This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Aba Davidovich Kaviner (b. 1921 in Derzhanya, Ukraine). Kaviner recalls seeing the Torah scrolls burned in his town during the war, a traumatic moment for him. He also comments on the fact that all the non-Jews in the town spoke Yiddish.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner recalls the destruction of the synagogue in his town, where Torah scrolls were thrown on a fire and burned, and how he wept as he walked by. He says that nearly every non-Jew in town could speak Yiddish, and tells of a non-Jewish neighbor who saw him crying and spoke to him. He also mentions that the Germans paid well for something.
adds the non-Jewish neighbor who spoke to him and the point about Germans paying
Kaviner discusses the literature he has read in “loshn-koydesh” (biblical Hebrew), including Chaim Nachman Bialik and Shimon Frug.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he read Hebrew (loshn-koydesh) literature, naming Shimon Frug, Bialik and Ravnitski. In exchange with Kerler about Bialik's Yiddish poems, he says Bialik did not write in Yiddish and that Ravnitski translated him, and that the two men emigrated together.
Kaviner further describes the system of learning in his yeshiva, based on “taytsh” (translation) and both individual and collective learning.
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about how study in the yeshiva was organized: reading alone, reading together with the teacher, who explained texts such as Mishnah. Kaviner says he studied alone, though some students studied in twos and threes. Lemster then turns to ask about his work.
adds the exchange about studying alone or in pairs and groups
After the war, Kaviner worked as a wood technician/carpenter.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner has trouble finding the Yiddish term for his profession and says it in Russian; with the interviewers' help it emerges that he made wooden articles, furniture and similar items. He worked at this after the war, from 1948 until 1982. He then comments on reading and writing Yiddish and on needing his glasses.
adds the years of his work and the difficulty finding the Yiddish word
Kaviner reads the research team’s notes on the interview that they keep in Yiddish.
From the machine transcript
Kerler explains that he records notes on the interview in Yiddish, sometimes phonetically, and that he is paid for this. He says there are a few more questions and moves to ask about the Yiddish school Kaviner attended in Drazhnya.
Kaviner further describes the curriculum of the Yiddish school he attended, stating that each subject had its own teacher. He lists the writers he read in school, including the Soviet Yiddish literati later murdered by Stalin. He then recites poetry from Osher Shvartsman, as well as a fragment from Hofshteyn. Kaviner and the research team begin a discussion about Hofshteyn, his influence and his family, as well as the sons and daughters of Soviet Yiddish writers and their activities today. Kaviner often read the poetry of Yoysef Kerler (Professor Kerler’s father) in the journal Sovetish Heymland.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner describes his Yiddish school, where each subject had its own teacher, and names David Reznik as his literature teacher. He lists the Yiddish writers studied, from Mendele, Peretz and Sholem Aleichem to Soviet writers such as Bergelson, Kushnirov(?), Fefer and Kharik, victims of Stalin. He recites a poem by Osher Shvartsman and discusses with the interviewers David Hofshteyn, his family, and other Soviet Yiddish writers' children. Kaviner recalls reading Yoysef Kerler's poems in Sovetish Heymland, and Kerler promises to bring him his father's book.
adds the poem recited, the list of writers and the discussion of Hofshteyn's family
Kaviner subscribed to Sovetish Heymland and knows well the body of Soviet Yiddish literature. Professor Kerler and Dr. Lemster talk about their recent creative work in Yiddish. Kaviner also shares his opinion that he does not hold Arn Vergelis’ work in high regard.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he subscribed to Sovetish Heymland. Kerler and Lemster tell him that Lemster is a Yiddish writer who published there from the 1980s, and Kaviner asks what Lemster wrote. Kaviner says he does not think much of Arn Vergelis, the editor, who died in Moscow, and mentions another writer from the region. Kerler promises to send a book.
adds the interviewers' own work and Kaviner's opinion of Vergelis as editor
Kaviner wrote his own original Yiddish prose and poetry before the war, but burned all his works after the war because “such were the times" and he was afraid of being sent to prison. Before the war, Kaviner had trouble getting his writings published, but points out that Perets could not get his first works published either.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he wrote Yiddish prose and poetry before the war but burned all of it, because of the times and fear of being jailed for owning Yiddish books. He did not write after the war. In reply to Kerler's question about publishing, he notes that Peretz also could not publish at first, and the talk turns to Peretz's early poems and Nakhmen Mayzl.
adds the discussion of Peretz's early poems and Mayzl
Kaviner asks the researchers their opinion about literature, asking if they can compare anyone with Bialik. He shares with the team quotes from Maksim Gorki praising Bialik as a second Pushkin.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner asks the interviewers whom they would set beside Bialik, even among non-Jewish writers. He recounts that Gorky praised Bialik, noting his poor origins and mostly self-taught learning, and called him a second Pushkin, with some phrases quoted in Russian. He also mentions reading Frug's Hanukkah poems in Yiddish.
Kaviner comments on the works of Shimon Frug and says that the stories live within him to this day.
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks Kaviner to tell something about the war years. Only this question falls in the passage.
the transcript has only Lemster's question about the war years, not comments on Frug
Kaviner shares his wartime experiences. After finishing school in Leningrad, he served as an aviation engineer in the army. Over the course of his eight years’ service he received many awards and medals.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he is an aviation engineer who finished the Second Leningrad aviation technical school, and shows his badge and decorations. He served eight years, from 1938 to 1947, and names several orders and medals, partly in Russian. The passage ends with talk about a door and Kerler's father's book, and Lemster begins to ask about Kaviner's father.
adds the years of service and the specific decorations
His father, Duvid (b. 1889), worked as a barrel maker and his mother, Ester, was a housewife. He does not remember his grandparents, but he had two siblings: Milke (b. 1920) and Shmilikl.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner gives family details: his father David was a barrel maker (born 1889(?)), his mother Ester a housewife. He did not meet his grandfathers and remembers only one grandmother, Leye. There were three children: Milke (born 1920), Shmuel (Shmilikl), and himself as the third. He says he hardly worked before the war.
Professor Kerler gives Kaviner a copy of his father’s book. Kaviner reads the poems aloud, commenting on the difference between Soviet and Standard Yiddish orthography. The research team arranges a subscription to the newspaper Forverts for Kaviner, and he talks about the Soviet Yiddish writers now working for the Forverts newspaper. They also talk about non-Jewish writers who knew Yiddish.
From the machine transcript
Kerler gives Kaviner a copy of his father's book; Kaviner reads a poem aloud and comments on Soviet orthography versus the Hebrew-derived spelling of the Forverts. Kerler offers to arrange a Forverts subscription, and Kaviner says papers reach him rarely, once in three months. He mentions Soviet Yiddish writers who later worked for Forverts, among them Khayim Beyder, Yoysef Sandler (?) and Paris Sandler, and non-Jews who knew Yiddish, such as Belousov and Tolstoy.
adds the Forverts subscription arrangement, the poem read aloud and the non-Jewish Yiddish speakers
The research team explains the mission and goals of AHEYM more in depth.
From the machine transcript
Kerler explains that AHEYM is building an archive of such interviews from Ukraine, Romania and Hungary, now many hundreds of hours. Kaviner asks about the project and then about the origin of the surname Kaliner, which Kerler discusses.
adds the discussion of the Kaliner surname
Kaviner recalls how he once met with Soviet Yiddish writer Shmuel Halkin in Moscow in 1948, and how he helped a friend publish his book of poetry.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he once spoke with the Yiddish writer Shmuel Halkin in Moscow, around 1948 or 1949. The meeting came through a historian and Yiddish writer from his area, whose book was never printed, and Kaviner says he helped him. The writer was a history teacher and Kaviner's wife a literature teacher.
adds the historian friend whose book was not printed
Kaviner briefly recounts his lack of marriage ceremony in 1949.
From the machine transcript
Asked about his wedding, Kaviner says he and his wife simply registered, with no ceremony, in 1949; she went to teach at the school and he went to work. He then mentions a book about the Gulag from those years.
Kaviner further talks about literature and his desire for more books, a wish the researchers will fulfill.
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he has few Yiddish books, only some journals, and the interviewers offer to send him some. Kerler explains that AHEYM values dialect speakers who cannot read Yiddish. Talk turns to dialect and word usage: the word for bread, the term litvak for a Belarusian, and the expression tseynem kop for a learned person in Drazhnya. Lemster asks about a joke with a litvak.
adds the dialect discussion of litvak and other words
Kaviner asks if the researchers are religious, stating that he prays, although he is not too religious ("ikh bin oykh nit keyn tsodik, keyn fanatik"). He has held onto some very old sidurim (prayerbooks).
From the machine transcript
Kaviner asks whether the interviewers are religious; Kerler says not very. Kaviner says his father taught him to keep Jewish tradition, that he prays but is neither a saint nor a fanatic, and that he owns very old prayer books. He says he is old and sick and would devour Yiddish books if he had them, and Lemster and Kerler promise to send some.
adds Kaviner's wish for Yiddish books and the interviewers' promise to send them
The tape ends with scenes of Khmel'nyts'kyy from the researchers’ car.
From the machine transcript
The recording ends with the interviewers leaving and talking in the car, with Yiddish and Russian speech about a synagogue and a theater building in Khmel'nyts'kyy. The speech is largely garbled in the transcript.
