisions were still carried out in Derazhnya, even under the Soviets. The last rabbi was Mekhl Rozhanski, who also served as moyel and played the fiddle.
Kaviner talks about prewar Jewish weddings with music by local klezmer musicians and performances by the town’s badkhn (wedding jester) Itsik-Meyer.
From the machine transcript
Answering Lemster and Kerler, Kaviner says local Jewish klezmorim played at weddings, along with a badkhn named Itsik-Meyer who recited rhymes to the bride. He is asked about the badkhn's other livelihood and Kerler asks about wonder-workers in the area.
Kaviner recalls that he had heard of “trefers,” or people who could predict the future, in his childhood, but does not remember them in detail.
From the machine transcript
Asked about people who could foretell the future, Kaviner says he did not know them in detail, though he had heard of such "trefers". Kerler also asks about visiting preachers in Derazhnya, and Lemster begins asking about the golem.
When asked about “goylems” (golems), Kaviner recommends the stories of Yitskhok Bashevis Zinger (Isaac Bshevis Singer) that he read in Yiddish before the war. In the postwar period, Kaviner collected Yiddish books from older Jews.
From the machine transcript
Asked about golems, Kaviner recommends the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer, whom he read in Yiddish before the war, and mentions the Nobel Prize. After the war he borrowed Yiddish books from older Jews. They also discuss dybbuks and Ansky's play, and Lemster asks whether Yiddish theater came to Derazhnya.
Kaviner recalls the local Yiddish theater in Derazhnya, as well as visiting Jewish theater troupes, such as the Hebrew group HaBimah (which performed a Goldfaden piece) and other troupes.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says Derazhnya had its own Yiddish theater and was visited by Yiddish troupes from Odessa, including Habimah(?) with its Goldfaden-type production and other named companies. He emphasizes that Derazhnya was a Jewish town before the war and compares its size with Proskurov, then Kerler asks what else he read.
Kaviner talks about the other Yiddish writers he has read, including Mendele Moykher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, Y. L. Perets and numerous Soviet Yiddish writers. Prewar Derazhnya had a Yiddish library for the town, as well as another, larger collection in the synagogue. These books were burned during the war along with the town’s Torah scrolls.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner lists Yiddish authors he read: Mendele, Sholem Aleichem, Peretz, Hasidic tales, and Soviet writers including Bergelson, Kvitko, Markish, Nute Lurie and Orland. Derazhnya had a Yiddish library and a large one in the synagogue; the books and Torah scrolls were burned, and he says Jews took part in lighting the fire.
Adds the burning of the books and Torah scrolls, with Jews also taking part.
