Stories, humor and sayings

Rezmovits describes the Jewish population of Debrecen, some 10,000 Jews, most of them not Yiddish-speaking. He remembers his mother's saying a line in an old Yiddish full of Hungarian and Polish words about a curfew. He also describes her courage.

At Kerler's request Rezmovit sings again a comic song about the rebbe and the rebbetsin, and the funny Zionist song about the attic and the halutsim. He then repeats a saying of his mother's, in her way of speaking Yiddish, about a curfew and the gendarmes. They discuss the origin of one word in it. He describes his mother's sense of humor and her stories.

Rezmovit recalls learning to play the harmonica at about age ten in Debrecen from a Gypsy boy of fifteen or sixteen who spoke Hungarian. He tells a joke about advice he gave the boy. He remarks that Jewish children, even under oppression, sought some joy.

Rezmovits recalls a Yiddish theater visit after the war and the humorous way his mother retold the performance. Kerler asks about a Yiddish newspaper and about the terms 'dybbuk' and 'golem', which Rezmovits explains from his mother's stories, and he also mentions films. He adds how the word 'golem' is used for a fool.

Rezmovits speaks about his religious schooling, the study of Mishnah, and why neither he nor his brother attended yeshiva. He mentions Folkovitch (?), his last melamed, who was strict, and the melamed's Hungarian origin. Kerler asks about his languages, and Rezmovits tells a story from the Israeli army about a Canadian-English-speaking officer who watched who did not laugh at him.

Gross recalls the weddings of his three sisters, with Gypsy musicians and no badkhn. Kerler asks about Hebrew words used in Yiddish, including words for money, and Gross recalls a song and Hungarian coin names. He is then asked about the Messiah song and tells a joke about a man who goes to the Messiah.

Smajovics offers to sing a song and performs it more than once, with Kerler asking him to repeat it line by line so he can write down the words. It is a humorous song about Aunt Pesl in a lane of the shtetl and a rabbi found with her. In between Kerler asks about the meanings of terms such as dybbuk and golem.

Smajovics sings a comic Yiddish song in which the speaker vows to be a faithful hasid, with a hot mikveh in summer, a silk kaftan and a shtreimel, and shaking at prayer to entertain the rebbe. Kerler asks him to repeat the lines slowly so they can be written down, and asks about their sense. Smajovics sings the whole song several times.

Herbst recounts his work at a sawmill and on forest paths in the mountains, as a youth too young to be registered. He tells of an encounter with a bear that jumped down while he stood pressed to a wall, and of wolves that once threatened the family's animals in winter. Kerler asks about the sawmill, sawdust and the Tisza river.

Herbst recites a humorous rhyme about the Hasidic rebbes of Sighet and Spinka: one goes to Sighet for a cow, to Spinka for a bride. Kerler asks him about it, and they discuss going to rebbes, who were also called 'good Jews'. Herbst mentions the Kalov rebbe, whose descendant lives in Israel, and Kerler asks whether the song was known at his home; it was not, and he heard it only in Budapest. Kerler ends by asking about the word 'baal-shem'.

Gotlieb recalls prewar childhood: listening to cantors in the synagogue and preparing for Passover with separate dishes, the four questions asked by the youngest, and new clothes. She describes going from house to house in a mask at Purim to deliver food gifts. At Kerler's request she recites a Purim rhyme and a verse from a Purim shpil, repeating it slowly several times so he can write it down.

Gotlieb speaks about Sabbath-ending prayers and the greeting "a gute vokh" with its replies, then the prayers she learned as a child. She recites the morning prayer "Modeh Ani" and other prayer texts, though the transcript is largely garbled here.

Rezmovits recalls poverty in childhood: bread spread with lard and paprika as a snack. He describes his father's attitude toward self-important people in the community, and the nickname "karpn-kop" (carp head) his father used for them. He and Kerler compare the fish word in Hungarian and in other Yiddish dialects.

Rezmovits tells a short anecdote about an elderly Hasid and his wife, and Kerler closes the recording.

Kerler opens with the date and thanks the people who helped the expedition, then asks Rezmovits to sing. Rezmovits, with another person joining in, sings a humorous song about a rebbe, the rebbetsin and the hasidim. Asked when the song was sung, he says he heard it in Israel and brought it back to Hungary, and tells how Polish friends there found he knew Yiddish.

Rezmovits recalls sayings and songs from his Carpathian family tradition, such as not boasting about money. His parents came from Sighet and his grandfather was a melamed. He tells how his father, angered by a Romanian tax collector who seized his grandfather's tefillin bag, threw the man to the ground and his grandmother calmed the man with brandy. Kerler asks about songs of the grandfather and father, about love, and about a comic song about paper children; Rezmovits cannot place the last.

Herbst recalls his childhood home at the foot of a hill, with a few geese and hens, and a story of wolves coming down from the forest. He speaks of Tisha B'Av, when the children fasted and did not work. During the war he picked raspberries in the mountains with friends because of the bears. He and Kerler briefly discuss a Yiddish word for a children's game, and he says he began working in Hungary in the late 1930s.

Kerler asks Herbst to repeat a song he has just given. Herbst sings a Yiddish song about a childless woman who goes to a rebbe, who gives a blessing. Kerler then discusses homemade schnapps and where it is made, including the Sighet area and a village near Cluj (Klausenburg), and the Hungarian saying that one does not drink alone. A picture on glass is mentioned at the end.

Herbst mentions a cousin in America, then he and Kerler talk about drinking and drunkenness: the saying that a drunk is a non-Jew, and the habit of having a snack with a drink. Kerler remarks that many books will be written by many people, and Herbst says there will be nothing without his name.

Doman tells a story from the Shavuot night before the war, when yeshiva students were attacked by antisemites on their way to the rebbe's house; one had his arm broken. A tall non-Jewish soldier on leave intervened, and he fled when he saw a bearded man in a black beaver hat, taking him for an angel from heaven. Kerler then asks about the beaver hat and the shtreiml, and Doman explains that Hungarian Jews wore the shtreiml only on Sabbath and holidays, borrowing the custom from Poland.

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

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

Blobshteyn describes remedies against the evil eye, including a red ribbon on children's wrists and sprinkling a child with water and charcoal. He discusses the 'bad year' and 'good year' and the nights of non-Jewish holidays, when Jews did not fear going out. He tells of a drunken non-Jew who made a disturbance in the klayzl (prayer house) one Friday night, was beaten and thrown out, and came on Monday to ask forgiveness. He ends by contrasting the hard-working boys of that time with those today.

Blobshteyn talks about his religious education: the tutor in the 1930s and cheder, long hours in summer, and prayers recited without understanding the Hebrew. He says that the village melamed was chosen for being healthy and strong. Kerler asks about Tisha B'Av, and Blobshteyn explains that children threw burrs at girls' hair and beards, and a boy with long hair might have to have it cut.

Asked about a song on the coming of the Messiah, Blobshteyn says he cannot recall it and mentions the Hungarian song 'Szól a kakas már', associated with the Kolever rebbe. Kerler asks about a secret language used so that others would not understand, and Blobshteyn tells of a servant girl who knew Yiddish. They discuss mame-loshn as a name for Yiddish, and Kerler asks about non-Jews who became Jews.

Kerler asks Blobshteyn terminology questions, such as the plural of rabbi and rebbetsin, and forms of address for a rabbi. They also discuss 'Litvak', and Blobshteyn tells a story about travelling to America, where he met a Hungarian-speaking Jew in a restaurant and discussed food. It ends with food and drink words.

Herbst answers Kerler's questions about Purim in Berlabashe: children went around from synagogue to synagogue performing a Purim shpiel and asking for money. He recites some lines and discusses how much a coin was worth and what a day's wages bought. He then talks about how the family could not afford meat.

Herbst answers Kerler's questions about the golem and the dybbuk, saying the golem figure was kept in a synagogue attic. He is then asked about his current life, and the passage becomes a discussion partly in Hungarian.

Reti tells of the Kosoner rebbe's foresight and judgment. The rebbe predicted that a man held by the authorities would be freed by a court, and it happened; this was in Kleinwardein (Kisvárda). Visitors, including non-Jews, relied on him, as he knew why they came. Reti again mentions the brother, Mendele of Kalev, as a small rebbe with a fine voice.

Reti recites a hasidic prayer text and chants a Purim Kiddush. Kerler asks him to repeat parts slowly, and he recalls Purim rhymes and a comic wedding verse with a joke about a tall bride. Kerler and Reti also discuss words in these texts.

Reti says he studied in a yeshiva in a town named Berkan(?) with a rabbi whose family of many children is mentioned. He describes the village Purim figure who made a straw belt and announced the festivities. He recites parts of the Joseph play, in which the brothers sell Joseph, and Kerler asks about the troupe: over twenty young men who performed whole plays around Purim in ten to fifteen villages.

Reti recalls the Joseph play episode of the pit and a creature whose name is discussed (a word rendered as a scorpion). He explains a children's game in which a prize went to the person who hit the target from twenty or thirty meters, and relates it to Sukkot, though the catalogue's name "nuts" is not clear in the transcript. S2 asks about the language at home and Reti says his father employed a Yiddish-speaking non-Jewish farmhand. He also mentions the family's fields and servants and the plays staged on Sukkot.

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.

Reti recalls going to the mikveh as a boy and his time in the yeshiva, and Kerler asks about the upsherin, the first haircut at age three. Reti says it was held in the prayer house with the whole community and that boys wore short trousers until thirteen. He also says the prayer house served as the cheder and that his mother carried him there on her back. At the end he tells a story involving a rabbi and telling the truth.

Kerler asks what was said when swinging the kapores and what was done against the evil eye. Reti describes pouring coals into a glass of water, and the singing of Shema Yisrael and giving of treats for the newborn son before the circumcision. He and Kerler also discuss naming a girl in the synagogue and giving a name. Reti then speaks of a doctor who keeps a kosher home, and the closing lines turn to the games asked about in Hungarian.

Kerler asks whether people from Vaja used to travel to a rebbe or a grave. Galambos says his father went to the grave of the Kaliver tsadik, and he himself did not. He tells an episode about the Tosher rebbe, to whom Jews came in the ghetto asking what would happen, and who answered that he was a simple man; Kerler tells a story of his own. They mention the rebbe's son in Canada. They then turn to Jewish weddings in Vaja.

Galambos describes Jewish weddings in Vaja. There was a canopy and a meal, with no dancing, a toast, and singing at the meal. A wedding jester from a nearby place rhymed there. He says there were no klezmer musicians in the village.

Galambos recites Purim-play rhymes for Kerler, who explains that the scholars find them interesting. Galambos then says he visited Israel about eight years earlier and liked it, but has mixed feelings about the Hasidim there. He also recites a prayer he said on Yom Kippur for Jewish children and finds it hard to translate.

Altman answers Kerler's questions about her mother's cooking, including a Viennese soup. She recalls Yom Kippur fasting and the morning prayer, which she tries to recite. She talks about Hanukkah, with latkes and honey pastries, and about Purim: gifts of food and the Purim play, which she was ashamed to have her brother take part in. She recites Purim rhymes, describes Passover, including the four questions, and ends with a brief exchange about a fire brigade.

Bukshpun speaks about childhood: three children, schooling with Christians, Yiddish at home with other Jewish children, and his mother reading in Yiddish on Sabbath. They told stories in the long winter evenings. He answers questions on the evil eye and its spells, on the Briceni rebbe, on the cemetery and graves at Briceni, and on saying Kaddish.

Asked about Yiddish sayings and curses, Reizman says she remembers none, and recalls her father kissing the mezuzah, praying in a tallis and being buried in his tallis. She says her mother did not sing and that she herself remembers no Yiddish songs, jokes or wise sayings. Lemster repeatedly prompts for anything she heard from her parents.

Katerberg talks about the ritual slaughterer, who came every week from Cotiujeni and served several villages, including a trip to Lipcani. Lemster and Kerler ask about rabbis and the 'good Jew' to whom people travelled. S3 tells the saying about a non-Jew who speaks Yiddish, and Kerler compares this with a Yiddish-speaking Ukrainian he met in Sharhorod. It ends as Lemster asks him a question about his time as a chairman.

Kalussky says there was a local fire brigade in which Jews served, and names a family of butchers. He says briefly that after the war he worked in trade. Kerler asks about a Jewish library. Kalussky then tells at length how Sholem Schwartzbard assassinated Petliura in revenge for the murder of his family in pogroms.

Goldberg describes Sabbath table customs with kiddush and zemirot, and says prewar Jewish trades were mainly tailors and shoemakers. She says that now many people want to be Jews in order to emigrate to Israel or Germany. Questions follow on a tale of Hershele Ostropolier, the phrase "over there crazy" about a nearby town, and annual cemetery visits.

Zelda sings a song urging people to be human, to live and let live, and to help the poor. Kerler asks her to repeat the first four lines and then asks whether such songs were sung in the camp. Roif and Zelda go on to relatives, a Beyle who was Mendl's wife, and an anecdote about Moyshe Vinkelshteyn the tailor and which Moyshe was meant.

Farber sings a Yiddish song with the refrain 'khay', while Kerler explains that its author was an acquaintance of his father. Farber then recalls the author as an activist who played the guitar, and the talk turns to a Jewish instrument, the spoons.

Abelsky talks about religious families and figures of the Soviet period, including a rabbi born in Kutaisi (?) and a family of Lubavitch Hasidim. He tells of a man who saved a Jewish girl and was imprisoned, and of her later marriage to him after the rebbe's advice. He then begins a lighter story about a grandfather and a Mitnagdic rabbi in Moscow.

Asked by Kerler for a tale about his grandfather, Abelsky describes a childhood episode near their Moscow home and a tram accident. He then tells how his grandfather was reputed for learning, how Mitnagdim feared him and how he sent emissaries to Ukrainian yeshivas. He also tells an anecdote about a melamed and sour cream, and recalls growing up in a Hasidic atmosphere.

Abelsky explains that his blessings come through the rebbe, unlike his grandfather's own power, and tells Kerler of people seeking blessings. He describes a woman who needed milk for her baby and the sceptical doctor husband, and a man injured by an axe who recovered after the blessing and is now in Israel.

Abelsky discusses and sings a Lubavitch song about eating and drinking that happen by themselves while davening and learning do not. He explains it as a Hasidic problem and comments on children's wants. Kerler then asks for a melody from his father or grandfather.

A discussion among Abelsky and the interviewers about a Hasidic master and his teacher, apparently a story about a rebbe and a grandfather, unclear in the transcript. Katz speaks of living in Vilnius, asks for an address for sending the article, and says he wants it published.

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.

Roif hesitates, then sings a song she remembers from childhood before the war about a Jewish girl in Edineț (?) who converted and married a Moldovan shepherd, in which the mother seeks her. She says the song is based on a true story, and Katz asks about other songs. Roif says the missing cousin's mother was her father's sister, Rivke, and her father was called Dovid or Dudl.

Roif goes on with her message about honesty, helping others and not stealing. She recites a Yiddish poem about human greed and the need to live and let live, which she says she once sang to an uncle who was a miser and had no children. She then begins to speak about her husband's work as a kolkhoz chairman in Moldavia.

Sherman discusses the Dybbuk, which local amateurs staged in the Telenești theater along with Sholem Aleichem. Questions follow on a dybbuk, the golem, the Baal Shem Tov and Hershele Ostropolyer, which he mostly cannot recall. He mentions receiving a Yiddish children's magazine from Bucharest and Itzik Manger's booklet of poems, and says Manger visited friends in Ploiești.

Sherman speaks about the Yiddish books and translations he read as a child, including translated American writers such as Jack London. Kerler and a second voice put questions on translated authors and on funeral and condolence formulas. Sherman ends with a joke about a man's death.

Mitlaeva and Kerler discuss Polish and Lithuanian Yiddish and how Litvaks were regarded in Chișinău, including a Lithuanian-Jewish neighbor. They go on to terms such as golem and dybbuk. She recalls a Yiddish poem about Galitsyaner and Litvaks being equal before God.

Muchnik sings or recites a series of Yiddish rhymes and songs. They include a humorous song on lineage, a riddle song about how an emperor sleeps and eats, a seder-style song, and a song of creation, Adam and Eve and the serpent. She also gives a short song about a headache and longing, a Hebrew school song from Tarbut, and a comic song about the shoykhet's daughter and a rebbe. Kerler and Lemster ask her to repeat some and ask where she learned them, and she does not remember.

Muchnik describes how two Jewish soldiers from the barracks sat at the family seder, and how the household managed without a maid. She tells about their Moldovan non-Jewish helper Moshe Alekseyi, who carried water and did Sabbath tasks, and an anecdote about the wine of the plagues. She also tells of his belief that he was Alexander of Macedon. Lemster asks whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish, and she says she did not know any who did.

Kerler asks about salting meat, and Muchnik says her mother sent questions to a religious judge when something was doubtful. She then recalls Purim on the Jewish street, with a costumed procession stopping at her father's house. She says she does not recall a Purim play, and remembers neighbour children saying a Purim rhyme to get coins.

Muchnik speaks of her present life: the Jewish centre, writing, and the few people with whom she can speak Yiddish. She answers questions on expressions and prayers, including 'a gut ort' and a prayer for Sabbath night. She says women went to the synagogue only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and recalls Roza Zabritsky dressing up on Yom Kippur.

Answering Kerler's question about old Chabad traditions, Abelsky tells how the Alter Rebbe supported Russia in the Napoleonic war while other Polish tsadikim favored Napoleon. He tells of the contest between the Alter Rebbe and Israel of Kozienice over who would blow the shofar first. He recounts how a rabbi, Moshe Meizlish (?), spied for the Russians inside Napoleon's headquarters. He then answers Kerler's question about the origin of the Chabad melodies sung with words.

Abelsky explains why the Lubavitcher rebbe had the French anthem and Napoleon's march learned and sung. He tells of a Chabad emissary in Paris and a Simchat Torah hakafot episode in which the rebbe led the Marseillaise. He says Napoleon's march is sung at Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur. Kerler asks for the year and asks him to sing it, and the group sings or hums the melody.

Abelsky answers Kerler's question on the difference between Russian (Chabad) and Polish Hasidism. He contrasts Chabad's intellectual approach with the Polish groups' emotional approach, and lists Lithuanian Hasidic groups. He tells an anecdote about a misnagid and a Hasidic Sabbath gathering. He says Chabad alone survived in Russia and remarks on Chabad's attitude to visiting tsadikim's graves, with a story about the Rebbe Maharash and his elder brother at Lubavitch.

Abelsky speaks about today's generation, which he calls a generation of the messiah, and about secular Jews who are not culpable for transgressions out of ignorance. He discusses what an apikoyres (heretic) must know, with an anecdote about Abraham Mapu. He tells of a self-declared atheist, a doctor of philosophical science, who came to the synagogue to buy matzah and whom Abelsky questioned about his unbelief. Lemster comments on priests who became atheists, and Abelsky talks about a Spinoza institute in Jerusalem.

Rotner answers questions about idioms and terms, including a phrase involving a good place and the term for a good Jew (a rebbe visited), and says there was no rebbe in the village. She says Jews in the village did not drink heavily and describes her mother baking challah and the village having a bakery. She also names a Jewish doctor, Yigilski (?).

Fershtman talks about Pishchanka before the war, including its schools, the many Jews there and the Jewish head of the village soviet, a tailor. He recalls speaking only Yiddish with childhood friends until the move to Odesa, and then losing his Yiddish after switching to Russian. He says he does not remember his grandparents, and that neighbours called him by a patronymic formula. He also gives some Yiddish sayings.

Lemster asks about Odessa anecdotes, which Fershtman does not recall; the talk turns to a cassette of his mother's songs held by a relative, which Lemster offers to copy. Fershtman then speaks about his health and life today: a prostate operation in 2005, an eye operation, back and limb problems, expensive medicines, and difficulty walking alone.

Lemster asks about Odesa humour and what Odesa youths did. Fershtman says that this had gone with the old days, and that he lived in Odesa only until 1941. He briefly mentions his years at the front and in Moldova and the interview ends with thanks.

At Kerler's request Shmid describes how she makes gefilte fish: cleaning, boning and chopping the fish, adding many onions, eggs and matzo meal, with only a little pepper, salt or sugar. She says sweet fish was the custom at weddings. Lemster asks about stuffed derma, which she never made, and about stories of Hershele Ostropolyer, which she has heard of but hardly read.

Leibelman describes the family Passover seder at home: her father reading the Haggadah, the cup of wine, the opening of the door, and burning the chometz. She gives a comic parody of the Four Questions asked by her brother. She describes their one-room thatched house, her father's daily prayer, and going to the neighboring village of Glinjeni for the holidays. She also recalls walking home from Rezina every Sabbath.

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.

Mundrian answers questions about idioms and terms, and talks about religious life: her uncle going to synagogue in Kishinev, going to rebbes for blessings, cheder, slaughter of fowl before the holidays, and Passover dishes such as latkes, kugel, and potato and matzo meal dishes. She describes how a child's eye trouble was treated with spells and a village healer, and a doctor visit with a relative. Lemster also asks about sayings (a good place, praying on behalf of others, a bright paradise, not to be spoken of, rules about night-time knocking).

Kigel sings part of a lullaby, noting that she does not remember all of it. She talks about drinking vodka on Sabbath mornings before the war without getting drunk. Kerler asks about toasting songs and about meanings of words such as a stubborn person or a fool.

Kotliar says she read Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish. She talks about an amateur Yiddish theater before the war, which she did not attend because of work and cost. She describes the rebbe going from house to house to gather a minyan and knocking at her door. She also answers questions about regional types such as Litvaks, Bessarabian thieves and Galicians.

Boiarskaia answers questions about the meaning of terms such as dibbuk and golem. She gives the Russian equivalents and the sense of a fool or simpleton. The passage ends with her offering to show the interviewers her house.

Asked by Lemster how she lives today, Rolshut says she has a pension, including a German pension. Lemster then asks about Yiddish curses and blessings, and she repeats a few formulas she does not know well. Lemster thanks her and closes the interview.

Brief says he worked as a dental technician for forty-five years. He says he dislikes Romanian-style dancing at weddings. His father sang well, Russian songs among them, and Brief recalls a Yiddish saying about children. He tells how he avoided drinking in Botoșani and discusses vodka and brandy.

Brief recites a comic version of the Four Questions for Passover. Kerler and Lemster ask him to repeat it, and Fanya joins in. They discuss the fourth question and how blessings are pronounced. Lemster mentions that his daughter has said he sings well.

Brief speaks about Chernivtsi, with a famous doctor named Sternberg who operated on him. Lemster and Kerler ask about libraries, newspapers and a culture league, and Brief says there was much culture, theater and none of the others. They then return to the Four Questions and a Yiddish riddle.

Brief recites a riddle and a humorous version of Tumbalalaika. The interviewers ask about gramophone records and popular Yiddish songs. He recalls a magician show and the cinemas and theaters of Chernivtsi, including Russian actors. S3 also helps.

Opens with a remark that people from Russia, here and Canada all speak Yiddish. Kerler and Lemster then try to get Brief to recall the poet Shvartskop (Shvartskov) from Mohyliv, and the talk drifts to actors and artists. Brief says he has forgotten much.

Brief speaks about hearing Shvartskop a couple of times. He recalls children's customs in the synagogue at Passover (playing with nuts in holes) and a performer who sang and danced. Kerler and Lemster try to get him to recite the Four Questions from the beginning, and Brief mentions someone in New Jersey. He starts a riddle-like rhyme about a pot with holes.

Grinberg recites a Romanian poem and part of its Yiddish version, about a young woman waiting for her husband from the war and a son at his mother's door. She then answers questions on words she used as a code so non-Jews could not understand, naming a few such words.

Grunfeld speaks about Jewish observance in Cluj and Hasidim he saw in Cluj, Dej (?) and Oradea, and about distinctions Transylvanian Jews drew between themselves and Jews from Maramureș, Moldavia and Bessarabia. He says Maramureș Jews were more religious. Asked about Lithuanian Jews and which Yiddish is correct, he says everyone considers their own Yiddish the right one, and he recalls adapting to Bessarabian speech. The passage ends with jokes and Chełm stories.

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.

Hershkovich recalls the wedding jester (badkhn) Zoldi of Dej, who was famous in the region, performed in rhymes, sang and danced at weddings, and mocked Hasidim. Kerler asks about related terms and about Hershele Ostropolier. Hershkovich says the jester went to Canada after the war and died there, and that Jewish weddings continued for a few years after the war.

Answers questions from the dialectological questionnaire on the word for the spinning top (tenderl, drenderl, dreidel, dreiderl) and on the nut game played at Sukkot. Kerler then asks about a comic named Zaldi/Zeldik (?) and the word for 'green'. This leads to a discussion of colour words, red and fair hair, and the surname Grunfeld.

The second man sings a Hungarian-language song, then a Hasidic song attributed to the Kaliver rebbe. He says his grandfather used to sing it. He tells how the rebbe is said to have heard the melody from a shepherd child and bought it from him. Kerler praises the singing and begins to thank the interviewees.

A woman sings a humorous Yiddish song about making a living, and Kerler asks Freundlich to repeat the lyrics so that he can understand the words. She then sings the wedding badkhn's song again, more slowly.

Hershkovich recites a Purim rhyme for children going from house to house. He recalls the long Purim plays in Dej, including the Joseph story, and a well-known wedding rhymer, Zuldi (?), who performed at weddings throughout the area and died in Canada.

Freundlich explains that her father did not follow a certain Hasidic rebbe (R. Yoyle, the Satmar rebbe) but went to the Bixad rebbe, and why he disapproved of the other's customs. She recounts a story of Emperor Charles passing through Satu Mare and the religions coming to bless him, with her father's comments.

Freundlich recalls prewar Jewish weddings with the 'mitzvah dance' and the hired announcer. She then talks about relatives in Várdan (?), about Jews left in Satu Mare and Cluj and the community's problems. She goes on at length, partly in Hungarian, about her husband's family (Weinstock) and their business, an uncle in Nyíregyháza who was head of the Judenrat, and a minister who helped them. Kerler also asks about a humorist who was paid to amuse guests at weddings.

Talks about his family and the Jewish families in the village, with a mother of the Levite line. He explains a custom of a firstborn washing the hands in the absence of a Levite and mentions counting families by tallitot. Kerler also asks about stories told at weddings, involving a wedding jester.

They talk about the Sabbath goy who lit the stove for religious families. Grunfeld recalls a story told by his grandfather about a visitor and exile. Kerler asks about the meanings of 'erlekh' versus 'frum', words for gypsies and Roma, and the term for lacking money.

Grunfeld says he prays from memory because his eyesight is poor. He and Kerler discuss the expression that someone 'prayed well', meaning he prospered, and a variant for someone who prayed badly. Grunfeld then mentions a synagogue on a street whose name is unclear, and a burial society.

Miller describes Friday night at home before the war, with a white tablecloth, candles and two large challahs, and his father singing and chanting the Sabbath hymns and prayers. He chants and sings long stretches, the transcript of which is too garbled to read, and tells a story about Joseph who honors the Sabbath and finds a jewel in a fish. He closes with remarks on Jewish tradition and the Holocaust.

Meir answers Kerler's questions about prewar Dorohoi. Some non-Jews were decent, some hid Jewish families, and non-Jews who knew Yiddish words. He and Lemster discuss Jewish weddings: the canopy in the synagogue, the hall, music and dancing, and non-Jewish guests. They discuss a wedding entertainer and a Romanian word for jokes.

A business story about a Jew named Mikhail, a fur dealer, and Tuvye's dealings with him, in which a non-Jewish buyer takes many furs. The dispute is settled on Sabbath in the synagogue courtyard, with the culprit made to pay and give kiddush for four Sabbaths. It ends with a question about what year this was, answered as early 1970s (?), when several synagogues still stood.

Hirsch speaks about prewar Luduș, including non-Jewish workers whose parents spoke Yiddish, and about holidays. He recalls the matzo factory and new clothes at Passover, the closed shops at Yom Kippur, and being taken by his father to the early-morning selihot services. He then discusses the Yiddish word for the Mureș river, the changing of Jewish family names, and a saying about birth and loss. He finally describes the seder, where he asked the four questions, the afikoman, and the Hebrew reading of the Haggadah.

Hirsch answers questions about cultural terminology, such as a golem, the word for a church or synagogue, and the term for havdalah. He names wealthy Jewish landowners and says rich Jews built the synagogue in Luduș. He also mentions the town's four churches and the Jewish community's social life.

Chajim retells a Sholem Aleichem story about why it is hard to be a Jew and the tale of the arendar who needed a ninth man for a minyan, and a story of a man who could not reach the synagogue for Kol Nidre. He says Sholem Aleichem died poor while Sholem Asch had better luck. Kerler and others then urge him to pray, and a garbled kaddish or kiddush follows, with the Romanian-speaking bystander moving the chair.

Chajim repeats the Sholem Aleichem story about why it is hard to be a Jew: circumcision, tefillin and studying in the Jewish and Romanian schools. He retells the arendar and minyan anecdote, and notes that kaddish cannot be said with fewer than ten. Lemster asks where he is from, and the others look for another bench.

The camera films the synagogue interior while the interviewers remark on an iron ark. Grinberg compares the Rădăuți synagogue with the great synagogue of Fălticeni, with more painted decoration, and tells a legend of a ship and Emperor Franz Joseph. She asked a Suceava university historian to check the archives. She also talks about an ethnographic museum that has nothing from the Jews, and about wanting to keep the synagogue's contents there.

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.

Asked about Purim after the war, the speakers recall hard times and hunger in 1945–46, with Purim treats made at home but no old-style Jewish life. At Kerler's request Iakob tells a story about his parents in Iași. They were given a flat in a block where all the doors looked alike, and his mother once tried the wrong door and met a neighbor. A passage on the word for a stove tile or similar (kakvele) also occurs. The story then turns to his mother's sister in Palestine.

Iakob finishes the story about his mother and the postcard from her sister, and the interviewers and interviewees laugh. This closes the interview.

Resh names actors of the Yiddish theater in Chernivtsi and retells a humorous anecdote about a rich man's invitation. Asked by Lemster about holidays, he speaks about the sukkah, dairy dishes at Shavuot, and potato dishes in Hanukkah and in general in Bukovina. He says he married late, at 37.

Chirilau recalls Jewish holidays, including Simchat Torah dancing and Sabbath attendance at the synagogue. She talks about Purim, when Romanians, Germans and Jews dressed up and ate hamantaschen, and tries to recall a Purim song with Kerler. She then tells about a poor local family, a short husband who drank and a tall wife with many children.

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 says her parents were both born in Mihăileni. She recounts her father's friendship with Moshe Itsik, and a funny story about two friends who agreed to circumcise each other's children. She then answers Lemster's questions about Jews who leased out fields and vineyards, with Romanian peasants working the land.

Chirilau answers questions on whether a rebbe lived in town, saying the nearby Târgu Frumos rebbe was visited by Jews and Romanians alike. She tells how her father travelled to Chernivtsi with a cart, and a quarrel over stolen leather which the rebbe settled by pointing out how the rich man should not strip the poor. She recalls her parents as good people.

Women present recite a Purim-play fragment, with lines about a man with a long beard and a sick wife, and discuss it with Kerler. Chirilau says she cannot remember other songs, and recalls that there were different rhymers at Jewish weddings. A final question asks what she wants remembered about Mihăileni.

Leichtner says Jews lived well in prewar Romania, and that Sighet was a large city with many Jews, which he visited by train until he was taken into service at eighteen. He talks about weddings: the wedding jester who announced the dancers and collected gift money from them, and the klezmer band from a nearby village, with fiddle, drum, accordion and clarinet. He recalls storytelling in the evenings and has heard of Hershele Ostropolyer.

Freundlich tells a family episode in which his engaged older brother, delayed, arrived at a festive meal with a new hat and tie bought with his wages, and their father slapped him. The family then searched the town for him and he went to an aunt.

Answers Kerler's question on the language spoken at home: her parents spoke Yiddish and Hungarian, the children Hungarian and Romanian, and the grandmother Yiddish only. She recalls her grandmother's shock at her using an umbrella on the Sabbath and a sister who smoked. She says she read in Hungarian and Romanian, including Gorky and Dostoevsky from her father's library, and she begins a joke attributed to Sholem Aleichem about a widow's daughter.

Marcus speaks about returning to Săveni from Israel, a difficult process involving housing and citizenship papers, and about his son and other family. Kerler and Lemster ask about secret words that Jews used so non-Jews would not understand, and about a woman of German origin who speaks Yiddish. Towards the end they ask about Jews who converted, and about non-Jews who became Jewish. Several stretches are garbled.

Marcus names Săveni's Jewish trades: tailors, shoemakers, barbers, carpenters and bakers. Before the war there were separate synagogues for the trades. He says there was a rabbi before the war but only a shochet after it, and he again mentions theater visits from Botoșani. He and the interviewers discuss Yiddish dishes his mother cooked and his wife's cooking of gefilte fish, and Jewish drunks and Jewish taverns. He tells about a man named Shmiluke (?), a Jew who was a police officer in Ukraine and sided with the Germans, was later imprisoned and went to Israel. The interviewers also ask about madmen and wedding entertainers.

Salamon briefly recalls the ghetto in 1944 and the trains of Jews. She then talks about Purim: masking, which she and her brothers did not do, the visits and verses recited on Purim, and Jews visiting a local official named Smug (?) at his house, where they were given food and drink.

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 recalls his prewar childhood: his father at work and his mother sewing. His father was very religious and prayed at the synagogue in Bershad and in Siret; Siret had a street of synagogues. He tells stories of his observant grandfather, including a Passover joke about wrapping, and the Four Questions with riddle-like questions.

Prompted by Kerler, Kurtsberg describes prewar Jewish life in Siret. He says Jews were a large share of the population (a figure around thirty-eight percent is given), lived above their shops in the center, and sold to peasants on credit. He contrasts this with Mihăileni, where Jews were an overwhelming majority. He ends with a long humorous story, heard from his father, about cavalry horses quartered at an estate near Mihăileni and an officer whose horse grew horns. Kerler thanks him at the close.

Kerler asks Petraru about the Jewish cemetery, from which the tsadikim were moved to Israel, and about Hasidim and rabbis in Dorohoi, including the last rabbi there. Kerler also asks what he knows about Suceava and Bukovina. The passage then turns to a language exchange about Romanian and local expressions for royalty and a dismissive saying about the dead.

Kerler notes swastikas carved on the wooden doors of the synagogue being excavated, and Steiner speaks about the cemetery. Gravestones were toppled some years ago and money was raised to repair it, and he describes the repair ceremony and good relations with local priests. He tells of a ten-day trip of priests to Israel, including Yad Vashem, and of the support of Rabbi Sher Yashuv Cohen. He says his family lives in Israel, and there is talk of phoning a man for the interviewers, and of plans to travel to Prešov and see the museum and synagogue from outside. He also discusses contemporary relations with the authorities and Jewish communities. He explains a memorial of the deportation route, with names of Košice Jews deported toward Auschwitz read at a ceremony. At the end he tells a cheder joke and there are languages questions, and car-travel talk partly in Hungarian.

Answering Kerler, Weinberger recalls Simchat Torah and Tisha B'Av sweets in his childhood, delivering milk to local candy makers, and a prank by a taxi driver. He describes the Slovak school and its Jewish teachers and the cheder, including a teacher who beat a pupil, and the teacher Jeger, a German-speaking Jew. He says he does not remember performances well but mentions the songs children knew.

Weinberger recalls Passover, when as a boy he asked the four questions and invented jokes about his father. He tells jokes about Passover customs, including snuff tobacco and a Purim rabbi's ruling. Kerler then raises Hanukkah and a few terms, and mentions a local man from Košice who still speaks good Yiddish and whom Kerler might contact.

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.

Chaimovic recalls Hanukkah games with paper and printed Yiddish booklets from Poland. Kerler asks about plays and customs at weddings, about a game, and about dancing.

Chaimovic recalls a Mizrachi song, dancing the hora and learning some Hebrew. Kerler then asks terminology questions: dybbuk, the difference between rabbi and rebbe, Hasidim, Galician and Lithuanian Jews, and a Prešov cemetery. They also touch on Lithuanian Yiddish, folk tales and a comic character.

Recalls seeing Mikhoels perform in Kharkiv, in the role of Tevye the milkman and in both Yiddish and Russian, and comments on the actor Ulyanov. The conversation then turns to the singer Appelbaum in Berdychiv, to the meeting of young and old on a bridge, and to sayings about youth and old age. Asked to sing a Yiddish song, the informants say they do not remember one, and mention a relative who knows a little.

Breuer discusses Russian Hasidim (Karlin, Slonim) and Chabad's closeness to the Lithuanian world. He tells about his ancestors among Chabad Hasidim, with stories of the Alter Rebbe and of a Hasid called Yomi Kletsker (?), and about his eight children. He and the interviewers discuss Yiddish among Chabad and other Hasidim in Israel, where Hebrew is replacing it.

Semyon Berzon recites a humorous Yiddish song about a rabbi, his goat and his wife and the faith of simple people who send the rabbi gifts. Kerler has him repeat it slowly line by line, asks the meaning of words such as lotkes (pancakes), and reads back what he wrote. Berzon says he learned it as a boy in the town and adds a short riddle-like song of opposites.

The team phones an American visitor, Tanya Goldfeld (?), who had been photographed with Burmenko, and speaks to her in English and Russian. Burmenko speaks to her in Russian, gives her phone number, and the team promises to send her address. She states a proverb.

Hodinger says he learned three Purim plays in Selish and recites them. Kerler asks him to repeat them slowly line by line, to write them down and to explain unfamiliar words, such as those for the rebbe's gabbai and for a Purim gift.

Shor recites cheder rhymes and ditties, including a macaronic Hebrew-Yiddish verse about meat (basar) and humorous nonsense rhymes. He mentions that many songs existed in the ghetto-era (?) setting. Kerler then turns to photographs, and Shor shows pictures of himself and his wife at a resort and of his family, including a brother.

Feldman recalls her mother's songs and stories. She answers Lemster's questions about Jewish life after the war and describes fasting on Yom Kippur as a child. She also describes going to the synagogue and hearing yizkor, which made her cry. She speaks of the officials who run the synagogue.

Loyf says she has a daughter in Israel and a son in Berehove, Transcarpathia, who has two daughters. She sorts out when she married and when the son was born, and that he was circumcised in Dzegovka by someone she cannot name. Her grandchildren are not Jewish. Lemster asks whether her mother told Jewish stories, but she says there was no time.

Kerler and Lemster put cultural-terminology questions and she answers some, including words for a golem and a fool and a sentence about a farmer. She gives blessings and wishes for long life, recalls an expression about growing older, and answers questions about spells and folk sayings. She replies that she knows no Yiddish way to say some of them, and mentions a woman who sold dreams.

Sofia cannot recall Yiddish songs, saying decades of pressure made them forget. Katz and Kerler prompt her, and she and others sing fragments of 'Itsik hot shoyn khasene gehat' and 'Lomir zikh tsekushn'. She talks about her family: her daughters live in Moscow, a granddaughter studies there, and an aunt sang Yiddish songs. They now speak Russian at home. She says that Yiddish was her parents' language and that her older brother finished six years of Jewish school before the war, while she attended a non-Jewish school. Kerler also asks about Nemirov and a saying about it.

Lifshitz tells how, at thirteen, he went with his mother to a village to trade, and when people tried to rob them he struck an attacker on the head with a stone. The telling is partly garbled and includes a Russian passage.

Gimelbrandt answers Kerler's questionnaire. He gives words and sentences in Russian and she translates them into Yiddish. Items include terms for a dybbuk and a convert, greetings and politeness, body parts, colours, adjectives, adverbs and numbers. They also cover cholent and kugel types, pronoun and case forms, the midwife, and several short sentences. She compares Chernivtsi usage with the Bessarabians'.

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 describes preparing the kitchen and baking for Passover, and is asked about Passover songs. She recalls the visiting cantor and singer Fushman and the songs he sang, including one about paper children and a comic song about marriage. She also sings a wedding-related song and answers Lemster's question about the phrase 'Moshe, kum arayn'. Kerler explains the archive's purpose.

Gammer answers dialectological questions: the meanings of dybbuk, a clay golem and meshumed. She says she remembers little and cannot recall Yiddish proverbs. She notes that nowadays everyone speaks Ukrainian or Russian and that her old neighbor remembers Yiddish. Lemster praises her memory.

Kerler asks about Shekhovich's schooling: a Polish primary school of seven classes, then a Polish gymnasium. She answers partly in Ukrainian. They discuss a Yiddish saying about who sits at the table and about money not buying happiness. Kerler then asks about her survival in hiding. She says her husband and his Ukrainian family hid her at risk to themselves, and that her own parents did not know.

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.

Khasidovich answers questions about the prewar period. She says her family managed with what they had and were not badly hungry. Asked whether Jews died of hunger, she says it was rare, perhaps two or three. She does not remember pogroms under the Soviets, though a pogrom around 1919–20 is mentioned. She says Jews in town were craftsmen such as shoemakers and tailors, builders and other specialists, and she is unsure whether any were militiamen. She is asked to explain a proverb about many trades and few blessings, and glosses it as everyone having his own work.

Kopyt sings Yiddish songs she remembers from her father: a sick tailor, a strict mother (girl and Yankl the cherry-seller), a lullaby with words sent by a friend (a Yiddish text from a Korsun museum man), and Hava Nagila in Yiddish. Kerler remarks the tune is a Hasidic melody, and she says she formed a girls' choir. She also sings a tune of a bride whose groom is taken as a soldier. She recalls a tune from her aunt, who was a hairdresser, and her father's death and a minyan.

Answering Kerler's questions about songs, Kopyt sings fragments of Yiddish songs she recalls from a non-Jewish shoemaker neighbour who worked with Jews, and a toast at a wedding. She sings the tailor song again in full, adding one on Sholem Aleichem. Kerler notes how to pronounce Yiddish words in the Ashkenazic way. Lemster then asks about gravestones, and she says she has photographs showing the Babi Yar-type memorials (a mass grave of Jews and one for kolkhoz peasants).

Bukshtein recites the words of a Yiddish song about Yiddish being spoken everywhere in the world, for which he composed the melody. Kerler asks where the text was published, and they discuss the newspaper. Bukshtein then reads a humorous story by Avrom Karpinovitsh (from his book on Vilna) about a doctor who has a patient complain in Yiddish instead of bad Polish. They talk about who reads Yiddish literature, and about the Hesed newspaper he receives from Kyiv.

Bukshtein states that only Yiddish and Romanian were spoken in Novoselitsa. He recalls the Cuza government in the 1930s and the antisemitic pressure on shopkeepers and customers to speak Romanian, with a joke about a woman buying figs. He then tells about a visit by a cousin from Israel and his wife Mila, a Yiddish speaker from Vashkivtsi, and an anecdote of Mila speaking Yiddish with Hasidim on a plane. He also tells about a Chabad visitor who knew a relative, and about an older sister who went to Palestine after the war.

Katz describes Sabbath and holidays at home. His father worked at the landowner's distillery on Sabbath, supervising the animals, and Katz sometimes helped with the production figures. His father prayed with tefillin and did not eat before praying. Katz names Sabbath and holiday foods: bread, challah, cholent and potato dishes. Kerler questions him about the potato dish called mandeburchenik, and about fish, which was expensive. The owner's lake was fished out once a year, giving a festive occasion and gefilte fish. Katz also mentions Hanukkah money, the dreidel and latkes. For Purim he describes beggars going from house to house and recites their begging rhyme twice.

Lys sings a humorous Yiddish song, about a woman asking a rabbi what to do when a neighbor makes her pot and then her husband unkosher. He says his father told him it was performed in the village club after the revolution. Kerler confirms he understands.

Gaiviker recalls the rabbi and rebbetzin, the teaching of children and the many synagogues, and also Jewish thieves and pickpockets. He says the town was a cheerful place and answers whether he lost money at cards. Kerler asks about the word dybbuk.

Lemster asks whether Gaiviker knows the word golem; he and Sonya say they never heard it. Gaiviker then describes games he played in his youth, with card games 21 and 52, a pot fire in the park, checkers and hide-and-seek, and how he got money from his stepmother. Lemster asks about songs about hairdressers and tailors.

Kaviner says he knows the Baal Shem Tov stories from reading them himself in Yiddish, since there was no one to tell them. After the war he obtained two Yiddish books of Besht tales, and read stories of good Jews in Hebrew in a collection.

Asked about golems, Kaviner recommends the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer, whom he read in Yiddish before the war, and mentions the Nobel Prize. After the war he borrowed Yiddish books from older Jews. They also discuss dybbuks and Ansky's play, and Lemster asks whether Yiddish theater came to Derazhnya.

Kaviner says he has few Yiddish books, only some journals, and the interviewers offer to send him some. Kerler explains that AHEYM values dialect speakers who cannot read Yiddish. Talk turns to dialect and word usage: the word for bread, the term litvak for a Belarusian, and the expression tseynem kop for a learned person in Drazhnya. Lemster asks about a joke with a litvak.

Kaviner recites the text of the anti-religious Soviet Yiddish song about Rebbe Reb Shneyer, in which a rabbi gives absurd rulings on a non-kosher knife. He comments that such propaganda mocked Jewish belief.

Lemster and Kerler ask about Jewish types in his shtetl. Kaviner talks about the wealthy and the poor, a learned man who worked as an employee (Moyshe Zilberman, as the transcript has it), a professional actor, card players and the water carrier.

Kaviner recites and sings the song "Afn pripetshik" by Mark Varshavski. He and Kerler argue over whether Varshavski performed with Sholem Aleichem and over the folklorization of his songs. Kerler says Varshavski's songs came out in a volume.

Asked about Jewish weddings, Vaisblai recalls a wedding of a man named Barukh, with klezmer music, dancing and singing, and notes he was later killed by the Germans. He then tells a story about a postwar gathering of Jews in Chemerivtsi, including a man from Chernivtsi and an anecdote about boots, and answers Lemster on whether a huppah was set up.

Vaisblai says he came to Khmel'nyts'kyy in 1977 after living in Horodok from 1945. He says there were more Jews in Horodok than in Chemerivtsi after the war, and recalls praying at his father's house in Chemerivtsi. He tells long stories about a miserly man named Khaim Bronshtein and a thief named Yozye Stoharski. Kerler then asks about his sister Gitl's songs, and Vaisblai sings a short rhyme.

Kaviner answers Kerler's questions about Purim in the shtetl: children singing and dancing in the street and a carnival, though he did not take part because he was studying. He says he knows of a play, the sale of Joseph, and discusses it with Kerler. He recalls that professional troupes performed such plays before the revolution and in the 1920s, mentioning the Odesa actress Ester-Rokhl Kaminska.

Asked to recite Yiddish poems, Kaviner says he remembers a few lines of Fefer and others. He talks about the poets Shmuel Halkin, Markish, Hershl Polyanker, Fefer and others. He discusses their arrests and sentences, their camp poetry and postwar release, and Polyanker's speech about the murder of six million Jews. He also discusses faith and God after the Holocaust, and ends with a story on Jews' residence rights, mentioning Berdychiv.

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.

Kerler asks a short series of questionnaire items, including curses, the words for a Jewish and a non-Jewish cemetery, evil spirits (dybbuk) and the golem, and the word for a rod or whip. Katz also names a rebbe whom his father visited on the High Holy Days, but the rebbe's name is unclear. Katz is invited to talk about his childhood and cheder, answers briefly that songs were not sung there, and says pupils were beaten with a rod.

Katz and Kerler ask Snook to recite more from the siddur; she sings a Sabbath song and then speaks of a Russian woman who knows Yiddish and prays half in Yiddish. They go through Lekhah Dodi and Shalom Aleichem, with Katz asking how Kiddush was said. She recalls local characters, Hungarian-speaking Jews at the minyan and the Hungarian period, and Kerler asks about words such as 'oyfhapn' and 'shtramer mentsh', which she explains. The talk turns to the interviewers' work as teachers, and Katz raises Kaddish.

Braverman describes the town's only doctor, a Russian field-surgeon, his non-Jewish mistress, and the scandal with his wife; Kerler asks about a dialect word. She recalls the fear of school and a rhyme spoken by an old woman when she was falling asleep.

Braverman describes making gefilte fish, including the stuffed head and the sugar her mother added, and her own borscht with a little sugar. She mentions her first husband, a non-Jew, whose father was of gentry background and who had a Jewish-sounding name. She then answers Kerler's questions about non-Jews who spoke some Yiddish, including a villager called Kuzma, and about terms for gentiles. A story follows about an unbaptized Russian girl. Semyon adds that non-Jews in Zhmerynka spoke Yiddish at the market.

Asked for his earliest memories, Torchinsky describes the Jewish town of Skvire with its synagogue and prayer house and the preparation for Passover. He recalls going to synagogue with his grandfather on Simchat Torah when he was about six, and discusses whether his grandfather could read Yiddish or Hebrew and the term for the holy tongue. He tells of his uncle Shmilik's attempt to take him to Palestine in 1924 and his running away to stay with his mother, and of his childhood pranks of stealing unripe fruit from a garden and throwing bread into the Passover borscht.

Torchinsky tells how a teacher came to his home to teach him the Hebrew alphabet instead of attending cheder, and how he mocked the teacher. He recalls the teacher's punishments and one incident in which the teacher chased him. The name of the teacher is not remembered. Toward the end there are Russian asides in the room and a brief mention of the grandfather's name.

Torchinsky continues with the story of his mother buying Passover geese from a peddler, and how his family was cheated with the geese. Kerler compares the story to a literary one. Torchinsky then turns back to the Yiddish school he started in 1926.

Asked for memories of the Great Hunger, Khandros describes documents and a letter from Berdychiv in which a Jewish factory worker, who later died, begged for help, and he says it shows that Jews starved too, against claims that they did not. He discusses the Torgsin shops, where gold was exchanged for flour, and how his mother's gold was broken into three parts. He relates a butcher's story about gold and a hiding place, the mobility of Jews who could travel to Moscow and Leningrad, and relatives in Leningrad who sent rusks. He describes death registers from 1932–33, deaths from eating in summer 1933 and a dysentery epidemic which he survived because his uncle kept him at home instead of sending him to hospital. Kerler remarks that many informants deny Jews died, and Khandros reports letters in Russian that deny the famine.

Asked by Kerler, Khandros recalls the blacksmith Kive Roznblit, a long-armed, very poor Jew and friend of Khandros's parents. His daughters studied in Khandros's father's school. Khandros recounts Kive's sayings and his habit of raising his hands in curses and questions. He recalls Kive's last words, which became his own motto: go, stand, or die. Kive died in a ghetto, in a place the transcript renders as Dashinets (?). Khandros ends by introducing a friend he met in Kyiv on the day the American president came.

Derbaremdiker describes the Berdychiv city library's many Yiddish books and the world literature he first read in Yiddish translation. He recalls seeing Mikhoels in Berdychiv in 1935 and later in Leningrad on tour. S2 asks about the performance, and he talks about a Mendele character and a mixed-up language joke.

At Kerler's request Derbaremdiker talks about his family and the origin of his surname, naming his paternal great-grandfather (?) and tracing the Berdychiv Derbaremdikers back to Levi Yitskhok. He tells the legend of an official asking the rabbi his family name while he was praying, which led to the name. He also mentions relatives in the United States and a poem by an ancestor.

Derbaremdiker says he went to Berdychiv once, when his brother from New York visited and Rabbi Yaakov lent them a car. He knows the Berdychiv rabbi. He describes his life now: he cannot leave his sick daughter, only goes to the synagogue, and gets some help from the Hesed organization. The talk turns to the team's coming travels in Podolia, to a Yiddish folklore and proverbs course he once gave, to his brother's work for the Russian Forverts, and to the Yiddish forms of family names such as Yente and Yontl.

Krotsh sings a Hebrew song and says the tune came from the tailor he worked for. He tells a story about a bearded Jewish tailor who was called up in the First World War and was released after the rebbe's prediction when two generals quarrelled. Kerler asks about the Romanian phrases in the story and then about the Stefanester rebbe's miracles.

The speaker explains that an old midwife-healer in his home town could say a charm or cure ('apshprekhenish') and describes how, as a boy of about thirteen, he hurt his leg while sledding down a hill near the town. After doctors, plaster and other treatments had not helped, his father took him to a blind folk healer named Molke Spodik (?). She felt the leg, heated it with hot water, and set it, after which he could walk. Kerler comments on the story and asks about the healer's name.

Returning to his father, Vider says he taught the children the alphabet and prayers from an early age. He also talks about the Hebrew teacher at school, and answers Kerler's question about the rebbe and Hasidim of Hîrlau. He then at length demonstrates his father's finger-counting method for multiplication and other number-guessing tricks with written digits, which Kerler tries on paper. Later he describes using such tricks and a counting game in the mine. Kerler finally asks about Yiddish theater in Iași, and Vider says none existed there.

Kerler asks Krotsh for a song and prompts him, but Krotsh says he does not remember the songs. A second interviewee then tells a story, of a poor tailor and his daughter attacked by a bandit, and Kerler asks questions about it. Other talk concerns signing a paper and a wedding saying. The transcript does not clearly show the songs named in the catalogue.

Biter describes the Polish nationalist policies before 1939 and the arrival of the Soviets in September 1939. Jews were pleased, Poles were not and Ukrainians were divided. He recalls Soviet soldiers buying up goods in the shops and the abolition of letters in the alphabet. He tells of a Snyatyn millionaire named Birnbaum who fled to Romania, after which his family was deported to Kyiv.

A recorded Yiddish comic sketch plays. A man and a woman banter about a matchmaker named Moshe, a prospective bride, the man's claim to be a modern cantor, his earnings and his age. Kerler's closing remark is that no Yiddish items can be found in the catalogue shown on camera.

Krotsh recounts the war years, when he was taken into the army and sent with others to military construction work in Baku, Azerbaijan. The labour was hard and the bread ration small. A Jewish friend told him that he would be put to work as a tailor, and a brigade leader said it had been ordered. He met a Jewish woman who spoke Yiddish with him, and her husband promised him a sewing machine. He ends with a Yiddish saying that Kerler asks him to explain.

Krotsh describes how Jews inserted Hebrew words in Yiddish so that non-Jews would not understand. He discusses a word for money, and a song about a Iaşi newspaper man that a young man from Iaşi taught him in the army. Kerler and Lemster ask about Mihai Eminescu (?) and the old Moldova. He also mentions that Bialik was known from the school.

Vider talks about his illness and condition today while Kerler prepares to show him a recording of himself performing in a Purim shpiel. Vider also tells of being a matchmaker and of knowing a little Gemara. He tells how a house near the station in Kolomyya was sold and a skeleton, said to be of Jews about two hundred years old, was found in its cellar; he names Shloyme as his source.

Krotsh sings a humorous Yiddish song about a housewife and women who cook on the Sabbath. Kerler asks whether Yiddish theater visited, and Krotsh recalls touring troupes, posters and street advertising, and actors coming from other towns. He also tells of a tailor mistaken for an actor who was taken to the front as one.

Krotsh recalls that before the war his father and family had no dealings with Communists, and tells how Bessarabian youth later asked whether he had done 'political work'. He says that after the war he spoke Yiddish at work even with some non-Jews, and tells a long story from Mukachevo about a man called Menashe who fled from Czechoslovakia and was caught. He mentions that he went to Moscow around 1952–53 for training in cutting, military tailoring. He says that for decades he saw no Torah and lost his religious practice.

Belous talks about his band, which plays at the yeshiva on holidays and for visitors. He tells a story about the Tsaddik of Volednik (Volenicker, name uncertain) and a childless couple. He says he visited the Tsaddik's grave so that his wife would become pregnant, and that he has raised his son from infancy in Yiddish.

Skop tells a story of a child who could not speak and was healed through a healer's help; the mother and an older sister are involved and the child finally begins to speak. It is a narrated tale, not about life today.

Katz asks about clever men of the town of Chavne (Polesskoye), and Skop speaks of a respected wise man there and of another man with a nickname. The transcript is garbled, so the names are not reliable.

Skop speaks about Nune, the madman of Korosten', killed when the Germans entered the town, and about Meir the blind man, a beggar who recognised people by voice. He then mentions Meyshe the gravedigger at the cemetery, and a search for a grave by visitors from abroad. The talk of the cemetery is partly garbled.

Kerler and Katz ask a few dialect items (the words for a dybbuk, ears, quick, pious, paradise and the afterlife). Ocheretianyi then talks about life today, which he says is neither better nor worse, and about his brother in Haifa, who phones him and invites him to visit, though the trip is expensive. Katz asks for lively memories of the shtetl, and Ocheretianyi starts to speak about the town madman and his family.

Groysman answers Kerler's questions about the Yiddish school in Tarashcha: teachers, subjects taught, and writers read, such as Sholem Aleichem and Peretz, and Yiddish poets. He talks about his parents' religious practice: his father prayed, his mother read a lot, and as a pioneer he stopped going to synagogue. He tells a story about a man and dogs. Kerler asks whether he remembers songs.

Angelova recalls childhood pranks and joking with her mother, and taking stolen sweets or goods. Lemster then asks about her medals and orders, and she says she received Ukrainian awards.

Obodovskii recalls a line of a Yiddish song his grandfather sang, and speaks about his mother's brother Yozke, who served through the whole war, was in Japan and was decorated. They discuss the surname Kolker, a Russian poet of that name, the uncle's drinking and stereotypes about Jews who drink and fight.

Shvartzbroit speaks about Yiddish schooling being closed and the reopening of synagogues after the war. She recalls Hasidim and Simchat Torah in Mohyliv. She tells a story of a wise rebbe who advised how to save Jews from a planned killing by buying horses, and she mentions a tzaddik to whom people went, with lights, to pray for a child. The details of the stories are garbled.

She explains that Jews called the town Trokhinbrod while Poles and Ukrainians called it Sofiyivka, and gives a story from her grandmother about its name: a man drove into the river, fell in and died, and the local landowner's wife was named Sofia. The town no longer exists. She also mentions a grandson who studies Torah and keeps kosher.

Leger gives his name, patronymic, birth year and the names of his parents and grandparents. His father was a bookkeeper and his mother a nurse. He says he learned Yiddish in the ghetto, after the family had spoken Russian at home. He recalls trying to evacuate with his mother, her stillborn child in a nearby village, the return to the ghetto, overcrowding with Bukovinian and Bessarabian Jews, typhus, fear and hunger, and his mother's work in a hospital. He then describes language after the war, his work as an engineer, Soviet-era prayer, the destroyed synagogue, and the 300 or so Jews in the town today. In the final part Kerler and Lemster ask about songs, stories, folk customs and Yiddish writers, which he does not remember.

Fiksler recalls prewar Purim, when people dressed up and performed a Purim play, and she recites a short rhymed Purim verse. Her granddaughter is mentioned as one who could recall more. The group then arranges follow-up contact by phone and discusses where the family is travelling. Katz and Kerler ask about Yiddish speakers today, and the family says few remain in Solotvyno or Munkács and that her eight-year-old granddaughter may be the only child in the Carpathians who speaks Yiddish. They also touch on Polish Jews' Yiddish and on visa rules for travelling to Sighet.

At the restaurant, Vider and Kerler exchange Yiddish farewell sayings. Vider says he returned in December 1946, after his brother's return in 1945, to a few remaining Jews; there was still a shoykhet. He describes meeting for prayer in a Romanian Jew's house (Leybovitsh), baking matzo there until about 1953, and the Leybovitsh grandsons today. He then answers a question about the men who came back from labor in Siberia.

Kerler puts Russian questionnaire items and Vider gives Yiddish equivalents. They cover thanks, the cat and mouse, the belly, stone buildings and masons, sour cabbage, hearing and deafness, kissing, comparatives, near and far, being ill, sleepy, honest and observant, and words for Christians and non-Jews. Vider says a non-Jewish girl carried the Sabbath cholent to the bakery and brought it home. He also gives numbers and the pronoun forms in "you are right", with a story of a rabbi.

Pasik says Yiddish theater came from Mykolayiv, with interpreters translating for the Russian-speaking audience. She tells a story from her mother about children refused entry at the river by the beadle, and discusses the cheder and rabbi. She mentions weddings before and after the war and Kerler asks about her mother's death and birth year.

Pasik talks about the move to Mykolayiv in 1965 (?) and the Jewish life she found there: speaking Yiddish, the synagogue under Soviet pressure and a relative who was a ritual slaughterer. Passover matzo and fasting days are discussed, and she tells of a blood-libel story told by her mother. She says faith is hard after the killings, names her best time as before the war, and compares prices and pension then and now.

Endelshtein is asked about Yiddish theater visiting Bolgrad before the war: troupes came from Galați and Chernivtsi, and non-Jews also attended. He was a child and recalls little. Kerler asks about stories of Hershele Ostropolyer and dream interpreters, which he does not recall. The conversation closes with asking about Jews near Mykolayiv and the lack of Yiddish speakers.

Tzentziper sings a song about the lost years of youth. Kerler asks whether he was taught to pray, whether he had a bar mitzvah or wore tefillin, and what his father did; Tzentziper says he did not pray in synagogue and that his father wore tefillin. Kerler asks him to sing the song again for Lemster, who missed it. Asked who wrote the song, Tzentziper credits a woman teacher (a schoolteacher in Mykolayiv, origin unclear) and then sings a humorous song about a rebbe who chases a girl and is sent home by his wife. He says he learned it in Mykolayiv, around 1938 (?).

The host, speaking Russian, presents the weekly Sabbath programme and the recent concert for the sixtieth anniversary of Israel. She introduces the visiting group from Indiana University, including Veidlinger, Kerler, Lemster and Katz's earlier expeditions, and describes the Yiddish circle and its Forward subscription. A volunteer reads a humorous Odesa story about a water meter, and a singer is introduced. The Yiddish songs follow, ending with a livelier humorous song.

Medved recalls songs sung before the war, in Yiddish and in Russian, including a song about Birobidzhan and a kolkhoz. She talks about Jewish kolkhozes, including in Crimea, and tells a joke about a Jewish kolkhoz worker. She then says that the best doctors before the war were Jews, including one named Rabinovitsh (?) in her courtyard.

Medved speaks about her mother's kosher cooking before the war, taking fowl to the shoykhet and soaking and salting meat. She then tells about the Beilis-type blood-libel trial, in which a Russian writer defended the Jews and explained Jewish meat practices.

Brodsky is asked about the best time in Odesa, and the talk turns to matchmaking and marriage arrangements, with his parents' wedding mentioned. They recall wedding customs including a song for the in-laws. Lemster asks whether Jews drank vodka, and Brodsky says yes, with many drunks.

Dorfman tells how in 1939, at the time of the war with Poland, a Jewish young man came from Poland, sent by his mother to visit the Velednik tsaddik. They rode by bicycle twelve kilometers to Velednik and a wheel fell off the cart as the young man had half-joked; he describes it as seen with his own eyes and his father's reaction. He then recalls the start of the war and soldiers going out against the Germans.

Dorfman says the Velednik tsaddik helped people, for example children who could not speak. After the war the little house was repaired, kerosene was sold there and visitors were not allowed. He himself did the first repair, and people from Uman later did a major one. He offers the address of a 98-year-old man who can tell more.

Feldman says people told stories of the Volednicker rebbe helping the childless and the poor. He describes a Khavner (?) man, a trefer (a seer who could tell you your name and background), who was killed in the war. He recalls that this man, who had come to Ovruch, called him by name in 1933 and later met him at work. Katz and Kerler then begin to ask Feldman about daily life.

Turovskaia says she is not in good health. Kerler asks whether she remembers a charm against the evil eye, and she recites one about three women sitting on a stone, partly in Russian or Ukrainian. The interviewers react appreciatively.

Turovskaia remembers her mother's charity: sharing cherries from their tree, sending food and matzo, and going with other women to collect for the poor. She says her father visited the tzaddik every Elul and, when too old, still kept the practice. She tells how her grandmother's dream gave her mother's name Alte, and of a 'good Jew' (a tzaddik) who gave it. The passage ends with her account of Leybl of Khabne in Polesye, who could foresee events and was approached for advice.

Kerler asks about a term for a man leaving his wife, and Turovskaia explains that he abandoned her, and that a convert was involved. She says no get was given. He went to Siberia, traded and later came back, and the tzaddik told her what to do.

Turovskaia talks about Leybl the Khapner, called the Trefer or the White. He knew who came to him, predicted that the family would survive and that war would come. When the Germans took Khapne, asked who would win, he told them to bring a white and a red rooster to fight. The red rooster won, which meant a Soviet victory. He died a hard death, and Kerler adds his own doubts about the man.

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'.

Kerler continues the questionnaire. He asks for near and nearer, how and where, listen to me, very ill, and very beautiful, plus expressions such as a kapore (atonement) for someone, and the words for convert, Christian, a non-Jew and a peasant. Words he asks about include terms for collective farm, the Russian words for Jew, the verb for building, and sour. Litvak gives forms, and also recalls the curse about falling into Jewish mouths and gentile hands, and comments on how Jews got along before the war. The passage ends with Russian-to-Yiddish prompts for numbers, the road, bed, young and honest, and forms of all people and pious.

Kerler and Shvartzbroit clarify who the visitors are, a professor of Jewish history and a Yiddish professor. She tells a religious parable about a rich man who wanted paradise and about Solomon asking for wisdom. She says she attended Jewish school no. 3 for four grades and that all subjects were taught in Yiddish. She names the director (Terk? the transcript is unclear), says she now reads Russian but can only sign her name in Yiddish, and says she has forgotten the old songs.

After informal talk about water and arrangements, Vaisman gives personal data at Katz's request: the town's Yiddish name, his address, postal index and telephone, his name and nickname, and his birth in Sharhorod in 1940. He was named for his grandfather Avrum. His father Khayem, born in Sharhorod, lost his right hand and was on a disability pension, and his grandmother had a clothing shop. His mother Blume was born in Kleyn Tshernovits and was a seamstress. He names his sister Roza (b. 1923, deceased), brother Danya (b. 1929, deceased) and Kolmen (b. 1936, in Israel). He describes his work as a photographer and photo-correspondent for the local paper, learned from his brother. He then remembers his father at synagogue and the single synagogue he knew, which was burned down; others say there were eight before the war. He cannot read Yiddish and attended Ukrainian school. He recounts emigration from the town to Israel and America and anecdotes about shopping in Romania and Poland. He names older Jews such as a cantor, a shokhet, a hatter and a felt-seller. He looks at his old photographs, says Sharhorod was a Jewish town and is no longer, and describes the Jews as pious and non-pious. He closes with the two tsadikim and the belief that no Jews were killed under the Germans and Romanians, plus a story about money collected from townspeople.

Krasner and the interviewers talk about dialect differences, with an example of the verb for falling and a Lithuanian-born woman in a mixed marriage. She describes her mother as a mimic and storyteller who made fun of people, a trait she says passed to herself. Her father, a bookbinder before the war, and her brother are mentioned. The passage ends with Kerler asking who the local tzaddik was.

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 tells the family story of her ancestor Reb Liber, who was thrown from his horse and beaten in the woods while praying by a river. He healed a squire's son in return for a promise not to harm Jews, and this is connected to the founding of Berdychiv. She links her mother's side to the Tverski family of Chernobyl. Kerler asks the year she was born.

Kerler asks about converts to Judaism and about Jews who became Muslims, and Liberzon tells of a man who was taught prayers in a hospital. She says her father knew much about such matters.

Liberzon and Kerler discuss Yiddish dialect and speech: the word for "everyone" (a dialect question), the Litvak way of speaking and what plain Yiddish was at home. She also recalls her father's remark about a fast-and-pray person. Kerler returns to latkes on Chanukah made in the oven.

She recites or tells a short humorous story about three women sitting on one stone. Questions follow on words and usage about heating irons with coals, the word for 'tasty', and the idiom 'it doesn't go into my head'.

Kerler asks the meaning of Yiddish terms and sayings (such as dybbuk, golem and expressions about the dead). Bivson explains and says she speaks to her late father in Yiddish at the grave. She says the best time of her life was when her son was healthy, and speaks of his death at about fifty, shortly before his jubilee.

Burshtein answers further questionnaire items: words for a stone-built house, what children threw at Hanukkah, expressions for a mistake and for luck, and terms such as tsadik and the face. He explains the difference between a rov and a rebbe. Kerler tells a joke about a pious child and the rabbi, and asks him to tell about Jewish weddings.

Palatnikova answers whether her father went to synagogue, then talks about non-Jews who followed the Jewish religion, took up Yiddish, and kept Jewish practice more strictly than Jews. She names one such family (?) and tells a story about one man questioned by the authorities. She also answers Kerler's questions about the word for a Friday loaf of bread baked by her mother.

Miaskovskij is interviewed after a move to another room. He gives his name and his father's name, and gives dates of death for both parents and for a sister. He tells an anecdote about a Soviet delegation and a KGB minder who understood no Yiddish. He says he finished ten classes in Tomashpol' in 1941 and then served at the front, with orders and medals. His father was a factory worker and his mother a seamstress; the family was once rich but lost everything after the revolution. He names childhood friends and other townspeople. He mentions that he wrote a poem and sets it to music, sings Tum balalaika and other Yiddish songs, and says his father's books are still in the attic. He studied at the Moscow institute and says he cannot read Yiddish.

Futiran gives his Yiddish name and age, and says he was born in Tomashpol' and comes from a long line of local people. He names his father, a coachman (balegole), and his mother, an orphan from Tomashpol', and says there were six children. Two brothers were killed at the front in 1944, and other brothers are named. Futiran says he later learned the hatmaker's trade from Jewish masters, and he worked for decades as a hatmaker. He mentions two marriages, the second to a non-Jewish woman, and two sons in Moscow and Israel. He recalls a poor childhood, four years in a Yiddish school before a Ukrainian one opened, and a Jewish library. He also recalls Yiddish songs, klezmer music, Jewish weddings with a huppah, and visiting Yiddish artists. He speaks of hunger in 1933, evacuation and work during the war, and eight synagogues in the town. Kerler and Lemster ask about coachmen's stories and songs, and the father's song is mentioned. The passage ends in his workshop with a Singer sewing machine and hats the visitors try on.

Kogan speaks about the first bombing of Bershad' near the bridge and the burning of a house. He mentions refugees from Pechora and a man from Tul'chyn, giving bedding to refugees and a photographer who escaped to Germany. Kerler asks whether a text is a song, and Kogan says he wrote it in Russian.

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.

Yurkovetskij says he was freed from camp in 1944 and then went on to travel as a driver to Prague and Vienna. Lemster asks about jokes and anecdotes and about Yiddish writers; Sholem Aleichem, Peretz and Mendele are named, and a writer called Polyanker (?) is discussed. Kerler says Bershad' and Tul'chyn are among the places they have visited, and asks where the speaker is from.

Yurkovetskij names places he drove to as a chauffeur (Edineț, Soroca, Bălți) and mentions a writer from Soroca named Zeltser (?). Discussion of beer and drinking and then of Jews who held official positions in Soviet institutions such as a chairman and editor, some before the war.

Katsman and others describe prewar wedding customs, such as the in-laws exchanging gifts and the giving of a bread called "makes" or "maki" (?), and the music and dancing that accompanied them. Kerler asks about the wedding jester and the klezmer who played, and a woman recites a rhymed wedding song. The talk then turns to the interviewers' route from Vinnytsia and the purpose of the recording.

Pesia and Lev tell how the large synagogue, built in a dispute with Count Potocki, was later used to store grain; they recount an accident with a brick and a bird. Kerler says he does not fully follow the story of the building and asks for clarification.

Kerler asks how Yiddish speakers say the name of the town; the second speaker says Uman and tells a story about why it is called that: a tavern keeper's Jewish wife Manya, hence a form like Umania, used by Jews in earlier times. Kerler asks whether Jews or non-Jews say it, and begins the interview proper.

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.

Katz and Kerler talk at the grave of Nahman of Bratslav with Rabbi Kirshnboym (who gives his name as Abraham Moyshe) and other Breslov Hasidim. They discuss the word Breslover, Breslov teachings on joy and not despairing, singing and dancing, the Yiddish prayers and songs of Breslov, and Yiddish as a language of the rebbe's teaching. The kibbutz word, a singer from Kibbutz Nahal (?), the cantor Levi Yitzhak Bender in Uman' and Israeli election jokes come up. The group also tells a story of a letter to Rebbe Nahman and talks about Breslov books and scholarship, with Kerler photographing the site. The recording contains much recogniser looping.

Halpert talks about weddings: the traditional Jewish weddings after the war were modest, but one in Munkatsh (with rabbis from Zhytomyr and Berdychiv, and Taykhman) was large. Kerler recalls attending one in the late 1960s (?). Halpert then remembers the prewar wedding jester (gramer) Asher Zelik (?) and his jokes, and says much was forgotten after the war.

Halpert and Tubi recall prewar Purim: the children's Purim-shpil going from house to house, with Tubi reciting verses of the rhyme, and shalakhmones, noisemaking and dancing in the street. Halpert recalls one long Purim play about Joseph sold to the Arabs, which he saw once as a child, and Kerler asks who played in these plays.

Naybauer first tells of a rich neighbor's family and a priest who was sentenced after the war. Asked by Kerler about Purim before the war, he describes Purim customs: drinking, a Purim play put on like a theater, and children going from house to house reciting the play in the morning and bringing shalakhmones in the afternoon. The play was staged in a widow's house and the children were taught by their cheder teachers. He tells a joke about a matchmaker and a rich man. He recalls the roles of Haman and Esther. He also answers questions about Purim in Uzhhorod.

Kerler, with some input from Katz, continues the dialect questionnaire with Russian prompts for Naybauer to translate. Items include greetings and replies, thanks, parts of the body, colors, animals, house and building words, food, terms for non-Jews and Christians, and comparatives of adverbs. Further items include words for people (the fool, the honest man, the peasant), time words, a few sentences with personal pronouns, and verbs of hearing and knowing. Naybauer also gives some remarks on dialect, such as jokes about the Berehove and Mukachevo Jews. Near the end he mentions failing eyesight and not having shown the ghetto site.

Individual choir women sing solo songs, including a song about a girl selling bagels and a humorous Yiddish song about a girl who wants a dress, shoes and a husband. A comic song about a rabbi and a knife follows. Kerler asks for a repeat of one earlier couplet, and the performer is thanked.

Asked about songs her mother sang, Barshteyn sings several Yiddish songs, including Tumbalalayka and a Zionist-style song, and a humorous song about a rabbi who rules on a kosher question. She also sings a song about a teacher teaching the alphabet to small children. Kerler asks about the origin of the songs and about other songs, and she says she has no memory of some he names.

The man says in Russian that friends call him though he has no phone. He tells how he slaughtered chickens, lambs and calves for Jews and says he kept five hens and a rooster. He describes Jews bringing him matzo and recalls Yiddish names of meats, and he repeats a Yiddish saying about a Jew with a Jewish soul. Lemster and Kerler keep asking for a song and for Yiddish words; a recogniser loop mars part of the passage.

Mostly in Russian, the man tells how in Kazakhstan around 1955 he worked on a construction site, and a Jewish foreman asked in Yiddish whether he was a Jew. He answered that he was a Ukrainian who had grown up among Jews, and the Yiddish helped him. He tells a joke about Khaim at customs. Lemster and Kerler praise his Yiddish and ask for a proverb, a curse or an anecdote; he offers curses such as going into the ground and a black year.

Lemster and Kerler ask whether there were sayings about Jews from different places, such as Odesa or Bessarabian Jews. Barshteyn says only Jews from Moldova and Romania came to Sharhorod, and S3 adds a remark about survival. She also briefly returns to the German entry into the town and the locals' fear. The last part is a Russian and Yiddish exchange about the route of the van.

Sobol says she worked as a nurse in a hospital ward, on day and night shifts, while her children were in nursery and kindergarten. The interviewers ask whether she remembers Yiddish songs, sayings and stories. She recalls a drinking song and says she knew many, but gives no further text.

Lemster asks for curses; Sobol says they were not used at home and recalls only the phrase "black wedding". She then describes her wedding in 1944 (?), held with a rabbi and a chuppah at home, with the marriage contract hidden during the war. She tells many stories about her husband: he was a hard worker and the neighbours doubted he was Jewish, and he once bought a goat for their baby. She goes on to his last illness, hospital and death, and his work in the camp under the Romanians. The speakers are hard to tell apart in this stretch, and the passage ends with the request to see the book.

Fishman recalls two prewar visits to Medzhibozh, the second at age eight in 1939, and four visits in the last ten years. He mentions the large synagogue built by American Jews by the grave of the Baal Shem Tov, where only two Jews remain. He remembers a river near his grandfather's house and the geese and feathers, and retells a story his mother told about Hershele Ostropolyer as a poor guest who pours soup on his fine coat.

Khazin sings a humorous Yiddish song about a Jew riding to a tavern, with a refrain about a little Hasid, and then 'Sha, sha, der rebe geyt'. Kerler and Khazin discuss whether he will sing more; Khazin worries about being recorded but agrees for scholarly purposes. Kerler then talks to a man who wants a word with him.

Khazin talks about a trip to Israel for a wedding of a relative, and about his son Boris, whose wife is not Jewish. He gives opinions on Israeli politics and the Arab conflict, tells a joke about two women in a hospital, and answers questions about reactions in Vinnytsya to the 1967 war. In the closing part he describes the Jewish community canteen and aid, with a second speaker noting the use of a former synagogue. He ends by thanking the interviewers.

Lebvol describes the Joseph play (Yoysef-shpil), which she remembers from Zhovkva in the 1930s and in which she took part. She tells its plot from Joseph's sale by his brothers to the reunion with Jacob, and recites several of its songs and rhymes. She then sings the opening verses beginning with Abraham and Isaac.

Geller discusses the Joint's aid and how people get help, and compares it with the war years. He says Polish Jews fled to the Soviet Union, and mentions his invalid's pension. Kerler asks about an idiom and some Russian-influenced words. Geller then begins an anecdote about a prosecutor and a tailor.

Word questions on Yiddish forms such as breathing, a roadside inn and a courtyard. Geller says his Yiddish is plain and differs from that of Vilna and Poltava. They discuss streets of only Jews or only gentiles, and burial and funerals as a mitzvah. The passage also covers the minyan, kaddish, and ages, and ends with a courtroom anecdote.

The second man sings a children's song about learning the Hebrew letters. He then chats with Kerler about sayings and Kerler puts terminology questions to him. Kerler asks about the wedding entertainer (badkhn) and the master of ceremonies; the man mentions the rabbi, the engagement contract and a term for the one who leads the wedding. He also reflects on history and storytelling.

After a few lines of informal talk at the start, Geller recalls arriving in a town (apparently Ostrów Mazowiecka) in 1939 and lodging with Jews there. He recalls a former Polish teacher he wanted to approach while the German army was marching past. He then tells a story that Jews hid Piłsudski from the Bolsheviks in a study house, put tefillin and a tallis on him, and so won his lasting friendliness toward Jews. Katz asks about Piłsudski's death and his burial wish regarding Vilna. Kerler closes by asking where they stopped on the way with Geller's father toward the Russian side.

Geller describes childhood games in Pyatka, mainly the spinning top (tsurke) marked with letters and scored by the steps taken, and rolling a hoop. He also recalls a cyclist from Petersburg in 1929 whom the children chased. He compares this with today's children and telephones and television. Kerler asks for local Yiddish words for the games.

Geller recalls Sabbath in Pyatka. He discusses terms for tidying up and for taking the candles off the table, and a child's memory of carrying his grandfather's tallit and a neighbour's request on Shabbat. He also tells an anecdote about forgetfulness after a wedding held in a restaurant. Kerler asks about local words for these things.

A story of forgetfulness (misplaced items) told in the first person, then a comparison of how words for 'brain' and 'hand' were said in Pyatka and in Zhytomyr. The speaker's identity is unclear in the transcript.

Burshtein retells a story he says he read, that Hitler's family descended from a Jewish family and that his father cheated over an inheritance. Katz asks when he heard this and Kerler about the name. Burshtein says Hitler was not a Jew, and the talk turns to Jewish names. He then announces another song.

Geller says people ate meat only once a week, and that life was hard and lived in fear and hunger. He married after the war and began to build a life, and he quotes a saying about people loving while God worries. Lemster then asks him to say more about Pyatka.

Burshtein says he went to kheyder and recalls prewar Poland: Piłsudski's time, and the antisemitism that grew after his death. He tells how Jews hid Piłsudski in the synagogue wrapped in a tallit. He says his melamed ended badly and describes meeting the rebbetsin, who began to weep when he asked about the rebbe.

Nibulskiy describes how his grandfather Avrom kept an open Sabbath table for poor guests for eighteen years. Visitors came from nearby towns, and a cholent from the baking oven was served with kiddush, silver cups for wine or brandy, tea and lekekh. The guests told stories, which he learned from his grandfather and father. He then begins to describe poverty in the Jewish shtetl.

Nibulskiy talks about poverty in prewar Pulen, with no factories and many poor people living on credit. A man bought furs and roosters in the German colonies to resell. His grandfather collected from the rich to bring Sabbath food to families like Nokhem the shoemaker's. He then tells a story of Shmilik, a bonder from Lithuania, who consulted the Baal Shem Tov (Reb Yisroel) and found gold in his oven, which led to a furniture workshop. Kerler asks about word meanings and the man's name.

Nibulskiy explains the origin of the surname Nibulskiy through a landowner called Bulski and the 1861 reform. He names his grandfather Avrom Alter and his father Yankl. He then lists nicknames used in Pulen, such as Rivinke Brilen, Shlapak, Khezkl Lasutre, Sobalyev the dark one and Khayim Ash the cleaner. Kerler finishes by asking about Avrom Malke.

Nibulskiy clarifies the phrase "Avrom Malke" for his grandfather's Sabbath gathering. It lasted eighteen years until Soviet power, and the guests set out on Friday morning to arrive on Sabbath. Kerler asks about the wording and about Jewish-Russian ("shulish") Yiddish. Nibulskiy then begins a story about two wagon drivers, one refined and one coarse.

Nibulskiy continues the story of a quarrel in Pulen between two wagon drivers (or between occupations). The Makariv rebbe came on a Sabbath, with Sabbath candles burning on the table. He told one man to ask forgiveness, and a candle fell and went out when the man refused.

Nibulskiy speaks about his observant father, his own cheder attendance, his wife's Jewish schooling and his self-taught Yiddish reading. He tells how the Makarover rebbe visited his great-grandmother in a nearby town, where she recovered after a fire. He describes his great-grandfather Shimunke, a farmer and crop adviser. He also tells of a Jewish lessee in Burakivka troubled by a German over hops, who went to the Makarover rebbe for help. Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for a village.

Nibulskiy completes the story of a fellow student who was paralysed and cured after his wife went to the Velednik rebbe. He talks about visits to the Velednik rebbe's grave, where people laid coins, and shows a coin he carries with threads, with Kerler asking how a coin becomes a segulah. The word mashbie (?) is discussed, and he begins to say that his father taught him a prayer.

Nibulskiy sings a short song attributed to the Makarover rebbe, comparing a Jew and a non-Jew drinking in a tavern. He explains it was dangerous to sing under the Soviets and that Jews avoided the word for non-Jew, saying 'peasant' instead. Kerler asks about words for peasant and Christian woman.

Nibulskiy answers Kerler's questions about Purim before the war. He describes masks, gifts of food parcels (shalakhmones) and the Purim bearers who went around. A beggar and his family are mentioned, and children were given small coins. His older brother played the fiddle, and his daughter is an artist. Purim plays are discussed, and Nibulskiy says the Soviet authorities stopped them. He adds that his stories came from his grandfather and father.

Nibulskiy describes his grandfather Avrom's Sabbath hospitality for poor visitors from nearby small towns: a large table, challah, a samovar, and kiddush with brandy. Stories about the Besht and the Veledniki and Makarov rebbes were told. He begins the story of a girl who lay ill and a father who rushed to the rebbe.

Nibulskiy tells how his grandfather Avrom, a tailor, burned a hole in a customer's garment, and the Veledniki rebbe, who happened to arrive, advised him how to repair it. He then explains the family: his great-grandfather Shimonke and grandfather Avrom Alters, who was killed by the Germans in 1941 after refusing evacuation. Avrom was a synagogue warden and supported a poor shoemaker's family on the Sabbath. Nibulskiy compares this with the complaints about aid today.

Nibulskiy says the Nibulskiys came from Lithuania. He tells about a poor family of binders, whose oven would not bake, who went for advice and returned with a pot of gold from a cracked oven. He then adds that the man opened a workshop in Pulen and became wealthy. Kerler asks about the name of the object and the term bonder, and about the rebbe's role.

Shraibman tells of his friend Shlomo and the idea of arranging a wedding canopy (khupe) for him, which he declined. Kerler jokes about matchmaking and the Messiah, and then asks whether he has been to Israel.

A short passage in which Shraibman says he and his wife survived and lived in a good village. He starts a story about a Jew coming to a rebbe by train, but it breaks off.

A speaker tells a story about a man called Taykhman, who in a town (Uzhhorod, per the catalogue) was lost in the dark and asked in Yiddish where the synagogue was. He did not know Russian and later learned it with someone interpreting. Kerler then asks Sandler to tell about Oltkonstantin before the war, in school and kheyder, and what children played.

Kerler asks whether Nibulskiy remembers any further charm formulas. Nibulskiy says his father taught him one and tells of his great-grandmother Klore, who called him in to three women arguing over whether he was fit to give blessings. He then tells how a young man from Moscow asked him for a charm or blessing.