MDV 790 · Klara Meerovna Antsis

The interviewers confer among themselves about which questions from the questionnaire to put to the informant and which to leave out. Kerler then turns to her with a question about where her mother was born.

Antsis says she does not know where her parents were born. Kerler asks her to speak Yiddish, and she says she knows Russian well. She recalls Lyubar and a girlfriend from school who was very poor, with whom she shared her bread and butter; the friend once reproached her for eating the second piece. They spoke Yiddish at school.

Kerler's request that she speak Yiddish and the language of her friends

Antsis answers questions about her schooling: the Yiddish School No. 3 and the name of its director (unclear in the transcript). She studied for seven years, and then at a technical school in Zhytomyr. She recalls how her mother, after the move to Zhytomyr, sold cigarettes (papirosn) at a stall on Malovinska (?) street.

her mother's work selling cigarettes in Zhytomyr

Kerler asks Antsis to describe the town of Lyubar. She names trades such as shoemakers, cobblers, tailors and smiths, and the Yiddish and Ukrainian words for them. She also talks about two wealthy men, one named Katz, who left when the war began, and about the local doctor Refild (?). She remembers the cinema in town and a film about going to Birobidzhan, and the conversation turns to the Yiddish words involved.

the trades, the doctor and the cinema, and word elicitation

Antsis recalls the three synagogues of Lyubar, and a bathhouse with a mikveh. Her mother learned to pray from her own father, and Antsis recalls her reading aloud at Yom Kippur while the women wept around her. She remembers learning the Modeh ani prayer, her mother blessing the Sabbath candles, and being taken to kheyder for a few months at about three or four years old, led by a helper (a belfer). She also remembers her father working and Sabbath observance.

Antsis answers questions about Sabbath food in her parents' home, including kugel with a stuffing (a so-called mamzer), kishke, and fresh carp. She remembers her mother preparing gefilte fish, though she says she herself has not made it for a long time.

Antsis says that relatives of hers are in America and Israel. She mentions a granddaughter with three children who is married to a Russian man. Kerler then says he wants to put some words to her.

Antsis answers Kerler's questions from the Yiddish questionnaire, with some contributions from Katz. Items include the words for Jew, table, bed, mouse, cat, dog, sun, dove, numbers such as ten, and a deaf person, along with phrases such as 'my son', 'all together', 'everything' and 'one and a half'. She remarks that she forgets words, speaks Yiddish with others on Sundays, finds reading Yiddish hard, and has a view on Lithuanian Yiddish. She also comments on being the only Jew in her neighborhood or building.

Antsis answers questions about Passover in Lyubar. She says she does not keep it herself now. She recalls baking matzo, the separate dishes and table for the holiday, matzo meal and kugels, and the large crowd that came to the matzo bakery.