MDV 650 · Maria (Makhlye) Leibovna Frayerman

Opening chat about coffee and her sons, one of whom lives in Novohrad-Volynskyi, which many Jews have left. Frayerman then gives her birthplace Berezdov, in Slavuta district, where no Jews remain, and her work as a bookkeeper in the village of Kutki. She gives her Yiddish and Russian names, birth year and maiden name, and she and her son discuss her address in Novohrad-Volynskyi.

Includes talk about emigration of Jews from Novohrad-Volynskyi and a discussion of her street address.

Answers questions about the famine of the early 1930s, saying that hunger was general and that Russia fared a little better than Ukraine. Relatives in Leningrad sent parcels of bread, and each household baked its own bread. She came to Novohrad-Volynskyi at the end of 1933 and has lived there since.

Describes a happy childhood home in Berezdov with her mother, two uncles and a sister (?). Her mother was Khane (name heard as Khaye), and her father Leybke died of typhus around 1919; he worked in forestry, hauling timber for wealthy owners, and her mother worked at home and later as a cook. She names her two brothers, Shaye and Shleyme, who did not return from the war; they served as a pilot and in rocket forces.

Adds her parents' occupations and the fate of the brothers in the war.

Recalls the outbreak of the war, her evacuation, and letters from her brothers, who served as a pilot and in rocket forces. She was the eldest of three children. She worked in Novohrad-Volynskyi from 1933, and a bystander gives the town's alternative name.

Includes a discussion of the town's other name, Zvil, supplied by another person.

Frayerman worked in the bank and transport office in Novohrad-Volynskyi until the war. Her husband Gershon died in February 1943 (?), four months before the younger son was born, and she raised their two sons alone. Both sons became military officers, the elder a lieutenant colonel (?), and her son talks in Russian. She shows photographs of grandchildren and the family.

Adds her work at the bank and her photographs of grandchildren.

Frayerman says she remembers only one thing about her father, who died when she was four: he used to bring sweets from his pocket for the children.

Her mother was a pious woman, often ill, and the rabbi permitted her to eat on Yom Kippur; her kitchen kept meat and milk separate. Her mother headed a committee helping poor families. She tells how she was kept from learning of her mother's death, which she heard of in Novohrad-Volynskyi only after her relatives told her much later.

She went to a teacher at about the age of six and learned to read Hebrew. She remembers nothing of the prayers and says she has not forgotten how to speak Yiddish. She now has no one to speak Yiddish with.

Answers Kerler's questions on her mother's gefilte fish for the Sabbath. She gives the ingredients, in part in Russian, including pepper, salt, garlic and a little sugar. She recalls how her mother taught her to knead bread and bake cakes, cookies and other baked goods.

Discusses her sons' Yiddish: the elder speaks it with a strong accent, like a non-Jew. She says there were non-Jews who spoke Yiddish well and names one, Nikolai, who learned it among Jews.

Asked about non-Jews who became Jews, she knows of none. She says many Jews became Christians, but the 'fifth point' in the passport remained.

She did not light Sabbath candles, since she had no opportunity: she worked on Sabbaths and holidays. She still says that a holiday is a holiday. Her mother baked with matzo meal for Passover, and her grandfather Alter used to say that whatever they are, they are Jews.

Describes her grandfather as very pious and from a family of cantors. He had been to Jerusalem and brought back soil, which people took before they died. She is the only survivor of two families.

Answers Kerler's question about singing: she had no time and had to work. After her mother died she raised her two younger brothers. She recalls that the older, Shleyme (?), studied and later became an officer, and she mentions her children and grandchildren.

Answers questions about Passover: as children they held the seder at their grandfather Alter's table, while her mother celebrated with her own siblings. She tells of stealing the afikoman and getting presents. The grandfather had a matzo machine; his wife is named Sarah. She trained as a bookkeeper in a place whose name is unclear, perhaps Slavuta.

She describes the three synagogues in her town: a large one with a women's section, and two small ones that poorer people attended. She and Kerler discuss when they were closed by the Soviet authorities.

Her son says in Russian that the Novohrad-Volynskyi synagogue stayed open after the war and was closed in about 1952–53. Frayerman recalls it as very beautiful on the street; Jews then prayed in private homes, mostly older people. Komsomol members who prayed were fined at work, and finding a minyan was hard. She ends with Jewish life in the town, with children singing Yiddish songs.

Includes the son's Russian account of the synagogue's closure and the fines on Komsomol members.

Discusses Yiddish performances: children singing Yiddish songs today, and prewar events. She saw a production of Tevye the Dairyman, probably by a Kyiv troupe, and the film later on television. She recalls the town club with a Yiddish drama circle putting on plays in Yiddish and Russian, and the amateurs included tailors and shoemakers.

Adds the club's amateur Yiddish drama circle and the amateurs' trades.

Describes her grandfather as a 'sheyner yid', a pious and observant Jew who would not take money on the Sabbath. She and the other children visited on the Sabbath, where her grandmother gave them treats, and childhood was happy. Kerler asks whether Friday-night songs were sung.