MDV 590 · Hershel Ylyevich Vider

Vider talks about attending the setting of a new gravestone for a Jew in Berehove, and about the last Yiddish speakers there. Kerler introduces him as born in Mukacheve in 1922. He gives his father's and grandfather's names, with a father from Sighet, and discusses the Vider family name, the town's Jewish population (about sixteen thousand), and a Kleinbart family. He remembers the wedding of the rebbe's daughter and mentions the rebbe's funeral. He describes the town's many synagogues, prayer today in Russian with only a few praying in Hebrew, and bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah customs. He recalls Mukacheve as a 'little Jerusalem' with a multiethnic population where Hungarian was the main language and half of the non-Jews knew Yiddish, plus the Hebrew gymnasium under Dr. Haim Kugel, the orphanage, and the Munkács Hasidic court. He ends with his children (a daughter in Hungary and a son with Canadian citizenship) and a short Yiddish-Russian exchange about a word.

The transcript also shows the Kleinbart family, bar/bat mitzvah customs, charity boxes and the Hasidic court.

Vider shows Kerler books and papers from his collection: a Hungarian chronicle of the Holocaust, a Hungarian Jewish newspaper he had for years, old photographs and postcards, and an old map of the town. He mentions the Safed museum director and a historian, and names the Hebrew gymnasium and a Mukacheve rabbi's wedding, and photos of Hakhshara and of his father. The talk touches on the Czech-era name of the town and the wedding photos of the Munkács rebbe, his daughter and her groom Rabinovitsh. It also includes a mention of the Spinka rebbe.

The transcript also shows an old map of the town, a historian's name, the museum in Safed, and a Hakhshara photograph.

Vider and Kerler look at photographs of Fruma's wedding and of the rebbe, and Vider recalls the wedding in the courtyard, with dancing and Yiddish and Hungarian songs. He sings a song and sits with S3 singing along. He mentions his own wedding canopy and a circumcision he knows of, and says circumcisions are performed in Mukacheve today. He shows a book on the Holocaust in Transcarpathia and other volumes, and is asked about a Yiddish term for a non-Jewish church. After a discussion of food words, including challah and berches, he shows a video of a relative who is a musician.

The transcript also shows a book on Hungarian deportations, a question on a Yiddish word for a church, food terms, and a video of a relative musician.

Vider talks about his great-grandmother Zisl and his grandmother Toybe, whose family names (Vetnshteyn, Berger) he explains; he also mentions his mother Leye and his own Hebrew name. He answers Kerler's questions about 'leshn koyln' (extinguishing coals), a folk remedy against the evil eye that his mother used. He then tells a story of the Munkács rebbe's meeting with the Czech foreign minister Beneš.

The transcript also shows the story of the rebbe's meeting with Beneš.

Vider speaks about his wartime years, saying he spent six and a half years in the Vorkuta gulag, accused of spying (for the English); there he learned Russian. His brothers' fates: one hid in Budapest, and Moyshe served in the Czechoslovak army in France and Africa and later married in England. He then returns to his own family, saying his daughter lives in Hungary and does not speak Yiddish and his son does, and he names his children after relatives. Kerler closes by asking about Purim customs.