MDV 95 · Lea Gotlieb

Opening chat and preparing the recording: a remark in Hungarian about a professor's earlier visit, then arranging the recording and noting the date and place (Budapest). Kerler remarks that Hungarian is a hard language and asks how she learned it so well.

Gotlieb says Yiddish and Hungarian were spoken in her childhood, with Hungarian at school and Yiddish at home and in the courtyard. Her courtyard had many children, and she mentions a family of twelve of whom three remain. She recalls playing with nuts on Sukkot, then talks about lighting the Hanukkah candles on the eighth day and singing Ma'oz Tsur.

Adds the Hanukkah candle lighting and the Ma'oz Tsur singing today.

Gotlieb names the dreidel as the Hanukkah game of her childhood (in the form 'trendele'). Kerler looks at a booklet about the Yismach Moshe, and Gotlieb mentions her son, who died at forty-eight. The name of her hometown is garbled, and Kerler asks what she remembers of it and its childhood years.

Adds the son who died and the dreidel word; the Ma'oz Tsur singing and photographs are not clearly shown in this passage.

Gotlieb recalls childhood years and a song about her little town (rendered as Belz?). She says she visits the grave of the Yismach Moshe every few months to pray for health. She describes keeping Sabbath with kiddush and havdalah as she learned it from her mother, and says her sisters stayed behind.

Gotlieb talks about living in Budapest and says she lost her husband and her son. She has relatives in Israel, speaks with them by phone a few times a year, and wishes to visit once more, but she and Kerler note the current war there. Kerler then asks when she left her hometown.

The transcript shows nothing clearly about her life during World War II here; it shows her loss of husband and son and today's contact with Israel.

Gotlieb says she came to Budapest to work at eighteen, when young people were taken away for labor; the year is unclear (Kerler says 1934, but 1943 is also heard). She recalls her mother's advice about Sabbath, then says she was one of seven children, a brother and a sister died, and a brother named David studied at a yeshiva in Uzhhorod while the others worked with her father. Kerler asks about her learning to read Hebrew letters.

Adds the siblings' numbers and the brother's yeshiva study in Uzhhorod; the catalogue's three brothers and a sister is not clearly shown.

Gotlieb says her pious mother taught her to pray and to read and write the holy tongue, though she herself was unwilling to learn. She attended a Hungarian school, where some Yiddish was also taught. Her father worked in leather, her mother was named Chaya Sara, and a long stretch about a professor and other people is garbled; Kerler and Gotlieb end by discussing songs she learned.

Adds a garbled stretch about a professor and a discussion of songs.

Gotlieb answers questions about everyday food at home: cholent on Sabbath, potatoes and baked goods in the week, and meat and fish only on Sabbath. She says she made fish herself but not stuffed fish with sugar, as the Polish Jews did. Kerler also asks whether she remembers Hanukkah songs, and she names Ma'oz Tsur.

Kerler asks how the dreidel game was played, and Gotlieb says she now plays it at the club with others. A woman present is mentioned as a teacher of the holy tongue. Gotlieb names her mother Chaya Sara and father Shlomo, then recalls Hasidim visiting town from Brooklyn, London and elsewhere, around the time of a rebbe's death (a year like 1928 is heard). They discuss the Yismach Moshe's grave and a document in Kerler's archive.

Adds the parents' names, a rebbe's death and the Hasidic visitors from abroad.

Gotlieb and others show photographs and a Hanukkah menorah in Israel, including a cousin (sister's child) in Netanya or Tel Aviv. She says she has also been to Israel. Kerler discusses sound quality and a visit two years earlier, then raises Purim and other holidays.

Adds the Netanya cousin and a visit two years earlier; the catalogue mentions only the photos.

Gotlieb recalls Purim in her childhood: children carried food gifts and received money. The Purim play was in Hungarian, performed by boys in costume and makeup, and a Yiddish play was performed at the Polish rebbe's house. She describes the Polish rebbe's dress and says she did not like the Polish Jews' Yiddish, which she found different. She begins to recite a Purim song.

Adds the description of the Polish rebbe and her opinion of Polish Yiddish.

Gotlieb recites and sings a Purim rhyme and says her grandmother taught it to her. She went from house to house at home, received money and baked goods, and recites another Purim rhyme about falling. She says she has no one to speak with now and so does not speak Yiddish well.

Gotlieb answers questions about holiday food: Passover dishes such as potato dishes, matzo-meal dumplings and eggs, and wine, with an expensive wine for some. For Hanukkah they ate soup and meat and latkes made from potatoes, not sweet. For celebrations they ate simple pastries with nuts, poppy seed and apple, and Kerler asks for a song her mother or grandmother sang.

Adds Passover food and drinks and the latke recipe.

Gotlieb recalls a song from childhood and then talks about cantors. She says her father sang in the synagogue and she went with him as a child, and mentions a cantor with a fine voice today in a Budapest street. She mentions her little town and a visit there, then Kerler asks whether the family was Hasidic.

Adds a childhood song and the father's synagogue singing.

Gotlieb says her family was Ashkenazi (not Hasidic) with twelve children, and explains the Yismach Moshe as a Hasidic rabbi who she says waited for the Messiah in a tree. She says her town had three yeshivas and a community, a Jewish population of 3,800 (as heard) among around 14,000, and a beautiful river. She says she went with her father to the Yismach Moshe's grave, and her mother consulted a pious man about kosher questions, but sick people went to the doctor.

Adds a local rabbi consulted on kosher questions and on whom the sick relied.

Gotlieb speaks of praying to the Yismach Moshe and recalls her mother reading the Tsene-rene in Yiddish to the children on Sabbath. Her brother went to Uzhhorod for further yeshiva study, and she has some memories of going there and having a bicycle taken, in parts mixed with Hungarian. She mentions a nephew from Uzhhorod called Weinberger, whom she describes as a Jewish priest (?), and a relative who studied in Prague.

Adds the yeshiva in Uzhhorod and the story of the relative Weinberger and the bicycle.

Gotlieb recalls childhood games in the courtyard, such as jumping over squares, while there were no animals as the courtyard held over forty children. She says she carried a chicken to the ritual slaughterer for the Sabbath, and meat was eaten only on Sabbath. Kerler then asks about the school she mentioned.

Gotlieb says Jewish history was taught at school by a woman teacher, but in Hungarian, not in Yiddish. Her mother taught her to read, and Gotlieb says she was unwilling. She says her father's mother sang with the family on Sabbath and mentions Sabbath songs, and Kerler asks about a song about the Messiah. She says her mother spoke with the Polish rebbe, whose Yiddish she could not follow, and she was angry at him for a remark about her mother.

Adds the Polish rebbe and her anger at him over her mother.

Asked what was done on Sukkot, Gotlieb lists baked goods: kolach, strudel with chocolate, cabbage or poppy seed, and a pastry with jam, some named in Hungarian. Kerler and S2 help with the terms. Gotlieb then says she cannot think what more to say.