Purim

Kerler meets Shloyme Levkovich, who comes from a village near Debrecen. They talk about whether he speaks Yiddish and about Hungarian being a hard language. Kerler explains that Levkovich is nicknamed Tsures-bachi because he is always complaining, and that he is the best Debrecen speaker he has met. Levkovich says Purim was celebrated with baking and recalls a bit of the Purim play. Kerler then talks with a colleague, partly in English, about the meeting and his age, and they leave to see the synagogue, where they see Yiddish-speaking children with sidelocks from Vienna.

Answering Kerler's questions, Gotlieb lists Jewish trades in town, including baker, shoemaker and carpenter. She discusses the words for the Sabbath bread (barkhes, challah, kalach) and for potatoes. She says there was no regular theatre, only children's plays at school and at Purim.

Kerler asks Deutsch whether he remembers more of a Purim play. Deutsch answers that it was in Hungarian and that nothing of it was written down. Kerler then asks for prayer, and Deutsch chants Hebrew liturgical texts from memory, among them what appear to be Hallel verses (?). Kerler praises the chanting and asks for a little more.

Reti sings a Hungarian song about the coming of the messiah, and Kerler asks him to sing it again. Kerler then asks about Purim play-acting and holiday games. Reti says the play-acting was only for Purim and he does not remember any at Hanukkah. He describes a Sukkot nut game and the card games played at Hanukkah, with the children's game using a dreidel (?) and the grown-ups' cards called by a local word. Kerler also asks how a winning turn of the dreidel is named.

Samadi chants Sabbath songs, and mentions Purim songs, sung in the Hebrew of the Sabbath table songs. The words are mostly garbled.

Samadi starts a Hungarian song, and then several people sing a Yiddish song about not wanting to be a yeshiva student any more. Gurshteyn chants Shoshanat Yaakov at length. Samadi then sings a humorous Yiddish song about a woman out with a veil in a Budapest newspaper story, which he learned from his father. Kerler asks whether it was a theater song and whether his mother sang too.

Gurshteyn chants a second version of Shir haMa'alot, which he learned in cheder from a rabbi in a place whose name is unclear (Hoydl?). Samadi recalls his mother's uncle, who sang on Purim and loved singing a nigun. Kerler then asks about Kaliver Hasidic songs.

Galambos says he still makes his mother's dishes, such as gefilte fish and cholent. Kerler asks about Sabbath loaves, dumplings and the terms for them, and Galambos says he still has matzo meal. They discuss whether Jews drank palinka and whether it had to be kosher. They also cover wine, drinking on Passover and Purim, and toasts at kiddush in the synagogue. The recording has English and Russian fragments from others in the room.

Galambos recalls the Yosef play, performed by Jewish children in Vaja before the war and lasting two hours. He says it was performed only on Purim, quotes a few lines from it, and says it is no longer performed. Kerler asks whether his mother or father sang; Galambos says no.

Bukshpun answers questions on Sabbath preparation, saying his mother cooked on Friday and a Christian came to light the candles. Kerler asks about the term for a Shabbes goy, which Bukshpun does not know. He recalls Sabbath food, gefilte fish, the shoykhet in Kurzhevits (?), Jewish tailors, Passover matzo, Sukkot, Purim and fasting. His uncle's tailor shop and its sewing machines are mentioned. He notes the Yiddish was spoken at home and he now has little chance to speak it.

Reizman says she attended Romanian school, not a Soviet one, and started work afterwards, as did all her siblings. She says she lights Sabbath candles only sometimes now and cannot recall Yiddish songs. She says women did not go to the synagogue regularly, then names Jewish dishes such as borscht, varenikes and krepelekh, and describes a meat dish. Lemster asks about kapores before Yom Kippur, the shoykhet, and cheder. She says the family could not afford religious schooling for the younger girls. She also covers Hanukkah money and latkes, and Passover customs including burning the chametz and the dishes kept in the attic, then Purim dishes.

Reizman says she married in Tighina under a chuppah, and her husband was a painter. She describes the wedding food, the match and the way she met him. Lemster then asks about dishes: sweets, flodn at Purim, chopped and gefilte fish, matzo dishes for Passover, kishke, stuffed stomach, stuffed ducks and bread. She says her mother baked at home, with a cholent of beans, while they bought white bread.

Furman talks about prewar synagogues in Bălți and holiday food: Passover honey cake, Hanukkah latkes, Purim pastries and Shavuot dairy. Lemster asks about Purim plays and a travelling Yiddish theater company from Chișinău. He says the sukkah was built in the hallway of the house, and he also answers about Tisha b'Av and gefilte fish.

Furman talks about fattened poultry, holiday dishes, Shavuot food, Purim gift-sending and meat cutlets. She says few non-Jews spoke Yiddish. She describes the colony's farmers working the land, and the crops grown. She names the village rabbi Chaim (surname given as Feinzilber, then Zilberman) and the shoykhet Hershl, neither of whom returned from the war. She and her husband are asked about chalutsim and about collecting money for Palestine. She also talks about the cemetery in Capresti, where her father and grandfathers are buried.

Goldberg answers questions on how her mother prepared gefilte fish, which was salted rather than sweet, and on how she makes it herself, with pepper. They then discuss baked goods, such as Purim shalakhmones sent as gifts and what was put in the pastries.

Roif says he no longer remembers the blessings he once learned, and Kerler asks about prayers. He then answers questions about prewar Purim, with baking, visiting and going to synagogue, and says holidays were kept before and after the war. He remembers Purim plays and house-to-house performances that lasted until the war.

Zelda speaks about her family: a cousin or sister and her relatives who died in the camp, Feyge and Beyle, and Israel, who lived in Edineț and was in a different camp. Lemster and Zelda sort out Feyge's family, who lived in Beltsy, and how one of them died in an accident. Kerler asks about Purim plays, and Lemster asks whether she knows camp songs; she says she has not retained them.

Asked about holidays before the war, Shmid recalls a cantor coming for Rosh Hashanah and a rented house used for prayer, as the village had few Jews. She describes Sabbath challah and fish her mother cooked, and the Yom Kippur fast and the meal that broke it. She adds brief memories of Sukkot with a sukkah of straw, Hanukkah money and dreidel, Purim, Passover matzo and Shavuot cheese pastries.

Tkach describes how her family kept the holidays, including Passover with matzo and Purim with sweets. Her mother did not work and had a beautiful soprano voice. Her father worked hard and played several instruments, and was at the front during the war.

Lipovetskiy lists the Jewish holidays and answers questions on food customs, such as dairy dishes on Shavuot and cheese pastries and blintzes, and on the Purim headgear, gifts and shalakhmones.

Lipovetskiy describes a head covering of the kind a woman wears, in connection with a religious obligation. He explains the number of Hanukkah candles and the money children received from parents and friends. He recalls the metal dreidel and a Yiddish theatre troupe, including an actress named Sidi Tal from Bessarabia who later lived in Chernivtsi, in answer to Kerler's questions about Purim performances.

Kishlyansky speaks of the hard life of the poor in Briceni and how people were helped, and about fasting on Yom Kippur. He recalls building a sukkah and mentions Purim. He reflects on Yiddish and Jewishness, saying the language should not be abandoned and many Jews no longer know it.

Roif says they went to the Ştefăneşti rebbe, and that her father-in-law and her mother's grandfather were rich and sent wheat to Ştefăneşti for flour for matzo baking. She stresses good relations with the villagers before the war and contrasts them with camp experiences. Katz asks about the rebbe's standing, and she says he was known across Romania and Bessarabia. She then turns to how she keeps Purim and Hanukkah today.

Abelsky speaks of his childhood in Moscow, where he studied a little with a teacher and played in the synagogue. His father was a shoykhet and his grandfather the Hasidic rabbi of Moscow. He describes prayer rooms and Purim pranks on misnagdim, and notes that slaughter was illegal. He also recounts the Soviet persecution of Chabad followers, an NKVD expert on religion, the Memorial group, and the fate of the wives and of a woman called Aunt Sarah. He ends with a Russian military-style song.

Goldman describes prewar holidays at home: going to synagogue, the Passover seder at which he as a small boy asked the four questions of his father, and Sukkot, when they built a sukkah and only ate in it. He remembers little of Hanukkah, Shavuot or Purim, mentions lighting Hanukkah candles, and recalls only some of his mother's cooking. He cannot say what tatshikelekh (?) were. In the middle he asks where Lemster was during the war and speaks of Israel.

Benderskaia recalls weddings, Purim masking and shalakhmones, and her grandmothers. She describes Sabbath: large challahs, a visit to the shoykhet, her mother's koshering and lighting candles, and her two brothers. She mentions fish on Sabbath and holidays, and Yom Kippur spent in synagogue.

Rojtman speaks about an acquaintance, apparently a woman now in America, and a few contemporary Jews. At Kerler's request she describes Simchat Torah, with Torah carried round the synagogue, dancing and music, and villagers coming from the surrounding area. She also mentions Purim noisemakers and the lack of electricity or cars, with one rich man's car from America in 1938. She says visitors from America made the town celebrate, and that people took pleasure in each other's good fortune.

Leibelman recalls childhood play with non-Jewish village children, speaking Moldavian with them and Yiddish at home. She was not allowed to play with the children in the other village, and mostly played with her sister. She describes her mother's Sabbath bean and other dishes and the lack of a shoykhet, so meat came from Rezina. She also describes the Purim noisemaker custom and her mother reading the tkhine with its fables on Sabbath, while sewing during the week.

Kleyman answers Kerler's questions on food and holidays: her mother baking Sabbath challah, Sabbath dishes such as cholent, fish (kulen, chopped and gefilte fish), vinegar meat and the meal before Yom Kippur. She also recalls Hanukkah money, Purim noodle kugel, and baking at Passover in the oven. She remembers little of the Purim reading and the seder, and speaks of her sister asking the four questions and her mother lighting candles. Lemster and Kerler exchange words with a man from Israel about food terms.

Iosif answers Kerler's questions about childhood in Lipcani. He played with Jewish children in a town with many Jews and several synagogues, attended cheder under an old teacher named Shlomo, and later a Moldavian school with one Yiddish lesson several times a week. He says he remembers little of the holidays and foods, mentions Purim and Hanukkah money, and says he was too young for much.

She talks about customs such as striking Haman at Purim, a postwar encounter in a synagogue in Odessa (?), and the Rosh Hashanah custom of casting crumbs into water (tashlikh). She mentions kosher butchers before the war and the mixed streets of Jews and Christians in Soroca, as well as her present life.

Luminskaia talks about her childhood in Soviet school and the pioneer camp, and her love of reading and performing. She recalls her grandfather praying with tefillin, going with her grandmother to the synagogue, and the holidays Purim, Hanukkah and Passover with the four questions. She also recalls helping her mother with Passover preparations and baking matzo.

Luminskaia recalls her grandfather's stories of Esther and Hanukkah. She says Chipovich was a Jewish shtetl with a synagogue and, according to her mother, three prayer houses, one of them for the rich, which she visited once with her grandmother. She mentions hearing a cantor there.

Grinberg describes Talmaz as a Jewish town with many Jews. She mentions Purim and Passover, a rabbi with a beard, and her observant parents, her father going to the synagogue. In answer to Lemster, she says there was one synagogue, with separate sections for women, and there was a hospital. She recalls a shoykhet and kosher slaughter on Sabbath with a special knife, and says she has forgotten much Yiddish. She is the only one left of her family, as her sister is in Australia.

Asked about childhood in Chişinău, Moisei recalls a courtyard with three synagogues, the street name Shmiter(?), and his father going to synagogue while he did not. He describes Passover under the Romanians, when a Jewish charity gave out matzo, potatoes, eggs and wine, and how dishes were koshered. He answers Kerler's question about Purim, mentioning baked goods and mishloyekh-manes.

Elizaveta recalls holidays in poverty, including Passover, burning the chametz and Purim baking, and says there were no Purim players in the town. She says her mother did not make gefilte fish; she learned it herself. She describes buying on credit from a wealthy employer, the Sabbath hen and cholent, and how the family kept house after her mother's death.

Freundlich recalls prewar and postwar cultural life: visits to the theater in Cluj with the women of her family, and the actors and singers who performed, such as Sidi Tal, Maly Pick and Lea Konig (?). Kerler asks about a Purim play. She also talks about her son, a musician.

Freundlich and Kerler look at a Megillah. It is from Satu Mare and was read at home by her father; the details are only partly clear. A long, garbled stretch in Hungarian and Yiddish follows about a bishop who was driven out of the town for condemning killing. Kerler then asks about books printed at the local printing house.

Miller says his poor family never went hungry because his father was a prayer leader and shammes, and distributed Sabbath portions and tutored the children of wealthy families. Kerler asks about a Yiddish song his father sang. Another voice sings a short song about the collection box. Miller mentions songs sung at Simchat Torah and Purim.

Grimberg describes Jewish burial customs: potsherds placed on the dead person's eyes, small sticks in the hands, and earth under the head. She then describes a Jewish wedding: the bride seated and veiled, the chuppah, circling seven times, the breaking of a glass, the shouting of mazel tov and the throwing of sweets. Kerler and Lemster ask about a wedding jester (badkhn) and about the Purim noisemaker. Kerler ends by asking whether she remembers any songs.

Lipovici talks about prayer and meals in his youth. Kerler asks about Purim customs and whether he took part in a Purim play. He then gives a hard-to-follow account of his mother's illness and of his younger sister during the war. It involves sending for a rebbe, soldiers, a priest and doctors.

Lipovici tells of a shoykhet-rabbi with four daughters and two sons, and a story of miracles connected with the Ştefăneşti rebbe, including a wolf found in a pit. Kerler asks him about a Purim greeting and song and about wine at Passover and Purim. He then speaks about life today: community leaders, no pension, and smoking.

Asked about his childhood, Chajim recalls cheder, work with wagons and hauling wood to Tuzac (?), and says he does not remember his grandparents. He talks about his father taking him to the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and about prayers he still knows. Kerler asks about customs such as beating Haman during the reading of Esther (Purim) and about the Edineț bath and mikveh. He says he was in Edineț from 1941 and again mentions work in forced labor.

Chajim gives his birth in Podu Iloaiei, about October 1906 and his age as nearly 100, and says he remembers everything. His father was Chaim, and he himself is Chaim Itsik. He recalls Sabbath kugel his mother made and a customs-related remark on Purim.

The interviewee describes Hîrlău before the war as a Jewish town of merchants and tradesmen where earning a living was hard. He names his father, who was born in Hîrlău, as did his mother. He says his home was kosher and he keeps special Passover dishes today. Answering questions from Lemster and Kerler, he recalls his father leading the seder and himself, the youngest of four children, asking the four questions. He also recalls dressing up for Purim as a chimney sweep, small Jewish klezmer bands, and a Purim song that he and Kerler recall together.

The interviewee and Kerler finish recalling the Purim song, and he mentions a small book. Asked about his parents, he names his mother as Rezl (?) and she was a housewife. His father was a merchant who dealt in goods, and the transcript does not make clear in what. Lemster then asks about the interviewee's own trade.

Chajim says he was held and made to work in Vyzhnytsya (Ukraine) during the war, in transports and wagons. He tells of a young friend whose father was taken to a camp and mother to Auschwitz, where she was killed, and the boy died at about eighty in Rădăuți (Bukovina); the rabbi there sent a letter and Chajim said kaddish for him. He says he played trumpet in the military band and used to sing, and Kerler asks about a Purim play.

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.

Karuel recalls prewar Jewish schools, Zionist organizations and Sabbath foods. He describes Purim masking and music, koshering for Passover, Shavuot dairy dishes, Simchat Torah, and Hanukkah gelt. He also mentions how his mother salted meat to make it kosher.

The speakers discuss schooling after the war in Botoșani. The school was called a Jewish school but taught in Romanian, and the father taught there. They mention private tutors for Hebrew and Jewish subjects and two hours a week of Yiddish in the Romanian schools. Kerler asks about Yiddish literature and authors they read, and Itsik Manger's recorded Megillah is mentioned. The passage ends with his question about Purim after the war.

Chirilau tells anecdotes about a poor, drunken neighbouring couple, Dudl Heler and Malka, who borrowed everything from her mother. She describes the trio of brothers who were Purim players and how one was matched with a tall bride. She then tells how rich Jews traded in flour and building materials and how life was natural and healthy before.

Chirilau describes today's Mihăileni: few Jewish families remain, most people came from villages, and the town was once fine. Kerler shows her the photographs and addresses that he sent. They talk about a man from Chicago who wrote about her, about a very old émigré, and about her pension in old and new lei. Kerler then asks about Purim plays in the Carpathians.

Leichtner recalls fragments of Sabbath table songs (zemirot), then Shavuot food: pastry (kipferlekh) with plum and walnut filling, and delkelekh with sweet cheese or brinze. The interviewers compare these with Romanian and other terms such as palatschinken and ask what the foods were made from. He then describes Purim hamantashen, filled with plum jam.

Freundlich tells of a night when a light was left burning and neighbors were asked in Hungarian to put it out, noting that many people around him spoke Hungarian. Lemster asks whether Yiddish weddings had badkhn-style rhymers and about Purim plays; Freundlich recalls a visiting troupe performing in Yiddish at Purim once, and says there were no klezmer-type performers at weddings.

Macarie says village children had few toys; they played in the garden, and she made dolls from corn silk. Lemster asks about Purim; she mentions a large shared courtyard and field where all the Jews lived together. She says nothing about postwar work as an accountant in this stretch.

Freundlich says he took no part in Purim plays because he had no talent and went around only for the money. He recalls his father telling of performing and singing songs while studying in Vienna. With Kerler he discusses whether Jewish Purim plays in German existed.

Shwartz speaks about being alone after the war, since his brothers had been shot and a sister had died. He mentions another sister who survived Auschwitz and emigrated to Israel, and a brother in Canada. He also recalls attending holiday prayers in the prayer house and the reading of the Megillah on Purim before the war, in a Zionist prayer house.

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.

In the community center, Grinberg and the interviewers discuss a dialect word for Purim and where it is used. She says Rădăuți Jews were less pious than those of Fălticeni, and that many in Rădăuți married non-Jews even before the war, which surprised her. She discusses children of mixed families who come to her wanting to be recognized as Jews.

Cojocaru explains how she prepares Sabbath food, including baked rolls and sweet-and-sour meat with onion and bouillon. She mentions that people here use borscht for souring. She says she does not make gefilte fish, but cooks plain fish with pepper and sugar. She describes making fruit layer cake (flodn) for Purim, with fillings of nuts, preserves and sugar.

Petraru discusses his education: cheder, a Jewish school and Hebrew (not Yiddish) teachers, including one from Chişinău. Kerler asks about modern Hebrew, Hebrew songs and Purim customs, which he barely recalls. He says his wife comes from Dorohoi and that he has a son in Iaşi, an engineer. Lemster mentions a visit to the Iaşi community and asks whether anyone else in town speaks Yiddish.

Steiner and Kerler discuss the Hanukkah event planned for the next day and whether Yiddish speakers will be there. They look for a man from Finland who speaks Yiddish and recall a Purim custom of chocolate, a Hasid in Bardejov who has died, and others who might remember Yiddish. Much of the later part is a telephone call and talk in Slovak, so the content is unclear.

Khotenko answers questions about prewar Jewish holidays at home, saying that there was no synagogue in use. She mentions the shoykhet before and after the war, and describes Passover, Hanukkah and Purim foods and customs such as gifts and children's games. She also recalls that the family moved to Balta in 1932.

Khotenko describes the famine in which her sister died and the years of hunger, then says she heard Anna Guzik in postwar concerts. She recites part of a song about a girl with geese in the woods and discusses prewar Jewish weddings, with a canopy and big halls, and the custom of carrying a 'makeh' cake. She also answers questions on Sukkot and Purim before the war.

Gorberg talks about her mother's cooking for weddings and holidays and gives her own method for gefilte fish and fish cutlets. She also speaks of Purim foods and a Purim play at the kolkhoz, Yiddish songs, and winemaking at her dacha. She talks about her husband's family and her thirty years in her mother-in-law's household. Her husband was a vulcanizer who drank, and he died in 1990s (?). Lemster and Kerler ask about food terms such as potato pancakes and the Yiddish word for grapes.

Epelman recalls a Yiddish song about hardship and then answers questions about words and expressions: thanks, forgiveness, a curse term, words for floor and festive greetings. He also covers Kerler's questions on food (potato latkes, kugel, matzo, filled fish, sweet foods) and holidays at his grandparents' home, including Hanukkah money and the four questions. He ends by describing the folk practice of 'speaking away' (curing) the evil eye, as done by his mother.

Borukaeva answers questions about the family and prewar religious life: her grandmother died in the ghetto, and she attended a Russian school, not a Yiddish one. She recalls her mother's cooking for Passover, the Purim pastry, her mother's Sabbath prayer and her father's synagogue attendance. She explains that her father and the father of Mulerman were brothers, and that his family lived in Kharkiv. She also mentions the one remaining Jewish woman in Pyshchanka and says she used to sing.

Zhovtis describes Sabbath in his parents' home: his father went to prayer, his mother blessed the candles. They talk of children's gifts at Hanukkah, fasting on Yom Kippur, and Purim and its sweets, and of the dreidel. He does not recall Shavuot customs, and Tisha b'Av is only vaguely recalled.

Zhovtis discusses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, including Romanian soldiers, and their attitude to Jews. He recounts being beaten and the arbitrary violence under the occupation, and being made to wear a cross-like sign (?). There is talk of a mayor, of Purim fare and of Passover utensils, and of not eating pork.

Bublitskaia briefly mentions a Zionist organization her brother attended. She then answers Kerler's questions about the holidays: Passover seder and the four questions, Purim pastries with poppy seed and jam, Hanukkah dreidel, latkes, doughnuts and gelt, and the Yom Kippur fast, when the children left her great-uncle's house to eat. She says she played with her friends in Romanian, and recalls big family gatherings on holidays; her mother was from Calarasi. She says she learned about the holidays at school.

Kerler asks about Jewish holidays, and Shor and a woman name some, such as Rosh Hashanah and Purim. Shor recalls that the community paid a lot to bring a top cantor from Chişinău or Bucharest for the High Holidays. Kerler asks the Yiddish word for a person with a good voice, and the answer is not clear.

Kerler puts a long series of dialect questionnaire items, including attic, sun, son, tooth, book, deaf, bluish, 'a lot of Jews' and Purim pastries. Shor answers some and says he has forgotten others. In the middle Shor says that after the war he went to Orhei when his mother's sister died aged 85, and describes the Jewish cemetery, where the dead are laid on boards, not in a coffin. He also gives the meaning of 'golem' and answers questions on Purim food.

Chukh gives the date and place of the interview and says the Berdychiv tsadik's grave is a pilgrimage site for visitors. She says she was born in Berdychiv, as were her parents, and was evacuated to the Caucasus during the war. Trained as a nurse, she wanted to go to the front but was kept at hospital work because she had a small child. She worked as an operating-room nurse and was later recognised as a war participant. She names her parents (father Yosl/Iosif, a sieve-maker from a place in Poland whose name is unclear; mother Tsirl, a quilt-maker) and her brothers, one in Germany. She describes her Jewish school (school no. 13, seven grades), her later nursing school and her long postwar nursing career in a Berdychiv hospital. She recalls childhood games, dolls she makes today from broken ones, and home life with Yiddish-speaking parents. She tells of the hungry early 1930s, when her mother sewed quilts to feed the children and the school later fed them. She remembers Soviet-era closing of synagogues, the synagogues of Berdychiv, the Hasidic rebbe's prayer house and holiday observance at home but not in school. Chukh also recalls Yiddish literature and press, a large library, visiting Yiddish theaters, the seltzer seller Itsik, and about 60,000 Jews in the town. She describes weddings with music and a rhymester, and Sabbath and holiday foods. She then answers Kerler's dialectological questionnaire: translating Russian words and sentences into Yiddish (greetings, household words, animals, colours, adverbs, body and illness terms), plus words like dybbuk and golem.

Furman answers questions about cultural life. Yiddish theater came to Berdychiv with actors from Odessa and Leningrad, and he went to the theater often. He recalls the building opposite the synagogue, now a factory, and other synagogues. Asked about Purim plays, he does not remember any.

Furman is asked about customs. He mentions Hanukkah gelt and Purim noisemakers. He does not know the Tisha b'Av custom, and says his father was not rich. He had one aunt and one uncle, whom he visited for coins.

Berzon says the family celebrated Purim, Shavuot, Passover and other holidays at home, and that she went to synagogue after her mother died. She gives her father's birth year and death in 1946 and speaks again about his trade as sieve-maker and his brothers' printing works in Poland.

The interviewee tells of Jewish holidays kept at home and her father's knowledge of Jewish history, while Soviet rules kept them from synagogue. Asked about Purim, she says it was celebrated at home but there was no Purim play.

Asked what survived from his grandparents, Vainshelboim recalls small silver spoons and little prayer books. He describes his father at holidays, matzo baked locally at Passover before and after the war, and the seder with the four questions. He mentions Purim pastries and children's Purim play. He says he took no part in these, and he speaks of school prizes and his love of literature.

She recalls prewar Passover at home, with the large table, the whole family gathering and the grandfather leading the seder. Asked about Purim, they say they remember nothing particular. They add that the family lived comfortably though not wealthily, and her father knew Jewish history.

At the synagogue, Kerler recites the Purim-play lines himself while the interview resumes.

Snook says she sang songs at Purim and at weddings. When asked, she cannot immediately recall a song about a wife who eats too much, and she worries about her son in hospital. Kerler passes on greetings from a colleague who could not come.

Leiderman says she was evacuated to the Urals, to a place whose name is unclear (Izhevsk?), and returned to Bershad' after the war. She was about seventeen when the war began. She then answers many more questionnaire items: words for non-Jews, a gravestone, Hanukkah latkes and the dreidel, Purim pastry, Sabbath bread, 'rabbi' and plurals, tefillin, and other words and phrases. She says her parents were from Bershad'. She recalls her father laying tefillin only vaguely.

Sofia says her father's mother was a Lithuanian Jewish woman who died in 1939, and Katz asks what her Yiddish was like. They discuss differences between towns' Yiddish and how David, who knew no Yiddish after the war, learned it from his in-laws. Sofia says her mother kept turkeys, geese and ducks but no goats, and describes the family leaving the animals loose on the day of the evacuation. The conversation ends with Katz and Sofia naming Bratslav families now in America, including Feldman and Levine.

Khavin recalls Hanukkah before the war: his grandmother gave each grandchild five kopeks of Hanukkah money, and his father fattened geese that were slaughtered by the shoykhet for the holiday. Kerler asks about force-feeding geese, which his father avoided, and about the goose cracklings and fat. His mother made buckwheat pancakes fried in goose fat, and Khavin and Kerler discuss the terms for pancakes and latkes. Katz asks about Hanukkah and Purim games and noisemakers.

Bielaia recalls Hanukkah and other holidays at home, her father being very religious and attending synagogue on Friday and Sabbath. Katz asks about Purim and the Hanukkah top, but she has forgotten its name.

Bielaia says her mother-in-law spoke Yiddish with her, but her daughter does not know it. She names latkes made of grated potatoes with flour for Hanukkah and hamantashn for Purim, which her mother baked. She finds the past hard to recall and says she is now learning Yiddish by herself.

Khavin describes the Passover seder in his parents' home before the war: the search for hametz, the foods, the seder plate, and his father's song. He also mentions Purim gifts carried to relatives, Shavuot as a favorite holiday, and the Sabbath songs at home. Kerler asks whether songs were sung for Purim and Hanukkah.

Shternberg talks about Purim customs and the throwing of beans (?) at the synagogue or cheder. She sings a long humorous song about a poor teacher who emigrates to America and falls in love, then loses his bride at the wedding. Kerler and she discuss a film or theatre piece and other songs.

Shternberg sings a parody of "Vu bistu geven" about a kibbutz hakhshara. In it a mother questions her daughter about food and sleeping arrangements. The interviewers explain who they are. She says she read little because of school and preferred dancing and singing. She is asked about a poet named Shternberg, about visiting troupes in Khotyn, about Purim plays, and about the Jewish library, which her mother and siblings used. She also speaks of an old man in Chernivtsi who was shown on television.

Shternberg says her father was a merchant who took partners and traded goods. She recalls her mother visiting a rabbi to ask for blessings and describes the Sabbath at home: blessing the candles, two loaves, charity money, a non-Jewish woman who heated the stove and the cholent kept warm. She sings a Friday-night song. The talk turns to taking a piece of dough, the God of Abraham prayer, Yiddish writers, Purim players going from house to house, water carriers, and folk remedies against the evil eye.

Shternberg sings a comic song about a bride and groom and a dowry, and Kerler identifies it as coming from a Purim play. The interviewers then try to copy her cassette and discuss it, partly in Russian. She is shown photographs and asked to tell more. Talk about visitors from the Czech Republic and a rabbi is followed by a long stretch of garbled speech. A second voice then sings or recites songs about Jewish life of the past, covering the synagogue, Sabbath, girls and a cottage with smoke, as well as songs about a bird and a boy.

Lemster asks about prewar holidays such as Passover and Purim in Yanoshpol. Shames says all Jewish holidays were observed and the synagogue was in use, but she gives few details, and says she cannot sing. Kerler asks whether the town's name has changed and whether there was a cheder, and she is unsure.

Gammer answers questions about prewar Sabbath and holiday food. She mentions challah, fish, noodle kugel, cholent and vinegar meat, and discusses terms for chopped fish and a jellied dish. She recalls Hanukkah latkes and children singing a Simchat Torah rhyme, which she repeats for Lemster to record. There are brief answers on Purim and a Passover memory of her grandfather, the dishes and the four questions, with goose fat for Passover. She says her mother died two weeks before the war, so she has no memories of her blessing the candles.

Shekhovich talks about prewar Sambor, which she describes as a Jewish town with one large synagogue and small prayer houses. She recalls her mother's Sabbath fish and her own knowledge of how to prepare it, the Passover seder led by her father, and food made from matzo. She says she cannot remember Purim plays or a prewar wedding. Polish was the language of the town and Yiddish that of the home. She says she remembers few Yiddish songs.

Shekhovich talks about the occupations of Jews in prewar Sambor, such as shops and trade, and says some lived very well until Hitler came. She says few Jews remained after the war. She did not go back to her house, which her husband avoided, and her daughter has seen it. When asked about Purim customs and songs, she says she remembers little. Her daughter urges her in Ukrainian to recall songs.

Asked about early memories of Nadvirna, Shekhter recalls a Jewish town with a river (the Bystritsa), girls and games by the water. He answers Lemster's questions about Yiddish writers (Sholem Aleichem a little, Hersh Polianker not at all) and recalls an amateur Yiddish theater and a club. He briefly says he fears traveling there now because of antisemitism, answers questions on terms (dybbuk, golem) and Purim songs, and recalls a sports club and football. At the end a woman and Lemster discuss in Russian and Yiddish who in town still speaks Yiddish.

Khasidovich talks about Jewish holidays before the war, about the former Jewish street in Fastiv (Kyivska Street) and about how she is now the only Jew in her building. She answers questions about whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish and about her mother's cooking, including gefilte fish, how it was made and what fish were used, and also a dish of meat with vinegar. Kerler asks about Purim: she names the Purim pastries and says she has forgotten the Purim songs and does not know the word purim-shpil. She and the interviewers then talk about how life was before and how young people behaved, and Kerler asks about visiting Yiddish theater.

Vertman answers questions on holiday customs and food: kiddush on Sabbath, Passover dishes, Sukkot with the opened roof of the building, Hanukkah candles and potato latkes, Purim gifts and hamantashn, and Simchat Torah. He also describes Shavuot, when greenery was brought from the river to cover the floor, and what was eaten then (meat, fish, blintzes).

Kerler asks about Hanukkah and Purim foods and customs. Geller recalls Hanukkah money for children and potato latkes, poppy-seed pastries and Purim gifts (shlekhmones), and Passover matzo, noting the use of matzo meal in baking at a memorial meal.

Asked about the word dybbuk, Gaiviker says it means a bad person. He recalls being born into a poor home, his stepmother, the war and bombing, Hanukkah gifts and games, and latkes made from potatoes. The questions about shalakhmones and tatshikelekh are interleaved.

Lemster and Kerler ask about prewar holidays. Vaisblai says that at Passover no bread was eaten and the poor tried to get some meat. At Purim they prayed and heard the megillah; he thinks the rabbi dressed up and people wore masks, though he knows this only from his father. He cannot recall a Purim song and begins to sing a Friday-night song.

Snook says that non-Jewish neighbours knew Yiddish and recalls one, Mikhail, a simple non-Jew who even prayed in Yiddish. She recalls baking hamantashn with preserves for the neighbours and discusses the terms for the filling and for potatoes, sending Purim gifts, and drinking at Purim. She tells of her husband Biel, who died fifteen years earlier, and who could lead prayers. Kerler also asks about Sabbath songs.

Snook recites the prayer 'God of Abraham' for the end of the Sabbath at Kerler's request, and she remarks on Kerler's colleague as a young man who can write Yiddish. Kerler compares life in America and under the Soviets. They discuss whether the synagogue in Khust stayed open under communism and Sabbath observance. Kerler then asks about Purim performances after the war and Passover songs, and she mentions children noisemaking on Purim.

Torchinsky answers Kerler's questions about his mother lighting Sabbath candles, Sabbath dishes, and what was brought at Purim. He says no one else in the family blessed the candles. Asked about anti-religious campaigns at school, he recalls a printed play against Passover that the school performed. He also recalls a girl who sang and later went to Israel, and says there was no theater in Skvire, only visiting performers and a drama circle.

Questionnaire on food and drink words with Kerler: kugel and babke and their ingredients, rasl (brine or juice), tomatoes, baked goods and pastries, strudel, flodn, kamish bread, evening meal, and the word for vodka (bran(t)fn). Torchinsky says Jews drank brandy on Simchat Torah and Purim but not wine, and that vodka was not drunk on Passover. Kerler also asks about 'dibek' (a bad person) and 'goylem' (golem).

Krotsh speaks about fate and about his standing in the community, and recalls secret prayer groups in private homes in Kolomyya for yortsayt and other occasions. He remembers a cantor named Pinsky and a Purim megillah reading. He then describes Kolomyya's former synagogues, the buildings that remain, and how to reach them by street, with Kerler asking about their location.

The group walks through the streets of Kolomyya towards a restaurant. One of the men briefly recalls performing in a Purim play, and there is chat in Yiddish and Russian about directions and ordering pizza. Katz asks someone to repeat a question about how something was said.

Biter speaks briefly about Franz Joseph and the Jewish attitude toward him, and about the one remaining Jew in Snyatyn today. Asked about his parents' home, he describes Sabbath and Passover customs and foods, then Purim masks, the Hanukkah dreidel, Sukkot, latkes and doughnuts, learning tefillin in cheder, and his later gymnasium years away from prayer. Kerler and Katz then explain to the household that they are collecting Yiddish folklore and dialect material for American and Lithuanian universities.

Vider shows family photographs to Kerler: his father, who seems to have been born in the 1890s (the exact year is unclear), a brother-in-law and mother-in-law, his sister, and himself as a young man in photographs from different decades. He also points out his brother's daughter in a Purim costume, the Iraqi-born wife of a younger brother in Israel, and a sister who had worked in a mine. Kerler asks the year of each photograph, and 1964/65 (?) is mentioned.

Lemster asks about theater in Ştefăneşti. Krotsh says Yiddish theater troupes came regularly and staged plays, the Akeydes Yitskhok among them. Lemster asks about the director Yankl Sternberg from Bucharest, and Krotsh says he does not recall him. Krotsh describes the town's Jewish population and theatre posters, and Kerler asks whether such plays were done at Purim.

Katsman talks about his parents' home: the grandfather, who is named, and Sabbath customs, including his mother's gefilte fish and challah. Kerler stops to ask how to say a term and what the dish tasted like, and Katsman answers. He describes the Passover seder and Shavuot dairy food. He recalls sleeping in the family sukkah and sending Purim gifts of food to ten houses as a child. At the end he starts a story about a sanatorium in Kislovodsk.

Skop says that until 1937 everything was as before, then schools were closed and synagogues turned into warehouses. Katz asks about childhood prayer, and Skop recalls Hanukkah money and the dreydl, Purim noisemakers, asking the Four Questions at his father's seder, and the labor of baking matzo. He then speaks of Lubavitch Hasidim, who were beloved in Korosten', and of a well-known rebbe whom people from far away, Jews and non-Jews, visited, with trips to a tsadik's grave and how it was spoken of. Katz asks about the Litvaks, and Skop describes the Yiddish of Vilna and Belarusian Jews as hard to understand and tells of his parents speaking Yiddish with Germans. The passage ends with healing practices and a story of a blind child brought to a rebbe.

Groysman speaks about prewar Jewish holidays and food. He covers Passover (baking matzo at home, what was not eaten), baked goods and dishes such as kugel and sour meat, Shavuot dishes, Purim, Hanukkah and the dreidel. He answers questions on Yiddish theater and films, and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, including a drunk and a Ukrainian woman at the market.

Leiderman and Obodovskii speak about her mother's holiday cooking: gefilte fish, and her keeping geese and goats at home, with eggs and meat at Passover and a type of baked dish. Kerler asks about Purim food and the way Purim is named in different places, and mentions his Jerusalem visits.

Obodovskii says that postwar Jewish holidays such as Purim and the anniversary of the Revolution were hardly marked, because food was scarce and few Jews lived in the courtyard. He says he disliked going to parades.

Gershtein sings or recites a Polish song and a Purim song in Yiddish and explains that the children went from house to house as Purim performers to earn money.

Gershtein recalls going from house to house in the Purim play in 1936–37, aged about ten, and earning a lot of money from the wealthy. He names the miller Matl and the miller David Katz, who each gave a coin, and describes the poor and the wealthy in town. His uncle Rakhmil Vitsnudl kept a dairy, and he remembers the wandering poor, a Sabbath meal for the poor, the Slikhes wake-up call and the slaughterers' homes.

Leibel recalls Hoshana Rabbah in his home, with the synagogue attendant bringing the lulav and willow branches, and he answers Kerler's questions about it. They discuss Hanukkah food and his mother's Friday baking of challah in a big oven. They go over the shape of the challah (not braided), and the food eaten on Purim.

Dorfman speaks about museum people in L'viv, including a Ukrainian professor and Goldstein's prewar Jewish museum, and about a joint exhibition of Jewish art with its controversy over Israel. He describes his articles on the museum and on Sholem Aleichem's residence in L'viv, and the celebrations of the writer's 130th anniversary, which marked the first Purim and a concert, and the founding of a Jewish society.

Asked what was drunk on Purim, Leibel says he does not remember, and talks about observing kosher rules and the words for dairy and meat. Kerler asks about differences between Yiddish in Lviv and in Rivne, and about kleyn and shayn. A second voice asks about songs with Hebrew and Yiddish words. Cake and drinks are also being offered.

She answers questions about the holiday cycle, including Purim with baking, gifts and costumes, Hanukkah with money, candles and latkes, and Sukkot, the sukkah and her birth on Sukkot. She also discusses the fast, the meal before Yom Kippur and chicken soup, and Kerler asks Yiddish and Polish month names. The questions mix customs with terminology.

Kaplan describes his father as a soap-maker and cantor, and talks about Sabbath food and customs, a Russian neighbour lighting the stove, Hanukkah, Purim, and Hebrew lessons. He tells of the camp at Pechera, the escape of a group of Jews with a Ukrainian guard's help, the walk home along the river, and the family's hiding in the cellar of Polish neighbours (Zbigin?) until 1944. He covers the Jewish police, the drowned orphans off Constanta, commemoration work led by the late rabbi Sobol, and a ghetto song. He also tells of secret Passover matzo baking after the war, the three cemetery fields, non-Jews who speak Yiddish, the word Litvak, and the term for a 'good Jew' (rebbe or tsadik).

Vaisburd gives her name, birth year and birthplace and speaks of her parents, her father at a factory, her mother from a nearby village, and her grandparents. She was in the Pechera camp with her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother died there, and a cousin who buried the dead smuggled them out. She recalls hiding in Sharhorod and then in Mohyliv-Podil's'kyy, in a cellar kept by a Christian neighbor and in a one-room house shared with other children. She also recalls going to the market disguised. She then describes her grandmother's baking, Sabbath food, fattening geese, gefilte fish and Purim, and questions on devils, evil eye, songs and the one prewar wedding she remembers. After the war she studied in Tashkent and married a non-Jew; one daughter lives in Israel (Beit She'an) and one at home. Many of her answers respond to Kerler's and Lemster's questionnaire items.

Pasik answers Kerler's questions about Jewish holidays before the war: Passover matzo-baking and the seder led by her paternal grandfather, Purim, Shavuot baking, and borscht. She names her grandparents and says she was named after her paternal grandmother. Her mother worked on the kolkhoz, and the family did not work on Saturday or Sunday before the war.

Tzentziper says his best years were after the war, when he and his wife both worked and lived well though not richly. He had two children, a daughter and a son. The grandchildren live in Israel, and a photograph is looked at. Kerler then asks about Purim customs and songs, to which Tzentziper has little to say.

Medved recalls Passover celebrated with Russian neighbors and the Yiddish theater in Bershad', which her father loved to attend. Kerler asks about Purim and Hanukkah food and customs, and she describes her mother's fish cutlets and the cooking method. She also mentions buying live fowl and a shoykhet in Odesa before the war.

Dorfman talks about Sabbath before the war: his pious grandparents, his mother baking Friday and doing no work on Sabbath, a non-Jewish woman milking the cow, the wooden synagogue that burned, candle blessing and Sabbath foods such as cholent. Kerler asks about sweet fish and Hanukkah latkes of buckwheat flour, and Dorfman names the dreidel and a Purim noisemaker.

Feldman says that for Purim the family travelled to the nearby village of Skrebelychi, where there was a minyan, to hear the megillah; they did not sing anything there. Katz and Feldman compare how Purim is pronounced in his area and among Lithuanian Jews.

Lemster asks about tales and songs from her grandmother, and Turovskaia recites a short rhyme heard in school. Kerler asks about Purim. She recalls the megillah, Purim plays, hamantashn baked by her mother, and the family going to synagogue.

Turovskaia answers questions about Passover and Purim in her childhood home: her father asked the four questions and read and told stories, and she recalls the custom of banging with feet on Purim. She describes her mother's Passover preparations with geese and fat and sending food to a poor neighbor, and her mother's generosity to the needy.

A photograph is shown, and the other people present discuss it. Kerler asks Zak about the Jewish holidays and their present observance, and about travelling to Khmelnytskyi for Simchat Torah. She recalls her father building a sukkah, what was done and eaten at Hanukkah (latkes and pancakes), and Purim hamantashen with poppy seed, as well as Shavuot blintzes. Some of the details are said not to be remembered.

Fish answers questions about Purim and Shavuot. He says a Purim play might have been held in the Jewish gymnasium but he did not see one. He says Shavuot food was dairy, with cheese and blintzes (terms discussed).

Litvak recalls a recent communal Passover meal in a restaurant, where she was served meat with rice, which she objects to as an Ashkenazi. Asked about Purim plays, she says there were none before the war, and mentions the phrase for a wicked person from her mother's sayings. Kerler asks about expressions such as 'a good Jew'.

Shvartzbroit says her mother worked with her father in the sewing workshop, which sent goods to Moscow and Leningrad until the late 1920s and 1930s. Her mother did not teach her to bless, lit Friday candles and worked on non-Jewish holidays. She lists the Jewish holidays and retells the story of Esther and Mordecai, offering Kerler a booklet. She says she had one sister and that both parents' fates and her sister's killing in Pechora are told here. She describes her father's death from an illness.

Vaisman says there was a ghetto in Sharhorod and recounts his sister's belief that Ukrainians helped the Jews. He names a Ukrainian woman, Ksenia Vasilovna Loyanich (spelling uncertain), who brought his family food and whom he wants recognised. He says he does not remember the war, and that the Romanians did not kill Jews in Sharhorod but brought their own Jews, thousands of whom starved and were buried in the local cemetery. He tells a Hershele Ostropolyer story about a poor guest at a Sabbath meal. He recalls the Passover seder, with his mother's matzo bagels and kugels and the bakery that needed official permission to bake matzo, and also Hanukkah, Purim and the Ninth of Av. Katz and Kerler ask many dialect questions on bird names (a dove, a small bird), the colour of the sky, words for ugly face, back, house, 'almost', Lithuanian Jews and converts to Christianity, the town as shtetl, and the word for life. Vaisman also recounts the case of a local Jewish man who converted. In the last part the daughter shows an album of Jewish childhood friends who spoke Yiddish and have mostly emigrated to Israel, America and Moscow. The talk turns to Yiddish and Jewish life in America and Israel, Vaisman's brother in Israel, and his father's relatives, who were killed during the war.

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.

Kleiner answers questions on Sabbath, going to synagogue with his father, and the Sabbath and Sunday school days. He speaks about bar mitzvah, and Passover customs: removing and burning leaven and kashering. Kerler asks about holiday songs, and about Purim and Hanukkah. The terms for the river and for 'tehom' are asked. He says the Torah scrolls of Shepetivka were hidden and returned after liberation.

Geller tells of Kotovsky as an extremely strong man who could eat half a calf at one sitting and handle horses. Kerler remarks that he was good to Jews. They then turn to holidays: Kerler asks about Hanukkah and Purim, and Geller says they ate homentashn.

Liberzon says drinking brandy was forbidden in her father's synagogue after the war, though Jews gathered at the house on Sabbath for kugel; her father avoided drink apart from an occasional measure. Kerler brings up the Purim commandment to drink.

Vainshelboim talks about Purim and Hanukkah in prewar Ostroh. He describes a Purim play, masks made from watermelons, singing, and a masked ball at the house of a rich man; he compares the poverty of those days with the prosperity of today. A woman in the room, possibly his wife, briefly interrupts in Russian or Ukrainian. At the end he says that Yiddish was spoken at home and his father prayed.

Klein answers Kerler's questions about Passover: matzo baking, her father leading the seder, and kosher observance. She also answers about Purim, saying the children did not go to the synagogue, and about masked performances.

Bivson describes the good if not wealthy life of working people among many Jewish neighbors in Polonne. She recalls her father making prayer books and the Passover seder: opening the door for the Messiah, the festive food, and Passover dishes kept in the attic. She also describes Purim, with baking, gifts to the poor, singing, dancing and masks, all in Yiddish.

Bivson recalls celebrating Purim: baking, giving shalekhmones and visiting guests. She does not recall Purim songs. Kerler then asks which language she spoke with her husband; it was Yiddish when the children were not to understand, but mostly Russian, and she worked many years at a telephone job.

Terminology questions: how a Yiddish word for a cemetery is said (?), Hanukkah foods and customs (latkes, dreidels, Hanukkah money) and Purim masquerading and singing. Bivson mentions her granddaughter and daughter and says the holidays were celebrated well after the war.

Klein recalls religious life in the 1930s: the home was Jewish, services were held in small private prayer houses, and people kept the holidays. She describes the Purim baking and the absence of masks, talks vaguely about weddings she attended as a child, and mentions klezmer. Kerler then asks about poetry.

Yakuta describes how Hanukkah was celebrated at home before the war, including gifts of money and sweets for the children. She also names the fruits and treats eaten on Purim and other holidays. Kerler continues the questionnaire with items such as 'then', 'I had', 'tooth', 'dessert' and a word for floor or boards. Yakuta says what her mother baked for the Sabbath and discusses the word for challah and the terms for mushrooms. She adds that nobody knew of any non-kosher food before the war.

Marinina lists the holidays kept on the kolkhoz (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur fasting, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Passover, Purim). She describes the family seder, with her father's friends as guests, and the dishes her mother made, including matzo-meal dumplings (keyzlekh) and potato dishes. Kerler asks what keyzlekh are. She also mentions latkes at Hanukkah and Hanukkah money from her father.

Tkach, born in 1935 in the small town of Chernivtsi ("Kleyn Tshernovits"), talks about her parents, grandparents and the traditional Jewish house with its mezuzah. She recalls her uncle the gabbai, the synagogue with its women's gallery, her aunt reading tkhines, and the killing of another aunt's family. She describes the war years, refugees and the ghetto, the postwar schools and her brother's studies, and her forty years as a journalist in Yampil'. She then covers food customs for Sabbath, Passover, Purim and Hanukkah, children's games, Yiddish-speaking neighbors and friends, and weddings with their dances and musicians. She also talks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, the postwar fear of speaking Yiddish and the antisemitism of the Doctors' Plot, and Ukrainian literature. The last part is a dialectological questionnaire: she is asked how various Russian words, phrases and sentences would be said in Yiddish (greetings, house and window words, colors, comparatives).

Interview with Dora Guzman, who is welcomed into her flat. Katz states the date as 28 June 2005 and asks about her earliest memories. She was born in Tomashpol', attended the Yiddish school up to the fourth class and then Ukrainian school in Pishchanka, where she stayed with her mother's brother. She names her father Benyamin/Bentsion Abramovich, who worked in the clothing trade, was pious and prayed in one of the three synagogues, and her mother Sara, from the Odessa region. Katz also asks about Yiddish songs, the rabbi, Passover seder, Purim pastries, Hanukkah, the Sabbath and fish dishes.

Gingold is greeted at her door, and Kerler explains the university project. She says she is alone, her parents and brother having died, with two cousins in Israel. She gives her names, birth year, and her father's and mother's names and occupations. She also names her grandparents. She attended three years of Yiddish school before moving to a Russian one, and says she never worked and has a small pension. She recalls Sabbath, Passover, Shavuot and Purim customs, and the Tomashpol' ghetto. The interviewers then put questionnaire items: greetings, kosher salting, foods, and Russian words rendered into Yiddish such as 'spasibo', 'mouse' and 'poceluj'.

The interview with Guzman begins with her name, birth in Tomashpol' and her family: her father Bentsion, a shop worker beaten by the gendarmerie, her mother, and her brother. She recalls Yiddish and Ukrainian schooling, prewar holidays (Purim, Passover, Sukkot), food, the synagogues and the shoykhet, weddings and the library. She describes the ghetto, where non-Jewish villagers brought food, and forced labour in the fields. She mentions the famine and her stay with an aunt and uncle, as well as work after the war, photographs, relatives in Odessa, America and Israel, and Tul'chyn. Roughly the last quarter is word elicitation: greetings, colours, adverbs, 'pigeon', 'ear' and other items, which Guzman answers with difficulty.

Shveibish tells about her husband Itsik's family from Horyshkivka. His father came from Tul'chyn after the pogroms, he was a craftsman, and there were six children. She describes the Romanian-era ghetto in the village club, a sister who was shot at and traumatised, the siblings who emigrated or have died, and the parents' graves in Tomashpil. She talks about Horyshkivka as the model for Sholem Aleichem's Kasrilevke, the Yiddish theatre troupe in which her husband's father acted, and pogroms in Tul'chyn and Khmelnytskyi's time. She then describes Jewish life in Tul'chyn today (the community's difficulties, no shoykhet, no minyan, a memorial, aged pensioners), and Jewish food and holiday customs, with a recipe for gefilte fish. The passage includes dialectological questions on words such as store, courtyard, well, potato dishes, thanks and please, and idioms.

Presler gives her parents' and grandparents' families: both parents were born in Tul'chyn, and her mother had six sisters and two brothers. Her maternal grandfather was a glazier, and her father's family were musicians who played in a klezmer band for weddings, Purim and holidays. She describes growing up in the Kapsynivka quarter by the little river with crowded houses, and the family gatherings there with food, dancing and Yiddish songs. She recalls the 1933 famine, in which a relative died, and the dollars her sisters sent from America. She describes prewar hunger and poverty, and discusses her sisters' wartime and postwar lives, one of them marrying a non-Jewish officer. She answers Kerler's questions about plural forms, Yiddish words and dance names, and recalls Purim and weddings. She also talks about her grandson's singing and her prewar religious life, a synagogue building taken over, and her father's prayer. The passage ends with photographs of Pechera camp survivors, including one from 1990, the year her husband died.

Vainer-Shpak gives personal information (born in Vinnytsya in 1921; the address of her prewar home) and names her family: her father Froyke, a Bratslav Hasid, her mother Dobtse from Pryluky, brothers, sisters and grandparents. She tells of her Jewish model school in Vinnytsya, her studies as a dental specialist and the assignment to a sugar factory village in 1940, then her journey toward Odessa on foot at the start of the war and her return, hiding and survival in Vinnytsya, with her husband. She also talks about her parents' religious life, Sabbath, Purim and Hanukkah food and customs, the synagogues of Vinnytsya, and a story about Haman and Esther.

Kerler asks about a golem, a dybbuk and Purim customs before the war, which Yurkovetskij does not recall. He remembers Passover because his grandmother would buy him a new pair of shoes, and describes the potato dishes eaten then. Kerler also asks about Hanukkah and a Russian-heard term, which he says he did not know.

Pesia and Katsman answer Kerler's questions on holiday food before the war. They mention Hanukkah gelt, baked goods for Purim, dairy dishes for Shavuot, and special breads such as a bread given to a woman after childbirth. They then talk about the Sabbath bread and the baking of potatoes in each Jew's oven, and about fish and water supply.

Katsman gives personal information: her name in Yiddish and Russian, her maiden name Chechelniker, her birth date and the fact that she has always lived in Tul'chyn. She talks about her family, which includes her father, a brush maker, her mother Perl, and a brother who froze to death in the camp. Her father was taken into the army and died after the war, and the family spoke Yiddish at home. She says the family's house was lost when they were driven into the ghetto. She recounts being driven to the Pechera camp, with disinfection in a bath, a night on the floor among about fifty people, beatings by police and help from some local non-Jews. She also mentions the return home after the war and attempts to claim compensation. Her half-brother in New York, her son in Israel and her second husband come up, along with her work as a tailor for 39 years. She answers Kerler's questions on relations with non-Jews before and after the war, on non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, on the shoykhet Moshe, on Sabbath, Passover, Purim and Hanukkah food and recipes (gefilte fish, cholent, latkes, varenikes, cakes), on children's games at school and by the river, and on hardship in the postwar years. She also describes annual trips to the Pechera memorial, some arranged by an organizing group; the discussion then shifts to a neighbor Pesia, Kerler's explanation of the archive, and a closing exchange about the mezuzah.

Rubin talks about the many klezmer families in Buki and nearby towns, who played at weddings. He recalls a wedding entertainer who spoke in rhymes and the klezmer slang for words such as water, bread, money and meat. Kerler then asks about Purim plays, and the speakers recall visiting Yiddish theater troupes from Kharkiv, Kyiv and Moscow, and a play seen in childhood.

Rubin says that great numbers of people come to Uman' for Rosh Hashanah, Purim, Hanukkah and Passover, and that he has been going for fifteen years. He gets kosher matzo at Passover, reads Yiddish letters only a little, and says there are no prayer books in translation. He and Kerler talk about a Yiddish story book and a siddur with a Yiddish translation. Rubin also speaks about Matl's ill sister, a son who lives in Jerusalem and works at a dairy firm (?), and his own visits to his mother's grave in Israel.

She describes her father singing at the Sabbath table and the children joining in. He sang with words, in Hebrew and in Yiddish, and sang on Purim, Hanukkah and Passover. Kerler asks about the songs, and she recalls only a couple of words of a Purim song. Kerler then asks about a rabbi in Vinnytsya.

Barshteyn describes kosher meat: the shoykhet slaughtered, the blood was drained and the meat was salted for an hour. She describes Passover preparations, with the dishes brought down from the attic, a special oven for baking bread, and the house cleaned and whitewashed. Her father baked matzo using a perforating wheel. Lemster asks about the fillings of Purim pastries (poppy, jam and similar), and Kerler asks about the evil eye and a remedy using a glass, which she half recalls.

Sobol talks about her childhood while her mother was alive, a poor but quiet home, and being orphaned at fourteen. She describes Passover poverty, her father leading the seder, and a relative who asked the Four Questions. She also covers kashering the house and storing the Passover dishes in the attic. The questions turn to holiday food: Passover dumplings, Hanukkah latkes, Purim treats and the Sabbath cholent. A remedy against the evil eye (a red ribbon) is also touched on.

Tsodikovich says he lived in the Kopayhorod ghetto as a child, apparently at a station about five kilometres from the town. At home the family spoke Yiddish with his mother and grandparents. He recalls that his grandparents were strongly observant and that the town had two or three synagogues. He remembers Passover, Purim and Hanukkah gelt, a hard year in 1946, and that his family left in the 1950s. He also remembers good relations with non-Jewish neighbours.

Kerler asks more dialect questions about words for ill-behaved or released people, and for a snack or an extra course after a meal, and Nayman gives a few answers. She recalls fragments of Yiddish riddle songs and a Purim rhyme, and says her mother did not sing. They discuss a planned visit to the Munkacs rebbe and Nayman's memories of him. Nayman says she does not care for theater but recalls school plays. The tape ends with talk, with S2 and Katz, about sending a cassette or DVD of the interview to her daughter, mentioning Spielberg and the earlier interview.

Kerler interviews Goikhman, who gives his name and birth in Pervomaysk on 1 January 1927. He tells of the 1933 hunger, his father's move to Birobidzhan, Russian schooling, factory work and mobilisation to Blagoveshchensk, and his mother's death in 1947. He came to Zhmerynka in October 1947 to his father's brother. He then recalls Pervomaysk as a large town with many Jews, synagogues drawing visiting cantors, and Yiddish-speaking Jewish and non-Jewish friends. He also recalls Sabbath, his mother's gefilte fish with sugar and pepper, Hanukkah gifts, latkes and Purim foods, and the Zhmerynka shul on Sovetskaya Street, later a children's library.

Shpitz recalls kheyder, whose teacher was the local shoykhet and who also fed the children, and says he learned to read Yiddish. He describes his father, a poor religious cobbler, attending the cook-shul and prayer on Passover, Purim and other holidays. He tells of carrying gifts to the shul and Simchat Torah, and says he no longer remembers the morning prayers; he also talks about observance today.

Questionnaire work with an elderly woman, with a Russian-speaking woman putting the items in Russian. Items include how to say 'to want to eat' in different tenses, what was eaten at Purim, 'mistake' and 'to make a mistake', 'near' and 'far', 'ceiling' and 'roof', 'face' and a handsome face, the dreidel, and 'back'. Katz and Kerler praise her knowledge and ask whether she remembers any old Yiddish songs. Kerler then asks whether she remembers the Revolution.

Dialectological questionnaire. Kerler asks how Antsis says various words, including colours (grey), words for wealthy man, rich and gevir, and Purim baked goods (hamantashn). Other items are a wagon and carts, a boat, 'toves' (?), a fool and its plural, and the word 'lehavdl'. She answers some items and says she has not heard others in a long time.

A short account of the history of the renovated Zhytomyr synagogue. It was built about 130 years ago on a street with other synagogues and was used by traders. It was open until 1941, when the Germans used it as a warehouse, and was handed back to the community in the early 1990s. During repairs, prayer books and the names of women were found hidden in the walls. The speaker describes today's community, with a daily minyan, a school and an orphanage. Informal talk follows about the cantor Krinsky, hearing the Megillah on Purim, and Lithuanian versus Hasidic towns in the region (Rovno, Lutsk, Slavuta, Yampol).

Shraibman recalls two very pious Jews, Moshe Yosl and Zelik, killed by the Germans; at eleven this was a tragedy for him. He describes holidays in his childhood and the grandmothers' Sabbath. Kerler asks about holiday food: foods for Yom Kippur eve, the sukkah of Moshe Yosl, dairy foods and blintzes for Shavuot, latkes for Hanukkah and hamantashn for Purim. He mentions his grandfather, the tailor, who walked on foot to Chernyakhiv, 25 km away, and shows photographs of his family.

Shraibman mentions his granddaughter in Haifa and a cousin from America whom he had not seen for 26 years. Kerler asks him to show the town on the map. Shraibman recalls his grandfather's Purim custom of visiting the poor first and then the rich, and shalekhmones are mentioned. He says he likes having guests but has no kosher kitchen.

Groisburg says she learned German and French and that her father wanted her to study English. Kerler asks about Purim and about celebrations before the First World War, but she answers mostly about Passover matzo and holidays at home.

Answering Kerler's questions on holiday food, she names hamantaschen and pancakes. She says her mother made gefilte fish with raisins, and recalls her father going to synagogue on Sabbath and her mother on Rosh Hashanah.

Geller recalls the synagogue with its women's section upstairs, and his grandfather's brother, who raised the children after the father died and took the child to synagogue each Sabbath. He describes Purim visits and paper masks. He lists his siblings: five children, one died of hunger, a sister in Ashdod, and a brother who went to America and died there. He mentions another Pyatka family in Zhytomyr and a wedding of a fish seller, then ends the interview with thanks.

Shpitz describes the poor Jewish life of a shoemaker with eight children. Lemster asks about Purim, Purim plays and masking, and Shpitz says little about them. He recalls Passover preparations with new dishes brought down from the attic. He says Jewish life passed quickly and thanks God for his years.

Sandler says his family was not rich. Kerler asks about Purim. Sandler recalls his mother baking poppy-seed hamantashen and says he was not sent with Purim gifts. He does not know the term purim-shpil. He mentions the synagogue, which functioned until the war, and his own cheder attendance. Kerler asks what challah is, and Sandler recalls his mother baking on a stove. The passage ends with Kerler asking how many years he did not speak Yiddish.

S3 sings songs about childhood memories, then "Bay mir bistu sheyn", with Geller commenting. Kerler asks whether they recall a Purim play, and a discussion of the dreidel follows. Near the end Geller begins a remark about the year 1944 and a yeshiva.

Nibulskaia recalls the holidays at home, with her father leading the Passover seder, and the food her mother cooked, including a sour-sweet meat dish, borscht, and Passover kugel and latkes of matzo meal. She mentions Purim without masks, since it was a Soviet land. She also recalls a good teacher at the Yiddish school who played the fiddle, and says her children do not speak Yiddish.