MDV 661 · Tsilya Bentsianovna Kleiner

Kerler is welcomed into Kleiner's apartment and the interviewers settle in. Kerler states the date, 4 May 2003, and that they are at the home of Tsirl and Bentsye (?) in Shepetivka.

Kleiner gives her personal details to Kerler: her official name Tsilya (Yiddish Tsirl), her patronymic, her married surname Kleiner and her maiden name Burshteyn. Kerler asks about the meaning of the name and about her address.

Kleiner says she studied in the Jewish school and finished seven grades, then attended a workers' faculty (rabfak) preparatory to an institute, which she names in garbled form. She completed the rabfak just as the war began.

Kleiner says she was evacuated to Novosibirsk and beyond, to a kolkhoz. She speaks of her aunt Khane, who raised her; two sisters died, leaving three children. Her brother studied at a military school in Barabinsk, and her younger sister finished seven grades when the Jewish school was closed and the upper classes were Ukrainian.

Gives details of siblings and the school's closure.

Kleiner explains that an aunt, who had no children, took her in at age two, and that this happened to other children in town. Her uncle was a tailor. She describes Shepetivka as a Jewish town with many trades, the closing of the cheder in the early 1930s and of the Jewish school later, the six synagogues, and Rabbi Shapiro, who was sent to Novosibirsk after the war; his son Shlomo lives in Baltimore. She also discusses a charitable society for the poor on October Street, the surviving synagogue, a Russian shoemaker's sons who attended the Jewish school, and children's games (forfeits, tag, hide-and-seek, sledding), with Kerler asking about terms.

Adds the poor-relief society, Rabbi Shapiro, the synagogues, children's games and the Russian shoemaker's sons.

Kleiner describes the Jewish school: first lessons in a borrowed room, then the community built a floor and later a second one. The director was Jacobson, and she names teachers including Reizman, Gershman, Milshteyn, Brenner and Fok, and a German-language teacher. She lists the subjects and the language of instruction, the Yiddish literature taught, anti-religious teaching, Pioneer activities, school meals and the neighbour teacher Brenner, who taught her to read Yiddish at four.

Kleiner says that plays were put on at school and that she herself danced and sang in the choir rather than acting.

Kleiner says that prayer in prewar Soviet times was hidden: windows were covered and someone kept watch for the militia. She mentions the ritual slaughterers (Khayim and Nesi), a mohel, and the observance of all holidays and the Sabbath, including the cholent put into the oven on Friday, and Kerler asks about the word for it.

Kleiner remembers that, when she was about five or six, a single radio loudspeaker served the whole town; she cannot give the year.

Concerns the arrival of radio, not electricity as such.

Kleiner describes Friday night and Sabbath at home: blessing the candles, challah, her uncle returning from synagogue and bringing poor men home for the meal. She lists the food, among them gefilte fish, chicken soup with beans, kugel and babke, baked goods, pirogi and Purim-like pastries, with Kerler asking about the difference between kugel and babke.

Kleiner recites the beginning of the morning prayer (Modeh ani) and answers Kerler's questions on holidays: the sukkah on Sukkot, Hanukkah money, dreidel not played at home, latkes, hamentashn on Purim and the sending of Purim gifts.