Life today

Rezmovits and Kerler discuss other Yiddish speakers he can recommend to the interviewers, including a Russian-born man, a blacksmith from the Carpathians who got extra rations in forced labor, and a man of Polish descent who speaks Yiddish. Rezmovits then mentions meeting Polish Jews and speaking Yiddish with them during his time in Israel.

Rezmovits explains that he returned from Israel in 1953 to support his parents and younger sisters. He describes hard times under Rákosi, being refused a job at a factory because of his Israeli background, and the manual work he did, including carrying bricks. He worked as a technician and studied at night; his wife died after 21 years, leaving him with two sons, both now in Budapest, one a calculator operator and one a lawyer. He has no grandchildren. He names his mother, Tojbe, whose parents came from Máramaros and had a large onion business.

Rezmovit describes the period after his wife's death, when he was left with two sons and learned to cook and look after the house. Kerler then asks about his father before the war. His father was no Hasid, since his own father was a melamed, but he traveled to the Kaliver rebbe, and Rezmovit mentions a song linked to the Kaliver rebbe.

Rezmovits answers questions about Hungarian Yiddish speech, the vowel in 'Eloheinu' as pronounced by Polish and Hungarian Jews, and greetings such as good day and good year. He speaks of reading Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish only after the war, at a seminar, and of reading aloud in the Yiddish club in Budapest. He mentions Jews from Satmar and from the Budapest district where he lives.

Smajovics tells how he met his wife at a wedding in the winter of 1945. He recounts how he found his brother Mordechai in Israel and first visited him in 1982 after forty years. He describes his nervousness on the flight and his nephew who served in the army. His brother's descendants, visits to Israel and the death of his wife are mentioned, and Kerler states the date for the recording.

Smajovics finishes reciting kaddish and talks about his present prayer practice. He attends a Reform-style synagogue (Teleki Jud?) in Budapest, where he says kaddish after each service. He says his own rabbi tried to organize weekday minyanim, and Kerler asks whether a Jew in Tokaj speaks Yiddish and whether he remembers Sabbath songs.

Herbst says he worked at a sawmill and then after the war lay in hospital for several years from 1945 (?). Kerler asks whether he had been to Budapest before the war. Herbst says he knew it only from a picture and had stayed in Berlebash until 1944.

Herbst describes his return in 1945: by lorry from Mauthausen to Melk, then on foot with a horse and wagon in the Russian zone toward Bratislava, then by train to Hungary. The Joint helped him in Budapest, where he went straight to hospital, and he was then sent to Debrecen, where the Joint supported the Jews with clothes and food. He later went back to a Budapest hospital and a sanatorium and began to learn a trade.

The transcript does not show the song itself clearly. Kerler and Herbst talk about finding older Jewish people in Budapest to visit, a kosher kitchen, and an acquaintance Herbst knows. Herbst mentions a prayer book and a brother of someone from Nyíregyháza, and Kerler asks about a song from yeshiva life.

The conversation inside the synagogue continues in a loose, fragmentary way. It touches on the American-funded project and the interviews being made, and on a man who speaks good Yiddish and whose name is given as Palen (?). Contacts, phone numbers and the community are discussed.

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.

Gotlieb tells, partly via Hungarian and S2's summary, about her childhood illness and the healing customs used: coals in water and the amulet. She recalls an operation after eating hot cracklings. The group then discusses distances between towns, a cemetery, and a Hasidic businessman, Berkovits, and his factory moving to Romania. Hasidic life today and the High Holiday prayers are also mentioned.

Blobshteyn talks about his sister's husband, a famous wedding jester (badkhn) from Munkács who worked across America, his sister Feyge (Fayga) in Brooklyn, and her age and return home from the camp. He shows a family photograph with her sons and son-in-law. He tells about his own descendants, including a great-grandson who is seriously ill, and a visit to find a mother's gravestone near Solotvina.

Blobshteyn recalls working as a kosher butcher after the war. A Jewish woman once bought meat that turned out to be treyf, and the episode shows how the sale was handled. He mentions that he went to pray every Sabbath. He then talks about his sister and brother-in-law, who lived in Mukacheve, and of the dwindling number of Jews after the war, and says he is now losing his sight. Kerler adds remarks about a planned visit to see him and about phone calls between them.

Blobshteyn talks about a journal and a newspaper in Mukacheve, saying there was a Yiddish one and that they mostly read Hungarian papers. They also discuss whether any Yiddish periodical appeared after the war. He then describes owning television sets in the 1960s, when he worked in an organization he calls Vinterak (?), and having three rooms. Kerler thanks him at the end of the visit.

Smajovics recalls how a Purim shpil was said when shalakhmones were delivered, performed at homes by children. Older girls dressed up as gypsies and went from house to house collecting money. He then speaks about the Jewish old people's home in Budapest where he sometimes sings Yiddish songs. Kerler asks where he learned his songs, and he says before the war.

Asked about the best time of his life, Smajovics says he became a driver after returning from prison (his own word), then a locksmith and truck driver. After moving to Budapest, he continued working as a pipe fitter with a master after retirement for six and a half years. He speaks about his two daughters, one in Budapest and one in America, and about his son-in-law, a businessman in the U.S. with homes in Queens and Miami.

Herbst talks about arriving in Budapest after the war, feeling ill and looking for a doctor. He was sent to a sanatorium in Debrecen, sleeping in a cellar room with eight men, then to one in Mátra, and finally to a Jewish hospital in Budapest. He says he arrived there with a tallis and tefillin to pray.

Herbst and Kerler discuss a Yiddish song about a burning town, and Herbst tries to show a picture. Herbst then speaks about the postwar years, saying he spent five years in hospital after the war. He thanks the American Jews and the JDC for paying for his upkeep, including a monthly allowance and daily meals.

Reti explains a memorial stone near the Orthodox synagogue and the mikvah, and a larger monument to the Jews of Debrecen in the cemetery. He says Jews come each year from across Europe. Asked about relations between Jews and non-Jews today, he says there are big conflicts. He describes antisemitism in present-day Hungary and the wearing of a right-wing party flag.

Reti says he is crying easily because of illness, and Kerler thanks him warmly as the interview ends.

Reti and Kerler talk about a man named Goronvalgy(?) who recited a whole Purim play in Hungarian, and about a tailor and a baker who were tsadikim. S2 asks about Jewish life today, and Reti says there is kosher food, a shoykhet who comes from Pest and slaughters cattle, and a kosher shop, but no kosher milk. They also discuss a rabbi and a man who would not pray with a minyan, and Reti sings a snatch of a song.

Faiershtein speaks about her husband, a school director for twelve years, and the school's high reputation, with visitors coming from other republics to learn from him. He died in Chișinău and was buried in Edineț; she mentions that her mother's gravestone and others were smashed at the cemetery. She says life was better before.

Faiershtein answers questions about a Yiddish word for "ahead" and a sentence using it, and about the order of words in a sentence. She switches to Russian to say she has had several operations, clinical deaths and strokes, which affect her memory. She offers to read Russian poems, including one about her husband, and Katz blesses her.

Reizman answers questions about Jewish life after the war. The synagogues were wrecked and everything taken out of them, though people might gather privately to pray. A ritual slaughterer came later, but she does not remember who he was or where he came from. Lemster also asks whether she lives alone now.

Goldberg says that after the war she studied for four years in Bălți to become a medical assistant and worked as a nurse for forty-five years in a hospital. She talks about her pension and what she wants her grandchildren to know. Kerler and Lemster talk about her grandson's knowledge of Jewish history, the Rojtman family and Purim plays.

Roif talks about the years after the war, when he ran a kolkhoz for over twenty years. He describes choosing his own specialists, the workers' trust in him, building a processing and drying factory with technology he learned of in Bulgaria, and the profits and orders he received. He also recalls buying timber in Russia, the old Soviet prices, and how hard conditions are for farmers today.

Roif jokes about his own wedding after five years of service in the Black Sea fleet, and says he has been married over fifty years. Kerler then asks about terms like the seven blessings, a Lithuanian Jew, dybbuk, golem, and about Hebrew in Yiddish. Roif talks about the decline of Yiddish among Ukrainian and assimilated Jews, intermarriage, and today's meetings and monuments to those shot. A Russian aside by another person intrudes.

Shpitalnik speaks about the prewar Yiddish Kultur-Lige: its meetings, members who wanted Yiddish at home, Lipe Altman (brother of the writer Moyshe Altman), the librarian Gitl Shvidkaya (?), and literary evenings. She says Rosenthal was a Zionist while the league leaned left, and reflects on peaceful relations among differing camps. She then describes her work as the only librarian handling Yiddish books today and the few remaining readers.

Abelsky speaks about Jewish life in Moldova today: the uncertain number of Jews, people who do not know they are Jewish, and his students and community, with hundreds of families around him. He mentions the Russian-language newspaper he publishes, his three books and others he is preparing, and a kindergarten and a school with a yeshiva.

Abelsky describes the Lubavitch yeshiva in Chișinău, in which Gemara and Hasidic teaching are studied. Students are sent on to Israel or New York, and the teaching is in Hebrew.

Abelsky talks about the situation of Jews today and about his own childhood in Moscow, where the family had to hide its religious observance. He recalls not eating dairy or meat and not building a sukkah in the courtyard. As boys he and his brother wanted to fast, and a Tatar caretaker was kind to them.

Shpitalnik says her father died young in Chișinău. She gives her views on whether Jews will remain in Chișinău, noting that mainly old people are left and some return from abroad. She tells of a young Yiddish singer whose parents opened a restaurant, and describes her monthly Yiddish radio program about Jewish personalities and anniversaries.

Lipovetskiy remarks that today's Jews in the community do not know Yiddish. He describes prewar relations with non-Jews, with Romanians calling Jews by a Romanian word and not allowed into the synagogue. He then speaks of postwar hunger, Stalin's rationing and cards, and the cosmonaut Gagarin.

Asked by Kerler about life for Jews in Chișinău, Abelsky describes hardship: old people with tiny pensions, the young leaving for America, and elderly parents left behind. He criticizes wealthy Jewish businessmen who give little to charity and need to be educated, and talks with Kerler about the role of the Joint and of Jewish aid organizations and the difficulties he meets from the authorities.

Goldman says he still prays and goes to synagogue on Sabbath, but has been ill and not gone for a month. He recalls little of his bar mitzvah or prayers. He says some non-Jews near him spoke Yiddish, as traders buying goods. He recalls Gordonia in Ialoveni, with dancing, and says it had about twenty-five members, boys and girls together. Few made aliyah, perhaps two or three, one named Shaykele Bikhman (?). He cannot recall its leaders.

Benderskaia describes the return to Nisporeni in 1945. They found no house of their own and rented from a Christian, then lived in her aunt's house and in her grandfather's, where floors and fittings had been torn out. Lemster and Kerler ask the Yiddish word for floor. They then say they have one child, who works in Chișinău and is in the mid-fifties (?), and mention their grandchildren.

Manevich says she lived in Tiraspol until 1954, when her husband, a senior engineer or chief specialist, was transferred to Chișinău and the family was given a house. She now lives alone, her husband having died. Her daughter lives in Chișinău and has children, and the grandchildren visit when they have time.

Fershtman describes postwar service: he was called up again and trained at courses in Odesa. He was a tank platoon commander in Florești and then at a tank regiment in Chișinău, and stayed there from 1956. He worked at a factory (instrument-making) until retirement in 1991. He says he has had no one to speak Yiddish with, mentions veteran status, and travel abroad to Finland, Germany and Bulgaria, as the best times of his life.

Rojtman speaks with distress about travelling to Odessa and Russia, saying the city has changed and its market is gone. She talks about fear of travel today and about antisemitism, including the case of an acquaintance, a Russian woman married to a Jew from Donetsk, and a Jewish-looking man from Leningrad. She also mentions a granddaughter's trip from Israel to Petersburg.

Yaruskaya tries to recall Yiddish proverbs and sayings and discusses the wording of one with the interviewers. She repeats the Purim rhyme and mentions songs about cigarette sellers. She names her husband Makhl from Nariv (?) and a saying about people from Nariv. She says she spoke Yiddish with her husband and sons. Her sons live in Israel and America and she did not join them; she has visited America and her relatives there.

Yaruskaya mentions the synagogues in Chișinău today, including a new one. She answers the question of the best time of her life, speaking of her good husband. She counts her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in America, Ukraine and Chișinău.

Yaruskaya says she trained as a motor mechanic and, after the children were small, worked for thirty-six years as a bus conductor. She talks about visiting the cemetery where her mother, husband, sister and father are buried and what she says there. She speaks of her sons and grandchildren, and the son from America who phones and visits.

Shmid says the postwar years were hard after the evacuation, with no house on return, and she cannot recall much about the prewar years. She describes her wedding after the war (?): the chuppah, friends, dancing, kugel and fish, and breaking a plate at the engagement. She speaks of her devout parents, who took the family to the city for the High Holidays, and again of the cantor in the mill, where a room was made into a prayer space. Lemster asks about wedding dances and customs.

Kerler asks Shmid not to touch the microphone, then asks about her work. She finished a vocational school and worked after the war in a factory in Chișinău, perhaps a knitwear factory. Lemster again asks about a word, and she tries once more to recall the Elijah charm and what place the woman was going to, and Kerler suggests the cemetery. She complains of forgetting, praises her son-in-law, and apologises that she has no baking to offer her guests.

Kigel talks about her family today: her sister Shaindl, who has trouble walking, and her brother in Israel, who has had operations. Her second sister lives in Rezina and speaks little Yiddish, and her nephew is Jewish while his mother is Christian. She sings the old-age song again and says her parents sang beautifully, with the neighbors listening.

Sharhorodskij answers Kerler's questions on the number of Jews today in Israel, America and Moldova (a few towns, with only a few thousand left). After the formal introduction he gives personal data: born in Rîbniţa, as were his grandfather, grandmother and father. He names his parents and grandparents, with his maternal grandparents living in Tiraspol. He tells of his brother Shmilik, who died of scarlet fever in 1937, his sister who died in 1958, and his eldest brother Moshe, wounded in the war and dead in 1944.

Kerler thanks Sharhorodskij for his long account, which closes the formal interview. Sharhorodskij says he has told only one percent of what they lived through and speaks of the few Jews left and the lack of Jewish births. Kerler asks whether he remembers a melody of the Rîbniţa rebbe, which he cannot give, and the talk turns to photographs and a portrait of the rebbe.

Kotliar talks about her son, with whom she speaks Yiddish at home, and says there is no one left to speak Yiddish with. Kerler asks about songs, and she recalls that her father, not her mother, sang. They return to the rebbe and his charity, and she speaks about her childhood, being the eldest and always working, her father's work as a driver with horses, and a brother's illness.

Magetman returned from the ghetto with her sister and brother-in-law and lived with them until her marriage in 1953. Her husband helped her because of her injured hands and died in 1990; they had two sons and three grandchildren, and she now lives alone and sometimes comes to the Hesed. She taught chemistry and biology for 38 years in Soroca, and in Floreşti, the Rezina district and other places.

Plotnik tells of the Bershad ghetto: the deaths of the mother and a child, and of Dudele's father. She also tells of a boy Brie, whom she cared for and who was taken in by a woman, and of how she later reunited him with relatives. She speaks of her husband, who died after three years of marriage, and of her son, who studied at an institute in Rostov, married in Russia and moved to Kishinev. She tells of her grandson, who knows five languages, and says she has endured a great deal.

Rolshut speaks of prewar rabbis in Soroca, including Rabbi Kalker, shot in the woods at the war's start at about ninety years old. She learned to write and read Yiddish from an old woman tutor hired by her parents and read Sholem Aleichem, but has largely forgotten it. She spoke Yiddish with her husband and his family, but now speaks Russian with her children and has almost nobody to speak Yiddish with.

Nusbrokh says he is head of the Jewish community; of eighteen members shown in a portrait in the synagogue only two remain. Asked about prewar Jewish organizations, he mentions Zionists and communists, and does not remember any hakhshara (Zionist training) groups.

Nusbrokh describes contemporary prayer in the Soroca synagogue, where he is on the revision commission and says kaddish for his wife, and compares it with earlier times. He says that eighty percent of Zguriţa's population was Jewish, living on all five streets, with the wealthy in the centre.

Nusbrokh and Lemster discuss the synagogue in Soviet times, when people rented an apartment for services, and the Jews of Soroca today, about forty with some children. Nusbrokh also tells of a friend, a Hasid from Zguriţa, who died, and the troubles of his widow over a house.

Milevskaya says her Yiddish is poor and that her sister studied Yiddish in Israel. Kerler and Lemster ask who else speaks Yiddish: Teitel, Dora and Sofia Bengard, with ages of about 75 and 70, and someone in Artsyz who is about 85. She then talks about her husband's military training and tank service, and the interviewers ask about other elderly people.

Grinberg says that she was thirteen during the war. After the war she worked at the State Bank and has two diplomas. She mentions that she is now on a pension.

Kerler asks David for a closing message about remembering the Jews of Botoșani. David speaks of the many intellectual Jews who left for Israel and of those who remain keeping up Jewishness as far as they can. He wishes all Jews health and unity, and Kerler ends with Amen.

Finkel answers questions about schooling in Sulita: there was one Jewish school and the rest were Romanian, and she did not say what was taught in the Jewish school. At home she had a private tutor who came to teach her, but she has forgotten it. She says she helped her parents in the household before the war. She mentions her husband's death and her aching legs, and cannot name a best friend.

Finkel answers questions about the meaning of terms such as dybbuk, which she explains as someone cursed, and goylem, which she explains as crazy. She says briefly that she lived in Botoșani after coming there in the 1950s and worked at home. She also describes a folk cure of dropping coals into water against the evil eye, but cannot recall the words said.

Kerler and Brief discuss the song "Vu iz dos gesele" and its translation, though the singing itself is not clear in the transcript. Brief then turns to politics, talking about Russians still being afraid and about Putin as a former KGB man. Kerler comes back to Shvartskop's songs and the Four Questions.

Burg talks about his recent publications: eight books have already appeared in Germany and a book in Italy, in Florence. He describes the previous day's presentation of two new books in Chernivtsi, attended by local notables, the governor's representatives, the mayor and the Romanian consul general. Speeches were in Ukrainian, Russian, German, Romanian and Yiddish, with Shaye Kleiman a rare Yiddish speaker present. A guest from the Austrian national library's literature archive also visited. Burg was carried down the stairs and was exhausted and ill afterwards.

Burg retells the anecdote he told at the ceremony, about a Jew who found a purse full of money on the Sabbath and prayed. A miracle made it Thursday around him while it remained Sabbath where he stood. He used it to ask the audience to keep the event short. He then tells of a lonely friend who phoned him in December and died within days, and says he cannot sleep or leave the house for three years.

Burg speaks about being forgotten after he is gone. He mentions a series about Joseph and says the new generation will not know about Yosef Burg, though his writing is tied to Bukovina and the Carpathians, and mentions an article about him by Mishe Lev. He complains that he can no longer walk or write. Kerler then asks about the word pares for money. Burg knows it from his father and neighbours in Vizhnitsa (?) and thinks it may be Bessarabian but does not know its origin.

Grunfeld recalls learning a Shavuot poem as a child, then describes Tisha B'Av customs, when worshippers sat on the floor without shoes in the synagogue. He answers a question about a children's custom with a Romanian word. Asked what else he remembers, he says childhood years are the best and speaks of his failing eyesight and difficulty reading prayers.

Grunfeld says he married in 1949 and speaks Romanian with his wife. Answering Lemster, he says there was one synagogue in Zău but many in Cluj, including small prayer houses in each quarter, artisans' synagogues and a workers' synagogue, and he explains the word quarter (kvartir). He says about eighteen thousand Jews lived in Cluj before the war and about two thousand afterwards, and now about two hundred.

Grunfeld says his mother is buried in Cluj and his grandmother in Turda; he visits the grave, says a short Hebrew prayer from a special prayer book and some Psalms, and his sister asks her mother in Yiddish to intercede for them. Lemster then asks about folk customs: the evil eye (ayin hara), pouring coals into water, and a childhood remedy. Grunfeld says Yiddish is hardly spoken in Cluj today, even at the Jewish community, and recalls visiting his sister in Haifa, then Lemster asks for sayings and anecdotes.

He answers questions about gefilte fish and its taste, then calls Cluj a beautiful town where he lives and speaks of a street in town. Kerler asks which words he used for war (milkhome, krig, shlakht), and he explains them.

Kraus speaks about the Jewish community in Cluj today, where non-Jews come to the services, and about the shrinking minyan. He served on the community board for twenty years and organized the storehouse, Sabbath meals and prayers. He explains that many Jewish men married Christian women after the war.

Kraus is asked about Yiddish songs such as 'Papirene kinder'. He says he heard such songs in Cluj in the 1940s after returning from deportation, at the Tarbut school, and forgot them within a year or two. He says he does not like singing or dancing and recalls no Hungarian or Romanian songs. Lemster then asks about weddings: there was no chuppah at his own wedding, which was modern, though a chuppah is arranged today through the community.

Freundlich mentions a rabbi (Schonfeld) who left Cluj in 1958 and how her own family applied to emigrate and was harassed. She talks about her children: a son and a daughter in Canada and Israel, a grandson, and a daughter who is a piano teacher and a leader of the Jewish community. She speaks of her husband's grave, a memorial in Satu Mare for her parents and sister, and her father's saying on keeping a Jewish name.

Kerler asks about the 'brogez' dance and other dances, and Freundlich explains that it is a comic dance done on happy occasions and distinguishes it from the mitzvah dance. She speaks about her grandfathers: one was a regular visitor to the Belz rabbi, and the other gave a Torah scroll. She also describes her daughter's religious teaching of women in English and Hebrew, and a visit to Jerusalem.

Freundlich talks about Jewish studies students at the university today and the languages taught there. She says she went to a Hungarian school and learned Romanian later, when her children began school, and that Hungarian is her better language. She recalls the Hungarian book days in July and the bookshop of her sister, with authors signing autographs.

Kerler asks about women's prayer. Freundlich explains that women read the techines at home and the tsenerene in Yiddish, and that the techines were in Hebrew with translation. She says that women sat in a women's section at the synagogue and listened to the cantor. She then talks, in Hungarian, about a CD of her radio interview in Hungarian.

Kerler concludes the interview with Miller, who is thanked and given good wishes. Miller reflects that it is easier to be Jewish in Israel than elsewhere, since one need not pray to be a Jew there. Kerler thanks everyone and begins to ask about yeshiva study before the war.

Meir answers questions on Yiddish terms: golem, dybbuk, attic, the tile stove ledge, bridge, and words for potatoes, storehouse, tradesmen, a non-Jew and a peasant. Kerler and Lemster also ask about his region and he mentions a doctor from Chișinău. He talks about his wife's illness, her operations and her piety, and says he uses Romanian outside the home and his sons know Yiddish.

Lipovici says he worked with animals and sheep. He now keeps two sheep, though Lemster has heard three, and a lamb is mentioned as something to buy. Lemster asks about the work and its partners. He offers coffee and the interviewers decline.

Lipovici answers questions about his prayer and where he learned to pray, the cheder, and the fact that there are no children to send to cheder now. Kerler says when he himself goes to synagogue, on Purim, the High Holidays and Simchat Torah. Lipovici also gives an answer to the question of the best time in his life, which is hard to follow.

Isidor talks about the present Jewish community of Dorohoi and his work as its head: a cantor brought in, a Torah scroll bought, a club set up for cards and coffee, and difficulties with some congregants. Asked by Kerler, he says he spoke Romanian with his mother more than Yiddish. He mentions non-Jews in nearby towns who spoke Yiddish from working with Jews, and a few women in Dorohoi who still speak good Yiddish.

Hirsch reflects on the future of Jewish life in Romania, in Yiddish with Hungarian asides, then describes Luduș before the war. He lists Jewish shoemakers, tailors and bakers, says there was much poverty and many children, and names a wealthy wine dealer, Heller Moshe, along with Aron Moritz. He speaks of Jewish pubs and drinking at the seder, and of poor Jews in the villages. He also mentions bochers from villages being fed in Jewish homes on assigned days, poor people eating maize porridge, and pellagra.

Hirsch talks about the decline of the Jewish population in Luduș after the war, from several hundred Jews to a couple of hundred around 1960 (?). He says his cousins had left for Israel by 1948, and Kerler asks where he lived in between. The passage ends with Kerler asking about a memory remedy before thanking him for his help.

Chajim speaks about his marriage and family: his wife was born in a year not clear in the transcript, and their daughter is a judge in Iași. She has two engineer sons, one a university lecturer, and neither will marry a non-Jewish woman. He names his son-in-law as Chaim Zeigel (?).

Abramovich says he has children and grandchildren, one a student, who know Hebrew better than Yiddish, and that his wife is also from the town. He has been to Bucharest and Hungary. Kerler and Lemster ask whether his wife and mother blessed the candles and what they said; the exchange is partly garbled, with Shifra and a woman's voice putting in remarks. The group then looks for somewhere to sit.

Chajim sings a short verse about flirting, says he is ninety-nine, a few months short of a hundred, and tries to say the Rabbis' Kaddish at Kerler's request. He has a sister three years younger who lives in Botoșani, nearly blind and trembling, and he is himself half-blind and hard of hearing. He still blows the shofar at synagogue on Yom Kippur. He recites a cheder alphabet rhyme and Kerler asks about modeh ani.

Asked for a Yiddish song, Chajim says he remembers only verses he composed himself, comparing earlier times with the present, as he did earlier. He repeats that he lacks five months to reach a hundred, says he knows no Purim play, and recalls a saying from his father about not taking back what one spits out and keeping silent about what one gives.

Grinberg talks about taking over the community and the synagogue building and having its roof rebuilt. She wants the painted interior renewed by a specialist, but the community lacks money. She describes seeking funds from the prefect, the mayor and the Ministry of Culture, since the synagogue is a protected monument, and the figures run to several hundred million lei. She mentions the days of Gura Humorului, where she brings sugar for the minorities' food gathering, a subscription to a Jewish newspaper, and a seminar in Constanța.

Finkelshteyn speaks about his father's brother in America, who before the war sent money to the family, especially for holidays and for Passover. After the war the uncle sent parcels through the Red Cross and the Joint. He describes arriving home from the camp emaciated and in rags and being infested with lice. He says the Joint now supports the Jewish community and pensioners.

Community members discuss the Jewish studies section at the University of Iași and a professor who works on Jewish culture and knows several languages. They also discuss a larger program planned for several days.

Karuel talks about life after the war as an engineer, saying it was better than before. He mentions the number of synagogues in Iași before and after the war. He answers questions about Jewish jokes and wise sayings, and mentions his own son and his observance.

Resh describes the Jewish community of Iași today. Of tens of thousands of prewar Jews only some hundreds remain, mostly old people, and no child has been born in years. He expects Jewish life to disappear within a few decades. Answering Lemster, he says the synagogue is kept open for memorial prayers, with services three times a week and attendance at holidays and the seder. He also speaks of the two cemeteries of Iași and the thousands buried in them.

Shtaigman describes the Iași Jewish community as well organized, with daily programs and a youth organization headed by his younger daughter. He tells about his wife's family, especially his father-in-law, who ran a kosher restaurant that was nationalized after the war, and about his in-laws' piety and emigration to Israel. His daughters do not speak Yiddish, though they understand it, and Kerler asks the family name (Gelberg?).

Shvartz says Yiddish was spoken mainly at the community and the synagogue. He describes the Iași synagogue, now with few Jews because most left for Israel. He says he goes to synagogue and lives next to it; he worked in a factory with a good income.

Macarie says she cooks Romanian, Hungarian and Jewish food today, buying kosher meat. After the camp she returned home and married; her second husband has died. Her son is a school director with a good wife, and a daughter married a Jew from Johannesburg (?). She had no children with the second husband. Lemster asks about her first Jewish wedding.

Shwartz says the family on his side lived in Hungary and that he hardly knew his grandparents. Kerler then asks about his work today as a kashrut supervisor, and Shwartz begins to say that he checks that no blood remains.

Grinberg talks about present Jewish life in Rădăuți: prayer at the synagogue, a communal seder, Purim and Hanukkah observances, and Jews coming from Bucharest and elsewhere. Before Passover a shochet comes and she arranges kosher meat for Jews in Rădăuți and nearby towns. She says the community is old, with few young people, and mentions a young couple expecting a baby. Lemster asks where she learned her Yiddish.

Grinberg says she was sent to a village near Rădăuți after 1971 and worked there until 1992, going home to her parents on free days. Kerler establishes that she is a mathematician, not a medical doctor. From 1992 she worked in the community. She then speaks of the old Jews she met, who spoke only German, and of an elderly man of 97 who is deaf and blind but remembers the deportation.

Grinberg speaks about her mother's recovery after paralysis and the difficulty of finding a caregiver. The conversation covers local Jews who still speak Yiddish, a recently deceased community doctor, and her use of French. The group then discusses a gravestone made during a man's lifetime, other people of the community, and the many synagogues of prewar Rădăuți. The catalogue's recording of her father praying is not evident in the transcript.

After footage of the synagogue, Grinberg speaks about her recent activities: the city days at Gura Humorului where minorities bring food, and her baking of sugar cookies, then the Jewish periodical and the Romanian readers who buy books from the community. She mentions conferences in Constanța and Suceava, and complains about visiting foreign groups who presented themselves as rabbis.

Lemster asks Grinberg about the cemetery, what Yiddish word is used for it, and what was said at graves. She describes saying Kaddish and praying in one's own language, and the idea that the dead should not be made to run. They discuss the evil eye and remedies such as coals in water. She then speaks about what young people did at night, the absence of drinking among Jews, and how few Jews remain in Fălticeni today.

Cojocaru says she has not been to a Jewish wedding or circumcision since her daughter's wedding and son's brit. She speaks about a relative in Bucharest who died without papers and was buried with vagrants. She says songs and stories are forgotten when no one sings or hears them.

Salamon describes how she lights Sabbath candles today and says only the blessing. She says her mother knew the old prayer and that she herself was not taught, because of the deportation. She explains why Jews left for Israel, recalls her visit there, including Bnei Brak, Jerusalem and Sukkot, and recalls how Sukkot supplies were once sent from Bucharest. Lemster asks about Christians who spoke Yiddish and about Jews who converted.

Salamon discusses who counts as Jewish in the small present-day community, the difficulty of forming a minyan and why Hasidim do not use the synagogue. She recalls the prewar rabbi Dantziger, the small prayer houses with cheder, and the old synagogue with its mikveh, which was demolished after the war. She says the community brought in a cantor for the holidays and her father would finish praying quickly to hear him. She also describes why Jews emigrated and her visit to Canada, where the children knew little Yiddish.

Salamon answers terminology questions about a dybbuk and a golem. She says she cannot read a text for the interviewers because of her eyesight. She says few people come to the synagogue now and mentions Shimon Leichter, who can lead the prayers. Kerler asks her for words of old Yiddish songs and she cannot recall any. She mentions a song about rent money and a salt bath near Sighet, and says her acquaintance in America sends cassettes.

Kurtsberg describes his work as a cinema technician. He began helping a projectionist at sixteen while still at school, and was formally employed from 1953. He still works although retired, because his wife is not yet retired and the Siret cinema would otherwise close. He talks about film damage and operator qualification.

Kurtsberg recalls meeting the rabbi's wife from the Bucharest federation and speaking Yiddish with her. His grandfather disliked Polish Yiddish, while Bessarabian Yiddish was praised. He tells two stories he heard from his grandfather: a rebbe and his wife Sure, who came to serve him food with uncovered hair, and a mother whose son Yosele is drafted and who is told he is still not leaving as the train departs.

Kurtsberg discusses his reading of Yiddish literature, saying he read Sholem Aleichem in Romanian. He describes his monthly visits to the Jewish cemetery to pay the electricity bill, light a memorial candle at his grandfather's grave and sit there. He also talks about the key to the Radauti cemetery and about visitors, rabbis and yeshiva students who come to Siret.

Talks about Suceava as a "crazy" town whose people were always drunk and quarrelsome. He then discusses the current mayor and a teacher, a professor who also served as community president. He also describes a former Securitate officer, a Communist party member who had changed his family name. He begins to speak about his own father, a butcher, and says he does not want some of this recorded.

Answers questions about his children. His son and daughter live in Tel Aviv, and the daughter has no children. His second wife has a son in Suceava, an engineer, who is married and works with his wife. Kerler gives a business card with his email so the grandchildren can be reached.

The camera briefly films the synagogue; Mehler then speaks about contemporary Jewish life, with a place name (Vatra Dornei) heard. The passage is badly garbled and little can be said with confidence.

Outside, Mehler talks about her family, mostly in garbled speech. A grandson is in Australia and she has family in America. She explains in Romanian why she does not move abroad: she does not know the language, has no pension from there, and has her daily occupation. The team then talks in Russian and Yiddish about finding the route to Bercovici's house.

Weinberger says no relatives remain, and that he visited Israel in 1969 for about five weeks (?), at a friend's invitation, and met Stropkov landsleit there. He then speaks about the contemporary Jewish community, including a woman from Breznica in Bratislava who knows Yiddish, an ethnographic project in Bratislava, other survivors of Auschwitz from the Stropkov area, and a book on Stropkov published by a woman in Be'er Sheva. He also mentions the Halberstam family and a Košice rabbi with an ohel in Košice.

Steiner describes the present Košice community: its members and those outside it, Communist-era informers in the community, a plan to liquidate it, and how he met the community on arriving. He describes the prayer house, the club and his teaching, funerals and the burial society, and the economic situation of Slovakia. He lists Jewish communities in the region (Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Nitra, Komárno and others), tells of small towns and cemeteries, and discusses whether anyone still speaks Yiddish, including a Slovak folk story about Finland.