MDV 652 · Moisei Zelmanovich Fish

Opening of the interview: setting up seats and camera, then talk about Rivne's former pharmacy and streets. Fish says almost no Jews remain and that perhaps three people still speak Yiddish, one an old woman whose husband was Christian. He says he has no one to speak Yiddish with except the rabbi from Israel, and mentions his wife's death. Kerler asks about names of local Jewish women.

Adds Fish's remark that his wife died, and the discussion of the remaining few Yiddish speakers by name.

Fish shows a 1928 family photograph and identifies his parents, aunts and siblings. His mother was Khaye, daughter of Yoyne(?); the siblings were Etl-Rayzl, Mordkhe-Yoyne, Leye and Mirl. He says the whole family was shot, including relatives in Lublin. His parents came from villages near Rivne; he was born in Rivne in 1922.

Adds the fate of the siblings, shot during the war, and the parents' villages and Fish's birth in 1922.

Fish describes his schooling: private kheyder at the teacher's home until about age seven, then Polish state school with Jewish pupils, and a Hebrew-language Beys HaSeyfer in the afternoons. He explains that each nationality in town had its own schools in its own language.

Adds the street name of the kheyder and the state school's Polish teaching.

Fish says there were no Yiddish-language schools in Rivne, only Hebrew ones. He nevertheless reads Yiddish and spoke it at home, and he mentions a Yiddish newspaper that appeared in the town.

The names of the newspapers are unclear in the transcript.

Fish describes entering a Polish-language gymnasium at age thirteen, where all subjects, including Jewish religion and history, were taught in Polish. He finished in 1939, a few months before the German invasion of Poland.

Fish speaks of the Shomer youth club (Akiba), where members sang, danced and talked in Yiddish, and sings part of the movement's hymn. He briefly mentions Bialik and other writers, but cannot recall names.

Fish says Rivne had forty-four synagogues before the war, three of them on Shkolna street, including the main one. He describes the tailors' synagogue and begins to describe his father's occupation.

Fish explains that his father Shloyme was a builder of houses, with Kerler helping on the Yiddish word. His father built the family house, and Fish went with him to the synagogue on Sabbaths and holidays.

Fish describes the mikve and bathhouse next to the great synagogue, where he went weekly with his father. He adds that the Jewish theater stood near Shkolna street.

Fish says Rivne had two Jewish theaters and a cinema, and that he attended performances in Yiddish. He recalls seeing the film Yidl mitn fidl, owned by a German proprietor. He also says he knew Polish after gymnasium but had no Russian when the Soviets arrived.

Fish tells of learning Russian and passing external exams for the tenth class. He then graduated from a Soviet institute in accounting and worked as a senior bookkeeper, finally chief accountant of a trust of canteens.

The catalogue's initial difficulties with Russian are less clear; the name of the institute is not given.

Fish recalls the engagement and wedding of his brother in the 1930s, with Jewish klezmer in a large house, singing and a master of ceremonies. Lemster asks about a badkhn. At his older sister's wedding a gramophone was used, and he does not remember his other sisters' weddings.

Fish remembers prewar holidays: Passover matzo preparation and the kheyder lessons about Egypt, Rosh Hashanah, Shavuot, Sukkot and Purim. At Purim children from Shomer dressed up and made a bonfire in the forest; Purim plays and seders were done at home. He names Mekl(?) as leader of the Purim group, and says that at times he led prayers when there was no rabbi.

Adds Fish's role as prayer leader and the Purim leader's name.

Fish talks about the synagogue's upper floor and how the congregation shifted to the Hesed. He tells of the rabbi, called Shneur Zalman (?), who took on communal matters, left for Israel and was expected back, leaving Fish to pray alone. Lemster then asks how many Jews were there before the war.

The transcript shows the rabbi and the Hesed, not organizations in general.

Fish gives Rivne's prewar numbers (about 28–30 thousand Jews of 40 thousand) and the latest census (442 self-declared Jews, a few percent Yiddish speakers, most from mixed families). He then narrates the war years: flight on foot to the old Polish border, Korets, Kyiv, Voronezh, Kazakhstan and a Korean kolkhoz. Mobilized in 1942, he fought at Stalingrad, Kursk, Belarus, across the Vistula in Poland and in Berlin, was wounded, and was posted to the Far East; he returned to Rivne in February 1946.

Adds the details of census figures and the route; Kerler's questions about numbers and a food aside.

Fish describes his return to Rivne in February 1946 via Moscow, where he was demobilized. A school friend, Aharon Giber, recommended him to a chief accountant; he worked in canteens and as bookkeeper at the trust until 1982.

Fish says the great synagogue on Shkolna street was open until 1955, when a Ukrainian local paper published an attack on the Jews, after which it was closed. He recalls a shoykhet until the Soviets, no Jewish schools, and that Yiddish and Ukrainian schools were not allowed under Soviet rule.

Fish speaks of prewar Jewish film and sport: he saw the Yiddish film Der dibek, and describes the Jewish sports club Hasmoneans, stadiums, spectators and football matches. He recalls the 1938 Maccabiah, and answers Kerler's questions on football words such as goalkeeper and ball (Yiddish or Polish).

Fish says he learned English in gymnasium but has forgotten most of it with no one to speak to. Kerler asks about sports terms, goal and ball, in Yiddish.

Adds the Yiddish word questions on ball and goal.

Fish says his mother had five children and was a housewife; he compares the roles of girls before and after the war. At Lemster's request he sings a rhyming Yiddish-Hebrew word song and the song Papirosn, which his mother taught him.

Adds the gender-role remarks.