11:52
Galambos shares his prayer customs and addresses local religious life.
Topics › Religion and ritual
Synagogue and prayer
Synagogues and prayer houses, services, cantors, prayer, minyan.
705 passages on 389 tapes, 269 speakers · most often in Kolomyya (49), Chișinău (40), Budapest (39), Rivne (33), L'viv (26), Khmel'nyts'kyy (24)
705 passages
15:21
Galambos chants a prayer, before mentioning Purim shpiels. He then speaks about life in Vaja before the war. According to Galambos, fifty Jewish families lived there.
6:40
Galambos speaks about prewar Jewish life, including occupations, in Vaja. He points out that the prayer shawls were in the synagogue and not at home.
51:28
Smajovics shares a proverb and then speaks about his religious education. He recalls prayers and examinations in cheder. Smajovics then speaks about a childhood friend that he met again in Israel after the war.
14:50
Smajovics addresses his praying customs today.
18:22
Smajovics recites kaddish, before he continues to talk about his praying customs today.
32:03
Dof speaks about contemporary religious life. He is a cantor. He then addresses prewar religious life in Khust, specifically his cheder education. He then recalls a Yiddish-language synagogue service in Buda in 1944. He then talks about contemporary religious life.
36:22
Gotlieb addresses praying customs and prayers she learned as a child. She then recites the morning prayer "Modeh Ani."
55:08
Gotlieb speaks about traditional weddings before the war. She then remembers synagogue service and Hasidic life in prewar Sátoraljaújhely. Gotlieb mentions that followers of the rebbe danced a Mitzvah tantz during weddings.
15:27
Rezmovits speaks about western refugees in Debrecen in 1941. He explains how they spoke at the local prayer house about the persecuation of the Jews in the west. Rezmovits also addresses Soviet Jewish writers and other Holocaust writings.
23:58
Herbst speaks about Jewish life in the region during German occupation in 1944. He then mentions how he always kept a prayer book (siddur) when traveling to Mauthausen.
26:36
Herbst shows his prayer book and recites prayers for the fourth and second days.
47:00
Herbst speaks about his school education at a Ukrainian school in his hometown. He then returns to his life in the postwar period in Debrecen, which included attending synagogue services. Herbst gives snippets of postwar religious life in Debrecen.
51:32
Herbst speaks about his life today and recalls a prayer. He then briefly addresses prewar Jewish life in Bornobash and shows his parents' photographs. Herbst also speaks about languages spoken at home.
18:10
Herbst speaks about life today. He then recites a prayer.
10:53
The camera records footage of the synagogue and yeshiva inside and continues to chat with Bergman about the contemporary community.
30:56
Bergman speaks about the history of this synagogue, as well as other local synagogues.
47:34
The camera records a prayer service.
37:44
Deutsch discusses his childhood memories and addresses prewar religious life. Deutsch sang in a choir at the synagogue. He then describes Sabbath services.
43:26
Deutsch talks about singing in the prewar choir. He then addresses contemporary religious life and synagogue services.
48:35
Deutsch chants a Hungarian Hassidic melody. He then speaks about his family. Deutsch also addresses prayers.
0:00
Deutsch chants prayers.
16:36
Pearl again talks about the return of the Mukachever Rebbe and Belzer Rebbe to Budapest in 1942. During that time, Pearl worked at a military factory. He also mentions that he met the Belzer Rebbe again in the Bor forced labor camp, where they held services together.
57:14
Pearl speaks about attending synagogue services in 1942. He then addresses his encounter with the Belzer Rebbe, before talking about Jewish life in Budapest under German occupation in 1944.
16:53
Pearl talks about contemporary religious customs and recites a prayer. The camera then collects footage of Pearl's apartment.
37:48
Gotlieb speaks about contemporary religious life and cantors' performances.
47:00
Gotlieb addresses praying customs and recalls her mother reading tsene-rene (Yiddish-language bible) on Sabbath. She then speaks about her family, before remembering her visits to Uzhhorod.
14:35
Gotlieb speaks about praying customs and recites the morning prayer "Modeh ani."
17:04
Gotlieb speaks about prewar customs on Tisha B'Av. She then addresses folk customs to avert the evil eye. Gotlieb mentions that the community prayed for her when she was sick as child.
2:49
Blobshteyn addresses folk customs to avert the evil eye. He also discusses life during non-Jewish holidays. Blobshteyn remembers a non-Jewish local village idiot, who frequently came to a prayer house.
42:53
Blobshteyn speaks about prewar life and recalls non-Jews who converted. He then addresses postwar religious life and state persecution. Blobshteyn recalls interruptions of High Holiday services and mentions his friend, a chief police officer, who warned the community before planned antireligious activities.
35:26
Smajovics talks about his life before the war and mentions languages spoken at home. He then continues to speak about his life during the war. Smajovics was sent from Vác to the Esztergom forced labor camp. He then describes the living conditions in the camp, where he stayed until the German invasion in March 1944. Smajovics continues that the camp prisoners were led to the local synagogue, where Passover service took place. Under the Germans, Smajovics worked as locksmith in Esztergom and then Budapest. The prisoners were then sent further, he explains, to Ercsi to work at a sugar factory. Smajovics continued to work in his profession as blacksmith. He then addresses fightings between the Red Army and Germans, during which the prisoners were sent to a farmstead in the direction of Budapest.
10:49
Smajovics talks about the small yeshiva, he attended before the war. He mentions the teaching schedule and praying customs.
0:00
Herbst provides personal information and speaks about his life today and mentions acquaintances. He then addresses contemporary religious life as well as his praying customs.
12:15
Herbst explains his involvement in the community, restoring prayer books. He then shows his awards.
17:58
Herbst recites a Sabbath prayer, before addressing contemporary religious life. Herbst mentions non-Jews who attended prayer services in Linz, Austria.
3:19
Herbst talks about his visit to America, where he went to services. He then answers linguistic questions and mentions friends.
12:02
Herbst describes daily life and living conditions in the Mauthausen concentration camp toward the end of the war. He also addresses his praying customs in the camp.
22:55
The camera collects footage of the synagogue and service. The service is led by Istvan.
3:20
Reti speaks about his family. His father built a prayer house and mikvah in Rohod and taught. Reti recalls how he studied with his father in the mornings before the war. His father was also born in Rohod and owned animals.
29:47
Reti speaks about his yeshiva education, when he studied with Volf Günsner for four years. He then recalls a prayer, Günsner would chant.
6:48
Reti recites a prayer for yahrzeit. He then addresses birth customs. He then talks about contemporary Jewish life. Reti moved to Debrecen ten years ago.
9:36
Reti answers questions about cultural terminology. He then recites a prayer.
15:08
Reti recites a hasidic prayer, before he chants a Purim Kiddush and remembers Purim shpiels.
35:17
The interview moves outside and Reti gives a tour of the former Jewish neighborhood, including the mikvah. Reti also mentions antisemitic daub and that antisemites set the Torah ark on fire.
43:27
The team and Reti enter the synagogue and the camera collects footage of the Hanukkah service, in which Reti participates, as well as the synagogue.
13:44
The team enters the Nyíregyháza synagogue and Miki Kiralyi gives a tour and provides historical background of the orthodox synagogue in Hebrew. He also addresses Jewish life in town after World War II, as well as contemporary Jewish life.
1:39
The team joins the morning service.
0:00
The team walks with Samadi to the synagogue to give a tour. He provides historical background about the synagogue, as well as about prewar and postwar religious life in Debrecen. According to Samadi, services in the Great Synagogue stopped in 1984. Other members, including Goronvalgy and Reti, join the conversation and inform about contemporary Jewish life in Hungarian and Yiddish.
10:39
The camera collects synagogue footage while community members provide background on the restoration of the synagogue.
16:54
Reti addresses prewar religious life at the synagogue, when he visited Debrecen from Rohod. The members then chat among themselves in Hungarian.
26:52
Samedi speaks about his family, in particular his mother's observance. He recalls how his mother read tsene rene on Sabbath. They then chant Shir haMa'alot.
30:44
Goronvalgy chants another version of Shir haMa'a lot, he remembers from his cheder education. Samedi then sings a nigun, he recalls from his uncle.
1:15
Reti speaks about his family, in particular his father. He explains how his father built a prayer house in Rohod and addresses prewar religious life in town. Reti also mentions that the Kosoner rebbe slept on a divan.
4:45
Reti sings a messiah song in Hungarian and then other hasidic songs and prayers (Purim kiddush and Hanukkah prayer), Reti remembers from his yeshiva education.
47:58
Reti recites blessings/prayers and answers questions about cultural terminology.
12:00
Reti speaks about his life today. He then recites the Yom Kippur prayer "U'netane Tokef."
16:23
Reti then recites the prayer for "shlogen kapores" (zeh hatarn'gol yelech l'misoh, va'ani elech l'chaim tovim arukim v'shalom). He then addresses folk and healing customs, in particular regarding newborns. He then speaks about his life today.
25:01
The team concludes the formal part of the interview with Reti. He speaks about life today and chants prayers.
16:26
Galambos speaks about prewar praying customs. He then sings "Belz, mayn shtetele Belz."
35:45
Galambos speaks about religiosity and prayers, including "got fun Avrum" (women's prayer in Yiddish). He also addresses the Land of Israel.
0:00
Galambos chants "Avinu Malkeinu" (prayer recited on Rosh Hashanah). He then addresses customs on Rosh Hashanah and recalls a Yiddish saying.
15:10
Galambos returns to his cheder education, including his teacher (melamed), and childhood memories. He also states that he frequently attends Sabbath services today.
19:05
Galambos talks about prewar Jewish life, as well as prayers and religious customs.
29:54
Galambos chants the prayer for blessing of the new month. He also addresses other prayers and speaks about prewar Jewish life, including occupational structure. Galambos maintains that there were no wealthy Jews in town.
57:22
Galambos speaks about his family. He desribes how his mother read tsene rene on Tisha B'Av for her neighbors and his sisters. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and says a prayer for Eretz Yisrael.
0:00
Raisa Izrailevna Faiershtein (born 1932 in Soroca) talks about her family, in particular her parents. She recalls how she attended synagogue services with her parents before the war. Her grandparents were born in Racovat, Moldova, and her parents lived there, before they moved to Soroca (recorded in Briceni).
12:49
Faiershtein discusses her childhood memories and holiday celebrations. She recalls Sabbath celebrations and synagogue services.
52:42
Altman remembers prewar Jewish life in Bălți. She recalls a non-Jewish woman speaking Yiddish. Her father prayed in different synagogues, such as the cobbler and 53: 45 synagogue.
0:00
This recording is a continuation of a formal interview with Malka Zelikovna Altman. Altman continues telling the story about her husband Mordkhe and his encounter with the rebbe of Stefanesti. She then talks about prewar Jewish life and different synagogues 2:10, as well as Sabbath celebrations.
18:47
Altman discusses food customs and her mother’s recipes. She recalls a Viennese soup her mother would cook. Altman then talks about holiday celebrations and recites prayers. In particular, Altman addresses Purim and Passover celebrations and songs.
29:15
They discuss Sabbath celebrations and prayers. Dzigifker talks about her education at a religious school (cheder) in Marculesti. She explains that her father took her out of the cheder, because the boys would not allow her to study. He hired a private tutor to continue her religious education. The private tutor taught Dzigifker how to read and write in Yiddish.
37:34
The team meets Maryem in front of her home, who takes the team on a tour of the former Jewish neighborhood in Bălți. They are headed to the former synagogue.
40:07
Maryem, who was born in Bălți, talks about her life during the war. She explains that she fled from Bălți to Dnipropetrovsk on foot for six weeks. Maryem continues giving a tour, pointing out former synagogues. They are then headed to a former “Jewish street.” After the team drops Maryem off at home, they are headed to the synagogue.
24:01
Bukshpun talks about his life after the war. He worked the field. He then talks about surrounding towns with a Jewish population before the war. He addresses the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, before he describe his father’s general store. Bukshpun talks about synagogue services in his uncle’s town Briceni.
9:36
Reizman talks about her education. She studied at a Romanian school for two years. Her sister attended a religious school (cheder). Reizman recalls her sister praying during Sabbath and Sabbath celebrations, including food customs, at home. Reizman then talks about her family. Her son, who worked as a chauffeur, was killed in Bălți.
48:27
Reizman mentions prayers.
2:20
Reizman discusses postwar Jewish life. According to Reizman, every synagogue was destroyed, but a kosher butcher worked in town.
2:20
Meyer discusses his childhood memories and games. In particular, he explains the game with nuts. Meyer celebrated his Bar mitzvah at the Bălți synagogue. He then talks about his education. His parents hired the private tutor Arn Moyshe for his religious education. Meyer attended a Romanian school.
53:52
Meyer talks about his return to Bălți in 1946 and explains that his house was entirely destroyed. Meyer’s brother-in-law received an apartment through his job and Meyer’s family moved in with him. It happened to be his grandmother’s house. He then discusses Jewish life after the war. According to Meyer, the community reopened the synagogue and it functioned until 1961. After the closure, the community rented an apartment to hold services. Meyer briefly mentions contemporary religious life.
MDV 130Isaak (Itisk) Yakovlevich Boltykh; Semyon (Shimen) Semyonovich Katerberg; Tatyana (Tube) Yakovlevna KaterbergBriceni, 2005
4:33
Boltykh speaks about Jewish life after the war. He recalls private prayer services.
9:44
Boltykh speaks about life during the Soviet period and life today. He adresses private religious services after the war.
26:00
Kalussky speaks about prewar Soviet times and the difficulties to conduct services. He then talks about prewar cultural life and theater. He recalls performances by Sidi Tal and how non-Jews attended her concerts.
31:14
Kalussky recalls how his family went to see the Rîbniţa rebbe and describes the rebbe's place. He then addresses prewar Jewish life. According to Kalussky, 14,000 Jews lived in Briceni. He also mentions a visiting cantor from Kamyanets-Podilskyy. Kalussky then tells a story from a visiting rebbe from Khotyn, who wanted to eat fish and received advice-seeking people.
23:14
Goldberg speaks about religious life before the war. She recalls that the community hired a cantor to come to Călărași. She then remembers Simkhat Torah and Hanukkah celebrations, as well as addresses other holidays.
18:51
Roif speaks about prewar Jewish life in Duruitoarea, where Jews lived in a colony spread across three villages. He mentions that his father supported the village synagogue. According to him, 160 families lives there.
42:19
Roif provides personal information. He then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Duruitoarea, as well as his education. Roif attended a Romanian school and religious school (cheder), which was located in the local synagogue. Roif learned in cheder, except for the winter months, until the outbreak of World War II.
9:11
Roif addresses prayer customs before the war. He then speaks about prewar holiday celebration and food customs.
3:35
Shmid discusses her childhood memories of Onitskan. She describes the children's religious education and recalls prayer customs.
8:01
Shmid speaks about prewar holiday celebration, providing information for each holiday. According to her, the community rented a house and hired a cantor for the High Holidays. Shmid then describes Sabbath food customs, as well as meals for break-fast.
38:59
Shpitalnik talks about postwar religious life. She states that the only synagogue was closed down in the 1960s. She also addresses traditional weddings with performers. Shpitalnik then speaks about prewar Jewish occupational structure in Chişinău, particularly doctors and teachers.
21:13
Mester talks about prewar religious life Stolniceni and recalls her father's prayer books at home. She mentions how men would rent a house to hold services once a week. She then speaks about holiday celebration, including Simchat Torah and Purim. Mester recalls music performances on Purim.
23:25
Mester addresses Sabbath food customs, including her mother's receipe for gefilte fish. She then speaks about her family, as well as prayer customs.
MDV 148Rabbi Zalman Abelsky; Sara Solomonovna Shpitalnik; Moisha Motylevich LipovetskiyChișinău, 2005
19:59
Lipovetskiy speaks about his return to home to Bessarabia in 1944. He then addresses prewar religious life, including synagogue structure. He describes how the cook's synagogue offered meals and gave out food on Passover. He then recalls the rabbi of this synagogue and his visits to the talmud torah school.
25:40
Lipovetskiy talks about his education at the talmud torah school. He then speaks about postwar religious life and the restoration of the former bookbinder's/glazier's synagogue. Lipovetskiy also addresses local emigration.
40:17
Lipovetskiy discusses his childhood memories and games with Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson. He then addresses different Jewish groups and dialects, as well as contemporary religious service.
14:06
Kishlyansky discusses his childhood memories of Jewish Briceni. He speaks about prewar religious life, prayer customs and his family's observance. In particular, he addresses Sabbath celebrations at home.
16:05
Kishlyansky speaks about his life during World War II. He recalls beatings and mentions the forced marches toward Ukraine. He then returns to Jewish life before the war. Kishlyansky attended a religious school (cheder). He also lists local synagogues.
8:06
Gordin discusses his childhood memories of Jewish life in prewar Velyka Kisnytsya. He also remembers food customs at a traditional wedding and talks about the local religious school (cheder). Gordin then speaks about prewar holiday celebration and recalls his parents going to services.
22:00
Gordin speaks about prewar religious life. He states that the local synagogue was also functioning after the war. Gordin attended a Russian school. He also describes his Yiddish-language education by Itsik Lander, which lasted two weeks. Gordin then addresses prewar religious life, including holiday food customs.
18:42
Sherman shows his copy of a machzor (prayer book used on the High Holidays). He then reads excerpts from the prayer book.
22:23
Sherman reads "Unetanneh Tokef" (a liturgical poem part of the Rosh Hashanahh and Yom Kippur liturgy) from the machzor. He then returns to discussing the public Yiddish library.
27:30
Sherman addresses prewar Yiddish cultural life, particularly local drama circles. He also recalls performances by Sidi Tal. Sherman then talks about prewar religious life, particularly the synagogue structure in Telenești. Sherman also describes how he went to see a cantor in Orhei during his secondary education.
33:19
Sherman talks about prewar holiday celebration, particularly Yom Kippur. He recalls how shopowners closed their stores to attend Kol Nidre services. Sherman then talks about Passover celebrations at home.
35:10
Sherman addresses his father's observance and prayer customs.
48:09
Sherman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also addresses prewar praying customs.
27:34
Mitlaeva speaks about life before the war and recalls a Romanian family that spoke Yiddish. She then addresses childhood games and touches upon prewar Sukkot and Simchat Torah celebrations. Mitlaeva also lists different local synagogues; e.g. cook's, baker's and glazier's synagogues.
38:48
Mitlaeva talks about prewar religious customs and synagogue services. She also touches upon Sabbath celebrations and remembers family friends before the war.
27:10
Muchnik addresses religious customs at home. She points out the different prayer customs between herself and her father. She then recites the morning prayer "Modeh ani" and recalls prewar Passover celebrations at home.
16:01
Muchnik speaks about prewar religious life. She maintains that her father attended daily services at the market synagogue and the Great Synagogue on holidays. Muchnik remembers the cantor in the Great Synagogue. She then shares an episode about spending Rosh Hashana at a Romanian police officer's house.
32:51
Abelsky talks about contemporary Hasidic life and reasons for the Hebrew translation of the French national anthem. Abelsky then chants Napoleon's march, which is traditional with Lubavitcher Hasidim to sing at the conclusion of the Ne'ilah service on Yom Kippur, before the sounding of the Shofar.
9:40
Goldman speaks about prewar Jewish life in Ialoveni. According to him, there were five synagogues.
20:15
Goldman speaks about his praying customs. He then talks about prewar Jewish life in his hometown and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Goldman then remembers activities organized by Gordonia. According to him, twenty members were in the local Gordonia branch.
17:03
Benderskij addresses prewar Jewish life in Nisporeni. According to him there were two synagogues and approximately four hundred people lived there. Benderskij also addresses his grandfather's observance. Benderskij worked as economist and Benderskaia was an accountant.
38:07
Dajch talks about prewar Jewish life in Nisporeni, including synagogue structure. She also addresses holiday celebration, occupational structure, locals and activities of the youth.
57:04
Dajch addresses prewar cultural life. She recalls cantors visiting. Dajch then talks about folk and healing customs and shares episodes when her mother practiced them.
44:49
Rotner speaks about Jewish life in Chiperceni before the war. She particularly describes the local synagogue. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Rotner then recalls how she collected charity for a poor local family.
12:52
Manevich speaks about prewar Jewish life in Tiraspol. She also discusses her childhood memories of attending the synagogue on holidays. Manevich then speaks about her education, including subjects, at a Yiddish school. Manevich also recites a Russian poem.
8:45
Rojtman discusses her childhood memories of her home and neighbors. She also addresses prewar Jewish life. According to Rojtman, there were three synagogues in town. Rojtman recalls positive relations between Jews and non-Jews.
14:40
Yaruskaya addresses prewar holiday celebrations, including Simchat Torah and Sabbath. She remembers attending synagogue services with her mother and grandmother. According to Yaruskaya, there were two synagogues in Hâncești. She then describes Sabbath food customs at home and shares her recipe for gefilte fish.
7:19
Shmid addresses prewar holiday celebration at home. She recalls going to synagogue services on Yom Kippur in Chișinău. She then speaks about her life and education before the war. Shmid attended a primary school at the age of seven. After finishing four years of school, she moved to her sister's in Chișinău and continued studying. Shmid's sister owned a bakery.
29:09
Shmid talks about her life today, as well as her family. She then speaks about prewar holiday celebration in her home village. Shmid describes how the community hired a cantor for Rosh Hashana. She then addresses Purim celebrations in Onitskan Orgeyev and Chișinău.
43:15
Shmid talks about her life after World War II. She then describes her traditional wedding before the war. Shmid then talks about her family's life and holiday celebration before the war. Shmid particularly points to her parents' observance. She also addresses again how the community hired a cantor on the High Holidays, who performed in the local mill. She explains how a room in the mill was turned into the prayer room.
34:31
Kleyman discusses her childhood memories and prewar religious life in Starye Karkushany. According to her, there were forty Jewish families out of four hundred inhabitants. She then talks about religious service with rabbis from surrounding cities. Kleyman then talks about contemporary holiday celebration. She visited Chernivtsi for Sukkot celebrations. Kleyman briefly describes prewar holiday celebrations at home and talks about life today.
MDV 187Maria Leibovna Kleyman; Iosif (Yosel) Matveyevich Shvartzman; Raisa Aizekovna ShvartzmanLipcani, 2005
28:01
Raisa talks about how she met Iosif, before he mentions his work as a sausage maker for forty years. He then talks about Jewish life after the war. Iosif recalls religious services and his traditional wedding in 1949.
34:19
Iosif recalls snippets of a prayer. They then answer a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
11:28
Kigel discusses holiday celebration, in particular Sabbath. She also talks about prewar religoius life and synagogues. She then talks about Purim celebrations and sings a Purim shpiel.
26:38
Kigel addresses childhood memories and holiday celebration, in particular Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkoth. She recalls how the local synagogues hired cantors for the High Holidays. Kigel then addresses Passover celebrations, including food customs.
7:36
Rapoport talks about life after the war. His family was sent to Siberia (Irkutsk district) in 1949, as part of Stalin's antisemitic measures. His family returned in 1956. Rapoport maintains that he learned Yiddish in Siberia. He then talks about life after their return in 1956. Rapoport's father taught him how to pray.
12:17
Rapoport talks about religious life post-Soviet Moldova. Then the camera collects footage of the synagogue. Outside, Rapoport gives a tour of the former Jewish neighborhood. Rapoport worked as a regional economic planner. The team then concludes the interview and the camera collects outside footage of the synagogue.
36:00
Grinshpun talks about her father's praying and singing. Grinshpan talks about life after the war and her family. She moved to Peresecina in 1960.
32:42
Sharhorodskij talks about prewar Jewish life in Rîbniţa. He states that the synagogues were closed down in the late 1930s. Sharhorodskij describes the activities of a Yiddish club in place of the synagogue. He mentions peaceful relations among ethnic minorities.
45:26
Sharhorodskij discusses his childhood memories and holiday celebration. He then speaks about postwar religious life, particularly the Rîbniţa rebbe, Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz. He mentions the rebbe's work as kosher butcher in postwar Rîbniţa. Sharhorodskij also recalls the rebbe from the Rîbniţa ghetto and how he went to forced labor services. Sharhorodskij then describes secret services with the Rîbniţa rebbe in the ghetto, as well as the rebbe's bathing in winter after the war.
31:45
Kotliar speaks about reading and writing Yiddish and then prewar cultural life, including Yiddish theater performances. Kotliar then addresses postwar religious life and recalls how the Rîbniţa rebbe knocked on her family's door to invite for services. Kotliar then addresses different regional groups.
9:01
Boiarskaia addresses her childhood memories, including her observant home. She states that her father had a Torah ark at home. According to her, five Jewish families lived in Ţîbuleuca and her father held secret services. Boiarskaia then explains how local Jews would join the neighboring community near Goian (former Jewish town Yergolik 11:15, Yiddish: Irnik) to celebrate holidays.
12:34
Boiarskaia speaks about traditional weddings and the synagogue closing before the war. She then talks about prewar holiday celebration, including Passover and Purim. Boiarskaia baked matzo for her children.
8:31
Magetman talks about her school education and prewar religious life. Specifically, she talks about how her parents attended synagogue services with Rabbi Zukerman. Magetman attended a Romanian school before the war and a Soviet Russian school after the war.
19:22
Plotnik talks about her childhood memories and prewar life in Dumbraveno. According to Plotnik, there were five synagogues (e.g. tailor's and German synagogue) and five hundred houses in the village. Plotnik's father passed away in 1934. She then talks about commemorating her father and returns to discussing prewar Jewish life. Her parents hired a private religious tutor during her early childhood.
46:13
Rolshut talks about prewar religious life, in particular synagogues. She remembers an older woman who would pray at the moon.
48:29
Rolshut talks about praying traditions. She recalls her mother "shlogn kapores" (a ceremony for repentance).
31:01
Mirenburg answers questions about cultural terminology. She then talks about her life during World War II, in particular addressing the year 1941. She describes the beginnings of the German occupation in 1941, when her relatives happened to visit her family and how Mirenburg's family was forced to leave the house. She recalls how a Romanian soldier shot into the house and almost hit her aunt. Mirenburg maintains that she went to check on her aunt, while her family left the house; and as soon as she came outside her family already departed. Mirenburg explains how she came across an older woman, with whom she looked for family. Mirenburg then describes how she looked for her family and encounters with Romanian soldiers. Mirenburg recalls how she saw familiar people dead on the way and finally reunited with her parents and siblings. She then talks about the forced march toward the Rubleniţa woods andr recalls how they received food from Christians in the surrounding villages. According to Mirenburg, they stayed in the woods for ten days, before marching to the Cosăuţi woods. She mentions a woman who gave birth and collecting groups for forced labor during the time in the Rubleniţa woods. Mirenburg then reflects on reasons why the Christian inhabitants of Cosăuţi and Rubleniţa did not admit to the cruelties happening to Jews during the war. She then continues with her life during the war. According to Mirenburg, they stayed in the Cosăuţi woods for ten days, before marching to Yampil, where they stayed for three days. Mirenburg talks about the time in Yampil, during which her mother went to town to get food and encountered a German soldier. Mirenburg continues that after three days abidance in Yampil, her family was allowed to return home to Sguritzy, where they stayed for another three days, before forced to gather in the local synagogue. Mirenburg recalls the conditions in the synagogue and talks about how they were sent to Vertiujeni, where they had to stay for two months. From Vertiujeni, Mirenburg explains, they were supposed to go to the Rîbniţa ghetto, but returned home instead.
29:33
Mirenburg takes the team to the synagogue and describes the forced assembly in 1941. The camera then records footage of the synagogue.
54:00
Plotnik mentions prayers and religious customs. She then talks about life today and sings a different version of the well-known Yiddish song "Tumbalalaika."
38:01
R. addresses reading Yiddish literature after the war, before talking about prewar religious life in Soroca. She mentions different synagogues, including the cobbler, tailor, carpenter and Great Synagogue. According to R., only the Great Synagogue remained after the war.
39:58
R. talks about life during the war. She explains how she was forced into the Great Synagogue, where the local Jewish community had to assemble.
40:43
R. addresses prayers and holiday celebration, as well as talks about food customs. She then mentions Purim celebrations and more food customs.
7:25
Nusbrokh recalls a contemporary memorial service at the synagogue, before continuing to describe how his unit went from Kazakhstan to Japan, before Nusbrokh was sent to Stalingrad. He then describes his time in Stalingrad and his return home to Zguriţa, via Drochia (12:12).
18:02
Nusbrokh discusses his childhood memories and prewar religious life. He also addresses contemporary religious life and rebuilding the synagogue in Soroca.
42:16
Nusbrokh answers questions about folk customs and cultural terminology, as well as addresses prayers.
56:21
Nusbrokh talks about prewar and postwar religious life. He recalls how people rented an apartment for private services. He then talks about contemporary Jewish life.
18:23
Dunaevskij talks about prewar religious life in Ştefăneşti and his family. He recalls how he learned prayers in cheder.
57:58
Dunaevskij talks about postwar religious life in privately rented spaces.
19:27
Luminskaia discusses her childhood memories and acitivies. She then talks about prewar Jewish life in Chipovich. Luminskaia remembers attending synagogue services with his grandmother. She also addresses holiday celebration and explains how she helped her mother baking matzos.
26:00
Luminskaia recalls her grandfather's stories and describes prewar Jewish life and synagogues.
33:00
Goldshteyn discusses his childhood memories and education. He attended a Romanian school in the mornings and a religious school (cheder) in the afternoons. He describes his bar mitzvah and synagogue attendance.
12:24
Butorski addresses prewar Jewish life in Tighina. There were fifteen synagogues in town, according to him.
11:46
Meir talks about Sabbath celebrations at home, including food customs. He then describes how his mother cooked fish and recalls prayers.
51:24
Meir speaks about burial customs and prayers, he remembers from his childhood.
4:04
David addresses Yiddish songs and talks about contemporary Jewish life and support for fixing up the synagogue building.
10:12
David speaks about contemporary Jewish life and services.
12:27
David talks about prewar Jewish life, including synagogues and mikvas. He then addresses contemporary religious life.
18:16
Brief talks about prewar religious life. He recalls how his father attended synagogue services.
0:00
Brief's son gives the team a tour of the synagogue.
0:44
Brief's son provides historical background of the synagogue. It was built some time between 1835 and 1840. He also addresses prewar religious life and contemporary services during holidays.
11:02
Brief's son shows the Torah scroll and then the camera collects more footage.
40:52
Cohn speaks about prewar Jewish life in Suliţa. According to him, 150 Jewish families resided in town. He also lists the different local synagogues. He then talks about Passover and Purim celebrations, including food customs. Cohn briefly touches upon Purim shpiels and charity.
48:57
Cohn speaks about holiday celebration. He also recalls prayers.
MDV 232Iosif David; Sami (Shmiel) Kurtsberg; Iosif Kunovich BurgȘofrîncani, Botoșani, Chernivtsi, Siret, 2006
15:29
Kofmansky gives a tour of the synagogue and explains the history of the synagogue.
49:04
Grunfeld discusses prewar Sabbath celebrations and prayer customs. He then talks about Sabbath food customs and Sabbath zemirot (songs).
58:48
Grunfeld talks about his life after the war. He got married in 1949. He then mentions prewar Jewish life in Cluj-Napoca, including synagogue structure. According to Grunfeld, 18,000 Jews lived in Cluj before the war and approximately 2,000 Jews after the war.
15:04
Grunfeld speaks about his family and addresses local cemeteries, as well as prayer customs. He then turns to folk customs, including averting the evil eye.
10:06
Hershkovich talks prewar religious life. He recalls how people from the surrounding communities came together for services in Bogota de Sus. He also describes professional life.
25:52
Hershkovich speaks about his life during World War II. He served in the army and worked in construction between 1942 and 1944. He then talks about his family's fate during the war and shows family photographs. He also shares photographs of the Dej synagogue and the head of the yeshiva.
31:51
Hershkovich talks about his family and shows family photographs. He then talks about local cantors before the war.
18:10
Grunfeld speaks about his religious education and recalls Sabbath zemirot (songs). He attended a religious school (cheder) until the age of nine. Grunfeld then talks about an episode from his childhood when he did not say the morning prayer "moyde ani" and was chastised by a Christian woman. He also mentions the Yiddish Bible for women "tsene-rene."
43:47
The team greets Eugen Kraus and sets up an interview with him. Kraus and Hershkovich speak about the former synagogue, which is presently used as Jewish Studies department of the university.
20:37
Kraus speaks about contemporary religious services. He then describes how his mother koshered meat and speaks about food customs.
22:00
Kraus discusses holiday celebrations, including Purim. Kraus shares that he blows the shofar during contemporary services.
32:04
Kraus speaks about food customs for Purim, before he recites the morning prayer "moyde ani." Kraus discusses prewar Jewish life in the surrounding towns.
43:56
Kraus addresses prewar Yiddish culture in Bukarest. He then talks about prewar Jewish life in Cluj-Napoca, including synagogues. He also addresses prewar Hasidism.
47:45
Kraus talks about contemporary religious services. He then talks about his work as a the head of the community for twenty years.
43:26
Freundlich discusses her childhood memories in an observant home. She also addresses prewar Jewish life, including kosher butchers. She then explains how to kosher meat. She then recites the prayer "Got fun Avrum."
33:03
Hershkovich speaks about prewar Jewish life in Dej, including synagogues. He also addresses praying customs and Purim plays.
43:02
Hershkovich talks about Jewish life after World War II, as well as contemporary Jewish life. Hershkovich then talks about his life today and after the war. Hershkovich moved to Cluj-Napoca in 1969. He worked as revenue officer. According to Hershkovich, there were three active synagogues in town and traditional weddings taking place in the immediate postwar period.
41:47
Miller speaks about his father. He then recites prayers and sings the Sabbath song "Shalom Aleichem."
44:56
Kraus and Grunfeld address Passover celebrations. Grunfeld then speaks about his bar mitzvah and the morning prayer "moyde ani."
49:32
Kraus recites a wedding prayer. They then talk about prewar Jewish life and answer questions about cultural terminology.
7:41
Kraus recites a prayer and Grunfeld speaks about life today. He then briefly talks about prewar religious life.
17:25
Miller speaks about Sabbath celebrations at home before the war. He also chants prayers and sings songs, he recalls from Sabbath dinners.
36:34
Meir talks about his work before and after the war. Meir became the director of a Dorhoi syndicate in 1948. He worked 46 years before retirement. Meir states that he frequently attended religious services after the war, but stopped as soon as he joined the Party; and continued after his retirement.
39:09
Meir addresses prewar religious life in Dorohoi, including synagogues. He then talks about his family. He got married in 1951 and raised two son, who live in Israel and Iaşi. Meir maintains that his sons were circumcised by a local mohel. Meir then addresses postwar Jewish life in Dorohoi.
12:58
Shaia speaks about his education at a religious school (cheder). He then recites the morning prayer "moyde ani." He also recalls his cheder friends.
50:33
Isidor addresses postwar religious life and his religious education at a cheder for three years in the early 1950s in Dorohoi. Isidor also studied with a Hebraica professor. Isidor then explains how the community would gather at his home for religious services.
14:07
Grimberg talks about her family. She has two sisters who live in Israel. Her father was a worker and born in Dorohoi. Grimberg mentions that her grandfather built a synagogue and arranged to bring a Sefer Torah from Chernivtsi.
20:34
Grimberg addresses Yiddish songs. She then addresses her role as foresayer (firzogerin) at the synagogue.
23:25
Gimberg shows a Yiddish-language prayer book (Tkhine), she inherited from her mother. She then reads a Sabbath prayer.
31:32
Gimberg explains her role as firzogerin. She then talks about prewar Jewish life in Dorohoi.
33:12
Gimberg talks about her life after the war. Her family returned in 1943. She speaks more about her role as firzogerin and explains how to kosher meat. Gimberg then addresses more food customs, including baking challah.
36:49
Gimberg talks about her life today and how she supports the community. She then reads the blessing over the Challah from the Tkhine. She also addresses Sabbath and individual prayers.
42:08
Gimberg speaks about postwar religious life. She explains how she attended services at her grandfather's synagogue up to the 1960s. She also talks about her work as teacher.
7:49
Hirsch briefly mentions his work after the war as economist and then talks about prayers.
10:38
Hirsch talks about postwar religious life in Dej during the Soviet period. He recalls how party members checked services. According to Hirsch, the Great Synagogue was active until 1990.
25:51
Hirsch speaks about prewar life in Luduș and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He then addresses holiday celebration, including Passover and Yom Kippur, before the war. In particular, Hirsch recalls how he attended services with his father.
8:02
The camera records Chajim recording kaddish.
35:52
Chajim addresses his life before the war in Podu Iloaiei. He also speaks about his life during World War II, before addressing prewar religious life, including synagogues in Podu Iloaiei.
42:31
Chajim talks about prewar Sabbath celebrations, before mentioning friends, who attended his wedding. He then refers to religious life today, including a prayer for Yom Kippur.
6:18
Chajim briefly addresses his wedding and life today. He then speaks about religious customs and prayer.
0:00
The camera collects footage of the synagogue and chats with Abramovich about the prewar religious life. He also provides personal information.
5:14
The team and Abramovich enter the synagogue. He briefly recites a prayer and gives a tour of the former Great Synagogue. Abramovich points out the marks of Russian weapons. Abramovich then talks about the the use of the synagogue building as horse stable during the war. Returnees, he explains, fixed up the building.
14:46
Abramovich addresses the history of the synagogue building. He remembers an artist who decorated the synagogue during his childhood. Abramovich then addresses folk customs to avert the evil eye.
31:21
Chajim remembers a song about flirting. He then recites the Rabbis' Kaddish, before talking about his family. Chajim has a sister, who lives in Israel. Chajim mentions that he blows the shofar on Yom Kippur and he attended religious school (cheder).
39:34
The camera records Chajim reciting kaddish for several people.
23:12
The research team collects town footage of Rădăuţi, particularly a tour of the synagogue led by Grinberg.
24:02
The team and Grinberg enter the synagogue, while she speaks about local Jewish history during World War II. Grinberg then talks about the history of the synagogue, including rabbis.
27:20
The camera collects synagogue footage. Grinberg then speaks about other synagogues in the region.
38:52
Grinberg talks about her work as head of the community. Grinberg explains how she organized the restoration of the synagogue building.
50:15
Grinberg points out damages during World War II and continues the tour of the building.
28:30
Finkelshteyn recalls the Iași pogrom in 1941 and describes how he experienced it. Finkelshteyn explains how he and five siblings were deported and then describes the journey to Podu Iloaiei. Upon arrival, Finkelshteyn continues, survivors of the train ride were assembled at a synagogue, where they received food. He also describes how he buried bodies and mentions that he returned with his siblings a few months later.
51:38
Finkelshteyn talks about prewar religious life, particularly the local bath house and synagogues. He then describes Sabbath celebrations with the local rebbe.
19:38
Rozenblat provides background history on the Meransky Synagogue.
21:12
The team and Rozenblat enter the building of the former Meransky Synagogue of Iaşi and Rozenblat gives a tour.
22:38
Shtaigman talks about postwar religious life in Rădăuţi, specifically active synagogues. He also speaks about his family, as well as a contemporary film project about the Jews of Rădăuţi.
10:07
Shvartz addresses his school education, as well as prewar Jewish life in Bîrlad, including synagogue structure. He then speaks about holiday celebration at home before and after the war. Shvartz also addresses food customs on Sabbath and recalls the kosher butcher.
39:06
Shvartz speaks about Jewish life after the war, as well as contemporary religious life in Iaşi. Shvartz is the synagogue caretaker.
7:26
Kaizerman talks about his family, particularly his father's observance. He then discusses his observance after the war during military service. Kaizerman states that he attended services in uniform on holidays.
20:03
Chirilau speaks about Jewish life before the war, particularly theater performances and synagogues. Chirilau remembers when the wooden synagogue burned down.
35:47
Leichtner chants a Sabbath blessing and then addresses Sabbath food customs, including recipes for potato kugel and gefilte fish.
19:18
Shwartz talks about prewar Jewish life, in particular prayer houses and occupational structure, in Valumihei. According to Shwartz, approximately two thousand Jews lived there. He then talks about the Kaliver rebbe.
39:38
Freundlich speaks about prewar Sabbath celebrations at home. He remembers how his family sang zemirot and their Christian neighbors would listen outside. Freundlich explains how the cheder boys were quizzed by the rebbe on Sabbath afternoons. He also recalls visits of a cantor twice a year.
53:45
Freundlich remembers a Purim shpiel and addresses his childhood and the rebbes' austerity. He then speaks about his life after the war. Freundlich states that he became a Communist at eighteen and did not enter a synagogue until he was sixty years old. He married a non-Jewish woman in 1956.
28:50
Freundlich addresses prayers, in particular how he said "moyde ani" as child.
33:28
Freundlich addresses different Yiddish dialects within praying customs. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
8:25
The team concludes the interview with Freundlich. The camera then collects synagogue footage.
12:29
Shwartz speaks about his life and family after the war. He also touches upon holiday celebration at a local prayer house.
37:06
Shwartz speaks about prewar Jewish life, in particular different denominations and prayer houses. He also explains how he became a yeshiva student, after his father passed away in 1926.
35:18
Mezei speaks about her husband's return to Sighetu Marmaţiei. Mezei also mentions how the Jewish community was assembled in the Great Synagogue before deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mezei then speaks about her father who founded a Zionist prayer house before the war.
1:49
Grinberg speaks about her family life in prewar Fălticeni. She descends from a family of cantors and hasidim. She then addresses her childhood memories and work as synagogue caretaker.
9:05
Grinberg plays a recording of her father praying and speaks about the local community.
25:34
The camera then records footage of the Rădăuţi synagogue. Grinberg speaks about contemporary Jewish life and events. She also mentions her academic activities.
46:22
Grinberg speaks about her education. She attended a Romanian school in Fălticeni and then the mathematics institute in Iaşi. The camera then collects more footage of the Rădăuţi synagogue (outside and inside).
17:15
Grinberg addresses her childhood memories, including her parents and holiday celebration. She recalls how her father helped out a poor neighbor and mentions that her father founded a prayer house.
21:54
Grinberg speaks about her life before the war. She mentions a German family, whose daughter attended the local Jewish school. She then addresses daily prayers and her life today.
13:54
Cojocaru speaks about her traditional wedding. She got married in 1960. She then speaks about the synagogue building and her son's circumcision.
29:24
Cojocaru speaks about Purim, Passover and Hanukkah celebrations before the war, including food customs. She also speaks about her family. Her father was a synagogue caretaker.
4:31
Marcus speaks about Jewish life in Săveni after the war, including his childhood memories. He attended a Romanian school. Marcus states that five synagogues were active after the war. He also addresses postwar religious and cultural life. Marcus also describes his religious education.
35:34
Marcus speaks about the occupational structure in Săveni, including prewar synagogues. Marcus also addresses postware religious life and food customs and recalls Jewish drunks and someone who collaborated with the Germans during the war.
11:42
The team chats with community members. The team then visits the synagogue and the camera collects footage, while Marcus gives a tour.
14:51
The team travels with Marcus to the next interview with Golda Salamon. He discusses prewar Jewish life in Sighetu Marmației (Yiddish: Siget). They pass Elie Wiesel's birth house. Marcus also addresses the destruction of local synagogues during World War II.
32:35
Salamon speaks about the contemporary Jewish community, as well as prewar and postwar religious life. Salamon recalls how the community hired a cantor for the Great Synagogue on holidays and her father would stop praying in order to listen to him.
37:37
Salamon addresses Yiddish writers and prewar Yiddish performances. She then shows her prayer books (machzorim) and family photographs.
18:55
Kurtsberg speaks about his life during World War II, when he was imprisoned in the Bershad ghetto. He speaks about the journey via Marculesti, as well as arrival at the ghetto. Kurtsberg describes the night his family stayed in in the Marculesti woods and how they moved into a run-down house in the Bershad ghetto. Kurtsberg then speaks about daily life, including diseases, in the ghetto and how he went out to collect vegetable waste. Kurtsberg then describes how prisoners were taken from the ghetto to forced labor to dig mass graves. Kurtsberg also addresses moments from his childhood in the ghetto, including theater performances, prayer services and a visit of Romanian soldiers to his house.
41:14
Kurtsberg speaks about religious services and holiday celebration, particularly Passover, in the Bershad ghetto. Kurtsberg recalls how people baked matzo. He then addresses the relationship between Jews and Ukrainians during his imprisonment.
0:00
Kurtsberg speaks about contemporary religious customs of Christians, who pray at the Rădăuţi synagogue.
10:06
Petraru speaks about the history of the Suceava synagogues. He recalls how the synagogues were closed in 1957. Petraru then speaks about Jewish life in Suceava.
37:36
The team enters with Mehler the Vatra Dornei synagogue. The camera then collects footage, while Mehler speaks about contemporary religious life and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews.
2:02
Galambos talks about the Vaja synagogue. He then talks about his life after World War II, before addressing prewar Jewish life in Vaja. Galambos returned with a sister and two brothers. Galambos recalls book peddlers.
24:19
Galambos reads from the prayer book and speaks about life before the war, which he compares to life today.
4:45
Chaimovic provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a wood merchant and owned a lumbermill. Chaimovic grew up with five brothers and one sister. Chaimovic's father taught his sons how to pray. His mother was born in Oleksandrivka (Shandorova), Ukraine, and his father was born in Monastyrets', Ukraine.
10:46
Chaimović discusses his childhood memories and education. He attended a religious school (cheder) at the age of five. He recites the morning prayer "Moyde ani." He then recalls childhood games.
20:31
Chaimović addresses holiday celebrations and food customs. He then speaks about his cheder education, including his teachers (melamdim). When Chaimović was ten years old, he moved to Prešov and attended cheder there. He then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Prešov, including synagogues.
38:49
Chaimović talks about religious life before the war in Hanušovce nad Topľou. He recalls how members from the surrounding villages would get together for services in Hanušovce, Bystrý, Vyšný Žipov and Sol' for instance.
40:48
Chaimović chants the Hebrew-language liturgical song "Lekha Dodi."
44:05
Steiner reads from a book about the Košice community and talks about the local synagogues, as well as shows pictures.
50:18
Chaimović recites the Yom Hashishi Kiddush and other prayers.
17:14
Klimenko discusses her childhood memories and talks about her family. Her father worked at the sewing factory in Balta. Klimenko, who did not go through formal schooling, worked as a cleaner for twenty-eight years. She then talks about prewar Jewish life, when she attended the synagogue with her parents regularly. Klimenko raised a son, who lives in the Odesa region.
3:47
Milchenko talks about postwar Jewish life, and about the closing of the synagogue after the war. According to her, the kosher butcher worked until the 1980s in Balta. He slaughtered chickens and would also circumcise children in the early years after the war. Milchenko then talks about life today and her family. She explains that she was afraid to arrange a circumcision for her son, who was born in 1957. Milchenko has family in Israel.
19:44
Lokteva talks about holiday celebrations and her family. Her mother cooked and sold borshtch. She then talks about Purim celebrations and remembers a Yiddish song about Purim. She also recalls her mother baking matzah in the oven at home. She then discusses postwar Jewish life, when people gathered in private homes for services. Lokteva remembers her own wedding and talks about their family, in particular their mother’s family. Their cousins live in America and Israel.
0:00
Pivnik discusses Jewish life before the war and talks about her family. Her family frequently attended synagogue services; Pivnik explains that they lived in close proximity. She then discusses prewar weddings and remembers how her mother would dress her up. Her mother was a dressmaker and her father was a baker. Pivnik recalls how her father has business contacts in different towns in Moldova. She then talks about her father’s life during the war in hiding. Pivnik explains how he was reported to the Germans by a fellow Jew.
7:45
Pivnik discusses prewar Jewish life in Balta. She addresses the negative relationship to her neighbors before the war and the positive ones today. Pivnik remembers the beautiful voice of the cantor Slivke and his family. Slivke would put on concerts after the service in the synagogue. Pivnik addresses prewar Jewish occupations.
0:00
Epelman talks about prewar Jewish life, in particular weddings. Epelman then talks about postwar religious life. He then talks about his family. He raised two children. Epelman recalls celebrations of Yom Kippur at his grandfather’s, who would tell stories. He also recalls his grandfather praying.
5:10
Life after the war. After the war, Guzman worked as an accountant. The Jews of Tomashpil were still practicing after the war, and the synagogue was rebuilt some time in the 1940s (?),
18:45
ife before the war. Kazakevich does not remember much of her life before the war. Her father used to attend the only synagogue in Lityn. There were a lot of Jews in Lityn, all of whom she says were killed. Kazakevich has only vague memories of Jewish practice, her father’s praying, and other accoutrement of Jewish religious life. There was a Rabbi in Lityn.
58:15
Family. Her mother was born in Lubenets, and spoke with her in Yiddish. Many of the other people in the Ural region did not speak Yiddish. Her mother was very religious, and many Jewish women came to their home for the Jewish holidays. Vaynman’s mother would pray together with these people. Her mother wanted to teach her how to pray, but Vaynman did not want to learn.
45:18
The conversation turns to religious life and synagogues in prewar Bila Tserkva. She explains that one of the synagogues was turned into a Yiddish school. Zedelkovsky was the director of her school. The conversation turns to prewar holiday celebration and food customs, as well as about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She also remembers itinerant Yiddish theater troupes from Dnepropetrovsk. One actor frequently stayed at their apartment during season. They then briefly address the Yiddish newspaper "Der Shtern" (The Star), before they discuss the actor of the Moscow State Jewish theater Solomon Mikhoels.
MDV 335Khariton Berman; Chara Yakovlevna Bublitskaia; Chara (Chare) Yakovlevna BublitskaiaBila Tserkva, 2005
9:34
Both discuss religious life after the war. They closed the synagogue in Bila Tsirkov in the 1950s. Sonya remembers how the police closed down the synagogue and boarded it up.
21:12
She discusses childhood memories, in particular her recollections of prewar religious life. She describes how visiting rabbis would come from neighboring countries and pray. She lived in Chişinău for fifty years.
26:57
Bublitskaia discusses prewar religious life, in particular holiday celebrations and food customs for Shabbat, and prayers.
28:34
Berman talks about prewar Hasidism and lively religious life in Rivne, as well as about his parents. They were killed in Rivne during the German occupation. He remembers a number of cantors who would visit Rivne regularly like Yossele Rosenblatt.
37:01
Berman talks about prewar religious life in Bila Tserkva, which had at the time eighteen synagogues. Berman talks about the Rebbe of Skvyra. He then discusses the meaning of “shvartstime,” the Yiddish nickname for Bila Tserkva.
47:19
Berman provides information about Jewish buildings and streets, such as the former Great Synagogue in Bila Tserkva, which the team will visit with Berman’s son. He then provides information about religious life today in the Lubavitcher community. According to Berman, there were two Jewish streets and one street was called Peretz Street until World War II.
53:21
He discusses religious issues of today. After the war, Berman was asked by the rabbinate in Israel to fix up the graves from the Royver Rebbe and his followers at the cemetery of Bila Tserkva. He was a student of the Baal Shem Tov. Berman’s wife was able to help out because she remembered the location of the cemetery from her childhood as her father would pray in the same synagogue as the rebbe. The cemetery, however, was barricaded as part of a military zone, and he successfully asked a Soviet official for help. The military commander of Ukraine wrote an order that they were allowed to isolate the area around the graves of the tzaddik (righteous) and his followers. He and Meyer Gabai fixed up the grave for three months.
18:16
Isaac talks about prewar Jewish life in Berdychiv and states that Party members were not allowed to attend synagogue. According to Bella, her father refused to join the Party. Bella then talks about holiday celebrations at home before the war, including food customs. In particular, she recalls Passover and Sabbath, as well as the local kosher butcher. Bella remembers her father's story telling about Jewish history, before she describes her family's oven where they cooked latkes (potato pancake).
25:03
Bella recalls her mother's recipe for gefilte fish and speaks about prewar Sabbath celebrations. According to Bella, her father worked on Sabbath, but not on Yom Kippur. Isaak and Bella then address prewar religious life, including synagogues and secret circumcision ceremonies, in Berdychiv. They then speak about their traditional wedding.
28:04
Bella speaks about her father's religious customs and praying. She also addresses his education, before Issak speaks about prewar holiday celebrations at home and his childhood memories. Bella and Isaak state that they had mezuzot (doorposts) at home and then describe their childhood memories when they lived across from each other in the same courtyard. Bella remembers how Isaak's mother borrowed money from her family.
10:05
Isaak recites the kaddish and discusses prewar praying customs. They then talk about contemporary Jewish life.
5:04
Skobilitskii speaks about his army service for ten years. He finished ten years of schooling. Skobilitskii then speaks about his childhood, as well as education at a cheder (religious school) and Yiddish school, which he attended for four years. He explains how he studied in both schools every day. Skobilitskii then addresses his religious education and prayer customs.
12:03
Skobilitskii talks about his cheder education. He then briefly talks about prewar religious life in Berdychiv, particularly remembering cantors visiting. According to Skobilitskii, the community collected money in order to invite a cantor from Kyiv for holiday celebrations after World War II. He then speaks about the synagogue building.
31:09
Skobilitskii recites the funeral prayer "El moley rachamim." He then talks about his Yiddish school education, including addressing Yiddish writers. He then remembers the well-known Yiddish song "Belz, mayn shtetele Belz."
7:19
Recording cuts to a prayer service at the Berdychiv synagogue.
0:00
Skobilitskii continues to speak about his childhood, including the local school system. He recalls how he attended synagouge with his father on Sabbath.
4:29
Skobilitskii briefly addresses his religious school education, before he recites the morning prayer "Modeh ani," as well as other prayers and blessings.
9:34
Skobilitskii recites the prayer "Aleinu leshabei'ach," which is recited at the end of each prayer service. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire, as well as recalls terms in "loshn-koydesh" (mix of Hebrew and Aramaic).
MDV 344Efim Grigoryevich Skobilitskii; Raisa Iosifovna Chukh; David Zelikovich FurmanBerdychiv, 2002
16:57
Skobilitskii addresses prewar cultural life, including theater performances, in Berdychiv. He then speaks about cultural life after the war. Skobilitskii explains how the community collected money to hire an opera singer from Kyiv to perform after synagogue services.
23:44
The team enters the synagogue with Skobilitskii. He describes prewar religious life in Berdychiv, as well as his career in the Red Army during World War II. Skobilitskii then gives a tour of the synagogue and provides historical background of the more than hundred-year old building.
26:36
Skobilitskii talks about his family. He raised a son, who was born in 1949 and circumcised in the community. Skobilitskii then addresses the rebuilding of the synagogue after the war, before he returns to his family.
12:58
Prayers
10:36
Vainshelboim speaks about prewar Jewish life, including the synagogue structure and occupations. He explains how his father was a prisoner of war during World War I. Vainshelboim then talks about his family.
45:08
Vanshelboim addresses prewar Jewish life Berdychiv, particularly occupational synagogues. He then remembers the local kosher slaughter after the war. According to Vanshelboim, 60,000 Jews lived in prewar Berdychiv out of a total population of 80,000. He then speaks about prewar synagogues, before he addresses contemporary Jewish life and charity.
19:56
Prewar life in Selish and family. He discusses prewar Jewish Vynohradiv: there were five synagogues in Selish. His father worked in a mill, carrying sacks of flour; he also worked as a porter, carrying luggage for travelers at the railway station. His father was born in Ilnytsya and his mother was born in Pryslip.
38:48
Memorial. The camera cuts to outside footage and Hodinger reads in Hungarian, Russian, and Prof. Kerler reads in Hebrew a plaque in commemoration of the victims of the crematorium in 1944 in Berehove, where 7000 Jews were killed. The plaque, originally housed in the synagogue, was put on the outside wall of the synagogue and was put there by an American philanthropist.
50:07
Weddings and religious life today. They then discuss weddings and religious life today. Hodinger frequently leads services.
11:35
Footage of the town, on the drive to the former Great Synagogue. Hodinger sings another short song. The team stops briefly at the home of Efraim Berkovich and speaks in Russian with his daughter. The Great synagogue is now used as a concert hall, but has a plaque on the outside commemorating the killing of Jews in 1944. Some footage of the town center.
45:36
Tour of synagogue. The team enters the synagogue and Hodinger gives them a tour. He provides personal information on himself and Berkovich. Berkovich was born in Berehove and Hodinger, born in Vynohradiv, moved there fifty years ago.
28:39
The team concludes the interview with Leiderman and then camera then cuts to an informal chat with Kozak and Vygodner. They discuss religious and prayer customs.
10:35
Bershadskaya talks about Hanukkah celebrations before the war. She then discusses religious customs at home. Bershadskaya states that her family celebrated holidays in a rented room in her home town and attended synagogue services in Bershad.
34:06
Shor lists Yiddish writers, before reciting from his prayer book.
1:49
Shor addresses religious customs and prayers before the war. He recites the morning prayer "Modeh ani." Shor then addresses his religious school (cheder) education at the age of six.
3:25
He demonstrates prayer techniques he learned in cheder. He recites the "Shemoneh Esrei."
16:34
Shor recites prayers in Hebrew (lashon kodesh) and Yiddish from the machzor.
17:44
The team, Vygodner and Kozak enter the synagogue and he gives a tour. The team also chats with community members.
21:55
Vygodner talks about prewar religious life and prayer books. The camera then continues to collect synagogue footage, before Vygodner addresses contemporary religious life.
30:31
Kozak talks about her life after the war, after returning from evacuation in Central Asia. She recalls how the community wanted to support her family; but states that her mother refused. Kozak then addresses prewar and postwar religious life, particularly the High Holiday celebrations at the Bershad synagogue.
33:10
Vygodner talks about the history of the synagogue, particularly its restoration and use after the war. It was the tailor's synagogue. He also recalls his grandfather's attending of services.
36:02
The camera collects synagogue footage, while Vygodner gives a tour. They then move the conversation outside. Kozak and Vygodner speak about prewar Jewish life.
28:05
Gvinter speaks about her life during World War II. She also speaks about her family. She was imprisoned in the Pechera concentration camp in 1943. Gvinter explains that the camp was first under German and then under Romanian occupation. She then briefly describes the living conditions in the camp. Before her deportation to Pechera, Gvinter lived in the basement of a synagogue in the Bershad ghetto. She recalls refugees from the region, who stayed at their house, as well as describes the encounter with a partisan.
31:26
Gvinter talks about her life before the war and discusses her family. She attended a Yiddish school for two years. Gvinter's older sister died at on the front. She then addresses praying customs and briefly returns to her camp experiences, as well as her return after the war.
34:27
Gvinter's husband Yuzek describes a local synagogue in Bershad. She then explains how she and Yuzek met. Yuzek was a tailor and she was a seamstress.
56:50
Gvinter shows a photograph of herself in war military regalia. She then speaks about her life after the war, when she lived underneath the synagogue. Gvinter worked in an artel and her mother was a pastry cook.
39:39
Gvinter speaks about his family, as well as prewar Jewish life in Bershad. He recalls how his mother baked bread in a local synagogue. Gvinter then talks about contemporary commemoration and religious life. He also addresses prayer customs today.
44:09
Gvinter speaks about prewar holiday celebration. He recalls his mother and grandmother attending holiday services. Gvinter also addresses holiday food customs. He then talks about religious life in Bershad during the postwar Soviet period. In particular, Gvinter shares an episode about a local official who checked in on the community.
27:12
Feldman recalls Yiddish songs, before she addresses postwar religious life. Feldman shares an episode about fasting on Yom Kippur. She also describes religious customs, including yizkor services.
58:41
Feldman shares a contemporary story about a Christian woman entering a synagogue to find help for her sick child. She then addresses the circumcision custom.
5:45
Sklyarskiy talks about his hometown Zhornyshche, including prewar Jewish life. He states that the synagogue was turned into a kolkhoz during Soviet times. He then speaks about Christian locals who collaborated with the German during the war.
23:38
Sklyarskiy addresses postwar Jewish life in Bershad. He recalls synagogue services. Sklyarskiy then mentions his traditional wedding in Bershad in 1951. He then returns to his family.
6:31
The team is headed to the synagogue. The camera then collects footage of the synagogue, while Marina Isaakovna Milevskaya gives a tour and talks about contemporary religious life. The community owned the building before the war. After the war, it was used as a sports hall until 1991. The community reopened the synagogue in the post-Soviet era.
26:00
Loyf speaks about her family. She then addresses prewar Jewish life and childhood memories of Dzegovka. She recalls the frequent synagogue attendance of her mother. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
39:29
Loyf addresses her life today and prayer customs. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
21:19
Berkovich speaks about postwar religious life. He states that he built the synagogue door. Berkovich then speaks about his life before the war. Berkovich's parents spoke Hungarian at home.
24:46
Berkovich talks about prewar religious life, including synagogue and communal structure, as well as his family. Berkovich recalls how his father visited the Spinka rebbe in Săpânţa, Romania.
26:20
Pustilnik speaks about her life in the Pechera camp. In particular, she recalls Jews who prayed. Pustilnik then talks about her family and addresses the persecution of someone in Israel who supported the Romanians during the war. Her sister moved to Israel in 1949. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
2:48
The formal interview with Kupershmidt begins. He provides personal information. He also recites prayers and addresses his religious education.
38:12
Kupershmidt recites the morning prayer "modeh ani." He then speaks about his journalist activities for the local Jewish newspaper; before answering dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
21:21
Sofia speaks about her family, before she addresses prewar Jewish life and religion in Bratslav. She also speaks about the fate of the local Jews during the war. Sofia then recalls her mother's praying customs.
2:36
Sofia talks about her brother's circumcision, including food customs for the "Kriyat-Sh'ma" reading (a prayer that must be recited every evening before bed the night before).
20:19
The interview with Kupershmidt begins. He talks about prewar Jewish life in Bratslav, including the synagogue and occupational structure. He also addresses local charity.
25:00
Kupershmidt addresses religious customs at home and briefly recites prayers. He then talks about his family and life during the postwar Soviet period. In particular, Kupershmdit addresses a family conflict regarding circumcision.
33:22
Kupershmidt addresses prewar religious life in the late 1930s, including synagogue structure. He then answers questions about Hebrew terminology, before talking about life today.
7:29
Religious tradition and prayers and blessings.
25:41
Passover and prayer.
18:35
Reciting prayer.
2:12
The former Great Synagogue and prewar religious life.
42:23
Postwar religious service and today.
59:32
Burg talks about his and Jewish life in general in prewar Chernivtsi. His family moved from Vyzhnytsya to the city when he was twelve years old. His father continued in his profession and traveled to Vyzhnytsya every day. He passed away at 38. According to Burg, there were 76 prayer houses in Chernivtsi.
0:00
Burg discusses prewar Jewish life in Chernivtsi. He then talks about his travels to Zurich, Switzerland, when he spent time at a reform community there. He recounts the differences in religious service. Burg then discusses the modernization of Jewish life during the Enlightenment period.
38:16
Burg briefly recites prayers. He then answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He also discusses prewar political Jewish life and family.
20:41
Kleiman talks about his life after the war. He studied mathematics at the Chernivtsi University. He taught at various schools for forty-five years in Ukraine and Moldova. He then talks about Jewish life in postwar Chernivtsi. Kleiman states that the Soviet government permitted one active synagogue.
0:00
Kofmansky explains different elements of the synagogue, before the formal part of his interview begins.
3:16
Kofmansky, was born 1946 in Chernivtsi, provides personal information and talks about his family. His grandfather Chaim Sholem was a rabbi from Bălți. Kofmansky attended a private school and studied with a private religious tutor in the afternoons. He then talks about contemporary religious life and the synagogue, as well as shares more about his family. Kofmansky studied physics at the Chernivtsi University. Kofmansky raised a daughter and a son, who lives in Israel.
33:06
Shternberg sings wedding songs and recalls the Moldavian cantor Fushman, who performed at a synagogue in Chotyn. Shternberg then sings a number of Yiddish songs about Eretz Israel and observant life, she remembers from Fushman.
38:32
Shternberg talks about food customs and prewar cultural life. She mentions the Moldavian cantor Fushman and his singing about “Papirendike kinder” (children made of paper), as well as wedding and love.
32:25
Religious service before the war
24:39
Synagogues in Khmil'nyk before the war
0:00
This tape begins with the research team at a Holocaust memorial in Chortkiv, where they say “kaddish,” a Jewish memorial prayer for the dead.
16:09
Srulova describes the poverty of her family life before the war, stating that her large family lived in a one room house. During the war, her family was evacuated and those who were not sent to the front worked on a kolkhoz. She then talks about Jewish life in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy. She mentions that in her shtetl before the war there were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, including many of her father’s coworkers. Srulova moved to Chortkiv in 1953, at which time there were many Jews in the town, although now most of them have emigrated. Srulova describes a few sites of Jewish interest in the town, including an old, non-operational synagogue, a Tsadik’s (righteous holy man's) grave (which many people have come to visit from abroad) and several mass graves.
36:18
In her youth, Srulova’s family would make dairy products with the milk from their cow Mashka. While her brothers did not receive any formal religious schooling before the war, Srulova does recall that they went to the synagogue in the postwar period to say “kaddish” for their parents. Srulova comments on the place of anti-Semitism (or lack thereof) in the Soviet Union and briefly explains some of the politics surrounding the recent building of the Holocaust memorial in Chortkiv.
58:39
The team finally meets with Vider, and after a brief moment in his apartment, Vider leads the team to the local synagogue. Once there, he describes contemporary community celebrations and begins to relate the story of a “pirim-shpil” (Purim play) in which he participated as a child. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Chortkiv, Novohrad-Volyns’kyy (Zvil).
49:26
Weiss talks about Jewish life after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the Jewish community was officially re-established. Weiss was elected three times as the head of the community and also serves as an assistant rabbi. He then talks about how the community got back and fixed up their 160 year-old synagogue, which was used as a furniture store during the Soviet period.
51:57
Weiss shows a couple of photographs of his school class and the synagogue, taken before the war. He then talks about contemporary Jewish life and antisemitism. In particular, he mentions the second local synagogue, which functioned until 1995. It was closed down that year due to four antisemitic attacks, according to Weiss. It was set on fire in 1998. Weiss explains the efforts of the community to rebuild the synagogue. Weiss continues talking about contemporary Jewish life and Yiddish-speakers of the region.
1:00:14
Weiss talks about prewar Jewish life in Drohobych with approximately 19,500 people. According to Weiss, there were two synagogues and twenty prayer houses.
11:06
Weiss recalls holiday celebrations and Jewish life in general before the war. He went to the Shpandorf synagogue with his father on every holiday. He then mentions his religious education. Weiss received his religious education from a private tutor when he was twelve years old. The mayor of Drohobych was Tetlboym.
46:31
Shekhovich talks about her childhood memories and school life. She then recites two blessings for thunder and lightning.
45:19
Shekhovich talks about her family. She explains that she survived World War II in hiding with the help of her non-Jewish husband. Shekhovich talks about her life before the war and remembers her grandmother reading tkhine (Yiddish-language prayer book).
1:00:00
Shekhovich recites blessings for lightning and thunder.
14:49
Schreier talks about contemporary life in Drohobych, as well as Jewish life. He then talks about the Choral (Great) Synagogue in Drohobych, which was built in 1865 and was the largest synagogue in prewar Poland. Schreier then talks about life and work during the Soviet period.
44:07
Schreier then discusses Jewish cultural life before the war. Schreier then shows a poster, advertising a film about Bruno Schulz. His paintings were hidden during the war. Schreier shows photographs of the synagogues.
54:41
Schreier talks about his work as a musician. He plays the violin, sings, and studied conducting. He then talks about Jewish life under German occupation, in particular he addresses how the chairman of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) Dr. Izak Rozenblat successfully set up a soup kitchen for children in the Choral Synagogue. Schreier continues to tell the story, when the police barged in on the first meal organized by the soup kitchen and shot all the children.
8:15
Shekhter talks about his life before the war. He addresses his bar mitzvah and his education at a religious school (cheder) and Polish school. He then talks about prewar Jewish life and lists different local synagogues, including cobbler, tailor, and the Great Synagogue. Shekhter also recalls non-Jews speaking Yiddish.
28:49
Kopyt talks about Jewish life after the war. She recalls Sabbath celebration with her parents and service gatherings in private homes. Kopyt talks about life today and Israel.
4:31
Burshtein discusses his childhood memories of Jewish Sobolivka, including occupational structure. According to him, the non-Jews lived in the countryside around town. Burshtein then speaks about Passover celebrations and describes how he carried the dough for matzo baking. He then addresses prewar religious life during the 1930s. Burshtein specifically talks about secret private services after the synagogue was closed down.
10:30
Burshtein speaks about his life before the war. He addresses the synagogue visits with his grandfather on Sabbath. Burshtein explains how his grandfather would pick him up from school every day during Passover, so he would not eat any bread. Burshtein then speaks about prewar Soviet Yiddish life, including his school education.
16:15
Iuris talks about Sabbath celebrations at home and her family. She remembers that her parents frequently attended synagogue. She then talks about traditional weddings after the war. She put up a wedding canopy at her own wedding. Iuris raised two sons, one of whom lived in Israel for four years.
28:06
Bukshtein discusses prewar Jewish life and holiday celebrations in Novoselitsa. He describes synagogue activities and holiday celebrations, in particular for Passover and Purim.
9:11
Bukshtein talks about contemporary religious life. He then talks about his encounter with the local rabbi before the war and answers questions about cultural and food terminology. Bukshtein also talks about traditional weddings and recalls one Jewish shiker (drunk) in his hometown.
MDV 448Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein; Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich KatzIvano-Frankivs'k, 2003
3:32
The second part of the tape includes a formal interview with Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich Katz, born 1912 in Tlumach. Katz provides personal information and talks about prewar Jewish life in Tlumach with a population of 9000. In particular, Katz recalls cattle trading and two kosher butchers. His grandfather traded in cattle. He then recites a prayer.
16:57
The second part of the tape includes footage of the Ivano-Frankivsk synagogue. The camera records outside footage of the synagogue, before the team enters the building and talks to Rabbi Moyshe Kolesnik. The camera then records the morning service.
29:20
Footage inside the Zhytomyr synagogue.
49:45
Four synagogues and Jewish life after the war
4:03
Service
28:19
Kraidman recalls anti-religious propaganda that was promoted in school and at home. The only time she heard of anyone going to synagogue, in fact, was when her mother went to services in Zhytomyr in recent years.
4:50
The tape then cuts to Liudmila Makedonskaya, a Hesed administrative assistant, singing "Itsik hot shoyn khasene gehat". She reports that although she cannot speak in Yiddish, she understands everything. She sings a fragment of “Lekhayem briderlekh.” She also directs researchers to other informants and to the local synagogue.
21:34
Gaiviker worked for sixty-plus years as a barber, like his father before him. He has been retired for thirty-plus years and lives with his wife Sonya Volkovna Gaiviker (née Sosne). Gaiviker received a traditional “kheyder” (religious school for boys) education, but no longer remembers how to pray properly.
29:28
Gaiviker studied in two “kheyder” schools with his teachers Motl der Shvartser (Motl the Black), and Khayim Mezhibuzher (Khayim from Medzhibozh). In his youth, Gaiviker would go to synagogue every day with his father, then eat and then go off to work and/or study. His father re-married and had several more children. Gaiviker’s step-mother was good and kind, but Gaiviker himself admits that he was a wild youth, who loved to party and listen to music, especially jazz.
42:37
Gaiviker reminisces about his childhood years in kheyder, speaking about his teachers and their families, the forms of discipline used when he would misbehave, and the pranks pulled on the teachers by the students. Gaiviker also shares his memories of the famous cantors who visited the town when he was younger.
4:27
He describes the prewar synagogues in Khmel’nyts’kyy. He prayed everywhere and learned well, but also misbehaved. [00:06:03] Gaiviker briefly describes prewar celebrations of Purim.
32:31
Naum Gaiviker knew prayers and liturgy well in his youth, but also played pranks on the teacher. He further describes the town’s prewar Jewish atmosphere with its bakeries, artisans etc.
15:58
In the postwar period, Yarmolnik would secretly bake matzo with her mother. Her mother frequently attended synagogue after the war.
16:36
Yarmolnik describes the two-story synagogue she went to in Khmel'nytskyy before the war. She recalls the observance of Yom Kippur, which was attended by “more people than a parade,” and concluded with a feast.
18:32
Yarmolnik’s husband was from Medzhibozh. She talks about the one remaining Jew in the town, who recently passed away. She comments on the tourist infrastructure that is now in place there with new hotels and rebuilt synagogues. Yarmolnik was once taken to Medzhibozh by her husband to see the Besht’s grave.
35:10
Yarmolnik spoke in Yiddish to her son and he would go to synagogue with his father on all the Jewish holidays. Before the war, Yarmolnik’s brother graduated from the Yiddish school in Khmel'nyts'kyy before it was closed.
59:24
Kaviner talks about the other Yiddish writers he has read, including Mendele Moykher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, Y. L. Perets and numerous Soviet Yiddish writers. Prewar Derazhnya had a Yiddish library for the town, as well as another, larger collection in the synagogue. These books were burned during the war along with the town’s Torah scrolls.
45:09
Kaviner asks if the researchers are religious, stating that he prays, although he is not too religious ("ikh bin oykh nit keyn tsodik, keyn fanatik"). He has held onto some very old sidurim (prayerbooks).
23:14
Kaviner shares his memories of prewar Jewish weddings that were celebrated in a traditional manner. The town’s rabbi was Mikhl Rozhanski, a very learned and handsome man, who spoke several languages and played the fiddle. He was arrested three times by Soviet authorities, but always quickly released. He was later killed during the war. The rabbi’s children went to the Ukrainian-language school instead of the Yiddish school because of a wider conflict within the town’s Jewish community. Kaviner states that he remembers many anti-religious songs from those years, but would prefer not to sing them.
41:26
Kaviner then tells three longer Hershele Ostropolyer stories. He reports that he read these stories in books, but that people would also tell such tales all the time, even in synagogue during services.
2:36
Vaisblai states that there was a synagogue in his family’s home when he was growing up before the war and that he has worked as “gobe” (administrator) in Khmel'nyts'kyy’s contemporary synagogue for many years. His father Avrum (known more commonly as “Umenyu”) worked as a cap-maker who was paid in potatoes for his work. His mother Nunye worked as a housewife until her death in 1937. Vaisblai’s paternal grandparents, Pesye-Rokhl and Biumen had thirteen children.
9:03
Vaisblai then describes his hometown of Chemerivtsi in the years before the war. According to Vaisblai, there was a synagogue in his family’s house because his father was crippled by an injury he received in a Petliura-led pogrom. Vaisblai describes the poverty and hardships of his youth, stating that although his father remarried a rich woman who bought food for shabes (the Sabbath), he and his two siblings often went hungry.
49:50
Vaisblai returns to the subject of prewar Chemerivtsi, describing the town's butchers, synagogues, rabbis and teachers, as well as its Yiddish School. Vaisblai also briefly describes his childhood home life and how his family spoke Yiddish at home.
51:32
Kramer describes prewar Berezdov. He mentions that his father worked in a brick factory. Describing his prewar educations, Kramer states that he finished four years in a Yiddish school before attending a Ukrainian-language institution. He describes the town’s butchers, its rabbi, and the town synagogue that operated until 1939.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Ilia (Elye) Zelmanovich Kramer (b. 1927 in Berezdov). He recalls that his father was a religious man, who completed kheyder (a traditional religious education for young boys). Although uneducated from a secular perspective, Kramer’s father was talented in mathematics and languages. Kramer briefly describes the atmosphere of his childhood home, mentioning holiday celebrations, and how his parents would pray in the mornings. Kramer’s mother was also educated at a Russian-language gymnasium.
38:50
Kaviner tells the history of Khmel'nyts'kyy’s synagogues before and after the war. In the postwar period, only two of the town’s original eight synagogues remained, and only one was available for Jewish use. In 1951, this was closed down by the authorities, and all of the community’s important figures were arrested on accusations of spying during the war.
53:00
Kaviner shares his views on prayer and religion, commenting on the place of both in his family life before the war. Noting his natural aptitude for learning, he describes the rapid progress he made in his religious education and what he remembers of it today. He also talks about the teachers from the yeshiva where he studied and the “open secret” status of the school under the Soviet Union.
1:04
The camera then cuts to a formal interview with Semyon (Yisrul) Aronovich Vaisblai (b. 1930 in Chemerivtsi). He describes prewar Chemerivtsi and also talks about how there was a synagogue in his childhood home. Vaisblai also describes the Jewish kolkhoz that was found in the town.
0:00
Snook discusses childhood memories, family, and holidays. Snook recalls a Purim saying and recites the morning prayer “modeh ani.”
18:04
Snook discusses prewar religious life, when services were held in a “shtiebel” (a little room). She also discusses her family and holiday celebration, including food customs. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Israel.
47:30
Snook recalls prayers and discusses postwar Jewish life.
27:57
Katz recites kaddish and discusses holiday celebration of Passover and Purim at home. He then talks about his father’s hard work as a coachman. Katz then explains how children celebrated Purim before the war. Katz was not able to participate in the Purim shpiels because he had to help out with his parents.
41:27
Katz discusses Jewish life and religious activity in Khust after the war, where he moved in 1954. The community was supposed to pay taxes for the synagogue in 1953. Katz then turns to the post-Soviet period and explains how a tavern was built near the site of the former synagogue, where the mikva once was. He expresses frustration that the community members were willing to sign over this property to the tavern.
11:22
Zinger recites kaddish, before he discusses Purim celebrations before the war.
26:17
Zinger discusses Jewish life before the war, in particular Jewish occupations. He recites blessings. He remembers the praying of the local shoykhet (kosher butcher).
0:00
Snook sings a Russian song, before she recites prayers and discusses Jewish life after the war.
7:32
Snook sings a Sabbath song and recites prayers. She then discusses religious life today and talks about her family.
41:36
Snook talks about religious life after the war and the demonstrations that she remembers against the closure of the synagogue in Khust. Snook remembers Purim celebrations before the war. She then explains how Ukrainians celebrate Easter.
23:54
Shloyme Snook goes on a tour with the team to the former Jewish neighborhood, headed to the synagogue.
27:17
The team enters the synagogue and the camera collects footage. Shimen Repkin explains the history of the synagogue in Russian. The synagogue was built in 1861 and closed down in the 1960s as part of the anti-religious Soviet decrees. The building was used as a social space for the adjacent factory. Repkin then talks about the prayer books in the synagogue and maintaining the building.
0:00
Reading prayers and holidays.
14:46
Religious groups and synagogues.
14:21
Synagogues in Vinnytsya.
19:46
Yiddish and prayer books.
8:25
Synagogue at beginning of occupation.
11:57
History of the synagogue.
MDV 514David (Duvid-Hersh, or sometimes Duvid-Tsvi when called up to the Torah) Abramovich ViderKolomyya, 2003
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with David (Duvid-Hersh, or sometimes Duvid-Tsvi when called up to the Torah) Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). He provides Professor Kerler with a brief tour of the synagogue and a look at its old Torah scrolls, and discusses Kolomyya’s contemporary Jewish religious community. Vider talks about his traditional religious education in a yeshiva, where he learned to speak Hebrew. Vider’s father Avrum-Mayer worked many jobs as a shoykhet (kosher butcher), melamed (religious teacher) and a khazn/bal-tfile (cantor and/or prayer leader). Vider states that he remembers all the prayers and liturgy he learned. He briefly describes how he and his father once led Simkhes-Toyre (Simchat Torah) celebrations together. Vider then shares his and his family’s basic biographical details. He was born in the town of Sighetu Marmatiei, moved with his family at the age of three to Hîrlau, and then moved again around the age of twelve to Iași where he attended yeshiva.
45:20
Vider talks about his prewar family life, focusing on his mother and father’s work, the family house in Hîrlau, and that town’s geography. He comments on the Yiddish dialect differences in the places he lived in his youth, and speaks about Kolomyya’s synagogue and contemporary Jewish community. Vider reports that he reads and writes in Yiddish. He shares his attitudes towards different dialects and talks about different people in Kolomyya with whom he speaks in Yiddish.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). The tape begins with a discussion of the concept of "a giter yid,” (lit. "a good Jew) to whom Jews and non-Jews would go on pilgrimage to receive advice and/or healing. Vider describes how Orthodox Christians from around the region today come to him, calling him "dobryi evrei” ("a good Jew”), paying him, so the Jews in the Kolomyya synagogue will pray for them and thus solve their problems. Telling a few stories of such "pilgrims,” Vider explains that he writes the names of these Christians down in a special notebook and uses their money to pay for community celebrations.
11:06
Vider briefly shares the history of the Kolomyya synagogue and how these pilgrimages began. He also talks about his two marriages: Vider’s first marriage was to a Communist Jewish woman; he is now married to a Christian woman from Kolomyya. Vider had no children with his first wife, nor did they get married under a "khipe” (wedding canopy) as she was a committed Communist. He shares some details of his difficult relationship with his first wife. Vider also mentions that he enthusiastically listens to records of cantorial music.
23:57
Vider states that he remembers and recites the traditional blessings to be said upon hearing thunder, seeing lightening or a rainbow, and on other occasions.
31:01
Vider recites what he refers to as another "pirimsphil,” a loshn-koydesh (Hebrew-Aramaic) and Yiddish song called "A gemakhtn got hobn zey” ("They have a manmade god”) based on a part of the Hallel service.
33:20
Vider recites the lyrics and then sings a song entitled "Ven futer yakoyv iz geleygn oyf deym shteyn” ("When the Patriach Jacob Slept on the Stone”) which he remembers hearing from a cantor at a concert.
44:24
Vider reads the loshn-koydesh portion of "A gemakhtn got hobn zey” from a prayerbook and then sings the song once more in full.
3:07
Vider describes holiday observances in great detail, focusing first on Rosh Hashone, Yom Kippur and the recitation of slikhes (penitential prayers) done during that season. He also explains how sikes (Sukkoth, the Feast of Tabernacles) was celebrated and sings part of the "hoshone robe” services he remembers, comparing these observances to contemporary celebrations of the holiday. He also talks about how Chanukah and Purim were celebrated and the food and games that went with this respective holidays.
39:10
Vider reports that he read a good deal of Yiddish literature in his youth in Romania, as his mother had poor vision and he would often read aloud to her. Vider’s mother was a "firzugerin” (women’s prayer leader) in the synagogue, and he describes how the women used to pray.
32:20
Vider speaks about the passing of another David, the current Kolomyya synagogue’s former "bal-tfile” (prayer leader) and shares a few idioms of what is said when a deceased person is mentioned. Vider sings a Romanian song he remembers from his youth. He also talks about other potential interviewees in the town, and shares his views towards Jewish politics in America, Israel and post-Soviet Ukraine.
58:25
Grayf generally describes postwar life in Kolomyya, where he worked in a dental laboratory. He then returns to the prewar period, briefly describing his education in a Polish-language school, and in a Yiddish kheyder. Grayf comments that shabes (the Sabbath) was celebrated at home before the war, in contrast to today, when it is marked in the synagogue. He notes the same dynamic with daily morning "minyonim” (prayer groups), which his father attended regularly before the war, but that do not take place in contemporary Kolomyya.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). He recites a "pirimshpil” (rhyming Purim play) about a chimney-sweep and a woman that he and his brother performed in his youth. Vider also speaks about his early childhood in Sighetu Marmatiei and Iași. Speaking about his family life in general, Vider mentions that his father was a "shoykhet” (kosher butcher), but pitied the animals too much and so worked as a "khazn” (cantor).
10:44
Vider shares his earliest childhood memories, noting that although he did not attend kheyder (religious boys’ school) his father taught him privately at home. Vider also recalls helping his father with his cantorial duties, and describes his later education in a Yeshiva as well as in a Jewish school where Romanian and Modern Hebrew were taught.
21:47
Vider recites various parts of the traditional liturgy including the "shir hayoym” (Song of the Day) for Sunday and "kadish” (memorial prayer).
25:14
Vider briefly discusses the day-to-day operations of Kolomyya’s current synagogue, including its system of donations and the kinds of people who come. He also states that he learned traditional Jewish cooking from his sister.
29:26
Vider recites "el mole rachamim” and "kadish” (two funereal prayers), as well as parts of what he identifies as the "halel” (Praise) service.
40:19
Vider recites the "fir kashes” (Four Questions of Passover) and sings "A gemakhtn got hobn zey” (They Have a Man-made God), a song based on a part of halel; then another "pirimshpil” called "dray simunim,” (Three Signs) and a Purim song in Modern Hebrew that he learned in his Jewish school in Hîrlau.
49:22
Vider recalls prewar Simkhes-toyre (Simchat Torah) and Sikes (Succoth) observances. He then details the contemporary phenomenon of non-Jewish pilgrims who come to him and, giving a small donation, ask the congregation to pray for the resolution of health, business or personal problems. He tells one specific story about one woman who, after having received Vider’s blessing, got married and had a child. Vider says he thinks about these people when he prays, asking that G-d should help them as He helps him.
20:57
Vider talks about how he studied to be a tailor, and shares his memories of the Botoshaner Rebbe, who lived in a neighboring courtyard from his family’s home. He also tells a joke about a man who was tricked into paying extra donations to his synagogue.
33:25
Vider briefly discusses the day-to-day operations of Kolomyya’s current synagogue, including the kinds of people who come to services.
36:58
The camera cuts to footage of shabes services in the synagogue led by Semyon Krotsh.
0:00
This tape begins with a continuation of shabes (Sabbath) services in the Kolomyya synagogue.
15:06
The AHEYM team speaks informally with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti), who speaks about the Rebbe of Stefanesti. David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei) explains that the synagogue has no one who can "leyn toyre” (read/chant the Torah portion) and therefore it is not read on shabes.
18:53
The AHEYM team has a "kidish” (Kiddush) lunch with the congregation and speaks in Yiddish with everyone. The congregation collectively makes the "shehakoyl” blessing (a generic blessing said over foods and drinks without a specific blessing associated with them). The congregants also sing many Yiddish and Russian songs.
36:42
Krotsh discusses prewar Jewish life in his shtetl, describing the Rebbe’s court and the town’s synagogues. He relates how the Rebbe solved the town’s problems and disputes, and recalls prewar Jewish wedding customs.
5:25
Krotsh details his experiences during the war years: he went to the Soviet Union and was evacuated from the town of Rîbnita to the Caucasus region of Russia, where he worked on a kolkhoz (collective farm). From there, he was evacuated further into Azerbaijan, and then drafted into the Red Army from 1942 to 1947. Krotsh went to Kolomyya after the war at the suggestion of a friend from the army since it was near Romania, but by the time he got there the border was closed and so he stayed in the town. Krotsh then briefly comments on postwar Jewish life in Kolomyya and how the town’s synagogue was repaired in the 1990s.
30:21
Krotsh sings a Modern Hebrew song about Chanukah, and notes the observances for this and other holidays. He then sings fragments from the "kol nidre” (All Vows) service and the High Holiday liturgy.
41:23
He sings another full song from the High Holiday liturgy.
51:30
The camera cuts back to a formal interview with Krotsh, who sings more of liturgy, describes holiday customs, describes his shtetl’s public baths, and relates an experience he had speaking Yiddish while travelling in Israel.
27:29
The camera cuts to a formal interview conducted in Russian with Roman Bileichuk (b. 1963 in Kolomyya), an aspiring convert to Judaism. Bileichuk shares his basic biographical information, describing his childhood without a father, and his education and early career path. After an extended period of religious exploration, Bileichuk recalls how one sleepless night after reading the Torah he somehow wandered three kilometers to Kolomyya’s synagogue, a place he was totally unfamiliar with before, and joined the Rosh Hashone (New Years) services that were then taking place. Despite conflict with his family, Biliechuk has been attending the services at the synagogue and observing Judaism for about 2.5 years, and has written to several rabbis in Kyiv about the possibility of formal conversion. Meanwhile, he states that he is trying to follow all Jewish religious laws and reads Jewish journals and traditional texts, trying, "like everybody else” to find Truth in the world.
45:14
Bileichuk states that he knows how to pray Jewishly and does so at home when there are not services in the synagogue. Bileichuk also shares his attitudes toward Israel, noting that "New” Israel is not as good as "Old” Israel, since the new state lacks the Temple in addition to being filled with morally questionable people and problems, such as unbelievers and prostitution.
50:33
Bileichuk further details the conflict he has had with his family over his new faith and notes the paradox of how the commandment to "honor thy mother and father” in this case would compromise his faith. He also describes how he prays at home with a homemade "bima” (prayer lectern). Bileichuk states that he keeps all commandments to the extent possible, and reports on what he calls the deceptive nature of the Catholic and Christian Bible, wanting the world to recognize the truth in Judaism. Bileichuk began his religious journey 4-5 years ago starting asking these religious questions, noting that he had a very Christian upbringing and was always of a very spiritual orientation. He also comments on his relations within the community, and, comparing himself to Abraham who took on G-d’s covenant at a late age, states that he will let no one deny him his right to convert. Bileichuk mentions his relationship with a non-Jewish woman who is also an aspiring convert and with whom he has a son. Bileichuk also complains about the politics of conversion and its connection to bribery in Israel.
0:00
Iosef (Yosl) Grigoryevich Grayf (b. 1922 in Kolomyya). He speaks about prewar Jewish life in Kolomyya and his education in a supplemental twice weekly Hebrew school. He also talks about his parents and Jewish religious life in the town, describing its numerous synagogues. He also makes several comparisons with the much reduced Jewish life in Kolomyya today and how the contemporary synagogue often has trouble securing a "minyen” (minyan, prayer quorum of ten men).
37:47
Grayf talks about the contemporary religious community in the city and how it has trouble securing a "minyen” on shabes (the Sabbath) in part due to the emigration of so many of its members. He then speaks about the lack of anti-Semitism in contemporary Ukraine and remarks generally about contemporary politics. Grayf states that he believes in G-d and shares his personal religious views of Judaism and Christianity as well as the religious revival in the country.
52:21
Grayf speaks briefly about the period of Soviet rule in 1939-1941 before the war began, noting that it was a happy time of increased economic opportunities. The Soviets did not close the synagogues in the town and religious life continued, according to Grayf, until the Germans came in 1941. Although Kolomyya’s synagogues remained closed in the postwar period, Grayf states that Jews came together in private homes to pray and celebrate shabes and the holidays through these years.
2:10
Vider talks about the song "Ven indzer futer yakoyv iz geleygn afn shteyn” (When Our Father Jacob Laid Down on the Stone), which he heard from a cantor at an evening concert in Iași. He then speaks about how his father used to practice and then read from the Torah on shabes (the Sabbath) with the proper "trop” or cantilation.
27:26
Vider shares his memories of how his father educated him at home taught him the Jewish alphabet and basic prayers before he started school. He also shows the researchers his father’s unique finger counting system and several other math tricks he learned from his father.
49:07
Krotsh briefly discusses prewar Jewish weddings that he remembers from his youth and describes his shtetl’s various synagogues. He also shares memories of religious life and particular customs, such "leygn tfiln” (putting on phylacteries) and going to the "mikve” (ritual baths).
47:35
Krotsh shares his views on fate, G-d and religion. He discusses postwar Jewish religious life in Kolomyya, mentioning the clandestine prayer groups that would come together in private homes on holidays and important communal dates. He then speaks about the history of Kolomyya’s various synagogues.
51:48
Biter speaks in greater detail about prewar family life mentioning that his father immigrated to Canada, where he lived for three years and worked on the land. His grandfather held an arrenda (leasing right) and operated a tavern. Discussing prewar religious life in his village, Biter states that there were two "minyonim” (prayer groups of ten or more adult men) in his village; as such, communal functionaries, such as a shoykhet (kosher butcher) and kheyder teacher visited regularly from nearby villages. Biter briefly describes how he was given his "lapsterdekl” (lit. "small coat,” i.e. "talis kotn,” or Jewish male ritual garment) at the age of thirteen. Biter explains that his father wanted him to be a religious Jew, but his maternal grandfather, who was a Reformist and worked as a lawyer insisted he attend the nearest gymnasium in Snyatyn. Graduating in 1938, Biter then attended an agricultural lyceum.
1:01:54
Vider explains the prayer he is about to recite.
58:27
Krotsh speaks about Jewish life in the immediate postwar period in Kolomyya. He recalls secret services on holidays and importing matzos from Odesa and Chişinău. In Kolomyya, Krotsh worked for a military auction 59:00. He also mentions Romanian songs.
58:28
Krotsh talks about contemporary Jewish life in the region. The camera then collects outside footage of the synagogue, while the team walks with Krotsh to Vider's home.
42:18
Vider speaks about his life before the war. He states that he was hasid of the Botoșani rebbe. Vider also recalls prewar cultural performances by a cantor.
23:19
Krotsh speaks about the Ştefăneşti rebbe's court, as well as holiday celebration. Krotsh recalls Purim celebrations with cantor Gedaliye.
6:13
Krotsh talks about his family and visit to the Rădăuţi synagogue. They then address non-Jews who speak Yiddish.
34:16
Krotsh speaks about postwar Jewish life, including a brief history on synagogue buildings. He states that the synagogue the interview is conducted in was used as gymnasium.
45:34
Krotsh speaks about postwar Jewish life in Kolomyya. Krotsh moved to Kolomyya in 1949. In particular, he describes secret Purim services and mentions Yiddish theater performances.
39:53
Showing prayer books.
31:03
Early childhood memories and prayers
2:32
The first stop is at a building, which was used as a Talmud Torah school before the war and as a synagogue during the war.
8:18
They arrive at the former home of Sholem Aleichem, which has a plaque identifying the house. Berman’s son talks about how one wooden white prayer house survived the fire.
26:19
Ocheretianyi discusses his childhood memories and Jewish life in prewar Korsun. According to him, the synagogue was closed down before the war. Ocheretianyi refers to postwar prayer services in private homes. He then talks about his observant father.
MDV 544Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi; Samuil (Shmiel) Borisovich BelobrovKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi. Ocheretianyi talks about prewar Jewish life and addresses the synagogues. He then describes childhood games and talks about the observance of his father, who was imprisoned before the Revolution.
21:55
Belobrov discusses his childhood memories and holiday celebrations. He maintains that his parents did not work on holidays, although they did not attend services at the synagogue. His father, a handicraftsman, often worked from home, where he could observe Sabbath. Belobrov then recalls Passover celebrations with neighboring families and shares a recipe for gefilte fish.
38:09
Kislinskaia discusses her childhood memories. She specifically addresses the transition of artisans’ occupation, working from home to factories in the 1930s. She then talks about her family and prewar Jewish life. Her parents were born in Korsun. Her maternal grandmother worked as a shammeste (synagogue caretaker). She recalls how she went to the synagogue with her mother.
45:41
Kislinskaia discusses religious life after the war. She remembers a woman who held private services, which Kislinskaia’s mother attended. She also talks about her family in Israel.
MDV 548Tsili Davidovna Kislinskaia; Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich GroysmanKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
15:03
The third part of the tape includes a formal interview with Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich Groysman, born 1923 in Tarashcha. Groysman provides personal information and talks about prewar Jewish life in his hometown. In particular, he recalls how he attended synagogue with his father. Groysman then talks about his family. His parents were born in Tarashcha. His father, a watchmaker, descends from a family dynasty of watchmakers. Groysman’s father had four brothers, who were also watchmakers. His sister married a watchmaker. He grew up with two sisters. He also addresses his mother’s cooking. Groysman’s wife was also born in Tarashcha and he met her there before the war.
27:26
Groysman addresses life before the war and postwar Jewish life and charity. He states: “After the war, when we, the injured, came back we would help (osobelne). Widows would come, [...] older children whose parents were killed would come. We would collect money. We would collect the money in a way nobody would know whose money it is. They would give and we wouldn't say who did. Not everybody was in the same situation. There were people in our midst that died of hunger. They wouldn't want anyone to tell someone that they need money. The following episode took place in our community: A Jew came, just like you, with glasses and a beard. They came to our house and I sat and worked. My mother was standing next to me. [...] He asked about Groysman the watchmaker. I was 22, 23 years old. He said that he wanted to speak to the old man. [...] So, he said: 'How can it possibly be that they would send someone like me, a Jew with beard, to such a young man. [...] He was a cantor. I offered him charity, but he didn't want it. He wanted to earn money with his profession. His specialization was a cantor. So, let's gather the Jews and he would earn his kopeks because he could sing the songs. [...] This is what he told me. And I said: Fine, I will talk to some people. [...] We would agree to meet up. There was no synagogue. People had apartments, where we would meet. [...] He said: I thank you. I cannot give you any gifts, but what I can do is a sing a good song for you. [...] In those times we were afraid, but we could not call it off. We would cover the windows. And he sang a song about the war. [...] He sang so amazingly that we all cried.
5:25
Angelova talks about her life before the war. She then addresses prewar religious life in Topole and recalls private religious gatherings, as well as the local kosher butcher. Angelova states that a rabbi would hold services and also taught children.
13:40
Obodovskii and Leiderman discuss postwar religious life in Kotovsk. Leiderman's family returned to Kotovsk in 1946. She describes how the older generation gathered for private services.
48:58
Obodovskii speaks about prewar and postwar Jewish life in Kotovsk, as well his family. He recalls a small synagogue in 1944. They then address contemporary Jewish life and recall a kosher butcher after the war. Obodovskii also describes his work as construction worker.
35:02
Reading prayers.
16:19
Pensatii addresses his religious education, when he went to services at Odesa's Great Synagogue. Pensatii also mentions that he frequently visited the local opera house.
27:03
Pensatii speaks discusses his childhood memories and prewar religious life in Odesa. He recalls how members taught him several prayers and speaks about visiting cantors on holidays.
27:49
Nisman speaks about prewar Sabbath celebrations at home. She describes how her father paid for his place in the synagogue and then mentions that her mother baked challah twice a week.
31:24
Nisman addresses prewar holiday celebrations, including Yom Kippur. She also talks about holiday food customs, particularly gefilte fish. Nisman also remembers that the synagogue was packed and people listened to shofar blowing outside.
40:16
Nisman continues to share her memories about prewar holiday celebration. She explains how her father and brother went to the synagogue for the day and her mother prepared food on Yom Kippur.
50:17
Leibel speaks about his leisure activities before the war. He describes how he attended dinners at local Jewish schools on Purim and Hanukkah. Leibel then addresses his school education. Leibel mentions Sabbath celebrations and prayers at the cheder. Leibel studied at a cheder until the age of seven, a Polish primary school until fourteen and a Polish secondary school until eighteen. Leibel also studied with a private Yiddish teacher in the evenings, he explains.
6:46
Leibel talks about his childhood memories and games. In particular, he remembers playing soccer matches and describes the Hasmonean team. He then explains how children went to the synagogue on national holidays, where they played "Hatikvah" on the organ. Leibel then sings "Hatikvah."
27:45
Leibel addresses prewar antisemitism, before speaking about religious life. Leibel recalls performances of the cantor Moshe Koussevitzky at the Great Synagogue. Leibel also discusses his childhood memories.
29:38
Leibel recites the morning prayer "Modeh Ani." He then speaks about his religious observance during the postwar Soviet era. Leibel then addresses prewar holiday celebration.
47:33
Dorfman talks about postwar religious life in Lviv. He also shares his findings in the KGB archives. He explains how the community rebuilt one of the synagogues after the war, which was closed down in 1945 due to antisemitic agitation. Dorfman continues that the agitors went to jail and the synagogue continued to operate. Dorfman recalls full attendance on major holidays. According to him, the synagogue was eventually "unoffically" closed down during the later postwar Soviet period, and reopened in the 1980s. Dorfman then describes the community.
0:00
Dorfman speaks about postwar religious life. He mentions Cantor Eleazer Schulman and other local religious figures. Dorfman describes how the community repossessed the synagogue in 1992.
36:14
Khonigsman talks about his studies as historian of economic history. He also speaks about his life before the war, when he stopped going to the synagogue at the age of fifteen. Khonigsman returns to his life after the war. He was let go after one year of work at the archive and then wrote his dissertation about the infiltration of foreign assets from West Ukraine, supervised by Moscow State University. Khonigsman then worked as history teacher at a middle school in Kyiv. He was promoted to school principal in the 1950s, since he was a Party member and the only male teacher, as he explains. Khonigsman worked as school principal for nine years and finished his postdoc, before moving to Lviv. He eventually was assigned work in Drohobych as teacher.
MDV 565Professor Iakov Samoilovich Khonigsman; Isaak (Itche, Itskhok-Avigdor) Moseevich MelerL'viv, 2003
54:37
Meler addresses prewar religious life in his hometown, particularly the synagogue and the local rebbe. According to him, approximately forty Jewish families lived in Glina Navariya. Meler then speaks about prewar occupational structure. His father and grandfather were kosher butchers.
3:38
The team and Dorfman arrive at the cemetery and take a tour, while Dorfman explains how the Jewish and non-Jewish cemeteries were combined. They were combined in 1962, after the synagogue was closed down, Dorfman explains.
55:53
They arrive at the former "New Hasidic Synagogue," which is used as the community's cultural center. Dorfman gives a tour of the former synagogue and provides historical background information. During the war, the building was used as stable and then as gym after its closure in 1962. Dorfman then addresses the community's cultural activities and teachings.
0:00
Dorfman speaks about the contemporary community and explains exhibits in the synagogue. The camera then collects footage of the synagogue .
57:46
Brandler reads prayers, after addressing Yiddish dialects.
27:15
Brandler talks about prewar Purim, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur celebrations. He recalls how the synagogue caretaker symbolically hit the congregants on Yom Kippur. Brandler then addresses prewar religious institutions and continues describing holiday celebration during his childhood. Brandler recalls fasting.
3:38
Leibel sings "Echad Mi Yodea" (who knows one; a traditional haggadic song, sang on Passover). He also addresses other prayer customs on Passover.
0:00
Kaplan expresses the view that Ukrainian Jews should care about their own history and laments how all the religious and scholarly Jewish leaders in today’s Ukraine are foreigners from USA and Israel rather than local Jews. Expanding on this point, Kaplan explains that organizations such as the Joint (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) and the Sochnut (The Jewish Agency for Israel) have unfairly encouraged post-Soviet Jews to leave the countries of their birth. He presents a series of reasons why he believes Jews in the former Soviet Union should not emigrate from their native lands: "I see it like this: one must not drive anyone away. In Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, indeed everywhere... Jews should still be living there because they have been living there for thousands of years already... so that Jewishness should be present throughout the world". Instead of making Jews leave their homes, states Kaplan, the Joint and other organizations should help them stay and maintain a good standard of living there. Kaplan further states his belief that if the leaders of these international Jewish organizations want to know the truth about Jewish life, they should come to the shtetlekh and smaller communities to see what happens there. Kaplan then details the activities of the town’s contemporary Jewish Sunday School, which is run by an educator from Vinnytsya who teaches Hebrew among other subjects. While Kaplan was born in 1933 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, his parents where born in smaller villages nearby. His mother Minikhe Velvls (who worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature) and her family came to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy from Ozaryntsi, a village 10km away. His father Duvid b”r Avrum (who worked as a soap maker) and his family came from Slydy. His paternal grandfather was “like a Rov” and was a bal-tfile (prayer leader) in his town’s synagogue. When the family moved to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy in 1924, this grandfather worked as a cantor. Kaplan takes great pride in his 30 years service in the army (starting in 1951) and is proud of the fact that his twin brother Lev/Leyb and grandchildren have also served. Kaplan grew up in a traditionally religious Jewish home, but did not learn in the local kheyder (religious school for boys), but with a melamed (private teacher) named Tseburskii for four years. From these lessons he learned numerous stories, how to pray, and how to read and write in Yiddish. While in the army, Kaplan says that he forgot how to read, write, and speak in Yiddish, only re-learning how to speak the language since returning to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and working in the local Jewish community. His formal education was exclusively in Russian-language institutions.
4:20
She then demonstrates how to make gefilte fish, using a knife and newspaper. Khaiut also explains some aspects of pre-war Jewish life in the town, including how each profession had its own synagogue and brought in guest cantors from time to time. Khaiut remembers Sidi Tal’ and various Yiddish theater troupes that came to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy before the war, putting on plays such as Sholem Aleichem’s 200,000. After the war, Jewish artists, such as Iosif Kobzon, also visited the town. Professor Kerler asks the interviewee about how she dealt with the potential contradiction of attending a Soviet Yiddish school, while maintaining a religious practice at home. She states that it's a lie that they made fun of religion and/or religious people in the schools. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, Khaiut reports, many of the synagogues in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy were closed down. Khaiut then recalls several food and gaming customs associated with holidays, such as Shavuot, Chanukah, Purim, Passover, Sukkot and Yom Kippur. Khaiut can still read in Yiddish, and even reads Professor Kerler’s interview notes out loud. Her son Sema understands and speaks some Yiddish. Khaiut then shares some Yiddish idioms and sayings. Both of her sons are circumcised. When her second son was born in 1946, she got a moyl (mohel) from Chernivtsi to come and circumcise him. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. Khaiut also talks in detail about her own pre-war Jewish wedding, which featured Jewish klezmorim led by “Moyshele der Puker mit der Muzike” (Moshe the drummer with the music). At her wedding, as at others, there was a chuppah, and the bride circled the groom accompanied by her parents. Berl Sanver presided over the occasion as a kind of master of ceremonies/badkhn, and spoke with rhymes and songs. Khaiut also shares more of her linguistic knowledge as well as recipes for tsimes (stew) and fludn (dessert).
10:07
Kaplan remembers the deported Bukovina, Bessarabian and Hungarian [sic] Jews that were sent to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy during the war. Kaplan also describes how the Russian school had two classes set aside for children who grew up in Yiddish-speaking homes and didn’t know Russian, and so studied in Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian, only later being integrated into the mainstream Russian school system after seventh grade. Kaplan himself did not enter school until after the war (he was supposed to enter in Sept. 1941, but could not attend as hostilities had already broken out by then). Kaplan also discusses synagogues in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy both before and after the war. His mother was, as he says, “more frum (religious) than necessary” and fasted every Wednesday and Thursday. She died in his arms as soon as he returned from the army.
19:08
His father worked as a soap-maker and a cantor in one of the town’s synagogues. Kaplan relates shabes (Sabbath) customs from before and after the war, detailing, for example, how his mother sometimes employed a shabes goy. During the war, Kaplan was in different camps in Transnistria, and tells the story of how his family escaped and returned to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy in 1942, all the time hidden and cared for by non-Jewish neighbors. Kaplan notes that many Jews collaborated with the Germans and Romanians, forming special Jewish police battalions, and relates the story of the sinking of a ship of Jewish orphans who had supposedly bought freedom off the coast of Constanta, Romania. Kaplan also speaks about contemporary war memorials and ceremonies, as well as ties to landslayt (former town residents) from abroad and the post-Soviet revival of Jewish life led by Sobol [late husband of interviewee Maria (Molke) Iosipovna Sobol (née Cioban)]. Kaplan then sings a fragment from the song "Shik mir a shtral" (Send Me a Ray (of Sunlight)). Kaplan also speaks about the different sections of the Jewish cemetery, how holidays were celebrated sometimes in secret before/after the war and answers some questions related to linguistics and Yiddish dialects. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Kozenits, Ozaryntsi, Pechera, Constanta, Bucharest.
MDV 586Mikhel-Shmiel (Misha) Gilevich Leger; Berta (Betya) Aronovna VaisburdMohyliv-Podil's'kyy, 2005
0:30
The next part of the tape consists of a formal interview with Mikhel-Shmiel (Misha) Gilevich Leger (b. 1935). He is officially registered, i.e. legally named “Mikhel-Shmiel”, although Misha is his nickname. His father Gilel worked as an accountant/bookkeeper, while his mother Faye worked as a nurse. He was born in Feburary 1935 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Leger claims to have learned to speak Yiddish in the wartime ghetto, because before that his family spoke to him only in Russian. During the war, his father was on the front, while he and his mother tried to escape to the nearby village of Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), but Germans had already captured it. Leger recalls how his mother gave birth to a stillborn daughter in that town. After a few months there, his father found them there, and they all went back to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, ending up in the ghetto. With upwards of 30-40 people living in one room in the ghetto— including Bukovinan and Bessarabian Jews— there was great fear of a typhus outbreak and so Leger was moved with a cousin into another house with fewer people. The children would hide when the Romanians and Germans would come rounding up Jews for work, but his parents had to labor. After the war, Leger continued to speak Yiddish with his parents and other children. The interviewee also describes his Russian-language schooling and how, although he is illiterate in Yiddish, he is now trying to learn how to read Hebrew characters. Leger reminisces about traditional celebrations of holidays such as Passover and Simkhes Toyre (Simchat Torah) (audio problems: 13:50-14:01; 14:09-14:12). At the conclusion of the interview, Leger addresses post-war and contemporary Jewish life in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. In the Soviet period, according to Leger, prayer was legal and took place in private homes, but only older people went to services since most people were afraid of the consequences. His father, for example, would go only on yortsaytn (commemoration of a relative's death). Today, in Leger’s estimation, there are 300 Jews in the town, a figure which includes families of mixed backgrounds
0:00
The first part of the tape includes a continuation of a formal interview, recorded in Solotvyno with Dora Abramovna Fiksler, born in 1924 in Solotvyno. Fiksler makes a number of phone calls, before they go inside to talk about Fiksler’s library, which includes prayer books. Fiksler then shows photographs of her family. Fiksler briefly talks about religious life before the war.
18:41
Fiksler recites the morning prayer “modeh ani.” She then talks about post-World War II Jewish life, in particular the kosher butcher.
0:00
Vider talks about his family and prewar Jewish life. Vider’s daughter lives in Hungary and his son is a Canadian citizen. His father was born in Sighetu Marma?iei. Vider recalls the wedding of Eluzer Spira’s daughter in 1934, as well as the rebbe’s funeral. He then talks about religious life today, praying in Russian. According to Vider, people called prewar Mukacheve “little Jerusalem.” He claims that even half of the non-Jews in the city spoke Yiddish. Vider explains that the former director of the local Hebrew school, Dr. Haim Kugel, became the mayor of Kholoniv after the war.
20:06
Vider and the team are headed to a former synagogue. Vider explains former Jewish buildings. The next stop includes the old Jewish cemetery. They visit graves of rebbes.
46:56
Vider and the team continue the formal interview at a restaurant. Vider remembers folk remedies. He talks about his return after World War II and postwar religious life. Vider attended privately organized prayer services and discusses how he would bake matzo at a Romanian Jew’s (Lebovich) house until 1953.
31:18
Nayman talks about his childhood memories of Klyachanovo (Yiddish: Klitshanif), where eighty Jewish families resided. He attended religious school (cheder) until the age of thirteen. Nayman then recites prayers. His parents farmed land and owned six cows. They produced butter and cheese and distributed it among the surrounding villages. Nayman helped out his parents. He then talks about his yeshiva education and recites prayers.
44:41
Nayman recalls studying Gemara at the yeshiva in Korsun before the war. He then sings religious melodies, prayers, and discusses his yeshiva studies in Korsun.
54:44
Nayman talks about his childhood memories and his family. He grew up with four siblings. His parents produced kosher wine. He then recalls different holiday prayers.
0:00
Nayman recites kaddish and other prayers that he learned from a Hassidic rebbe and cantor in prewar Klyachanovo. Nayman talks about his life in the Hungarian forced labor battalion in 1942, when he was "drafted" at the age of eighteen. His assignment was to build bunkers for the army. Then, Nayman was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, from which he escaped. From Mauthausen, Nayman was sent to the Gunskirchen forced labor camp. He describes his experience there and explains that he was so hungry, he had to eat frogs. One of Nayman’s work assignments was to dig graves.
10:51
Nayman recites prayers and recalls prewar Purim celebrations, including Purim shpiels. He then recites Sabbath songs (zemirot).
23:37
Nayman talks about his childhood memories and his family, in particular his father taking care of the cattle. He remembers different folk customs. Nayman then recalls the prayer books he studied with in cheder. He then recites prayers.
0:00
Nayman talks about childhood friends and Jewish life before the war. He remembers the Yiddish names of surrounding towns and answers questions about cultural terminology. Nayman then recites prayers.
11:30
Nayman talks about prewar Jewish life, in particular the wedding of Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira's daughter in Mukacheve. He then remembers his studies with the rebbe of Mukacheve and describes several prayer houses.
12:22
The second part of the tape consists of the continuation of a formal interview with Hershel Ylyevich Vider, recorded Mukacheve. Vider shows a number of photographs: family, a postcard from the synagogue of Mukacheve, Frume’s (daughter of Haim-Elazar Shapiro) wedding, Mukacheve ghetto, Hebrew school, and Haim-Elazar Shapiro. He then shows several documents and newspapers.
31:10
Vider tells an anecdote making fun of the Jews of Berehove, who tried to build a besmedresh. He then talks about the difference between a synagogue and a besmedresh. After concluding the official part of interview, the camera films photos and artifacts from Vider’s apartment.
6:43
Pasik talks about her childhood memories in the Efingar agricultural colony and her family. In the village were two kolkhozy, where Ukrainians and Germans lived as well. The name of the kolkhoz her family worked at was called Rakoshe and Molotov was the name of the kolkhoz her maternal uncle worked at. He had a leading position in Molotov. According to Pasik’s mother, there were three active synagogues before Pasik was born. During her childhood, only one synagogue was officially open in both kolkhozy. Non-Jewish students also attended the local Yiddish school.
2:32
Endelshtein provides personal information and talks about his hometown Bolhrad, Odesa District, with a Jewish population of approximately 5000 out of 28,000. According to Endelshtein, one thousand Jews were killed in the synagogue in 1938.
25:32
Endelshtein talks about his family, in particular his grandfather, and addresses prewar religious life. He recalls how he attended the New Synagogue. Endelshtein then discusses holiday celebrations at home, including Passover with singing. He sings the beginning of Chad Gadya.
41:56
Endelshtein discusses prewar life Bolgrad. He recalls how his non-Jewish classmates attended synagogue services with him. Endelshtein then talks about Jewish life, including occupations and education.
47:25
Endelshtein discusses Yiddish songs and local synagogues in Bolgrad. He shows a picture of the synagogue, where Jews were killed in 1938.
52:16
Endelshtein recites the Morning Prayer and describes religious customs among his family before the war. He mentions how he continued to say the prayer during his military service.
55:59
Endelshtein discusses food customs and holiday celebrations, as well as prayers.
0:00
Endelshtein talks about his family after World War II, when he returned from his military service in 1945. He was involved in the memorialization of Jews who were killed in the synagogue and mass shootings during the war.
32:12
Endelshtein talks about his family and prewar Jewish life Bolgrad, in particular halutzim. He grew up as an only child. Endelshtein also mentions meeting a Jewish girl, who gave him a prayer book. The girl took the book from her grandmother after a mass shooting.
43:32
Tzentziper talks about Jewish life in Mykolayiv in 1940. He then discusses Jewish life in Mykolayiv after the war, including Yiddish cultural life and the visit of an Israeli politician in 1949. Tzentziper mentions the kosher butcher and synagogue closures.
28:07
Synagogue in Bershad
12:13
Kenin discusses his childhood memories, including holiday celebration and Jewish life in Nizhyn. He lists different local synagogues, including Lubavitcher, 13:35, Schneersohn’s, and occupational synagogues. He was the brother of Shmuel and Yehuda Leib Schneersohn.
14:47
Kenin discusses holiday celebrations at home, including Sabbath and wine-making. He then recites a blessing.
30:56
Kenin talks about prewar Jewish life Nizhyn with, according to him, approximately 6000 people. Kenin maintains that most synagogues were closed down in the late 1930s. He recalls a Jewish bathhouse with a mikva.
39:08
Kenin answers questions about cultural terminology, before talking about Schneersohn’s synagogue.
32:16
Trachtenberg talks about prewar Jewish life, including the different synagogues. He then talks about the devastations of Novoseltsy after the war. Trachtenberg and his brother were the only surviving members of his family. He then describes living conditions in barns and barracks, located in the Kosharyntsi ghetto and the Mykolayiv concentration camp.
40:27
Trachtenberg answers questions about cultural terminology. He also addresses contemporary Jewish life and traditional weddings after the war. Trachtenberg then talks about Jewish life in the immediate postwar period. According to Trachtenberg, one thousand Jews lived in postwar Novoseltsy and met up for private services.
59:54
Tokar talks about his family, in particular his father. Tokar attended religious services on holidays with his father. His father was born in Zheludok.
45:25
Vainbrand reads from a prayer book and addresses prewar religious life in Valedniki taking place in different prayer houses. He remembers how his mother provided shelter for pilgrims, visiting the Tzaddik.
31:56
Vainbrand addresses anecdotes from Hershl Ostropoler and reads from the prayer book.
27:09
Lerner provides information in Russian on the Orhei synagogue, after they arrive. Lerner then gives a tour.
51:56
Kipervaser recalls traditional weddings and synagogues before the war. She then addresses postwar religious life, including private services in 1944 and how the community rebuilt the synagogue after the war. Kipervaser helped to collect money, she explains.
31:36
Synagogue in Ovruch.
20:24
Synagogue of Berdychiv
MDV 639Isaak Grigorievich Vainsheinboim; Moisei (Moyshe ben Zalmen) Zelmanovich Fish bRivne, Slavuta, 2003
12:22
He speaks about the sixteen synagogues in the shtetl, divided by profession. Some of these buildings were made from brick.
46:40
The camera cuts to the research team being shown an old wooden synagogue to which brick walls have been added.
51:52
Fish begins to discuss his family life in the pre-war era. His father was known as Zalmen der Miler (b. 1883 in Koloniya Olizarka) since he worked as a house-builder and brick-layer, a profession called miler in that region. Fish remembers his father being called to the Torah in synagogue as Zalmen ben Reb Shleyme-Khayim haLeyvi. His mother, Khaye, was born in 1887 in Zholuds’k, a nearby town. His parents moved to Rivne at the start of World War I in 1914. Since birthdays were not celebrated in his youth, he does recall the day his parents were born, but only the years. His mother worked as a balebuste and raised the family’s five children, of whom he was the youngest. His siblings included: Etl-Raytsl Gratsh (b. 1904), who was married to Pinkhes-Refuel, and with she had three children. The first of these children was named Berl (b. 1925) at birth, but as he was a sickly child, he was brought to the Rovner Ruv, who renamed him Alter [This short story is found at 00:58:42-00:59:32]. The other two children in this family were: Peretsl (b. 1935) and Gitele (b. 1941). This whole family was killed in the early years of World War II.
6:59
Fish shares his memories about his childhood, early education and pre-war Rivne. He started going to a kheyder at 3.5 years of age where he learned how to pray. According Fish, pre-war Rivne had a population of 40,000 people, 85% of who were Jews. There were 44 synagogues in the town, which were always packed during holidays.
9:48
One synagogue remained opened during Soviet times on School Street, but this institution was closed in 1955. Fish also speak in more detail about the establishment of Soviet authority in 1939.
11:05
Education: Fish went to kheyder until age five. At the age of five-six years old, his father got him a personal teacher, who for an hour a day in the afternoon would teach him how to pray. There were approximately 20-30 kids in kheyder. He would learn liturgy, the hagode, the fir kashes for Passover and other religious texts. Fish then recites a fragment from fir kashes from memory, but reports he could do it better if he had the text to read in front of him.
14:13
He is a leader/cantor [gabe un aleyn a khazn] in the local Jewish religious community.
2:35
The camera cuts to Moisei Zelmanovich Fish showing the researchers around the community center/ synagogue stopping at photo exhibits on war veterans, war victims, and the Jewish mass graves found in villages in the 1990s.
8:47
Fish brief retells the history of this synagogue, the former tailors’ synagogue, and other synagogues in town. The Great Synagogue closed in 1955.
10:14
Fish gives a small English-Hebrew booklet with memorial prayers to Professor Kerler so he can say the proper blessing at the mass graves where some of his relatives lie.
11:12
Fish then describes contemporary religious services in the synagogue: he reads the service aloud in Hebrew as tradition dictates, while the congregants follow along in Russian. The community does not have a Torah Scroll.
13:37
Fish talks about Jewish life in Rivne after World War II. Few local Jews survived, he says. Post-war Rivne Jews were either locals who had served in the army or migrants from nearby small towns. During perestroika, in 1989 a Jewish communal organization known as the Osher Shvartsman Rivne Jewish Cultural Organization, was founded. They rented a room from the Ukrainian owner of the former tailors’ synagogue. In 1990, they established a religious Jewish communal organization, to the synagogue was restituted by the Ukrainian government. Fish was the accountant for the cultural organization from 1989 to 1997, and has been involved with the religious community since 1995. He also briefly speaks about relations with younger Jews and other Jewish organizations in the city.
31:53
Fish takes the interviewers to the former Great Synagogue (a sports hall) and he describes the paintings and inscriptions that used to be on the wall, as well as his memories of the town’s cantors.
23:24
When his father died, he was the only one able to say kadish, because his other siblings were members of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League). His mother would not allow him to join the Komsomol, specifically so he could go to synagogue on his father’s yortsayt [anniversary of death] every year to say kadish and he followed her orders.
50:31
On shabes, his mother would light candles and his father would go to synagogue. Kurliandchik’s grandfather was a rich merchant as he sold Judaica and other ritual objects. Kurliandchik’s older brother learned in a kheyder and knew Hebrew well.
57:01
According to Kurliandchik, the synagogues in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy were all closed in 1934. After that, a minyen (minyan) would come together in a private home on shabes (the Sabbath). A synagogue was briefly re-established in the town after the war.
15:45
Litvak mentions how people today will go to both the synagogue and the church in order receive help. She does not understand how this is logically possible.
22:20
Litvak recalls how her family used a yidisher eyvn (“Jewish oven”) on shabes (the Sabbath), which kept everything warm from Friday night until Saturday evening. Her mother would bless the shabes candles and her father would go to the synagogue near the market until he grew too afraid in the Soviet period. The synagogue was closed in 1933, Litvak reports, after which a minyen (minyan) would meet in different private homes. This practice continued after the war as well.
25:29
In the pre-war period, according to Litvak, there was only one synagogue. It had a women’s section on the balcony. There was probably more than one synagogue, Litvak admits, but she only remembers one synagogue and one church in the town during those years.
26:27
In the pre-war period, according to Litvak, there was only one synagogue. It had a women’s section on the balcony. There was probably more than one synagogue, Litvak admits, but she only remembers one synagogue and one church in the town during those years.
34:51
Litvak did not learn any prayers, she states, because her parents were afraid to teach her.
19:27
Shteingart shares his memories of life in pre-war Kovel’. From the age of three to eight years old, Shteingart learned in kheyder (religious school for boys), where he remembers studying prayer and khimesh mit rashi (Torah with commentary from Rashi). Shteingart still has a siddur and phylacteries in his apartment, which he uses to pray every day. He would go to the synagogue in Rivne.
32:55
Shteingart shares his memories of Kovel’’s Great Synagogue, relating how women prayed on the balcony and how famous cantors came to the synagogue.
56:19
Shteingart remembers shabes in his family’s house: His mother would bless the candles and serve foods such as khale (challah), fish and tshulnt (cholent). He also remembers going to synagogue with his father on Friday night and singing zmires (paraliturgical Sabbath songs) after dinner.
0:00
This tape begins in the middle of a formal interview with Itskhak Pinhasovich Shteingart. He recites a part of kidesh (kiddush) from a siddur.
29:10
Khiterman went to a religious teacher at the age of six who taught her how to read Hebrew and prayer, although she states that she remembers very little of “yidishkayt” outside of speaking Yiddish. Expanding on this point, Khiterman then comments on the lack of people with whom she can speak Yiddish in her everyday life.
41:08
Khiterman's grandfather was descended from a family of cantors, and as such his family was very religious. They once went to Jerusalem, Khiterman reports, and brought back soil, which people would buy [for their burial plots] before they died.
48:09
Khiterman describes the three synagogues in her town before the war, two of which were for poorer members of the community.
49:56
Her son shares his memories of going to synagogue in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy in the post-war period, stating that this place was closed down by the authorities in 1952-53. Khiterman further describes the synagogue in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy, and who went there. According to Khiterman, Komsomol (Communist youth league) members would receive penalties if they went to services in the synagogue.
17:20
Fish describes some of Rivne’s 44 synagogues from before the war.
47:49
Fish describes Jewish religious life in postwar Rivne, stating that the Great Synagogue functioned until 1955, when a local Ukrainian paper published an anti-Semitic story after which the synagogue was closed. After this, the Jews of Rivne were afraid to speak Yiddish or publically identify as Jews, signaling the end of Jewish activities in the city under the Gorbachev years.
0:00
Moisei Zelmanovich Fish describes how on Friday nights, he would go to synagogue with his father and how his mother would always “bentsh lekht” [bless the Sabbath candles].
14:16
Fish briefly comments on his role as the head of the contemporary Jewish religious community in Rivne. No one in the town, according to Fish, knows how to pray properly, and everyone reads the siddur in Russian.
0:00
Continuation of interview with Abram (Arkadii, Abrashe) Khaimovich Vaisman, born 1940 in Sharhorod. (Part 2 of 4. See MDV 655, MDV 656, and Accession # 09-010.58-F MDV 776) His father, named Khayem was also born in Sharhorod, and, having lost his right hand, did not work. His grandmother owned a store. Vaisman is named for his grandfather Avrum. His mother Blume was born in Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), a shtetl 15km away and worked as a seamstress. Vaisman has three siblings: Roza (b. 1923), Danya (b. 1929) and Kolmen (b. 1936), the third of whom now lives in Israel. Although Vaisman is now retired, he worked for the local newspaper as a photographer/photo-journalist, a craft he learned from his brother Danya and loved to do. Vaisman remembers Jewish religious holidays and how his father used to pray in shul (synagogue). Although he has been told that there were eight synagogues in the town before the war, he remembers only one shul, which was burned down after the war 40-45 years ago. Vaisman went to Ukrainian schools growing up and learned some English, but he cannot read or write in Yiddish. Vaisman describes his town as a Jewish city until emigration and shows old photos he took of the town’s elderly Jews, most of whom have since left for America or Israel. In Sharhorod, according to Vaisman, there were all kinds of Jews in the town, both religious and non-religious. He also tells the interviewers about the two tsadikim (righteous men) buried in Sharhorod’s cemetery who have been popularly credited with the fact that no Jews were killed when the Germans came to the town (Vaisman adds that some Jews also bought their way out of danger). Unlike other shtetlekh (towns) in the area where all the Jews were killed, in Sharhorod the Romanians killed no Jews.
0:00
Klava Vaisman (Abram's daughter) used to work as a machinist and typist, although she has never learned how to work on a computer. The camera cuts to the Vaisman family outside their house, speaking about contemporary Jewish life in the town and why they do not want to leave. Abram leads the research team to the old Jewish cemetery where the local tsadikim (righteous men) are buried. Shots of the street leading away from cemetery. Passing the plant on the road, Dov-Ber Kerler explains thistles, which are thrown in the hair of those crying on Tisha b’Av. Abram leads the team to the home of Faina (Feyge) Rivelis. The researchers go into Rivelis’s house and begin a formal interview. She remembers her parents, Shmil Khayem and Sheyve Srulovna Rivelis, as very pious. Her father was a tailor and had four kids, of whom she was youngest (b. 1916). She remembers the shul (synagogue) in town, and religious holidays, including Passover. As a child, she attended Yiddish schools where she learned to read and write in that language. Faina lived in Germany for a year, but returned to Sharhorod to be between her “fir vent”, her “four walls”. Rivelis recalls how the Jews in her town survived the war years, but nevertheless lived through hardship and hunger. Faina worked for fifty years in the village government. Rivelis answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions about the Yiddish language. Outside Rivelis’s home, the researchers also talk to Faina about her father’s old prayer books. Shots of the town’s old synagogue. Video of the team driving on the road at night.
0:00
Yerikhman spoke Yiddish with his mother, but when she died in 1988, he had fewer people with whom to speak. His father (1913-1958) was a trader/merchant and fought in the war. In his own professional life, he worked almost entirely with Jews and spoke Yiddish at work, even with some of the non-Jews in Sharhorod. Yerikhman recalls Jewish religious services led by an old Jew in a private home where they kept a Torah Scroll and he was able to say Kaddish for his father. Yerikhman also remembers celebrating shabes (Sabbath) and eating traditional foods, such as yoykh (soup), gefilte fish and cholent. Yerikhman answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions about the Yiddish language, during which he talks about the differences between the “accents” in his Yiddish and those of local Litvaks, who spoke differently. Yerikhman remarks that the Sharhorod cemetery, in addition to its two famous tsadikim (righteous men), is full of Romanian Jews who died from hunger and sickness, having been transported to the town during the war. The recording ends with Yerikhman expressing his political views about the current state of post-Soviet society, commenting on the differences between those who live in small towns and those who live in urban locales. He also talks about what he views as “Gorbachev’s mistake” in allowing emigration from the USSR, as too many Jews have left what was still a good life in Sharhorod.
0:00
Yerikhman explains his views against emigration to Germany, Israel, etc. and why he is in love with his shtetl. His nephew Igor’ takes the team inside to look at and read from old religious texts. Scenes of Sharhorod and exterior of the synagogue. Yerikhman explains more about Jewish life in the shtetl as the team goes inside the synagogue (it is now a wine factory). More scenes of Sharhorod from the exterior of the synagogue. Screen goes black for a moment until it reveals Luda, his sister-in-law, inviting the research team inside Luda’s cafe-restaurant Dana (named after grandaughter). Dov-Ber Kerler explains to the camera that although Luda is not Jewish, she learned to speak Yiddish by talking with her mother-in-law. Luda understands most of the questions posed to her in Yiddish, but finds it easiest to respond in Russian. The research team meets and interviews “Bobe Klara” (Klara Lvovna Kurman), who was born in 1930 in Sharhorod. (Part 1 of 2. See MDV 660) Kurman speaks first of all about her family, including her grandfather Leyb the apothecary, her father Leyb the feldsher (born in Kam”yanets’-Podil’s’kyy, d. 1954), her mother Rivke (d. 1976) and siblings Boris, Etta and Misha. During the war, her family hid in a cellar in the house where she still lives. She remembers the Romanians and the Romanian Jews who came to Sharhorod during the war and how they paid for help.
0:00
Kurman remembers going to synagogue with her mother, a woman who, as she describes it, knew Yiddish, loshn-koydesh (Biblical Hebrew) and loved to pray. She remembers the interior of the synagogue as decorated with painted murals on the walls as well as with candles. Although the synagogue was closed before the war, her father continued to pray in a private home with other Jews—he was a pious man and Kurman remembers how he would make blessings before and after eating. Kurman’s father decided to send her to a Russian school because career opportunities would be better than with a Yiddish education—she therefore can neither read nor write in Yiddish. Kurman recalls celebrating Passover and the hiding of the afikoymen (matzah), but says that when her siblings got older they were more interested in going to the theater than in the holidays. Kurman then answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions about the Yiddish language. Kurman remembers Dr. Taykh, a rich Jew from Bukovina, who died in Sharhorod during the war and is buried there. It was with his help that she and her family survived. The camera cuts to the research team in Shpykiv at the home of Evgeniia Krasner. (Part 1 of 4. See Accession # 09-010.45-F MDV 664, MDV 665, and MDV 666) When Evgeniia (Sheyndele) Isaakovna Krasner finally emerges, she and the team introduce themselves to each other, telling jokes. She sings a Russian song and tells the researchers about Reb Shulem-Munye (Shulemunye), the local tsadik (righteous man). Krasner then sings “Ay iz dus a Rebenyu”, a theater song she knows from her mother with whom she spoke only in Yiddish. The house Krasner currently lives in belonged to her uncle, who was killed in the camp in Pechera. Evgeniia recites a children’s counting ditty and nursery rhymes and then sings another Yiddish song learned from her mother.
53:56
Prayers and holiday celebration
27:37
Jewish celebration and Kaddish prayer
9:06
Shvartsburg talks about the Jewish cemetery. In particular, he mentions the grave of Itsik Twersky, who was the father of the Tzadik David Twersky. Shvartsburg is an architectural engineer. He mentions how he built pilgrim sanctuaries for Hasidic pilgrims, as well as built religious sites in surrounding locations. He also built a new synagogue in Skvyra in 1999. It took four years to finish the constructions works. He then addresses the contemporary Jewish community.
13:25
Shvartsburg and the team arrive at the synagogue and the camera collects synagogue footage, while Shvartsburg gives a tour. He then talks about synagogue activities and the its architecture, as well as contemporary Jewish life. The building of the current synagogue is based on photographs of a 19th century synagogue building, which was destroyed in the 1930s.
30:02
Father chanting.
33:55
Post-religious life at father’s synagogue.
54:01
Weddings and synagogue.
15:06
Showing machzor and prayer.
35:06
Dialectology and prewar synagogue service.
7:00
Berger gives a tour of the prewar Jewish neighborhood in Svalyava. They are headed to the town's synagogue. The complex around the synagogue was used as an industrial plant, bakery, during the postwar Soviet period.
10:12
The team arrives at the synagogue area and takes a tour, led by Berger. According to him, the synagogue was closed in 1946. An unidentified man provides information in Russian on the renovation of the synagogue.
19:30
The team heads with Berger to the local synagogue. Berger talks about life today in Svalyava.
24:10
The team gets back into the van and then stops at a former synagogue, which is now used as restaurant. Berger talks about contemporary religious life. Berger owns a hotel.
29:15
They discuss about life today at a restaurant. Berger then recites prayers and a Purim shpiel.
48:16
They greet Tartinets on the street. She then recites prayers. The team drives with Tartinets to a quieter place in order to conduct a formal interview. She provides personal information and they chat in Russian.
56:00
Tartinets discusses holiday celebration and prewar religious life. She then sings a Yiddish song about a child. She then recites the morning prayer. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
48:25
They arrive at the synagogue and the camera records synagogue footage during service. Dorfman also gives a tour.
54:35
Dorfman gives some historical background on the synagogue. The synagogue was built between 1924 and 1931. Dorfman himself worked at the synagogue. He then describes the conditions of the building in the immediate post-Soviet period and how Dorfman helped to fix it up. He then talks about contemporary religious life, including rabbis. The camera then records footage of the synagogue area.
25:35
Yakuta addresses her father's observances and pilgrimages. She then talks about prewar Jewish life in Teplyk, including synagogue (tailor's, cobbler's, klezmer's, wealthy's, pauper's) and occupational structure, local klezmers, as well as traditional weddings.
38:26
Yakuta addresses the synagogue structure of prewar Teplyk.
0:00
Yakuta continues to speak about the local synagogue structure before the war. She specifically describes the interior of the Great Synagogue.
3:49
Yakuta talks about prewar holiday celebration, including Passover. She also recalls praying customs. Yakuta then talks about her family's life in the 1930s. She recalls how the Yiddish school was turned into a Ukrainian school. Yakuta maintains that the community agreed with the closure of the Yiddish school to be able to advance in careers.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Sofia (Sonye) Moiseevna Palatnikova (b. 1927 in Teplyk) (part 2 of 3. See MDV 687 and MDV 689). She discusses prewar Jewish life, noting that holiday celebrations did not take place in the synagogue, but rather at home. She remembers how Passover was strictly observed with a different set of dishes. Reflecting on her father’s work as a butcher, Palatnikova discusses the differences between Jewish and non-Jewish consumption of meat before the war as it related to the kosher status of the meat and different kinds of fasts that non-Jews observed. She also comments on contemporary eating practices of chicken.
18:56
The team drives around Teplyk with Leonid Trachtenburg, the director of the Jewish Community of Teplyk, who points out important historical Jewish sites in Teplyk, including sites related to the Holocaust, the sites of former synagogues, and the cemetery. The tape concludes with the beginning of an interview with Maria Andreevna Yakuta.
25:08
Gliazer speaks about his education in a traditional “khayder” (kheyder; religious school for young boys) as well as the atmosphere in his childhood synagogue.
57:47
Gliazer describes the various local Hasidic groups and synagogues in his town, noting that his father was a follower of the Rebbe from Husyatyn. Gliazer details how people would visit the local Rebbes for advice or blessings, and how the Rebbe from Chortkiv would visit the shtetl on sukes (Sukkot). Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Podgaytse, Skalat, Ternopil’, Ozerna, Husyatyn, Chortkiv
7:08
According to Gliazer, Podgaytse had popular Jewish public baths that included a “mikve” (ritual bath) that was used by the men before shabes (the Sabbath). Gliazer also recalls the town’s different synagogues and other religious institutions.
39:30
Returning to the subject of the early years of Soviet rule, Gliazer describes the general enthusiasm for the regime among poor working Jews. He further details the immediate closures of Jewish political, religious and cultural institutions, although one synagogue was kept open. Gliazer also briefly talks about the Soviet Yiddish newspaper Eynikayt.
1:47
Speaking in Russian, Larisa Kliuch leads the team on a tour of Krements’, pointing out the place of former synagogues, old Jewish homes, the location of the wartime ghetto, and other sites of interest as they drive around the town.
5:47
Kliuch leads the team through the cemetery, indicating its oldest sections and other distinguishing features. She notes that many gravestones were taken by Nazis to build roads in the town and that other local non-Jews used the stones to build their houses. She also reports that local photographer Valerii Rozenblit has taken a photograph of every gravestone in the cemetery for proper documentation. The research team also says “kadish” (a memorial prayer) at an unidentified grave.
22:35
Kliuch leads the team to an old synagogue that is now part of the bus station. There are also scenes of the town and a closer look at an older building.
30:51
The team briefly visits a memorial to victims of the war put up by the Soviet government. The team again recites the kadish prayer. Kliuch and Professor Kerler discuss the history of the Kremenets’ ghetto uprising.
13:01
According to Gliazer, the Khusiatiner Rebbe would come to their shtetl once a year to visit his ancestors’ graves and pray in the local synagogue.
16:33
Gliazer briefly talks about the postwar period, noting that he moved to Ternopil’ from Chortkiv in the 1960s. He also talks about the synagogues in surrounding shtetlekh.
26:53
Then the team visits Rita Davidovna Shveibish’s office. She presents an old, damaged Torah scroll. The recording shows footage of Tul'chyn.
16:02
Kogan talks about postwar Jewish life, after his return to Bershad. He recalls how the community gave secret donations to keep the synagogue open. Kogan then addresses his life in Tulchyn, where he worked in a procurement office.
18:24
Kogan talks about his life and religious customs in Bershad before the war. According to Kogan, there were three synagogues. He then addresses Passover celebrations at home, as well as his family.
55:50
Golfeld speaks about episodes when he snuck out of the camp in search for food in the villages. He encountered a rebbe in Chechelnyk and joined him for services. Golfeld also addresses his mother's observance. He then remembers a Ukrainian who brought a Torah scroll from the Tulchyn community into the Pechera concentration camp.
59:31
Golfeld speaks about his mother's observance and religious dexterity. He recalls prayer services at home. Golfeld then talks about his family.
0:00
Golfeld speaks about his life after the war. In particular, he addresses secret private religious services, he organized in his home. Golfeld also mentions secret matzo baking.
26:21
Golfeld discusses his childhood memories, before addressing prewar Jewish life in Tulchyn. He also addresses the local synagogue structure. Golfeld continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
38:37
Kogan addresses holiday celebration in the Bershad ghetto. According to him, the synagogue remained open during the Romanian occupation. He also recalls wedding celebrations among the refugees in the ghetto. Kogan then addresses tensions among the ghetto inhabitants.
0:00
Kogan speaks about prewar religious life in Bershad, particularly Hasidism from Bratslav. Kogan states that he barely attended services before the war. The team then concludes the interview with Kogan.
8:57
Shveibish addresses the prewar synagogue structure of Tulchyn and prewar local Jewish life. Shveibish and the team get back into the van and Shveibish continues her tour of the former Jewish neighborhood.
37:02
Yurkovetskij addresses his life before the war and recalls the Great Hunger in 1933 and poverty. He also addresses prewar Jewish life in Tulchyn, including the synagogue structure. Yurkovetskij returns to his sons' circumcision in 1941 and lists names of Jewish locals who were excluded from the Party.
12:59
Katsman and Yenta speak about their lives after the war and recall secret prayer services. Pesia remembers prayer services up to the 1950s, led by a hired coachman.
0:00
Kogan speaks about his life in the Bershad ghetto. He recalls prayer services in private homes during the war and in the synagogue after the war. Kogan then mentions wealthy refugees from the Bessarabian and Bukovina regions in the ghetto. Kogan then addresses his military service from 1944 to 1951, including fighting on the front for two months.
MDV 728Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
51:07
Lev surveys Jewish history, before Yenta addresses postwar religious life in Tulchyn. Her father was a baker and frequently attended services after the war. Lev's mother was born in Tomashpil.
MDV 729Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
33:02
Yenta talks about her family. Yenta then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Tulchyn and recalls poverty. Pesia also addresses prewar religious life and mentions a local synagogue. Lev shares an episode where they officials would not allow an extension of the synagogue.
36:59
Pesia speaks about prewar life and how a local synagogue building was used as granary before the war. According to Pesia, the community could not agree on how to build the synagogue. Lev then speaks more about the construction of the synagogue.
21:16
Memorialization and synagogue service during childhood
48:14
Memorialization and prayer during and after Soviet times
9:26
Praying
MDV 741Nukhim Moiseevich (Moshkovich) Gvinter; unidentified informant (Bershad'); Efim VigodnerUman', Bershad', 2008
9:29
Arrival at the synagogue in Bershad' and discussion about Jewish community
10:14
Katz talks about life before the war. He worked in berry orchard in a kolkhoz in Ukraine. The last job he did, before World War II broke out, was to load furniture from the factory into the train. On Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, he explained, he would turn off the machines, not work, and attend synagogue. Katz explained that his Jewish superior, Efimovich, tolerated Katz’s decision not to work on holidays. When Efimovich retired, non-Jews directed the factory.
17:13
Katz discusses religious life today. His son helped to organize a minyan from neighboring towns, so Katz can observe yahrzeit. The camera records the excerpt of the Parsha Chukat in the tsene rene, which Katz read earlier in the interview.
53:49
Ernest remembers religious life during the Soviet period in Mukacheve. Jews, who had no official relations with the state, lived a religious life with a small study house (besmedresh).
54:28
Ernest explains the difference between a besmedresh and a synagogue. He then talks about prewar political movements in Mukacheve such as Mizrahi and Zionist organizations.
41:25
The second part of the tape includes a tour through the former Jewish parts of Uzhorod with Nusn Leyb Naybauer, born 1924 in Velké Kapušany in today’s Slovakia. They drive to the three former synagogues of Uzhorod. Today the buildings are used as a concert hall, local phone company, and university building. His mother was born in Mala Dobron. His family moved to a village when Naybauer was one year old, where his father worked in an equestrian military facility. His father’s friend arranged work for him. His family lived in Mala Dobron until their deportation to Auschwitz.
49:00
Naybauer talks about life during World War II, during his imprisonment in the Hungarian forced labor (i.e. "Munka Tabor") within the labor battalion of the Hungarian army. They arrive at the former Great Synagogue. Naybauer discusses religious life after the war. The Jewish community used the synagogue until it was closed down in 1948. When the former head of the Jewish community, Bergider, heard that the Great Synagogue was about to be closed down, he went to Moscow to speak with Golda Meir to prevent the closure. As soon as Bergider returned to Uzhorod, he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-five years in jail. Bergider was in jail for seven years and died two weeks after his release. Naybauer then briefly remembers prewar Hasidic life; before talking about holiday celebration today. Naybauer remembers that Jews hid their belongings in two synagogues, before they were forced into the ghetto. He then returns to talking about prewar Jewish life and institutions. Naybauer grew up as the oldest of five siblings. His father could not work for health reasons and therefore Naybauer had to help the “kosher sausage dealer “ carry meat.
59:21
They enter the former Great Synagogue, which is now used as a music hall.
0:00
The camera collects footage of the former Great Synagogue, which is now used as a concert hall. Naybauer talks about the architecture of the synagogue. Naybauer explained that he used to pray in the Great Synagogue after the war until it was closed down in 1948. A plaque was put up in 1989 commemorating the concert hall’s history as a synagogue, but was taken down soon after by hooligans.
11:35
Naybauer continues the tour through town and points out a former Jewish theater and they walk along the former Jewish street. Naybauer talks about his observant family. His parents and siblings were killed in Auschwitz. He then talks about a typical Sabbath afternoon in Uzhorod before the war, explaining how people would stroll through town. He discusses the religious school education he received until the age of thirteen. They arrive at another former synagogue, now used by the local telephone company. In this building, Jews hid their belongings before being forced into the ghetto. The former mikva is now used as a cafeteria for students. Naybauer tells as tory about how his uncle was murdered by the police. Naybauer moved to Uzhorod in 1935.
39:04
They approach the third building of a former synagogue. Naybauer talks about prewar Jewish life in general.
10:18
Naybauer discusses prewar antisemitism, before addressing contemporary religious life. He then recites prayers, before discussing religious life after World War II. Naybauer got married in 1957 and his son was circumcised in 1959. His mother agreed to bring Naybauer’s son to the mohel and was sentenced to three years in jail, but with the help of Jewish journalists she could evade the sentence. Naybauer then talks about synagogue activities after the war.
43:55
Zinger recalls Jewish life before the war in Velykyi Bereznyi. His father worked as a tombstone carver (matseyve kritser) during the summer. Zinger assisted his father in the cemetery. During the winter, his father was a frame builder and glazier. Zinger then talks about the local prayer house, before addressing religious life today.
8:38
Synagogue architecture and service on holidays
5:01
The team formally introduces Chirkova and she provides more personal information. She then addresses her family. Chirkova's parents were also born in Krasnoye. Her father was the local rabbi and her grandfather was a cantor.
7:45
Chirkova speaks about her family, particularly her grandfather's fate during World War II. She then tells the history of the local Jews' fate during the war, before she says a personal prayer thanking God for her survival.
39:14
Chirkova addresses prewar religious life, particularly occupational synagogues.
4:11
Chirkova speaks about religious customs and prayers.
0:00
Chirkova speaks about her life today, as well as the support she receives from her children. She then discusses religious customs, particularly explains how to bless Sabbath candles. Chirkova also shares a personal prayer.
19:41
Chirkova speaks about life today. She particularly addresses non-Jews who go to Jewish services and mentions that she gives lectures churches.
0:00
Furer talks about prewar Jewish life, particularly wealthy people. Out of a population of 10,000 lived 8,000 Jews, according to Furer. He then addresses his religious childhood education. He studied with a religious teacher (melamed) for a year and a half. Furer recalls the morning prayer "Modeh ani."
18:25
Furer speaks about his family's religiosity. He recalls how his grandfather prayed at home, before continuing to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Furer also addresses contemporary religious services.
6:40
Vainer-Shpak talks about Jewish life before the war, particularly Yiddish books and press. She also speaks about her family, as well as prewar religious life. In particular, Vainer-Shpak remembers the local cantor and her father chanting at the synagogue.
22:13
Synagogue and prayer house in Sharhorod before and during the war
34:04
Synagogue for the Levites
12:39
The research team walks around the synagogue with Vaisman
35:10
The son married a Ukrainian woman. They lived together for five years but had no children, so they got divorced. When Khazin's wife passed away, he and his son attended synagogue and said the Kaddish in her honor. His son decided to become circumcised.
36:23
Khazin talks about the meaning of his last name. He mentions that he is a “koheyn” (member of the Jewish priestly tribe). He learned the Yiddish that he knows from his two grandmothers. His grandfather was a salesman who traveled to sell Singer sewing machines, thus supporting his family of twelve. His other grandfather was a bookbinder. He passed away from heart trouble. He was not religious, so Khazin's grandmother had to accompany him to synagogue to make sure he went.
44:40
Khazin mentions that there were more than 10 synagogues in Vinnytsya before the war. He recalls some Yiddish songs, especially comic songs. His father and mother both used to sing.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a tour of the synagogue with Arnold Grigorevich Khazin, recorded in Vinnytsya. Khazin talks in Russian about prewar Jewish life and institutions.
12:26
Nayman talks about Jewish life before the war, in particular matzo baking. She then recites prayers and talks about her “unofficial” cheder education.
40:40
Nayman discusses prewar Jewish life and recalls her father visiting rebbes in surrounding towns. She then talks about a Zionist organization from Uzhhorod, which came to her home town. Her father would not allow her and her brother to attend the meeting. She remembers how her father punished her for putting on makeup. Nayman then talks about Sabbath celebrations at home and recites Sabbath prayers (God of Abraham), before she discusses Hanukkah celebrations. Nayman recalls a few words in biblical Hebrew.
12:08
Nayman then talks about prewar Jewish life and her school education in Turya-Bystra. She then talks about contemporary Jewish life in Vynohradiv (Yiddish: Selish). Nayman moved there in 1978 and remembers that none of the congregants could read the prayer book except for her husband. She then talks about non-Jews speaking Yiddish in her home town, in particular a housemaid.
34:32
Lebvol speaks about prewar Zhovkva and the history of the Jewish house in which she lives. She describes the town’s synagogues and Jewish religious life, detailing various holiday observances, and explaining the differences between prewar and contemporary Passover–related practices.
51:29
Lebvol states that she was educated for a short time in a Beys-Yankev religious girls’ school and then recites two prayers that she learned there: the “moydene” (“moyde ani,” or morning prayer) and “amoytse” (“hamotsi,” or the blessing over bread). Lebvol also reports that she began working as a seamstress at age 13.
1:03
Lebvol addresses holiday celebration, in particular Sukkoth and Simchat Torah. She also describes the Great Synagogue in Zhovka and recalls shofar blowing on the High Holidays.
5:58
Lebvol explains how Polish soldiers attended synagogue services at the Great Synagogue on a Polish holiday before the war. She then recalls food customs on Shavuot.
45:34
Lebvol speaks about prayer customs. In particular, she recites a prayer to avoid dog bites. She then describes how her father read out loud on Sabbath and explains how her family celebrated Sabbath.
0:28
Prayer service.
36:10
Prayers and Hebrew/Yiddish language.
32:20
Religious services in Zhytomyr today.
2:33
Synagogues and expressions.
13:00
Tour of the synagogue in Berdychiv (check begin time).
14:51
History of Zhytomyr synagogue.
38:16
Prayers.
41:09
Prayers from prayer book.
51:38
Religious life right before the war and synagogue.
28:26
Choral synagogue.
33:32
Prayer for health.
7:09
The research team enters the synagogue.
0:00
Synagogue service.
10:16
Mester recalls prayers and blessings from her childhood. She also mentions part of the Haggadah in Yiddish.
Passages where only the machine transcript mentions this topic
611 passages whose catalogue entry does not mention the topic but whose transcript-based description does — many of them on tapes the catalogue describes only with labels. A paraphrase of a machine reading; how this layer was made.
Show the 611 passages
26:47
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits describes his Orthodox community in Debrecen. In the morning he studied secular subjects at a school in the Real School Street, and in the afternoon he went to the talmud torah in the same building. He and Kerler discuss the synagogue on Post Street, a cantor whose son became an opera singer in Switzerland, and the Paul Robeson records he collected. They also talk about the surviving remnant of the old school with its Star of David on a window grating, the mikveh, and the Orthodox and status quo communities in the same street.
7:30
From the machine transcript
Gross remembers the rabbi of Vaja, who gave sermons, and the yeshiva there. He then describes the Friday-night Sabbath meal at home, with soup, meat and fish, including gefilte fish without sugar.
47:30
From the machine transcript
Gross names a man from Maramureș who lives in Budapest, then describes postwar life: in Vaja until 1950, later in several places including Nyíregyháza and Eger, and sixteen years in Debrecen. He says the Jews of Debrecen have no rabbi or shoykhet, and he describes the Budapest rabbis and the Orthodox and Neolog communities.
10:57
From the machine transcript
Galambos answers Kerler's questions about his mother's Sabbath and holiday clothing: a white kerchief on the High Holidays and another cloth head covering on ordinary Sabbaths, whose name is unclear. He then speaks of the large unheated synagogue and the beit midrash in winter, and the seasons when services were held. Kerler ends by asking him to sing.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Smajovics recalls his cheder teachers and an older student in the cheder, and how a teacher was addressed. He answers Kerler's questions on whether non-Jews converted to Judaism, on rebbes who came to the village and on an early rebbe who emigrated to Palestine, including disputes in a nearby town about rebbes. He mentions Rebbe Meir, who gave sermons, and a teacher of girls.
6:38
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb describes prewar Jewish life in her hometown: about three thousand Jews, Neolog, Orthodox and Hasidic communities, and her own Orthodox family. She mentions early morning prayer and study, two mikvehs, three ritual slaughterers, three large synagogues and many small stiblekh. She talks about Hasidic dancing and mentions a rabbi whose son now lives in New York.
16:06
From the machine transcript
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.
14:09
From the machine transcript
Prompted by Kerler's question about Hasidim, Herbst recalls meeting many Hasidim in Upper Vişeu and now in Budapest. He talks about the Kalever rebbe's grave in Budapest, visited by Jews from America and Israel. He tells of writing a note to place at the grave and of the Sabbath meals with visiting rabbis in Vişeu, with Kerler and S2 asking about the Hasidic groups. Kerler and Herbst also discuss making a copy of the recording on DVD.
19:44
From the machine transcript
Chat with community members about particular men, some of whom pray here daily, and about who speaks Yiddish. The talk also covers young Orthodox people and who is or is not observant. Much of the passage is too garbled to follow in detail.
17:53
From the machine transcript
Deutsch gives his birth in Budapest in 1936. His mother worked in a factory in Budapest; his father came from Vișeu de Sus and was a Spinka Hasid who used a prayer house. His father's name changed from a Yiddish form in Vișeu to a Hungarian form in Budapest. Kerler then asks what language was spoken at home.
23:46
From the machine transcript
Asked about his childhood, Pearl describes Tállya's one synagogue, daily minyan, cheder, mikveh and rabbi Rosenbaum, who came from a place whose name is unclear in the transcript. There was no yeshiva in the village, but there were several in nearby towns, including one his brother attended. He says the rabbi preached in Yiddish and kept strict observance of the Sabbath and kashrut, and that about 3,200 non-Jews lived in the village without antisemitism. Only one non-Jew, born in Munkács, knew Yiddish, while Jewish women spoke it.
13:20
From the machine transcript
Doman describes the yeshiva day, from rising early through prayer, breakfast and Talmud study until the midday meal, plus afternoon and evening sessions and a Friday examination. He compares the cheder system, in which children began Humash at about six. He explains the system of eating "days" with different families, and Kerler asks about the term and the word for beans. They discuss the one Sephardic (Hasidic) yeshiva and how it differed. They also cover prayer-text differences, student helpers who repeated the rabbi's lecture to younger students, and the prohibition on Hungarian books. Doman recalls a song learned from a Lithuanian-born student.
40:37
From the machine transcript
Doman talks about teaching Talmud at the Budapest rabbinical seminary in the 1970s–80s, with students from abroad and from Hungary, taught in Hungarian and English. He says a seminary head named Scheiber (Adolf Scheiber?) knew no Yiddish. S2 tells an anecdote from Doman's book about someone praying in a different tradition, and they discuss the strictness of Hungarian yeshivas, including expulsion for reading Hungarian books. They also discuss the plan for a Jewish university and Kerler's summers in Jerusalem. Doman mentions siblings or relatives living in Israel.
23:04
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn compares postwar and present-day religious life (difficulty of getting a minyan) with the prewar cheder in Mukacheve, taught by a melamed named Fridman, with daily cheder and school hours and Hanukkah and Passover customs at cheder. Kerler asks about the languages of schooling; Blobshteyn says he attended a Russian school. Terms for the non-Jewish Christmas and New Year are also discussed.
15:03
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn recalls the Sabbath hymn he knew as a child and, at Kerler's request, tries to sing parts of it. He then sings Sabbath table songs (zemirot), with Kerler responding.
31:34
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn recalls Hoshana Rabbah and Simchat Torah: going to morning prayers, the hakafot with dancing, and the sale of honors for money. He then explains games children played with nuts at Passover and Sukkot, and mentions stealing nuts and a game with a spinning top.
2:00
From the machine transcript
Smajovics describes Jewish life in the village before the war, with its Ashkenazi synagogue and a smaller Sephardic (Hasidic) prayer house. He explains how the two groups differed, including strictness about prayer customs and dress such as the fur hat (shtraymel). He notes that Sephardim predominated further up in the mountains.
42:50
From the machine transcript
Smajovics speaks about postwar Jewish life in Sevlush, saying three shochets served the area and some people kept kosher at home, until the shochets left. He then talks about his life today, praying daily with tefillin and attending a club in Budapest where Yiddish speakers gather about once a month. He names other attendees, including Reizmovich and Tamás Milov (?). He tells an anecdote about a man who is kosher but does not pray, and about reading and writing Yiddish and Hebrew.
58:39
From the machine transcript
Herbst talks about arriving in Budapest after the war, feeling ill and looking for a doctor. He was sent to a sanatorium in Debrecen, sleeping in a cellar room with eight men, then to one in Mátra, and finally to a Jewish hospital in Budapest. He says he arrived there with a tallis and tefillin to pray.
18:13
From the machine transcript
Reti sings a Hasidic plea song, to heaven for mercy for the Jews (pre-war), several times, and Kerler asks him to repeat it more slowly. He says it was sung only before the war, in the synagogue after prayers.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler, Reti says there were no Munkacs Hasidim in his area and that the Jews took no part in politics. He recalls the beit midrash in the courtyard as the meeting place, playing nuts at Sukkot, and every Jewish house having a sukkah, where his father slept. Kerler also asks about Yom Kippur night in the beit midrash on straw, the women's section, taking challah, and the salting of meat after slaughter.
13:20
From the machine transcript
Reti says the village had one Orthodox synagogue plus the rebbe's own beit midrash, and that every village had a brick synagogue. He explains how the mikvah was heated with a samovar and wood, hot on Thursday and Friday, with the water changed on Sunday morning. Kerler asks about the Sabbath goy; Reti says Jews did not work on the Sabbath, but a courtyard non-Jew, called the 'hoyf-goy', did the heating and other chores. He adds that relations with the non-Jews were good and there were no quarrels.
16:45
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Sabbath songs (zmires), and Reti sings parts of Sabbath songs; the words are not clear in the transcript. Kerler then asks about Hoshana Rabbah and Simchat Torah; Reti recalls dancing with the Torah scrolls, the hakafot, and children being called up to the Torah. They also touch on whether non-Jews understood Yiddish, with Munkacs mentioned as a place where non-Jews spoke it.
27:21
From the machine transcript
Reti answers questions about preaching: sermons were given by the rabbi, not by a special maggid. He talks about prewar visits to Debrecen, Nyíregyháza (?) and Kisvárda and what he remembers of them. He mentions hasidic courts, a prayer house and a rabbi's grandson. He says hasidim spoke Yiddish while others spoke Hungarian, and describes the Orthodox, Status Quo and Neolog communities and the Jewish shops and book dealers around the Orthodox synagogue.
47:53
From the machine transcript
Kerler chats with several community members, asking how many tallises or families there were in the community; one answer gives about forty to fifty families. The talk turns to righteous and good Jews and to a rabbi, who after the war was chief rabbi in Budapest. Kerler then suggests going into the large synagogue.
24:25
From the machine transcript
Reti speaks about a cantor-like man or rebbe named Yisroel, his singing voice, and visits to the town before the war. Kerler and S2 then ask about a wedding song sung after the huppah, and Reti sings it along with the supplication about Jewish suffering and other hasidic songs. Reti also tells of a fall in the synagogue before Yom Kippur and a doctor, and says the synagogues stood in town. These passages are partly garbled.
30:49
From the machine transcript
Reti discusses the largest synagogue, which burned after the war, and S2 asks whether women also knew Yiddish. Reti mentions a Yiddish-speaking woman who lives near him and the town of Munkatsh, where even non-Jews knew Yiddish. They talk about the Munkatsher rebbe and the rebbe Chaim Elazar Shapira, whose film S2 mentions finding online. Reti also speaks about a rabbi who came to town and a kosher supervisor.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Galambos about his yeshiva years. Galambos recites a Yiddish song about the hardships of being a yeshiva student. He describes eating each day with a different family and the daily round of study, prayer and meals. He studied in Kisvárda and Putnok in the mid-1930s.
6:47
From the machine transcript
Galambos says all of Vaja was Orthodox and kosher, with Ashkenazi rather than Hasidic Jews, and that boys wore sidelocks. He tells how his mother read the megillah aloud to other women. He describes cheder from age three, including girls' cheder, the teaching of Hebrew and translation, and his own gaps in understanding the prayers. He also compares cheder and yeshiva study of Gemara.
13:55
From the machine transcript
Galambos continues describing his schedule as a child, with school and cheder every day from age six, and says he had little real childhood. He also describes Sabbath afternoons at cheder. Kerler asks whether certain texts were said with a melody, and Galambos has not heard that.
3:15
From the machine transcript
Galambos answers questions about terms for the synagogue and church, about changing the name of a very sick child, and about where the dead were buried before the war, though he does not follow that question. He also discusses knocking on the shutters to call people to services and says he could read some Yiddish before the war.
6:50
From the machine transcript
Galambos mentions praying and reciting Kiddush in the small community of Vaja today, which has no rabbi. Kerler and Galambos then discuss the Yiddish names of Hungarian towns, such as Klausenburg for Kolozsvár and a town with a large Jewish community whose name is unclear in the transcript.
37:41
From the machine transcript
Kerler introduces the interview with Altman, who was born in 1921 and whose maiden name was Bluvshteyn, in the Hesed building in Bălți. She cannot give her birth month. She recalls a neighbouring ritual slaughterer, Avreymele, who also performed circumcisions, and describes Kuznechnaya street, the fur factory on the site of Lipson's mill, and nearby synagogues and prayer houses.
14:01
From the machine transcript
Altman talks about postwar religious life, saying that Jews who tried to pray in a house were driven out, with prayer books burned. She then answers a long series of questions about Yiddish vocabulary and usage, including words for honest, pious, Hasid, convert, sick, 'please', street, river, well, bucket, vodka and flowers. In between she comments on non-Jews and prayer and expresses distress at news of violence in Moscow. She says people may speak Yiddish differently from her.
22:48
From the machine transcript
Asked about childhood in Gertop, Dzigifker says there was a synagogue and Jewish life. As a child of about ten she fasted on Yom Kippur until two o'clock, and the children then asked for pretzels. Both sisters say they still fast. They describe their mother's kosher practice: soaking and salting meat, the names Rachel, Rebecca and Leah said at salting, separate dishes for milk and meat, and Sabbath candles and challah.
17:29
From the machine transcript
Bukshpun says that today old Jews attend the synagogue, speaking Yiddish, mainly on Sabbath. He then speaks of the war, naming the Obodivka district in Transnistria and the village of Petkovka (?), where about 750 prisoners were kept in a pigsty. There his father, mother and a brother died of hunger and cold. He came back in 1944 with his brother Shloyme and sister Leyke.
5:28
From the machine transcript
Reizman says she worked as a seamstress in a sewing workshop and cannot recall childhood games beyond dolls and swinging. She says Yiddish was spoken at home, with Russian and Moldovan outside, and describes her father putting on tefillin. Asked about Jewish life, she mentions the old and new synagogues in Tighina. She says her mother did not cook on the Sabbath and that she lit the candles herself.
13:14
From the machine transcript
Reizman says she attended Romanian school, not a Soviet one, and started work afterwards, as did all her siblings. She says she lights Sabbath candles only sometimes now and cannot recall Yiddish songs. She says women did not go to the synagogue regularly, then names Jewish dishes such as borscht, varenikes and krepelekh, and describes a meat dish. Lemster asks about kapores before Yom Kippur, the shoykhet, and cheder. She says the family could not afford religious schooling for the younger girls. She also covers Hanukkah money and latkes, and Passover customs including burning the chametz and the dishes kept in the attic, then Purim dishes.
10:14
From the machine transcript
Furman talks about prewar synagogues in Bălți and holiday food: Passover honey cake, Hanukkah latkes, Purim pastries and Shavuot dairy. Lemster asks about Purim plays and a travelling Yiddish theater company from Chișinău. He says the sukkah was built in the hallway of the house, and he also answers about Tisha b'Av and gefilte fish.
MDV 130Isaak (Itisk) Yakovlevich Boltykh; Semyon (Shimen) Semyonovich Katerberg; Tatyana (Tube) Yakovlevna KaterbergBriceni, 2005
36:55
From the machine transcript
Katerberg describes Berlinți before the war as a village of about thirty-odd Jewish families, with small shops and a bit of land. There was a primitive prayer house, later a Soviet club, and he recalls a teacher.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kalussky gives his birth year and says Briceni had many Jews who spoke Yiddish. Kerler asks about the difference between a klooz and a shul. He names his father as a tailor and says his mother's family was well-to-do. He names his siblings, two brothers who lived in Israel and two sisters who died in the camp. He also names his paternal grandfather and his maternal grandfather, a butcher family.
16:57
From the machine transcript
Kalussky describes Sabbath in his childhood: his mother lit candles and blessed, the father and children went to the klooz, and they ate a Sabbath meal with chicken soup and meat. Lemster and Kerler ask about foods and beards. Kerler steers him back to children's games.
8:32
From the machine transcript
Goldberg describes her family as religious and honest and says her father was very honest. She says there was one synagogue in Călărași, which stands today but is closed for repair and has no minyan. After her father died when she was about five, her mother, widowed at thirty with four children, worked in the hospital, and Goldberg herself began working at about eleven. She mentions the arrival of Soviet rule in 1940, after Romanian rule.
45:02
From the machine transcript
Goldberg says that after the war Soviet authorities did not permit prayer, so people prayed secretly in private houses and travelled to Chişinău for the holidays. At home they spoke Yiddish, though her children only understand it. She describes a grandfather who refused to leave her husband's home village and mentions one Jew who converted.
57:50
From the machine transcript
Goldberg describes the Călărași market and recalls the custom of kapores before Yom Kippur. She says her childhood and prewar and postwar life were hard, and that her best time was after her marriage when her children were born. The synagogue was closed by the Soviets, and people travelled to Chişinău to pray. At the end she says that people at first miss a place they have left, and that she has lived in Călărași all her life.
31:31
From the machine transcript
In answer to Kerler's question, Roif talks about religious life in the Dubyna camp, where he turned thirteen and had his bar mitzvah, and about two rabbis there, a makeshift prayer room and a Torah scroll later in Israel. He says he laid tefillin and was called to the Torah, and that he still has the tefillin. He mentions plans to visit the camp and the importance of remembering.
23:08
From the machine transcript
Roif describes the strong sense of community among Jews in prewar Bessarabia, contrasting it with Ukraine. He says that rich and poor met as equals at festivals and in the synagogue, and that a Jew was simply a Jew whatever his clothes or work. Lemster recalls a childless man from the village.
25:08
From the machine transcript
Farber says his father was sent to the Urals (Kizel, Perm region) to work in the coal mines and later became a brigadier. He recalls Vertiujeni as having a rabbi and several synagogues, including tailors', shoemakers' and bakers' synagogues. He says his Yiddish comes from his grandfather Shlomo, and he mentions his mother as a seamstress who sewed for teachers and her baking in Vertiujeni.
44:30
From the machine transcript
Shpitalnik says she learned Hebrew letters in courses about fifteen years ago, with thoughts of going to Israel. She then returns to her paternal grandfather Meir, who refused to leave and was killed, and to her grandmothers: one wore a wig and prayed in the Russian theatre building. Her maternal grandmother died in evacuation. She describes visits to Dumbrăveni as a child, travelling by horse from Bălți.
43:50
From the machine transcript
Shpitalnik says the 1903 pogrom is overemphasized and that prewar Jewish Chișinău was poor, with good tailors, shoemakers and craftsmen but no rich people; she mentions about seventy synagogues. She recalls the short-lived Yiddish folk theater of the late 1960s, performances she saw, and a story involving an Ukrainian doctor friend. The passage ends with talk among the interviewers about Moyshe and arrangements.
MDV 146Sergo Bengelsdorf; Marina Mikhailovna Shraybman; Moisha Motylevich Lipovetskiy and 1 moreChișinău, 2005
35:24
From the machine transcript
Abelsky tells of his wartime evacuation to Uzbekistan, living in Tashkent and studying in an underground yeshiva in Samarkand. In 1946 he left Russia with the yeshiva, studied for a year in Germany and was then sent on a mission to Romania, where he stayed three years and had trouble with the authorities. He went on to Israel, married, taught in Chabad schools in Kfar Chabad and Kiryat Gat, and came to Chișinău around the Hanukkah of sixteen years before the interview.
MDV 148Rabbi Zalman Abelsky; Sara Solomonovna Shpitalnik; Moisha Motylevich LipovetskiyChișinău, 2005
3:07
From the machine transcript
Shpitalnik answers Katz's questions about the future of the Yiddish books in her library and the interest in them, and the attitude of the authorities toward Yiddish. She mentions a helpful reader and a woman who cares for him, and the few people who study Hebrew. She regrets the possible loss of Yiddish, expects the Hasidim to preserve it, and talks about the synagogues and yeshivas of various groups in Chișinău. Katz speaks of his mother's age and illness.
33:00
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy says he became a physical-education teacher after the war. He talks about prayer, noting that he attends the synagogue daily, that few Jews come, and about his health. He mentions that his children live in Israel, his pension, and the cost of housing and heating today.
46:15
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy remembers childhood games such as hiding games with a ball. He recites or sings a Yiddish song about a tailor and a Romanian cap. He then speaks about Jewish trades before the war, mentioning tailors' and butchers' synagogues and the difference between a butcher and a shoykhet for poultry, and the kosher marking of meat.
18:28
From the machine transcript
Kishlyansky describes how his mother lit Friday-evening candles and what was eaten on Sabbath, and then explains how gefilte fish was made. He talks about Rosh Hashanah in the prayer house and children's games of throwing nuts into small holes and playing with chestnuts. He adds a remark on other children's games.
17:50
From the machine transcript
Roif sings a love song about a girl abandoned by the lover who gave her a ring, and says her husband stopped her singing in the car. After declining to sing more, she tells Katz that Passover was the best holiday, with dishes brought down from the attic. She says she and her father went to the kloyz on Yom Kippur and Sabbath. She begins to say that her mother was ill and died, and her father remarried.
19:36
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva recalls the small synagogue where her father took her before the war and some holiday customs. Asked about postwar Jewish prayer in Chișinău, she says she does not know how those who wanted to pray managed. She also comments on Soviet policy and says antisemitism existed, though the Soviet authorities also made evacuation possible.
40:46
From the machine transcript
Muchnik recalls Simchat Torah at her grandfather's house, where a room was turned into a prayer room and Torah scrolls were brought from the synagogue, with Hasidim at the table. She mentions that her father was not a Hasid. She also describes a rebbe who visited Orhei and was lodged each year in a room at her grandfather's house. People waited to receive the leftovers from his meal, and she carried plates as a child.
53:02
From the machine transcript
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.
6:28
From the machine transcript
Muchnik discusses a prayer text and a request to transcribe it into Russian letters, and her reaction to being called a nationalist because of her support for Israel and the Jews. In answer to Kerler she says she must believe in God. She stresses that she is the last of the Muchnik family and tells a story of a friend rescuing her from a fire, which she calls a miracle. Kerler then starts asking how one says 'why' in Yiddish.
48:06
From the machine transcript
Abelsky speaks of his childhood in Moscow, where he studied a little with a teacher and played in the synagogue. His father was a shoykhet and his grandfather the Hasidic rabbi of Moscow. He describes prayer rooms and Purim pranks on misnagdim, and notes that slaughter was illegal. He also recounts the Soviet persecution of Chabad followers, an NKVD expert on religion, the Memorial group, and the fate of the wives and of a woman called Aunt Sarah. He ends with a Russian military-style song.
19:46
From the machine transcript
Abelsky sings a contemporary Hasidic nigun with a verse text, and another voice joins with wordless refrains. He then says Hasidim have no use for cantors, since their own prayer leaders are better. He mentions an American offer of twenty thousand dollars for him to lead the High Holiday prayers, and recalls cantors and the composer Tkatch, whom Abelsky says was very impressed when he heard Abelsky recite the selichot.
28:19
From the machine transcript
Goldman discusses her father's religious observance: his synagogue attendance, his prayer shawl and tefillin, and how she donated family portraits and items to a new Jewish museum in Chișinău. She then answers Kerler's questions about the professional school: it was not religious but socialist/communist in spirit, run by two women, and taught Yiddish literature but little Jewish history.
38:05
From the machine transcript
Goldman describes Sabbath in her parents' home: cholent, no fire lit, candle-blessing, and how observance and synagogue-going became forbidden under the Soviets. She mentions the synagogue and a rabbi, and a woman colleague at the printing house who emigrated to Israel with her journalist husband.
44:07
From the machine transcript
Goldman answers questions about prewar religious customs: girls did not bless candles before marriage, and the seder with the Elijah cup and hidden matzah. She recalls the morning prayer, her father's synagogue, and how matzah was supplied after the war.
18:58
From the machine transcript
Benderskij says that after the war they returned to find the grandfather's house, in which a non-Jewish worker had gathered his bones. In 1946 they gave their murdered relatives a proper burial; the two synagogues are discussed, and Benderskaia's family name and a rebbe from Belarus are mentioned. They return to prewar religious life, with Simchat Torah.
7:15
From the machine transcript
Dajch speaks about prewar Jewish organisations in Nisporeni: many Zionists and some communists, but no Bundists. She describes Simchat Torah, with men gathering in the synagogue to drink wine and eat nuts and bread, and women sitting separately. She explains that her mother read Yiddish books brought by Jewish students from Iași and nearby Boldureşti (?), that her brother studied in cheder, and discusses amateur theater at the Casa Națională.
17:16
From the machine transcript
Rotner and a second woman answer questions about Tisha B'Av, sitting on the floor and children's mischief, and about fasting and synagogue attendance on Yom Kippur. They also recall Rosh Hashanah, when people went to a stream, and Kerler asks about kapores and the shochet.
55:06
From the machine transcript
A short elicitation: Manevich is asked how to say a given Yiddish sentence, and she says she may forget Yiddish for lack of Jewish company. Kerler asks whether she knows the rabbi's wife and the rabbi (Rabbi Zalman) of the synagogue in Chișinău. Asked about Birobidzhan, she recounts that people went to Israel and returned to Birobidzhan. She says her sister lives there. She then comments on conflicts in Israel and Egypt and on violence everywhere, as she sees it on television.
25:23
From the machine transcript
Fershtman describes holidays at home before the war, including Sabbath, Passover and separate dishes for milk and meat. He talks about attending school on Sabbath or Sunday (he is unsure), going to the synagogue and kapores, and not having been taught to pray or recite blessings. He mentions that his relative Berl Fershtman wrote in Yiddish and studied in Odesa, and the interviewers suggest looking for his publications.
5:44
From the machine transcript
Yaruskaya recalls her childhood in Hâncești, living in rented rooms without a flat of their own. She remembers kindergarten and school, and the family's poverty. She describes her grandparents' synagogue-going on holidays and her father attending only on holidays. She says there were two synagogues, that Jews lived in town and non-Jews in the surrounding districts, and that Yiddish was spoken.
45:52
From the machine transcript
Gordin says his father prayed only on holidays, with tallit and tefillin, in the synagogue where the women sat upstairs, and that Florești had a shoykhet before and after the war. After the war the family returned to Florești and found their house wrecked. He was married in 1965 and has a son in Ashdod, who knows Hebrew and English and some Yiddish. He travelled to his grandson's bar mitzvah.
MDV 187Maria Leibovna Kleyman; Iosif (Yosel) Matveyevich Shvartzman; Raisa Aizekovna ShvartzmanLipcani, 2005
17:13
From the machine transcript
Iosif answers Kerler's questions about childhood in Lipcani. He played with Jewish children in a town with many Jews and several synagogues, attended cheder under an old teacher named Shlomo, and later a Moldavian school with one Yiddish lesson several times a week. He says he remembers little of the holidays and foods, mentions Purim and Hanukkah money, and says he was too young for much.
30:51
From the machine transcript
Shvartzman answers questions about cultural terms: dybbuk, golem, and a Jew who converted. She says she goes to the cemetery to ask for blessings and to light candles. She also mentions her mother's written blessings in Russian script.
MDV 189Raisa Aizekovna Shvartzman; Iosif Matveyevich Shvartzman; Elena (Leyke) Haimovna AkkermanEdineț, 2005
30:36
From the machine transcript
Akkerman recalls attending a Romanian school and later learning Russian with her children up to the sixth class. She talks about her stepmother and about hunger, then about Jewish life in Edineț, with several synagogues and study houses. She went to cheder and can still read some Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Akkerman speaks about the war years: she and her husband were evacuated while her mother stayed behind, and her husband worked as an accountant. After the war she lived with a relative whose son took a Jewish wife. Asked about Jewish life after the war, she says those who wished kept Jewish observance, and that the synagogues were closed. She mentions her daughters and their work today.
28:15
From the machine transcript
Mundrian talks about prewar Jewish occupations in Susleny, naming shoemakers, tailors and craftsmen. She says it was a large, rich village before the war, and tells how her mother rose early to work for non-Jews. She also speaks of her aunt's life in Zhukovsky and the postwar synagogue, which was still open with few members. She tells of attending funerals and says she herself will find no one to accompany her.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Rapoport introduces himself as president of the Jewish community of Orhei. He describes the town's old Jewish population before the war, now reduced to very few Jews, and the many synagogues in the town and district. He mentions local benefactors and a textile factory, then explains that keeping the synagogue open for a minyan is important and that it is supported by the Joint. Kerler asks about the number of Jews before the war.
4:01
From the machine transcript
Sharhorodskij says Jewish weddings with a huppah took place after the war, including his own, and that people became more observant after the war. Prayer was held in private houses with ten or twelve men. Asked about wedding songs and melodies, he says he cannot sing or remember any. He then speaks of the Jewish duty to help one another, praising Khaim Zanvl, the Rîbniţa rebbe, for his charity. He ends with contemporary Jewish life, the Hesed and the matzo distribution, with little Jewish observance.
31:52
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia speaks about Jewish life in the townlet near Dobasari with a fine synagogue, rabbi and shoykhet, and about the rebbe Khaim Zanvl, who studied with the Stefaneşti rabbi and died in America at a great age. She says Jewish boys were no longer circumcised publicly out of fear; a mohel was still present in 1928. She says the synagogue was closed in 1938 or so, its warden shot, and the community's children went to the Russian school.
45:12
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia says her house survived when she returned and was later given back to her; her husband was taken into the army and she was left with three children. She talks about reading Yiddish books, Sholem Aleichem and Hershele Ostropolyer, in her family and with her husband, and about the lack of prayer shawls and tefillin after the war. She tells of the rebbe's small room near the Dniester where Jews went on holidays and for yortsayt.
12:10
From the machine transcript
Asked about songs before the war, Magetman says she does not sing since her husband died. She recalls Simchat Torah at home and kissing the Torah in the synagogue with her father, and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. She says she started fasting at thirteen, and still fasts on Yom Kippur.
22:26
From the machine transcript
Plotnik talks about the town's rabbi, Shternberg, whose children went to Israel, and says he asked her to say Kaddish. She recalls that her father often quarreled with the rabbi over money collected for the community. She tells how her father foresaw his own death, with his late father appearing to him in a dream, and describes his last illness. Katz and Lemster then ask whether she remembers more songs, and she says she does not.
MDV 205Meyer Khaimovich Furman; Tsipora Yankelevna Furman; Dina (Dine, Donye, Dosye, Dintse, Disele) Abramovna MirenburgBălți, Soroca, 2005
51:56
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg talks about her family's observance, including Passover and the writing of a Torah scroll funded by a great-grandfather's gold chain. She describes Sguritzy before the war, saying there were fifteen thousand Jews and at least three synagogues; one on her street later became a school. The family kept separate dairy and meat dishes. Kerler asks about the Torah scroll and the synagogues.
3:27
From the machine transcript
Plotnik describes Dumbraveni as a Jewish town with several synagogues. Her father died when she was about seven, and she recited Kaddish for him for a year, going to the local synagogue. Her widowed mother ran the family field with hired workers and kept the family from feeling its loss. Her older sister studied at the gymnasium in Soroca.
51:21
From the machine transcript
Plotnik says her parents did not let her go to weddings, although a wedding canopy was put up near their house by the prayer house. She names several synagogues in Dumbraveni and Rabbi Sternberg (Shternberg), who came from Soroca. She does not remember folk beliefs such as the evil eye.
46:27
From the machine transcript
She talks about the prewar High Holidays and Simchat Torah in Soroca, and recalls a Yiddish theater performance of Tevye the Dairyman in 1940. After the war, a touring troupe including Sidi Tal and Dina Zlatiyaner (?) performed. She comments on a prewar writer's account of arranged marriages and matchmakers. Kerler asks about libraries, and she describes the Yiddish papers and books her father had at home.
21:55
From the machine transcript
Nusbrokh answers Lemster's questions about Zguriţa before the war: there was one synagogue, he went there daily to say kaddish after his father's death, the Jews lived on all streets and owned the shops. He says there was a culture house and calls it a fine town, and Lemster mentions a book about it published in Israel.
45:58
From the machine transcript
Nusbrokh describes contemporary prayer in the Soroca synagogue, where he is on the revision commission and says kaddish for his wife, and compares it with earlier times. He says that eighty percent of Zguriţa's population was Jewish, living on all five streets, with the wealthy in the centre.
22:04
From the machine transcript
Milevskaya recalls her pious grandfather, who prayed constantly with a Torah or prayer book and a black velvet bag embroidered by her grandmother, now with her sister in Israel. She remembers her grandmother baking matzo a month before Passover and making potato latkes, and her mother's subscription to a Yiddish journal from Moscow. She also mentions school antisemitism and the former rabbi Fishl who celebrated all the holidays and has since left for Odesa.
6:28
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij explains that his grandmother told tales, including about the Ştefăneşti rebbe, and returns to family background. His family lived in Ştefăneşti for some years before 1940, and he attended cheder there. He comments on the local Yiddish, which resembled Bessarabian Yiddish with many Russian words. He describes Ştefăneşti as a largely Jewish town with several synagogues and no factories, whose Jews were mainly traders. The rebbe's funeral drew a delegation from America.
23:32
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij describes how holidays were kept at home before the war, including Passover with its seder, four cups of wine and children asking the questions, and dairy foods on Shavuot. He says he now prays in synagogue from a Russian-language prayer book. Asked about Purim in Ştefăneşti, he recalls Purim plays by the school, visiting, and his mother telling the story of Esther. Kerler asks about the reading of the megillah, and Dunaevskij speaks of a pious man who taught the children.
8:11
From the machine transcript
Klichinskaia recalls her grandfather's stories and the Passover table, where the children said the four questions. She mentions holiday food and going to synagogue at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. She describes the many prayer houses in Bender and the poor and the rich in town. She mentions a charitable society and names her siblings and the origin of their names. She says there were five children.
36:36
From the machine transcript
Goldshteyn answers Lemster's questions about prewar holidays. He mentions Passover seders and matzo brought from a neighboring town, and the Passover dishes kept in the attic. He also recalls Purim with shalakhmones and masks, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah including kapores, tashlikh, Simchat Torah and Hanukkah money. He then describes Sabbath at home, including candles, cholent, and his mother's gefilte fish, kugel and other dishes.
13:30
From the machine transcript
Grinberg describes Talmaz as a Jewish town with many Jews. She mentions Purim and Passover, a rabbi with a beard, and her observant parents, her father going to the synagogue. In answer to Lemster, she says there was one synagogue, with separate sections for women, and there was a hospital. She recalls a shoykhet and kosher slaughter on Sabbath with a special knife, and says she has forgotten much Yiddish. She is the only one left of her family, as her sister is in Australia.
17:05
From the machine transcript
Grinberg says she goes to synagogue now. She has bought a plot in the cemetery because she wants to be buried as a Jewish woman, in a shroud and with a Jewish burial. She mentions her parents and asks whether the interviewer understood her Yiddish. Lemster then turns to the Jewish holidays she remembers.
5:45
From the machine transcript
Asked about his childhood, Butorski recalls the stove and hearth where his mother prepared the meal and the table, and her blessing of candles. He remembers his father going to synagogue on holidays and waiting to be last when donations were made. He attended Romanian school for four years, with no Yiddish teaching. At home a teacher, not called a rebbe or melamed, taught him and his brother a little Yiddish. He mentions that he later spent nine years in Israel.
10:20
From the machine transcript
Butorski remembers his brother's bar mitzvah, when he first put on tefillin, as a holiday in the house. He describes the ceremony in the synagogue, the small treat of brandy and a bit of food afterwards, and the family gathering. He also recalls children playing with nuts on holidays.
21:49
From the machine transcript
Asked about childhood in Chişinău, Moisei recalls a courtyard with three synagogues, the street name Shmiter(?), and his father going to synagogue while he did not. He describes Passover under the Romanians, when a Jewish charity gave out matzo, potatoes, eggs and wine, and how dishes were koshered. He answers Kerler's question about Purim, mentioning baked goods and mishloyekh-manes.
44:40
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks Elizaveta about Jewish weddings in her town. She recalls watching as a child, the chuppah, the music from Jewish musicians and the dancing, but not the songs or whether the musicians were Jews or Gypsies. Kerler asks about singing at the Sabbath table, and she answers that she went to synagogue.
9:18
From the machine transcript
Meir talks about his early Hebrew learning: the months and days, the alphabet and a primer. He says Yiddish was learned at home, not at school, and that after the war under the Communists Yiddish was taught instead of Hebrew. He describes his bar mitzvah at thirteen in one of the town's many synagogues. He cannot recall the sermon, and at home sweets and wine were served.
45:05
From the machine transcript
David talks about his father's observance and his own lapse and later return to synagogue attendance as community president. He describes the weekly Sabbath kiddush and what Friday-night and Sabbath customs and food looked like in his mother's home, including fish, soup, challah and the koshering of meat. In answer to Kerler's questions he names his grandparents and gives their death years and ages.
51:01
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about Maccabi and prewar Jewish sports, and David recalls the sports clubs and his brothers' travels. He then talks about present Jewish life: the local community president, abandoned Jewish houses, Hanukkah celebrations with children, and support for mourners and kaddish.
6:38
From the machine transcript
David speaks about the prewar great rabbi Burshtein, whose son Motele later lived in Israel, and about a shoykhet. Lemster asks about the Stefanesti rebbe; David knows him only by hearsay from childhood. He mentions Hasidim and tsadikim, the prayer houses and monuments in the cemetery area where people go to pray, and cantors who came for the High Holidays.
12:03
From the machine transcript
Finkel says there were three or four synagogues in Sulita and about three hundred Jewish families. She tells how her father led the Passover seder at home but remembers little of the customs. She did not go to weddings and says there was no Yiddish theatre in Sulita. Prewar Sabbath practice is touched on briefly.
7:50
From the machine transcript
The speaker says that Jews come from Israel and every summer from America to pray in the synagogue. He mentions the houses of rebbes buried at the holy place, and that young rabbis from America meet the local Jews. They speak Yiddish together.
15:48
From the machine transcript
Cohn answers questions about postwar Jewish life in Botoșani. There were many Jewish doctors, who spoke Romanian and Yiddish at home. He names synagogues, including the High Synagogue, a Passover (?) synagogue and a carpet-makers' synagogue. Kerler then asks about the words 'parves' and similar terms, with an unclear exchange.
37:33
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld recalls learning a Shavuot poem as a child, then describes Tisha B'Av customs, when worshippers sat on the floor without shoes in the synagogue. He answers a question about a children's custom with a Romanian word. Asked what else he remembers, he says childhood years are the best and speaks of his failing eyesight and difficulty reading prayers.
1:56
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld describes a traditional Jewish wedding, with his sister's in mind: a chuppah in the synagogue courtyard, a mitzvah dance, and Hasidic customs he saw. He mentions a Neolog (reformist) synagogue that observant Jews did not attend. Asked about wedding songs, he names the Hebrew ceremonial song and says Yiddish songs were also sung.
59:42
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld says relations between Jews and Romanians were normal, though there was always some antisemitism and there were strict laws against Jews; the situation before and after the war was almost the same. He answers Lemster's question about Hasidism, saying he saw Hasidim in Cluj and had a friend from Maramureș, and says he is considered religious in Cluj and attends synagogue.
46:30
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich speaks about the religious make-up of Dej and Cluj: Dej was largely Hasidic with a few families, and Cluj had a Neolog community and synagogue. He recalls two shops that opened on Sabbath afternoons, causing a stir. He discusses the language of the Neolog Jews and how children learned Hebrew in cheder from age four or five, and why many cannot read with understanding today.
55:33
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich says he studied at the yeshiva until 1938, and explains how he was fed, with daily meals at different homes, and where he lodged, using the word 'kvartir'. Kerler asks about other yeshivas nearby; Hershkovich mentions one with a trade school teaching carpentry between Dej and Cluj, and talks about visiting his sister in Cluj and praying there on the High Holidays.
59:55
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich explains the different prayer rites in Cluj, Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Neolog, and why he attended particular synagogues; he mentions that he wears Sephardi tefillin today. He then answers Kerler's questions about expressions such as 'a good Jew' and about words for a cemetery.
17:05
From the machine transcript
Kraus describes prewar Sabbath customs: his mother's candle-lighting, the cholent carried to the baker's oven, challah, and the father's havdalah. He says that women read the tsene-rene and psalms, which he did not read himself. He compares this with the decline of such practice today.
40:26
From the machine transcript
The second man performs or describes Havdalah songs learned from Bessarabian/Moldovan Jews, with Kraus adding lines. They say they have spoken little Yiddish in recent years, since synagogue announcements and community talk are in Romanian or Hungarian and few know Yiddish. The second man mentions visiting Israel every few years, where he has relatives. Lemster closes by asking about Jewish weddings.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Freundlich speaks about the absence of a circumcision in her family and about rabbis and rebbes known in the region. She names the Shaprana rabbi who came in 1946, the Bixad (Bixad) rebbe who was her neighbor, and his piety and death in Auschwitz. Kerler asks about the Hasidim who came to him and about tsadikim who slept on a couch. She also remembers her father's holiday and Sukkot piety.
3:54
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich describes the small prayer house in Bogata, with families walking in from nearby villages for Sabbath prayer under an eruv. He studied in Bogata until age eight or nine, then went to the yeshiva in Dej. He also learned from his father, who was a learned man. Part of the passage is interrupted by a Romanian remark from a woman in the room.
10:14
From the machine transcript
Freundlich describes her father's religious life in Satu Mare: the seats he held in the Hasidic and other prayer houses, the garden he donated for the Bixad rebbe's beis midrash, and his daily attendance at prayer and study. She talks about the Talmud volumes in leather bindings in the family library, and about the dowry gifts he gave his four daughters. Kerler asks about who studied with whom, and the passage ends with a Hungarian aside.
16:31
From the machine transcript
Freundlich talks about a recently built synagogue in a Hungarian town, reported on television and attended by the chief rabbi of Hungary, and about a speech by the mayor. The passage is partly garbled and includes Hungarian side remarks on the synagogue's purpose, and Kerler comments on the interviewee's Yiddish.
48:42
From the machine transcript
Freundlich says that no Jews are left in Kisvárda and the surviving Hungarian Jews are in Budapest. Kerler asks about the meaning of the Hungarian expression she uses. She then talks about the chief rabbi of Jerusalem and the closing of women's sections, and about a Sabbath meeting at which she was asked to attend.
43:57
From the machine transcript
Freundlich answers questions about the difference between a rav and a rebbe, and says that only the rav was recognised and paid by the state. She tells how a rabbi shaved on a day when it was forbidden because he was asked about it. She also tells a story about a man who built two prayer houses, and answers questions on Ashkenazi prayer and the women's prayers, which were sung beautifully.
53:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about women's prayer. Freundlich explains that women read the techines at home and the tsenerene in Yiddish, and that the techines were in Hebrew with translation. She says that women sat in a women's section at the synagogue and listened to the cantor. She then talks, in Hungarian, about a CD of her radio interview in Hungarian.
10:40
From the machine transcript
Freundlich and the others discuss Jewish life today in Bistrița and Cluj: whether anyone is left in Bistrița, a planned trip there, and contacts with community members. Much of the passage is Hungarian talk about street names, the synagogue and community office in Cluj, and arrangements for the visitors.
29:43
From the machine transcript
The formal interview with Miller begins; he gives his birth year as 1922(?) and says he was born in Cluj. He describes Cluj as a large Jewish cultural centre with about sixteen thousand Jews and six large synagogues, with Orthodox, Reform and Sephardic(?) congregations and hasidim. He mentions languages spoken, Hungarian, Romanian and Yiddish, and Jews who came from Maramureș.
44:55
From the machine transcript
Footage of the Bistrița cemetery with a memorial service for Moyshe Grin, with prayers in Hebrew and Romanian by two men, apparently including Miller, and El Male Rachamim and Kaddish. Interspersed are introductions, remarks in Russian and Hungarian and brief comments on tradition.
6:29
From the machine transcript
An informant talks about the town's German (Saxon) residents and their influence, which made it a good, orderly place. Asked about the cemetery's age, he says more than ninety years, and says he does not know the town's history or Hasidic life. He recalls a man named Grin, who spoke Yiddish, came to pray with them on the High Holidays, and was the last Yiddish speaker.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld describes where most Jews lived in Cluj, central streets and quarters, including a street with two synagogues, and a street named for a mill held by a Jewish miller. He speaks of Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Hasidic prayer customs, the Chatam Sofer, and which languages families spoke at home, Yiddish, Hungarian and Romanian. Kraus adds that Hungarian and Romanian were both used.
27:40
From the machine transcript
Miller says his poor family never went hungry because his father was a prayer leader and shammes, and distributed Sabbath portions and tutored the children of wealthy families. Kerler asks about a Yiddish song his father sang. Another voice sings a short song about the collection box. Miller mentions songs sung at Simchat Torah and Purim.
31:25
From the machine transcript
Miller explains that his father, a prayer leader, used his earnings to buy firewood, and in good years took the sons to the Vizhnitz rebbe's family in Grosswardein (Oradea, as heard) for the High Holidays. Kerler then asks the interviewee to talk with the research secretary, who speaks Hungarian. Miller begins to chant the Vizhnitz melody.
33:07
From the machine transcript
Miller chants Sabbath tunes and hymns in the Vizhnitz style, including a piece sung before the blessing after meals. Kerler asks if he recalls a Vizhnitz melody without words. Miller says he is over 86 and mentions Rabbi Halberstam, the rabbi of the Orthodox community in Cluj.
42:24
From the machine transcript
Meir talks about his employer before the war, Dudl Horovitz, a pious man who did not work on Sabbath. Lemster asks about the Ștefănești rebbe, whom Meir did not visit though older people did, and about rabbis, ritual slaughterers and cantors in Dorohoi. Meir says only a few dozen Jews live in Dorohoi today.
51:32
From the machine transcript
Meir sings the first lines of a Yiddish song, partly forgotten. Kerler asks whether people sang in the Transnistrian ghetto. Meir says in the first winter at Sharhorod the children went begging in villages for potatoes and flour, and Ukrainians helped. He also talks about the Jewish houses found empty and about the prayer houses.
41:41
From the machine transcript
The speaker tells of prewar Dorohoi: a rabbi chosen at 21, mostly mocked by older rabbis. He describes the Jewish town with 24 synagogues organised by trade, and recalls their closing or becoming a museum. The rest is practical talk about visiting relatives in Cluj and Săveni, a Yiddish-speaking couple, a telephone, and being called Tuvye.
55:32
From the machine transcript
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.
40:20
From the machine transcript
Isidor tells of Jewish life after the war: after deportation about three thousand Jews remained, many emigrated to Israel in the 1950s–60s, and there were two shuls after the war. He describes a planned museum in the synagogue about the Jews of northern Moldavia, funded by the federation. In the closing minutes he starts to talk about his childhood and the interview proceeds at his home with an offer of cognac.
41:28
From the machine transcript
Lipovici talks about prayer and meals in his youth. Kerler asks about Purim customs and whether he took part in a Purim play. He then gives a hard-to-follow account of his mother's illness and of his younger sister during the war. It involves sending for a rebbe, soldiers, a priest and doctors.
49:15
From the machine transcript
Lipovici and the interviewers go through terms: burrs (berlekh) that catch in the beard, his role as the youngest brother and synagogue attendant, and the lack of a minyan today. Lemster asks about the words dybbuk and golem, which Lipovici does not explain. They then talk about how long the interviewers will stay in Dorohoi and a nearby Jewish town (name unclear, perhaps Săveni).
3:26
From the machine transcript
Lipovici answers questions about his prayer and where he learned to pray, the cheder, and the fact that there are no children to send to cheder now. Kerler says when he himself goes to synagogue, on Purim, the High Holidays and Simchat Torah. Lipovici also gives an answer to the question of the best time in his life, which is hard to follow.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Isidor talks about the present Jewish community of Dorohoi and his work as its head: a cantor brought in, a Torah scroll bought, a club set up for cards and coffee, and difficulties with some congregants. Asked by Kerler, he says he spoke Romanian with his mother more than Yiddish. He mentions non-Jews in nearby towns who spoke Yiddish from working with Jews, and a few women in Dorohoi who still speak good Yiddish.
1:07
From the machine transcript
The formal interview starts with Hirsch giving personal information. Luduș lay about forty kilometers from Târgu Mureș. In 1941 it was a small town with about 600 Jews, a synagogue, a rabbi and a Talmud Torah. No Jews remain there today, and the last one died about two years earlier. He also mentions friends who were in Transnistria and says he himself was in several camps.
35:13
From the machine transcript
Hirsch mentions a pogrom after the war in what the transcript seems to give as Dorohoi, and shootings at its cemetery. He turns back to Luduș and describes its single synagogue with a beit midrash, and its morning and afternoon prayers and Sabbath services. He also speaks of the Jewish cemetery there, with about two thousand gravestones, which survived intact, and of his brother's grave.
53:53
From the machine transcript
Hirsch describes the Dej synagogue, which was not dynamited, because a quarter of poor people lived around it. He says that before the war a Jewish quarter and a Jewish street stood about fifty meters from the synagogue. Part of the account, in Hungarian, says that blowing it up would have destroyed the surrounding houses.
15:49
From the machine transcript
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Chajim says his sister is three years younger than he is, nearly blind and living in Botoșani, and that he himself is hard of hearing and half blind but can still walk. He says he still blows the shofar in the synagogue on Yom Kippur. He recites rhymed cheder alphabet lessons and retells a Sholem Aleichem story about the difficulty of being a Jew, including a story about a minyan of nine. Kerler and Lemster ask him to pray.
30:21
From the machine transcript
Asked about his childhood, Chajim recalls cheder, work with wagons and hauling wood to Tuzac (?), and says he does not remember his grandparents. He talks about his father taking him to the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and about prayers he still knows. Kerler asks about customs such as beating Haman during the reading of Esther (Purim) and about the Edineț bath and mikveh. He says he was in Edineț from 1941 and again mentions work in forced labor.
9:03
From the machine transcript
Abramovich describes Jewish Hîrlău before the war: tailors, shoemakers and other craftsmen, only a few rich men, seven synagogues including a tailors' synagogue, a Jewish street, and several rabbis and shochtim. The synagogue was spared when the town was bombed. People travelled to rebbes in Belcești, Pașcani, Satu Mare, Transylvania and Ștefănești; as a child he went to the Ștefănești rebbe with his mother, who asked for blessings for livelihood and health. Iași, with some sixty thousand Jews, and a question about burial customs are also touched on.
35:40
From the machine transcript
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.
51:11
From the machine transcript
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.
58:48
From the machine transcript
Asked where he was born, Chajim says Podu Iloaiei; he settled in Hîrlău, married there and worked with Hîrlău Jews. He says it was a happy wedding. He recites kaddish for Moses and says he played trumpet in the military band at the wedding.
47:44
From the machine transcript
Chat in the synagogue about the painted decoration and the painters, a name such as Steigman, and names of fathers and sons, with some dates. Grinberg and Kerler discuss whether the Yiddish word means painter or is a surname, and she refers to texts in Hebrew and English. Some of the content is unclear.
17:30
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn says Yiddish was the only language at home and that his father wrote and read it. He talks about cheder, praying and synagogue attendance, which working Jews could not manage, and mentions the Iași pogrom as something too terrible to tell. He explains how he worked as a carpenter until his pension, mostly in a state factory in Soviet times, and how Jews were expected not to work manual jobs. He describes his apprenticeship with another carpenter and the market in Iași.
30:38
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn talks about non-Jews who apprenticed with Jewish craftsmen and about the rise of antisemitism, which led to trade schools for Christians. He speaks of visitors from abroad who no longer know Yiddish and need a translator, and of rabbis and yeshiva students who come to Iași. The synagogue is now closed. At the end he says his life was full of troubles.
18:12
From the machine transcript
Karuel describes synagogue attendance at holidays and his saying kaddish for his father after the 1941 pogrom. He recalls Jews being rounded up and beaten, and searching for his father at the police station. He says he and his mother survived by his working, as a salesman, during the war.
52:27
From the machine transcript
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.
13:42
From the machine transcript
Resh talks about Purim in his childhood and the good relations with non-Jewish neighbors before the war, who visited at Purim while Jews visited them at their holidays. He says there was no antisemitism in Chernivtsi, describes masking and singing at neighbors, and Simchat Torah processions with flags in the synagogue. Lemster asks about Purim songs and a purim-shpil, which Resh does not recall, and then about Yiddish theater.
24:26
From the machine transcript
Resh describes the Jewish community of Iași today. Of tens of thousands of prewar Jews only some hundreds remain, mostly old people, and no child has been born in years. He expects Jewish life to disappear within a few decades. Answering Lemster, he says the synagogue is kept open for memorial prayers, with services three times a week and attendance at holidays and the seder. He also speaks of the two cemeteries of Iași and the thousands buried in them.
46:32
From the machine transcript
Chirilau answers questions about prewar religious life: the rabbi, a cheder teacher and the town's ritual slaughterer. She is asked what the Jews called the town and recalls the names of nearby cities, such as Seret, Iași and Rădăuți(?). She says no synagogue buildings survive and that a Jewish bathhouse also stood in the town.
11:53
From the machine transcript
Leichtner describes his postwar work: purchasing for the cooperative, then supplying building material for people's houses, with a car for travelling. In answer to Lemster he says the village had one synagogue, a rabbi before the war, and a shoykhet. He is then asked about childhood friends and games.
40:25
From the machine transcript
Leichtner says people did not sleep in the sukkah because it was too cold, but they ate there and made kiddush. He says there were no songs about the messiah. There were both Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews, and both Ashkenazic and Sephardic prayer rites were used. There was no Jewish pharmacy or library, and no Christians spoke Yiddish. They discuss the share of Jews among the villagers and where they lived.
3:51
From the machine transcript
Shwartz recalls starting cheder at five or six and his melamed, Reb Shlomo Itskovitsh(?), who had a beard. He mentions two houses of study and a rabbinic synagogue in the town. After his father died when he was thirteen he went to a yeshiva of over a hundred students in a nearby town. He names the yeshiva's rabbi and says that Hungarian was spoken at home. He recalls a children's verse his grandmother taught him.
26:04
From the machine transcript
Freund says he studied Chumash, Rashi and other texts in cheder, not yeshiva, and talks about prewar Jewish life in Baia Mare: about 22,000 inhabitants then, about 2,000 Jews, and one large synagogue plus a Sephardic-style study house. He says he still keeps holidays strictly. He says that until about 1960 Jews circumcised their boys, after which it decreased because parents no longer taught their children Jewishness.
31:16
From the machine transcript
Freund responds to Kerler's request to describe prewar Jewish life in his town: it was a beautiful life in which people helped each other. He lists institutions: a synagogue, rabbi, judge, two slaughterers, a cheder with a teacher, a Talmud Torah, a mikveh with bathhouse, and no yeshiva (the nearest was in Sighet or Satu Mare). He says difficulties came with the antisemitic regulations.
21:17
From the machine transcript
Macarie completes the gefilte fish recipe and talks about bread. She describes the family house: three rooms (boys, girls, parents), a separate kitchen and a porch with steps and a threshold. Kerler elicits the porch word. She says on holidays they cooked, baked, ate and went to the temple.
26:04
From the machine transcript
Macarie says that on holidays families visited each other as guests. Pressed by Lemster to sing, she refuses but recalls climbing a fruit tree and singing while her father was at the temple, and a Hungarian bird-name endearment (?) addressed to a sweet child. She says her brothers studied in Sighet. Lemster then asks about the word for a mohel or painter (?), which she does not know.
7:54
From the machine transcript
Freundlich describes his yeshiva studies in several small yeshivas and a more important one in Maramureș. He explains the two terms of the year, between Passover and Sukkot and from Sukkot to Passover. In reply to Kerler, he says the term did not end with a special celebration. He describes the daily study system: the rebbe assigned pages of Gemara, and younger students needed a partner. Older students attended the rebbe's lectures.
47:43
From the machine transcript
Shwartz sings Lekha Dodi, and Kerler remarks on his voice. He says he never sang before, and Kerler asks about a Hungarian song about the Messiah. Kerler then thanks him and ends the interview.
31:20
From the machine transcript
Grinberg tells of her father's relatives in Israel, many of them rabbis and hasidim, including a cousin teaching at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. She describes unwelcome foreign visitors posing as rabbis and a visit to an aunt near Bnei Brak. Two visitors promised help to renovate the synagogue and left her pictures of a rebbe. The interviewers agree to meet again.
8:39
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru says she had a Jewish mother who kept the Sabbath and ran the home. After the mother died, the father remarried, and the stepmother treated the children well. She names the stepmother and says her father attended synagogue morning and evening. She recalls the call to the synagogue in Romanian and tells of a local Jew who married a non-Jew and wished for a Jewish burial. She also mentions the large Jewish cemetery.
21:50
From the machine transcript
Salamon talks about her grandparents, Esther and Yankl, and her grandfather's yeshiva study. Yankl was taken to Auschwitz, and he came from a village near Sighet (the name is unclear in the transcript). She describes her father telling the weekly Torah portion at the table and the absence of Yiddish theater and press in Sighet. She says she attended a Romanian school, while girls of the Beis Yaakov school learned in Yiddish. She explains that Hasidic visitors do not enter the Sephardic (?) synagogue, and that her two grandmothers were sisters.
37:28
From the machine transcript
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.
12:30
From the machine transcript
Petraru says his mother died in Transnistria and his father in Israel, and that both were born in Dorohoi. He gives Dorohoi's prewar Jewish population as about twelve thousand, with few returning after the war. He says he went to the synagogues there, and speaks of young Jews and weddings in Suceava today. He moved to Suceava in 1953, and was cashier, vice-president and president of the community for many years.
15:29
From the machine transcript
Petraru speaks about his role as community head and about contemporary religious life: the cost of coming to the synagogue by taxi, his praying at home, and the Federation in Bucharest. Lemster asks about Rabbi Moses Rosen, whom Petraru describes as a person without equal. Petraru also speaks of attending a cheder and then a Jewish school with Romanian lessons in the morning and Hebrew in the afternoon.
22:59
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster talk with Petraru inside the great synagogue, while the camera films it, including its paintings. Petraru explains that the family name Petrarlu/Petraru comes from his great-grandfather's trade as a builder or mason, and speaks of a woman who restored the paintings and what the work cost. They discuss the women's section and who prays there; he prays at home and the synagogue meets mainly on Sabbath and holidays.
31:41
From the machine transcript
Petraru tells of a foreign visitor and his wife who left a donation of a dollar in the box, which he pressed back to them. Kerler and Petraru discuss American donations of a few thousand dollars and what sums are allowed. The footage of the synagogue follows in the catalogue but is not in this transcript.
52:13
From the machine transcript
Mehler speaks about the Jews of Vatra Dornei and the surrounding area. The big synagogue was once full, with men below and women above. She says there were three synagogues in town and others in villages along the road toward Cluj, none of which remain. Lemster asks about Jews along that road and the mountain route.
51:00
From the machine transcript
Bercovici shows the team her German encyclopedia and a prayer book, and the conversation moves to Romanian. She talks about her friends, Jewish and Catholic, and the synagogue. She says her mother was observant and her father less so, and that Passover was kept at home. Travelling Yiddish theater came from Chernivtsi; she recalls a Purim for children and an Atlas grandmother who died in Mohyliv, and the Stern family from Siret and Poland.
7:10
From the machine transcript
Bercovici is asked what was done against the evil eye and says she does not believe in it and calls it superstition. She says she has gone to the synagogue for the memorial prayers (yizkor, in the transcript as 'Ischer') since her father died in Transnistria in 1944, and on the holidays. She describes herself as a good Jew but not religious and says she cooks ordinary food. She then recounts her schooling: lyceum in Chernivtsi, a university in Iași, and work as a teacher (dates unclear) and later at the national bank. The conversation ends with her saying that she has been interviewed before.
21:30
From the machine transcript
Asked about prewar yeshivas in the area, Galambos names places such as Nyírmada and Ópályi. He cannot say which had the best reputation. He then speaks of saying the Kaddish and prayers that bring back Auschwitz and the burning of children, and asks for a prayer book.
3:53
From the machine transcript
Steiner reads from the Michalovce community book. It contains rules for the synagogue: no sermon where the bimah is not in the middle, no weddings in the synagogue, no innovations. He reads out the signatories and the community leaders, and Kerler comments. Steiner mentions a man from Veľké Kapušany, a miller's son. He then talks about the Michalovce cemetery with its ceramic tombstones and lists other small Jewish communities (Trebišov, Kráľovský Chlmec, Veľké Kapušany). Last he mentions a postwar pogrom in Kolbasov in Poland, with a second place in Poland.
8:05
From the machine transcript
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.
41:22
From the machine transcript
Weinberger describes visiting Yiddish performers in Stropkov, among them singers with a harmonica and a Russian-Yiddish singer whose photograph he holds. He names the happiest time as Sabbath and holidays with his family, and describes walking to a mikveh and minyan from his uncle's village. He describes Sabbath and festival food, including fish, cholent and kishke, and says that a drink of schnapps and honey cake was a delight. He also mentions drinking and the preparation of schnapps.
54:00
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic talks about Rosh Hashanah prayer and building the sukkah, and about Purim customs: shalakhmones and fragments of a Purim play. He says the Joseph play was performed, lasting two or three hours, and that Jewish children acted in plays at Hanukkah and Purim in a large cheder room in Prešov. He also tells of four shochtim in Prešov who served as cantors.
3:43
From the machine transcript
Steiner talks about a very old man, the son of the cantor of the Neolog synagogue in Košice, who died half a year before at over ninety. He says his own Yiddish comes from Jerusalem and that he was born in Slovakia in Zlaté Moravce, a small town where about fifty Jewish families lived among a non-Jewish majority.
10:02
From the machine transcript
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.
52:22
From the machine transcript
Pivnik says she has a cousin in America and others in Israel. She says she was born in Balta on Rosh Hashanah in 1918 (?), and her father was named Zelik, with grandfathers Yosef and Luzer. She tells of her grandmother Reyze, a women's prayer leader who died in the ghetto, and says her mother Gitl died in 1929 leaving six children. She names her siblings: three sisters and three brothers. She was evacuated to Sakhalin, one brother died on the front, others went to Central Asia and the Far East. She mentions relatives abroad, and Kerler asks about prewar life in Balta, which she says was hard for her without a mother.
14:11
From the machine transcript
Pivnik talks about how holidays were kept at home, with her mother and grandmother, Passover matzo and seder, Purim hamantashn baked by a neighbor and Simchat Torah dancing near the synagogue. She also recalls Jewish streets in Balta and Jewish officials, and the Soviet authorities not interfering. The interviewers ask about potato pancakes (tatshiklekh) and customs after the war: a shoykhet, and the old tailor Khoskl, who went to read prayers. A discussion of songs at the seder follows. The talk turns to Jewish weddings.
23:04
From the machine transcript
Khotenko answers questions about prewar Jewish holidays at home, saying that there was no synagogue in use. She mentions the shoykhet before and after the war, and describes Passover, Hanukkah and Purim foods and customs such as gifts and children's games. She also recalls that the family moved to Balta in 1932.
14:28
From the machine transcript
Gorberg talks about her mother in Rîbnița and says she had a traditional wedding with a huppah in 1951; she recalls few details of the wedding. She discusses her two years at a Yiddish school, her later Ukrainian schooling, and her birth date. She mentions her father's tallis and his prayer, and says that the family's Sabbath observance has faded, though she herself lights candles. Kerler steers her back to the past after she begins describing her present reading.
26:29
From the machine transcript
Borukaeva answers questions about the family and prewar religious life: her grandmother died in the ghetto, and she attended a Russian school, not a Yiddish one. She recalls her mother's cooking for Passover, the Purim pastry, her mother's Sabbath prayer and her father's synagogue attendance. She explains that her father and the father of Mulerman were brothers, and that his family lived in Kharkiv. She also mentions the one remaining Jewish woman in Pyshchanka and says she used to sing.
12:02
From the machine transcript
Lerner recalls the outbreak of war and the bombing of Balta in July 1941. Her aunt took her and her mother east in a cart, a journey that went as far as Rostov, and then to Kokand in Uzbekistan. Her grandfather Moyshe, a learned man, stayed behind and survived the Balta ghetto. Her grandmother was Sara (maiden name Gorina). She says he was hired to pray for others, kept bonds safe, and returned to his house after liberation. After the war she lived with him. She also recalls the synagogue that became a library, says she read Russian at an early age, and turns to Jewish weddings.
22:48
From the machine transcript
Miaskovskaia talks about Jewish life in Balta today, including Friday-evening prayers and a younger man who speaks Hebrew but no Yiddish. She recalls her mother-in-law's baking, a Russian Passover and Jewish baking, and a postwar shoykhet. She mentions the synagogue and her school, with children of various backgrounds.
6:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the prayers her mother said at home after the war, which Vaynman says were from an old prayer book, in Hebrew and some Yiddish. Questions then turn to whether an old synagogue or its ruins survived in Bar; Vaynman says there was none when they arrived, only a ritual slaughterer. A Russian-speaking local joins in about the Turkish or Polish fortress and where synagogues once stood, with the Germans having destroyed Jewish buildings. Kerler asks for more about the postwar years.
20:48
From the machine transcript
Vaynman answers Kerler's questions on Jewish life in Bar after the war: returnees still spoke Yiddish but few could read it, and they came to her mother's home on holidays to hear her pray. She describes minyans held in houses, gathering ten men for funerals, a local man looking after the community, and how it faded as older people died. She says emigration to Israel began a dozen or so years before and discusses how many Jews were in Bar then and now, with a Russian-speaking local adding figures.
9:01
From the machine transcript
Asked about life in Khmelnyk before the war, Zhovtis recalls it as good and speaks of low prices. He recalls antisemitic insults, the fear he felt under the Germans and keeping quiet about being Jewish. In reply to Kerler he describes the synagogue, Sabbath and weekday prayer among older men, and not having seen a rebbe. Kerler then asks about Passover, and he describes koshering utensils with a stone and hot water, and pancakes or dumplings made of matzo meal.
32:27
From the machine transcript
Zhovtis says he came to Bar in 1954 for work, and mentions Litin. He talks about the Jews who settled there and spoke Yiddish, and says there was no synagogue, so people prayed in a private room. Kerler asks about an old synagogue building, which Zhovtis does not know.
MDV 335Khariton Berman; Chara Yakovlevna Bublitskaia; Chara (Chare) Yakovlevna BublitskaiaBila Tserkva, 2005
41:50
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia recalls that Yiddish theater came only as a touring group, with some mention of Chernivtsi. She says she cannot remember the names of the visiting cantors. The rebbe's family that lived with her family were called Averbukh. Her husband Ilya came from Zhytomyr, and his grandfather was a Lithuanian-type (Litvak) rabbi buried in Latvia. She says she knew little about Hasidim in Chisinau and learned of those in Zhytomyr and Uman later.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shor recalls his earliest childhood memory: as a child he fell seriously ill, and his mother's brother took him to a revered Jew in Rîbniţa, who helped after the doctors in Chişinău could not. He then tells a family story about his father's richer younger brother. The brother's wife and Shor's mother quarrelled over a synagogue seat before Rosh Hashanah and drew lots, and the wife later died.
10:20
From the machine transcript
Shor says he studied with a melamed who came to the house, because there were no Jewish schools; he went to a Moldovan school and learned to pray from the prayer book. He says the synagogue was closed in 1939 and gives the number of synagogues in Orhei as about twenty. Kerler asks about the difference between a shul, a kloyz and a beys-medresh, and Shor says he does not remember. Shor says his wife knows a lot about kashrut and holidays.
15:47
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Jewish holidays, and Shor and a woman name some, such as Rosh Hashanah and Purim. Shor recalls that the community paid a lot to bring a top cantor from Chişinău or Bucharest for the High Holidays. Kerler asks the Yiddish word for a person with a good voice, and the answer is not clear.
9:40
From the machine transcript
Isaak Vaisman recalls his religious mother, who took him to synagogue on holidays; he says Kaddish for his father on the yortsayt. Asked about Berdychiv's synagogues, they name several. He attended a Yiddish school until the Yiddish schools were closed in 1938, after which pupils were moved to a Russian school, and the couple note that schools now teach in Ukrainian.
30:26
From the machine transcript
Speaks about Jewish life in Berdychiv today: a wasteland that has been rebuilt, the synagogue's revival with help from Americans, pensions, and the husband's service at the front at eighteen with medals. The speaker links this to Jewish revival. Katz then begins a question about the 1920s.
28:25
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii speaks of the killing of Jews at the airfield, where many thousands lie buried, and says visitors to Berdychiv should go to the memorial there. His son visits it. Katz and Kerler ask him to read the memorial prayer, and he looks in the prayer book, with spelling questions along the way, before beginning to say the prayer for his mother.
34:24
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii speaks of the present-day yeshiva in Berdychiv, where Yiddish songs are sung, the Torah is read and Jews are invited for cholent on Sabbath. He mentions American support of five dollars a month and Kerler asks whether it is Chabad; he says it is Skvira. He then returns to the Yiddish school, where subjects such as physics, geometry and botany were taught in Yiddish. The books were destroyed by the Germans, and he still has some prewar Yiddish books.
22:09
From the machine transcript
Fania describes how her mother observed Jewish holidays such as Passover and kept to tradition. Her father was jailed as a party man. She went to the synagogue with her mother, who said such observance would die out with the older generation, and contrasts this with the young today.
36:08
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii says he can read and write Yiddish and wrote to his mother in Yiddish from the army. His mother Khane was the prayer leader (zogerin) in the women's synagogue of Berdychiv, where women repeated after her. She was a rabbi's daughter and had studied in a women's yeshiva. His maternal grandfather was a rabbi in Chudniv (?). Only Yiddish was spoken at home. He says there were twenty synagogues in Berdychiv.
MDV 344Efim Grigoryevich Skobilitskii; Raisa Iosifovna Chukh; David Zelikovich FurmanBerdychiv, 2002
0:00
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii mentions a book by Y. L. Peretz that ought to be in the synagogue, then answers Kerler's questionnaire questions with the second voice joining in. The items include the word for a deaf person, the name for the one who recites the closing blessing, a Torah reader, and the blessing said after recovering from illness or danger, with a story about a man who escaped a machine; the word for galoshes is also asked.
35:28
From the machine transcript
In the soup kitchen of the community center, the team talks with members and staff. The talk touches on the blessing said after meals and a Russian-language text for the blessing before eating, on the community's office, and on a doctor who visits on Sundays for the old people.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Chukh gives the date and place of the interview and says the Berdychiv tsadik's grave is a pilgrimage site for visitors. She says she was born in Berdychiv, as were her parents, and was evacuated to the Caucasus during the war. Trained as a nurse, she wanted to go to the front but was kept at hospital work because she had a small child. She worked as an operating-room nurse and was later recognised as a war participant. She names her parents (father Yosl/Iosif, a sieve-maker from a place in Poland whose name is unclear; mother Tsirl, a quilt-maker) and her brothers, one in Germany. She describes her Jewish school (school no. 13, seven grades), her later nursing school and her long postwar nursing career in a Berdychiv hospital. She recalls childhood games, dolls she makes today from broken ones, and home life with Yiddish-speaking parents. She tells of the hungry early 1930s, when her mother sewed quilts to feed the children and the school later fed them. She remembers Soviet-era closing of synagogues, the synagogues of Berdychiv, the Hasidic rebbe's prayer house and holiday observance at home but not in school. Chukh also recalls Yiddish literature and press, a large library, visiting Yiddish theaters, the seltzer seller Itsik, and about 60,000 Jews in the town. She describes weddings with music and a rhymester, and Sabbath and holiday foods. She then answers Kerler's dialectological questionnaire: translating Russian words and sentences into Yiddish (greetings, household words, animals, colours, adverbs, body and illness terms), plus words like dybbuk and golem.
47:56
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii talks about his father, a locksmith whose work left little time for observance, and about tefillin. His grandmother earned more than his father, and he names his grandmother Sarah and a maternal grandfather who was a rabbi in Chervone. He has a relative in Canada. He describes cheder, which he attended for about four years in the synagogue on Kachynivka, with the teacher Srul (?) and the sexton Leibele.
55:30
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii describes prewar drinking customs, including Berdychiv's seltzer water, and remembers a Purim theatre and visiting artists from Kyiv and Moscow. He recalls a cantor from the Kyiv opera hired for Yom Kippur and a singer in postwar Berdychiv, whose name he cannot remember. He talks about learned Polish Jews who had settled in the town, including his father, who came from Poland. The talk ends with how their Yiddish differed.
5:46
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii recalls anti-religious propaganda that called religion an opiate, and that school subjects were taught in Yiddish. He remembers mocking plays about Jews staged at school, with Yiddish songs. He also mentions a Jewish theatre troupe that performed Sholem Aleichem, cantors in the Koch shul, and the Jewish owner of the fire brigade with white horses.
23:31
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii describes the new yeshiva building in Berdychiv, with a Jewish space and a mikveh, and says the group will drive on to show it. Kerler then asks for a Yiddish word for a clean person.
54:17
From the machine transcript
Tour of Berdychiv by van with Skobilitskii: Makhlevka (now Sverdlov street), signs in English and Hebrew, a hotel building bought by Menlovich (?) for visitors from America, Chabad and its relations with the Skver rebbe, a monastery, and the ghetto monument. Jewish houses and the Lubavitch house are pointed out, and the group says it will return to see the synagogue of Feygele Magazanik (?).
2:19
From the machine transcript
Breuer speaks about the synagogue building and the Jewish situation in Zhytomyr. It is the only synagogue left of dozens, built long ago. He recounts a story about a rabbi's wife and a non-Jewish judge in a dispute over whether there should be other rabbis in the city. He also mentions the relations with the other rabbi (Krinsky?).
53:58
From the machine transcript
Furman answers questions about cultural life. Yiddish theater came to Berdychiv with actors from Odessa and Leningrad, and he went to the theater often. He recalls the building opposite the synagogue, now a factory, and other synagogues. Asked about Purim plays, he does not remember any.
2:55
From the machine transcript
Furman recalls being in hospital, where his leg was amputated, and coming to Berdychiv in 1945 to find no one. He bought an apartment, married and settled; his wife died thirteen years ago. He mentions the bombing of his evacuation train and being wounded, and says he worked as a furniture maker and did not go to synagogue. The passage ends as Kerler starts asking the Yiddish word for the cross.
19:59
From the machine transcript
Soyfer discusses religious life in Berdychiv. All synagogues were closed before the war; after the war the communists were asked and a synagogue reopened within a year, though children were not allowed to attend. He recalls charity before Passover, the closing of Yiddish schools, antisemitism in Kyiv, and being evacuated.
48:21
From the machine transcript
Soyfer talks about life today: the family's pension and income are small, he lives with his daughter, and the Joint helps them. He recalls a mother-in-law's death, lost savings, and prices, saying life was easier in the Soviet period. His daughter and wife speak some Yiddish, though at work he spoke Russian. He ends with a story about his father being questioned about the synagogue.
52:25
From the machine transcript
Soyfer tells how his father was summoned by authorities about the synagogue, probably about 1949–50. The church was closed rather than the synagogue, and Jews could pray but not bring children. The official's remark that a gentile is not a Jew is told, though the transcript is garbled at places.
19:16
From the machine transcript
Berzon says the family celebrated Purim, Shavuot, Passover and other holidays at home, and that she went to synagogue after her mother died. She gives her father's birth year and death in 1946 and speaks again about his trade as sieve-maker and his brothers' printing works in Poland.
40:50
From the machine transcript
Berzon speaks about Lipe, who ran the synagogue, and his sons. She says there were many synagogues, about thirty, in Berdychiv before the revolution, and that one reopened after the war. Kerler asks about the Berdychiv rebbe Levi Yitskhok and his grave. She says older people knew where the tsadik lies.
44:37
From the machine transcript
Kogan and Kerler discuss Deborah and her husband Gedalye, the cantor at the High Holidays; Kogan tells of refugees from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Hungary in the ghetto, and of Romanians murdering Jews in a pit near Bershad and forcing a German to dig it.
37:16
From the machine transcript
Answering Lemster, Vainshelboim recalls childhood games such as hide-and-seek, which Jewish children played together. He says his father went to synagogue on Sabbath because he had to work on weekdays, and that he himself now prays morning and evening. He says he reads Yiddish but not Hebrew, and that life before the war was happy but for the Germans. He adds a few words about his parents' marriage and schooling.
51:58
From the machine transcript
Asked about well-known Berdychiv Jews, Vainshelboim names doctors, butchers and writers, among them Ilya Ehrenburg's Black Book. He mentions a tsadik buried in the Jewish cemetery near Berdychiv, whom people visit. He then explains his return to belief: during his wife's illness he vowed to go to synagogue, and he describes praying and asking God for her health.
7:26
From the machine transcript
They describe Berdychiv before the war as a Jewish town of over thirty thousand Jews, with many synagogues and prayer in private houses. Under Soviet pressure Komsomol members could not enter the synagogue. After the war some returned from evacuation. They also say how the couple met, that they lived in the same courtyard, and that her father died in 1928.
24:05
From the machine transcript
Asked about Jewish culture before the war, they recall visits of Jewish troupes and artists from Moscow, Kyiv and Odessa, concerts, and full synagogues at holidays. They remember Jewish weddings with a fiddle, and her father's work as an accountant and his many languages.
39:39
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Passover after the war. They say matzo was baked in the synagogue, with the dough carried in large baskets to a big oven. They describe the German destruction of the synagogue and its repair by the Jews, and that Pioneers and Komsomol members could not enter. They also say there were many prayer houses of trades before the war.
46:05
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about teachers at school and about synagogue attendance in the 1960s and 1970s. The answers are fragmentary and mixed with Russian chat, and the transcript is unclear.
10:31
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what was eaten at Hanukkah and what customs were kept. The second informant mentions latkes made of buckwheat flour, singing the Hanukkah song, dreidel and Hanukkah money. She describes Jewish home life, her father-in-law putting on tefillin and praying, and says no one taught her to pray. Vaisman adds a remark about a relative in the army before the war. Kerler thanks them and closes the interview.
22:23
From the machine transcript
Soyfer says he served in the army after the war for three and a half years, in Ukraine, as the only Jew in his unit, and describes antisemitic mockery and beatings there. Asked what he found on returning to Berdychiv, he says he lived with his father and married. He then describes the postwar reopening of a synagogue by Jewish officers, praying outdoors in 1945 and a Yom Kippur in 1946, and recalls saying kaddish for his mother in 1938 in a private house minyan.
50:09
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim speaks about prewar religious life and Soviet persecution: the Bolsheviks said there was no God and turned the soup-kitchen synagogue into a club. He says few Jews remain, perhaps five hundred, and the community is small. He speaks about the Chabad rabbi Moyshe, who helps bury the dead, and about the other rabbi, Shloyme.
52:23
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what is meant by a good Jew, and Vainshelboim explains generosity and humanity in several languages. He speaks about the small minyan today, about donations and whether he goes to synagogue on Sabbath. He recalls his work on a collective farm and a garden, and bartering bread for milk. Some Jews call him a righteous man. The passage ends with a joke about a drink.
28:11
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim speaks about the postwar period: his pension, a plot of collective-farm land and growing wheat and potatoes, and grinding grain at a small mill. He describes a salad. Kerler asks about a bread called malke's bread, which is not recognised. Vainshelboim lists French rolls and prewar bread prices, says no challah was baked for Sabbath and begins speaking about the Cook's synagogue.
31:39
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim describes the Cook's synagogue, where food was prepared and worshippers could eat after prayers. He recalls a club in Berdychiv in the mid-1930s where Yiddish plays were staged, including one about Sholem Aleichem (?). He says Berdychiv was a Jewish city, called a Jerusalem, with tens of thousands of Jews, and offers to switch off the camera.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Walking tour of Novoselytsya in which a local man points out former Jewish houses, a street once lived on, and a building that was a synagogue and later a sports hall, with Kerler asking when Jews settled in the town. There is talk about a non-Jew who keeps the Sabbath and considers himself a Jew, and about a Jewish school and soup kitchen. The group enters the building and discusses its decay and what restoration would cost, with figures for the town's Jewish families and students. The informant recalls the tailors' synagogue, the shoemakers' prayer rooms and small klayzlekh, and his father attending synagogue, before talk of the team's onward route by van.
6:43
From the machine transcript
Snook says the village had about a hundred Jewish families and a synagogue, and that people went to pray. She compares observance then and now, mentioning her grandchildren in Israel and her daughter-in-law's synagogue-going. Lemster asks how she herself studied.
33:53
From the machine transcript
Snook says she went to the village synagogue with her parents, and that her father prayed at length. Her parents kept a cow and horses and worked the land. She describes cheese made kosher with rennet and meat salted at home, with a shoykhet. Kerler then works with her to reconstruct a childhood song about a girl who marries and eats up the household.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler opens with the date and Kozak's address, then she gives personal details: her Yiddish name Sheyndl (Zhenya in her passport), her birth in Bershad and her maiden and married names. She names her parents, Avrom Hershkovich and Blume Shlomovna, and their birth years; her father was a furrier who worked in the villages, and her mother was a homemaker and, after the war, a baker selling bread at the market. She recalls her siblings, a Ukrainian eight-year school, evacuation to the Caucasus and Central Asia, and her return in 1944 to find strangers in their home. She then describes prewar Bershad as a Jewish town, her grandmother the midwife and her grandfather's death after a rescue in the snow, and the town's water-carrier, shoykhet and mohel. Kerler asks about weddings and klezmer musicians, a relative's wedding in Khust (?), Sabbath cholent and challah, fish dishes, latkes, Passover and Sukkot, and the old synagogue. She ends by singing two Yiddish songs, one of passionate love and elopement and one about a poor orphan boy.
9:45
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about prewar Bershad' and the local rabbi. Kozak names him as Yankl Lipman(?), a rabbi rather than a rebbe, with a fine beard. She says his second wife's daughter lived in Odessa, that he died around 1958, and gives her own parents' death years.
25:07
From the machine transcript
Kozak shows Kerler a vessel from the old synagogue that she took home for safekeeping so that it would not be stolen, and discusses what it is made of and its name, 'kurt'(?). Kerler then asks the Russian terms for it (kruzhka, kvarta) and moves on to the questionnaire.
5:00
From the machine transcript
The group moves toward and into the old synagogue and talks about its roofless state, the need for money to repair it, and Jewish life in town today. There is an offer of food, and talk of costs and travel to the old synagogue. A Russian aside explains that the team should only interview people who spoke Yiddish from childhood, and Kerler asks to be taken to such a person. Mostly informal talk with hosts.
10:25
From the machine transcript
A woman, Bershadskaya, joins the talk. They discuss where the team has been traveling from (Uman and another town), how the place names are said in Yiddish, and the fact that she speaks Yiddish and Ukrainian. She speaks of religion, the synagogue and how older people go there. There is talk of terror attacks in Tel Aviv, and the surname Bershadskaya. Kerler mentions an actress called Bershadskaya who left for Israel and a family named Kazakov who emigrated.
31:53
From the machine transcript
Leiderman says that her parents went to the synagogue on holidays. Her mother prepared gefilte fish for the Sabbath, and she answers Kerler's detailed questions about the stuffing, the salt, pepper and onions, and whether it was sweet or peppery. There was no heating on the Sabbath. She cannot give the Yiddish for a certain word.
2:11
From the machine transcript
Bershadskaya recalls Chernyotka, where few Jews lived and several worked as tinsmiths, tailors and shoemakers serving the villagers. There was no synagogue, so people prayed in a private house, and kosher food and burials involved Bershad'. Kerler asks about the number of Jewish families (about fifteen) and about her friends, Jewish and non-Jewish.
6:40
From the machine transcript
Bershadskaya answers questions on Sabbath practice, such as sealing the oven for the cholent, and on Passover in Chernyotka and Bershad': matzo baking, pancakes made from matzo, and a small seder with guests. She remembers little of the seder songs, and recalls going to the Bershad' synagogue with her parents. A second voice asks about Hanukkah at the end.
8:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shor to say the Four Questions as he asked his father, and Shor recites them in Hebrew with Yiddish translation and other Haggadah passages. A second voice asks when he got his prayer book. Shor shows his father's books, including a book of Selihot printed in Poland (Przemyśl is named), and Kerler asks about a word for mixing up the prayer book.
32:09
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish theater and Yiddish artists who visited, and about the Kol Nidre melody. Shor says one does not sing on Yom Kippur but only prays. Kerler recalls cantors brought to Bershad' for the holidays in the 1960s (?) and the fees paid.
16:35
From the machine transcript
Outside the synagogue the guide, speaking Russian, points out broken windows and rubbish, and notes that Kozak has arrived. Kerler asks about Jews who are still connected to the place.
29:14
From the machine transcript
Vygodner recalls the large Simchat Torah celebration in the synagogue in the late 1950s, carrying the small Torah scroll with his grandfather while people kissed it. Kozak is then asked what she remembers of the synagogue before the war and starts to tell of Yom Kippur and donations of money.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gvinter talks with Kerler and Lemster about the song of going to Palestine, which was sung in secret in the ghetto and more openly after the war, and comments on politics and the Israel–Palestinian conflict today. He mentions his own illness and a daughter's family. He answers terminology questions about Bila Tserkva, about words for non-Jews and for a foolish or wicked person, and about a convert. He recalls the Bershad' ghetto, people from Chernivtsi held and shot at the stadium, and non-Jews who learned a few Yiddish words. He then speaks about his own life: neighbours and the shoe workshop, the sale of a building he was asked to sell, his marriage in 1958, his children, and his siblings. Finally he explains why one synagogue in Bershad' stayed open after the war while others were closed, and mentions the building turned into a cinema.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Feldman talks about rabbis and about relatives who left for America, including a sister in Brooklyn. She recalls trips to synagogues in Uman', Vinnytsia and Kyiv, and a visit to a rebbe's grave. Lemster and Kerler ask what several words mean (dybbuk, golem, a good Jew, a person who is out of his mind).
7:24
From the machine transcript
Feldman recalls how matzo was baked in Bershad' in an oven, with women rolling the dough, and says that matzo also came from Israel. She describes the custom of bringing money to the synagogue before Yom Kippur and fasting, and says she did not go to work on Yom Kippur, including in the Soviet period. They discuss who blew the shofar after the old rabbi died and whether the synagogue stayed open.
30:34
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks why the Soviets did not close the Bershad' synagogue; Feldman does not know. Kerler asks about rich Jews, and she describes prewar occupations: water-selling, shops, shoemakers, and rich and poor. She says no Jews were in prison, and compares the old cinema and entertainment with television today.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The second man opens by explaining that the synagogues were closed before the war and that after the war only a few were allowed. He recalls that a synagogue building stood on a spot in Bershad', and points out the main street, which became Lenin Street. Sklyarskiy then gives his name and patronymic and says he was orphaned young (his mother died when he was three, his father when he was seven) and brought up by an aunt and uncle in the shtetl Zhornysche, where about two thousand Jews lived. He tells how in 1942 the Jews were driven out by police, he was shot at and wounded, and the family hid in a dugout in a field. His sisters and their children were killed when he went out for food; he then joined the partisans and was wounded again. He describes his father as a carpenter, his sisters, and his schooling: a four-year Yiddish school, then a Russian one. He talks about the shtetl before the war, a rabbi, holidays in the synagogue and the postwar murder of a Jewish man. Kerler asks about the length of the hiding and the number of people in the dugout, and asks him to retell the first shooting and the forced labor under the Germans, including burying dead soldiers.
44:30
From the machine transcript
Listengurt recalls a visit in early childhood with her father to a building that was a museum before the war. Kerler asks about the occupation of Odesa. She tells how the Germans gathered Jews, packed them into a warehouse and set it on fire, with one survivor. She also tells of a neighbor family: one man's brother and relatives who escaped and a girl and woman who were killed. She briefly mentions the ghetto.
21:59
From the machine transcript
Loyf talks about her son's circumcision in Dzegovka after the war, with the year not clearly heard. She describes the Jewish town with its one synagogue and the Jewish houses, and says no non-Jews lived in the town. She recalls the church gold hidden before the Germans came, and her mother's fear of speaking about her grandfather in 1937. She also notes that her mother, raising three children alone, had little time to tell stories.
21:08
From the machine transcript
Talks with Lemster and Kerler about places she was taken to during the war, including Berlovka (?), and about now living in Boryslav with no one to talk Yiddish with. She mentions her poverty, her marriage in 1960 (?), and her two children, a daughter nearby and a son in Israel. She describes the son's family and his three children, a trip to Israel, and her work there as a massage therapist. She also says she took a grandson to a synagogue. The questioning then turns to a rabbi in her home village.
39:08
From the machine transcript
She recalls a small prayer house in her street before the war, and says she was a child and knew little of Jewish life. She names her father Ruvn, her mother Khayke and grandfathers David and Leyzer, and talks about a cat. Her companion INF2 speaks Russian and they drink a toast.
5:31
From the machine transcript
Kupershmidt remembers prewar Bratslav in answer to Kerler's questions. He lists the matchmakers, rabbis, study house, kloyz and synagogue, and says he attended Yiddish school for four years. He describes who prayed where, notes Hasidim in the kloyz, and says Hasidim came from Uman.
MDV 394Musya Moiseevna Vaynshteyn; Sofia (Sime-Leye; David (Dovid) Geller and 1 moreUman', Bratslav, 2005
10:53
From the machine transcript
She answers whether Jewish religious life continued after the war: the synagogue became a factory and people met in private houses in Sharhorod for the High Holy Days, which Dzhurin did not have. Kerler asks about Nemyriv too, where there were many Jews but no synagogue.
12:28
From the machine transcript
The interviewee describes the Dzhurin synagogue (large windows, white stones, women seated) as Kerler asks about its appearance, then Katz invites her to recall early childhood. She sings a little of a lullaby, says her mother could read Yiddish and wrote to relatives in America, and recalls a parable of a rich and a poor brother.
MDV 398Dora (Dvoyre) Iosifovna Yatskova; Tsilya Yakovlevna Koifman; cemetery caretaker (unnamed)Kopayhorod, Bratslav, 2008
41:43
From the machine transcript
Koifman recalls Jewish Vapnyarka after the war, with a number of Jewish families who later left for Israel or America. She says she lived in Bershad in 1972 and mentions its old synagogue. She also discusses the languages the teacher Anya speaks, Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish, and gives local distances and directions.
28:13
From the machine transcript
Lemster and Kerler ask Kelmenson about words such as dybbuk, a convert and a golem, and she recognises some. She says her mother read Yiddish but she cannot, and returns to her mother's Yiddish journals. She describes the old gymnasium that held a Yiddish and a Ukrainian school, the synagogue that was gone after the war, and prayers at Passover and shofar blowing in a private house.
0:00
From the machine transcript
After Katz's opening statement of the date and place, Khavin gives the name of the town and discusses how Jews called it. He describes the three rabbis in prewar Chernihiv and the four synagogues (the great synagogue, now a theater, the Naye Mark shul, the misnagdishe shul and the Liskovitse shul). Katz asks about the meaning of the names and of misnaged.
11:07
From the machine transcript
Asked about prewar religious life, Khavin says the Jews were very observant and each of the three synagogue halls held a minyan of about a hundred men. He explains the terms tsadik and guter yid, and recalls his father bringing poor guests home from the synagogue for the Sabbath. A visiting guter yid stayed with the family for about a week and Khavin spoke with him about Pushkin and Tolstoy.
27:06
From the machine transcript
Khavin recounts the postwar prayer house in Chernihiv, bought by returnees from the army and evacuation with money collected around the town. After a story about the closing of the synagogue under Khrushchev in 1956, when the police threw out the prayer books and the matzah machine, he says the churches were closed soon afterwards. Private minyanim followed, until the last Torah reader died in 1989.
31:42
From the machine transcript
Khavin recounts the recent setting up of a Jewish religious community and prayers at first in apartments, then in rooms obtained after a fire. Talk with Kerler about a former theater building, the Hesed and the Kyiv rabbi Bleich, which was not given to them. He says they pray five times a week in the new room, and Kerler and Katz arrange to attend morning prayers.
47:00
From the machine transcript
The speakers talk about timing at the synagogue, including when Aleinu comes in the service, with Khavin saying about twenty minutes after half past. The transcript shows nothing clear of Khavin's war medals.
4:47
From the machine transcript
Lifshitz says there were two synagogues in Snovsk, an old and a new one, which no longer exist. Katz asks what he remembers of services and of Yiddish songs.
22:46
From the machine transcript
Bielaia recalls Hanukkah and other holidays at home, her father being very religious and attending synagogue on Friday and Sabbath. Katz asks about Purim and the Hanukkah top, but she has forgotten its name.
35:45
From the machine transcript
Bielaia lists trades, including shopkeepers, tailors, shoemakers and others. She remembers a wedding at a neighbor's house as a child, and carrying a bench for her mother to the synagogue. Katz then asks the meaning of Yiddish words such as a golem.
47:34
From the machine transcript
Bielaia says her father Motl, a shoemaker with eight children, prayed in the synagogue. She finished the seven-year Yiddish school in Nezhe, where all subjects but Russian and German were taught in Yiddish, and there was a drama circle. Religion was not taught, and she worked in a Yiddish kindergarten in Chernihiv until the war. She says her parents did not survive the war. She also mentions carrying a bench for her mother to the synagogue.
6:42
From the machine transcript
In the van Khavin talks about the Jewish community today and its prayer. He mentions people who come only to make trouble, or who do not come, and one man, Zusia, described as having changed. He says the congregation prays while the rest sit and wait, and that a man named Krichevsky speaks some Yiddish. Kerler also speaks Russian with the driver about the route to the cemetery.
9:33
From the machine transcript
Khavin explains that the Jewish cemetery of Chernihiv could not be used for burials for about 25 years and was overgrown. Recently the community, with money from donors and from its rabbi, hired three men to clean it. Kerler identifies the rabbi as the young man the team met; Khavin says he is self-driven and has opened a school.
40:33
From the machine transcript
Khavin tells of Maksim (surname not recalled), who wanted to become a Jew. He studied Torah, kept kosher and prayed with the minyan. The community sent him to learn in Moscow, but he was refused conversion by the rabbi. A neighbour called the militia, and a policeman shot him, about three years ago. The community buried him and put up a gravestone. Khavin says Krichevsky knew him well and that Krichevsky's grandson studies in a yeshiva in Bucharest (?). He then proposes to show the Jewish street and the Great Synagogue.
46:03
From the machine transcript
Walking on foot, Khavin shows a former Jewish street whose houses were inhabited only by Jews and were burned after the war; a kindergarten later went up on his father's house plot, and he says he did not give up the land. Kerler asks about terms, among them a Yiddish expression about a Jew. Khavin then describes the Great Synagogue and the New Market synagogue, including round halls and women's galleries with small windows, and mentions the tailors' synagogue. A Russian aside about the Polish town of Katowice and other places is included.
20:01
From the machine transcript
Khavin names three rabbis in the town (the Trisk, Rybka and Chernobyl rabbis, the transcript is unclear) but does not know which was in which synagogue. He recalls an old, learned rabbi to whom his father took questions, and a shokhet from whose slaughter his father would not eat. Katz then asks for the Yiddish names of towns around Chernihiv.
52:51
From the machine transcript
Khavin and Kerler talk about religious life in Chernihiv today and about the minyan after the synagogue closed, which gradually became hard to gather. Khavin tells the story of Maksim, who lived in a village in Byelorussia, kept Jewish observance at home, and was killed after an incident with a militiaman. He ends with remarks on his own limited observance and on payments and parcels from Israel.
18:17
From the machine transcript
Burg names the Russian prose writers (Bunin, Paustovsky) and Yiddish writers (Peretz) who influenced him and recalls his father calling Yiddish a golden language. He describes greeting the ambassadors at his jubilee, his meetings with Dr Yosef Burg of Jerusalem in Vienna and Zurich, and the confusion between the two Yosef Burgs. He discusses growing up with four languages. Then he talks about his parents: his father, who read German and Yiddish and died in 1938, and his mother, from a Carpathian village, who could not read. Burg adds an account of saying Kaddish and praying before the amud in Chelyabinsk during the war.
34:52
From the machine transcript
Kleiman describes his father as an honest, pious man who prayed daily, and recalls the Sabbath, Yom Kippur, Passover preparations and food such as gefilte fish, and Purim customs. He remembers going with his father to the rebbe on holidays and the rebbes and dayan of Vadrashkov. He also covers the Jewish centre of the town, trades, reading, visiting theatre troupes, political groups, Hebrew learning and weddings with the chuppah by the house and the badkhn.
32:31
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt recalls her prewar childhood: Purim with dancing, collecting money and wooden noisemakers, Hanukkah, and Passover seders at which her father had her brother ask the four questions. She finished one year at a Yiddish school; her brother attended cheder. Non-Jewish friends who spoke Yiddish joined the holidays. She describes Sabbath, Shavuot, Hanukkah and Passover food (challah, kugel, tatsh, cheese pastries, latkes). She names the street where her family lived, with a synagogue next door where her father led prayers.
18:33
From the machine transcript
Shternberg describes the Romanian school, where the Yiddish teacher took pupils to his home for extra lessons. She recalls her grandmother, family singing at Simchat Torah and her father's Rosh Chodesh and Sabbath songs. She also talks about recording cassettes with a composer at the Hesed. She sings Passover songs, a Purim play song and a melamed-in-America song.
3:50
From the machine transcript
Shames answers brief questions about Yanoshpol: there was one synagogue in the small town, and her father was a miller. She says she had another sister who was killed.
9:21
From the machine transcript
Shames says that after the war there was still a synagogue and a shochet in Khmil'nyk and people prayed, but later that stopped and Jewish life faded. Few Jews remain today because many emigrated to Israel. Lemster asks about her memory of the Jewish holidays.
10:24
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about prewar holidays such as Passover and Purim in Yanoshpol. Shames says all Jewish holidays were observed and the synagogue was in use, but she gives few details, and says she cannot sing. Kerler asks whether the town's name has changed and whether there was a cheder, and she is unsure.
24:25
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether she heard about pogroms before Soviet rule. Shames says she remembers that Jews were killed. He then asks about the Tisha b'Av custom of throwing burrs at people's beards in the synagogue.
25:15
From the machine transcript
Shames says her father remained a miller until he was killed. Her parents went to the synagogue on holidays and took her; as a child she could read Hebrew but now knows nothing. Kerler asks whether non-Jews in Yanoshpol spoke Yiddish, and she says no. She remarks on the synagogue's fate under Soviet rule.
29:50
From the machine transcript
Shames cannot name a town near Yanoshpol. Kerler asks about Jewish weddings, which she does not recall, since Soviet times had come. She says that at the synagogue she went with her mother. Yiddish was spoken before the war, but at work after the war Ukrainian. She says nobody is left to speak Yiddish, as few Jews remain.
5:53
From the machine transcript
Gammer says Khmil'nyk had about twelve thousand Jews and was a Jewish town. Even the Ukrainians understood Yiddish, though they could not speak it well. She names three prayer houses (the tailors', the shoemakers' and the rich men's synagogue near the sanatorium) and recalls the wealthy Jews. She recalls her father as a poor tailor who sewed for villagers. Lemster then turns to her schooling.
14:08
From the machine transcript
Shames says she could read Hebrew, taught by a teacher (a melamed), and that she is now alone. She says her father worked in a mill and her mother kept Sabbath and holidays as was customary, and went to synagogue. Her mother survived the war, though how is unclear. Kerler asks about Sabbath dishes and gefilte fish, and she remembers little.
26:49
From the machine transcript
Shames speaks about Jewish life in Khmil'nyk after the war: she and her mother worked and prayed there, a synagogue existed for a time and was later closed, and she cannot say when. Today there is no synagogue and she says few Jews remain. Kerler asks about a shoykhet, Yom Kippur fasting, whether she receives matzo or help from outside, her TV viewing and Israel, which she has never thought of visiting. She speaks of a Christian helper and her family.
48:10
From the machine transcript
Camera cutaway of Chortkiv, with the team at the grave of the Chortkiv rebbe and an old synagogue; the speech is mostly garbled or inaudible. Only fragments about the rebbe, a gravestone and a Russian remark are legible, so what was said cannot be described.
30:10
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich describes prewar Sambor, a smaller town than Drohobych with a Jewish majority, its centre with the town hall and many shops, and the large synagogue of which only the walls remain. She cannot say much about prayer houses or the bathhouse and river, and mentions older children going bathing. In the second half Kerler urges her to speak Yiddish rather than Polish, and the talk turns to who still speaks Yiddish and to a local man who answered Kerler in German.
39:43
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about religious customs. Shekhovich recalls that only her mother and grandmothers blessed the candles, and she remembers little of the Sabbath songs (zemirot) or kiddush. She talks about synagogue-going on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, about Hasidim and yeshiva boys in Sambor, and about the Sambor rebbe, a 'good Jew' (tsadik) to whom the sick and childless would go, though she is skeptical.
11:47
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich talks about prewar Sambor, which she describes as a Jewish town with one large synagogue and small prayer houses. She recalls her mother's Sabbath fish and her own knowledge of how to prepare it, the Passover seder led by her father, and food made from matzo. She says she cannot remember Purim plays or a prewar wedding. Polish was the language of the town and Yiddish that of the home. She says she remembers few Yiddish songs.
24:23
From the machine transcript
Shekhter says he lived in Zolotonosha from 1971 to 1998. About ten Jews gathered there on Sabbath, some of them knew Yiddish, and they prayed in Yiddish. Before that he lived in a place that sounds like Artyomovsk; Kerler asks about his earlier residences.
43:57
From the machine transcript
Shekhter talks about Jewish books and his regret at not studying, his pension and work in a clothing combine, where there were few Jewish cobblers but many tailors. He answers questions about words for a cemetery and for a pious or honest man, and about Kaddish, the Shema and morning prayers. He names his best years (Sverdlovsk and Zolotonosha) and says he believes in God, who saved him from the war.
13:35
From the machine transcript
Khasidovich says she barely remembers her childhood and describes how young people used to walk and gather, in contrast to today. She talks about the synagogue and prayer house near the militia building, about the cinema and theater, and about the languages she spoke with Jewish and non-Jewish friends and at home. She then talks about her three daughters, two in Fastiv and one in Kyiv, and a daughter's family in Israel; Lemster closes by asking about Jewish holidays at home.
8:06
From the machine transcript
Kopyt recalls the outbreak of war and the family's flight on foot toward Kyiv, and says seventeen relatives were killed. She talks about her mother, who was a baker, and her grandfather, a synagogue gabbai, and speaks about neighbours and Babi Yar. She describes her first husband's death after Chernobyl and her second marriage, her grandparents' hiding in the civil-war pogroms, and a visit to the site where her grandfather was killed. She also tells of her own fall.
33:25
From the machine transcript
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.
26:14
From the machine transcript
Beigel talks about her childhood in Tyvriv and the family's departure in 1932. She gives her father's name and birth year and his work, her mother Esther, and her siblings and grandparents. She remembers the hard life, and that the synagogue was closed in the mid-1930s so people prayed in private houses. She also mentions praying in private houses in Hnivan' after the war.
44:13
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein talks about his grandfather, the old Leyzer, who prayed before the ark, and says that he helps the rabbi as a baal tefilah today. He explains how Bukovina became Soviet in 1940. He recalls that Novoselitsa was a Jewish town and that non-Jews spoke Yiddish. He lists the Zionist organizations, and tells of the hakhshara preparation and his cousin, who left in the 1930s.
46:33
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein tells of his tailor's apprenticeship in Novoselitsa with Usher Roytman, who was also a cantor, and his fellow apprentices. In 1937 he moved to Chernivtsi to work for his sister's husband, a ladies' tailor, and learned some German there. He sings a Yiddish-Russian drinking song (the toast 'Lekhaim, mayne yidn') and tells how he set the words to a melody for a Jewish community event led by Meir Markovitsh.
MDV 448Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein; Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich KatzIvano-Frankivs'k, 2003
29:49
From the machine transcript
Katz says his wedding canopy was set up at the rebbe's in Stanislav in 1940, because Soviet rule had arrived. He recalls cheder, where he learned to pray, and says some of his teachers used a whip. He then recites a prayer (Kaddish) and speaks of the four-class Polish school of Baron Hirsch, which had a Hebrew teacher. After that he describes his vocational training in Lviv and work for a private employer in Tlumach. He recalls a pond where children swam, the ritual bath and bathhouse, and its use before festivals and on Fridays; he also mentions his grandfather's death.
11:44
From the machine transcript
Katz recites or sings a quoted Sabbath greeting and dialogue from a play he saw, and talks about the Yiddish and Polish dramas performed in the town. A play title about a madman in a hospital is mentioned, with a name (Barishev?) that is unclear. He then answers Kerler's questions about the town's craftsmen (carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, tinsmiths, brewers, butchers, three ritual slaughterers), the many prayer houses, and the town's rabbi. He says his father was a brewer. The young rabbi was killed by the Germans.
36:10
From the machine transcript
Katz confirms that his parents and siblings were killed, and Kerler lists their names. He then describes life in Soviet Stanislav (later Ivano-Frankivs'k) after the war: no synagogues, private prayer in homes, a closed city. He says he has no relatives abroad but had friends in Israel from the Hashomer movement. Kerler ends by announcing a set of words to translate.
30:25
From the machine transcript
Vertman names the Jewish professions of prewar Izyaslav (tailor, hairdresser, teacher, doctor, typesetter, carter, baker) and says there were no Jews in the fire brigade. He says there was no antireligious agitation in his school, and counts seven synagogues, all wooden, in the old town and the new town, plus the Maidan district. He says the synagogues were broken up around 1930 and Jews prayed at home, and he mentions the Komsomol, a public library and Yiddish books.
12:55
From the machine transcript
Lys says the town had a large Jewish majority and a Jewish street where people sat and talked. His father prayed well, and synagogues were closed in the 1930s, with four or five remaining. His mother, also from Kornitsa, prayed and women came to her at the high holidays. He gives his age as 70, born in Kornitsa and registered in Izyaslav, and says his father told of a village club play after the revolution, which leads into a song.
29:31
From the machine transcript
Lys recalls studying about two months with yeshiva students from Poland in Samarkand, after which he could not read or write Yiddish. He tells how, at eight or nine, he held a neighbor's boy at his circumcision. He then speaks of Lubavitch Hasidim and a phone call from Zhytomyr about the rebbe's anniversary. He describes the minyan he organizes in the office, saying kaddish from Russian transcription, and a visiting rabbi from New York who gave him tefillin to pass on to his grandson.
43:27
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Geller's grandparents; he never met them, as his paternal grandfather died under Romanian rule, and he knew only a paternal aunt, whom he has photographs of. He recalls Passover in Kuzmin in the 1930s, when matzo was secretly available from a widow, and says the large synagogue stayed open until the Germans arrived. His father visited relatives in Chisinau before the war.
1:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster recall Geller's earlier remark that his parents served with Kotovsky. Geller says his father was a strong man, and he describes his grandfather, a Kolno Hasid who prayed with two pairs of tefillin and was called to make up a minyan in Kishinev. He says he was born in Kuz'myn in Krasilov district, while both parents came from Kishinev, where relatives emigrated to Israel. There is also Russian talk with a woman about photographing a rooster.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A woman, named Liudmila Vladimirovna in the Russian lines, recites Russian poems. One is about a former synagogue that became a sports school and about Passover, a rabbi and longing for Israel. Another, called 'hands', is a personal poem, and a Russian tribute to the late community chairman Wertman (?) closes the set. She also recites a humorous Ukrainian verse about a godfather and a river. In between, others discuss booking a hotel in Zhytomyr.
0:00
From the machine transcript
After greetings, Later shows Kerler photographs from his war service, including a German officer's interrogation and the liberation of Vienna. He gives his name and says he was born in Smotrych. He names his parents, grandparents and teachers, and says he directed the Yiddish school there. He describes his schooling: a Soviet Yiddish seven-year school, a Ukrainian ten-year school, and Moscow institute courses. He also describes the kheyder and rabbi, the two synagogues, local non-Jews, and the Yiddish amateur theatre circle he led. He recalls the expulsion of the Poles in 1936 and the 'golden night' when Jews were forced to give up gold. The remainder covers the closing of the big synagogue and his brother's death in the war, followed by holidays, Soviet anti-religious campaigns, red weddings, the Jewish court, performers and klezmer musicians, songs, and the Yiddish literature he studied. The recording breaks off during talk of the Yiddish press and the Kyiv Yiddish theatre.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about non-Jews who converted to Judaism. Gelman recalls two brothers, shoemakers from the Pozamke (?) area, one of whom became a Jew and kept Jewish observance more strictly than born Jews. He then mentions villages in Russia of converts. Kerler asks about prewar Jewish sports clubs, the Kamianets yeshiva, Zionists and Hasidim, and Gelman remembers little beyond what his mother told him about Zionist meetings. He speaks about keeping yortsayt for his parents at home or in synagogue after the war, his one year in cheder, and his inability to read Yiddish letters. From about 12 minutes Kerler turns to dialectological questions. These cover the meaning of idioms, the Litvak (Lithuanian) Yiddish versus local speech, regional names for Jews, greetings and farewells, and many individual words (body, household, food, colors, adverbs, kinship, time words). The questionnaire also has sentences to translate. At the end a second person speaks Russian about a certificate, a prize and a son who is a sugar-factory director.
MDV 463Arkadii Isaakovich Gelman; Abram Davidovich KaplanKam'yanets'-Podil's'kyy, Mohyliv-Podil's'kyy, 2003
0:00
From the machine transcript
Outside Gelman's house and on the drive to the old town, a speaker (probably Gelman) with Kerler discusses a small prayer house and the old buildings of the Jewish district of Kamianets-Podilskyi, when they were demolished and when the synagogue was closed by the Bolsheviks. At the former Great Synagogue, now a restaurant, they talk about its origin under Turkish rule and its later history, and local Russian speakers describe its fires and restoration, the old town, the prison, the burnt archive and the church. The speaker (apparently Gelman) tells how his family fled in the war, the sister died on the way and the father died in 1943 (?), and he found his mother and a brother on returning in 1946. From about 26 minutes Kaplan, in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, tells Kerler about the Jewish museum, the community room, the old cemetery with its tzadikim and the synagogue's weekly and Passover events, and about Polish volunteers, the monuments to victims of the camps and ghetto (Pechora, Skazyntsi), his army service and communism, and how prayer continued in homes until a synagogue opened in 1948. He discusses prewar Jewish numbers, synagogues, hasidim and shoykhets, relations with the Baptists who took over a synagogue building, the community leadership, and a critical view of Joint, Hesed and Sochnut aid and of emigration.
47:33
From the machine transcript
Asked about Jewish holidays in the shtetl, Gaiviker mentions Yom Kippur fasting, Rosh Hashanah and Shavuot. He recalls his father keeping the Sabbath and visiting cantors on holidays. Kerler then proposes a break and a switch to interviewing his wife.
22:16
From the machine transcript
Asked about Hasidim before the war, Gaiviker says old men were gathered for Saturday night in the synagogue, but he gives few details. He mentions going to the cinema and theater as a young man.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kaviner recalls the destruction of the synagogue in his town, where Torah scrolls were thrown on a fire and burned, and how he wept as he walked by. He says that nearly every non-Jew in town could speak Yiddish, and tells of a non-Jewish neighbor who saw him crying and spoke to him. He also mentions that the Germans paid well for something.
45:12
From the machine transcript
Kaviner describes the present community and its synagogue on Kamenets Street, which is cold and in need of repair, and the reconstruction led by a man named Igor (?) Aleksandrovich. He mentions another man called Hasid (?), who is building a more ambitious synagogue and has run out of money and a minyan. He complains that the community has dwindled because Jews have left.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kaviner tells legends about the Baal Shem Tov: his delay of Kol Nidre on the eve of Yom Kippur, and a note that he gave to an innkeeper for the later gabbai Yankl, which showed he could foresee the future. He also tells how the Besht forbade a gravestone, how the grave was marked and the state of the monument before and during the German occupation, when a cemetery guard was killed. Kaviner says he first came to Medzhibozh in 1946, after demobilization, while visiting the graves of holy men.
10:16
From the machine transcript
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.
41:55
From the machine transcript
Snook describes the hardship of life after the war, working at whatever she could, and her marriage and move to Drahovo (?). She gives her son's birth year, 1946 (?). She mentions emigration to America in the 1950s, the surviving minyan in Khust and the old synagogue, which has been repaired with American help. Kerler asks about the synagogue under Soviet rule, and he asks again for songs and prayers; she recites a prayer for the parents.
18:06
From the machine transcript
Katz recalls his childhood in a village of about sixty Jewish families (heard as 'sixty tallisim'), with two synagogues; Khust had eleven. He describes his daily routine of cheder in the morning and afternoon, with the state school in between, and what was taught in cheder. He answers Kerler's questions about a village wedding: the engagement, the chuppah and the dance with the kerchief. He describes Sabbath meals, cooking cholent and kugel in the clay oven, challah and candles. The passage ends as Kerler asks about the kaddish.
18:01
From the machine transcript
The team looks through Yiddish and Hebrew prayer books in Snook's apartment. Kerler and Katz examine a women's prayer book and a siddur, and Kerler reads out a prayer. They read the printing details (printed in Lemberg and in Vilna) and an inscription on a book's owner, who was a ritual slaughterer. Kerler then asks about where Jews lived and the Jewish street, which has shops and factories.
6:37
From the machine transcript
Smelanskii recalls his grandfather, a respected man in Smila to whom people came with questions, and the six or seven synagogues that stood until 1941. He lists uncles, aunts and cousins with their names, occupations and places (Moscow, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Israel), says that relatives were evacuated or killed at Babi Yar in 1941, and mentions an uncle who ran the printing house of the Smila newspaper. He also says his father worked on the railway.
24:53
From the machine transcript
Answers questions about Smila's synagogues and prayer houses, saying there were six or seven because Jews could not walk far on the Sabbath, and Kerler asks about the sabbath limit (tkhum shabes). He also says there were klezmer musicians, with violin, flute and drum, who played at weddings, and recalls the chuppah, and that the 1930s brought some pressure on religion. Kerler then begins a question about Jewish–non-Jewish relations.
32:26
From the machine transcript
Asked by Katz about earliest memories, Smelanskii says he cannot recall them, and does not remember his grandmothers. His paternal grandmother lived in Cherkasy, and a paternal aunt's children included a son killed in the war. He says his father built a small prayer house after the war on returning from evacuation, and describes how a minyan needed official permission and a list of members. Katz asks about prayer and Russian is spoken at the end.
37:00
From the machine transcript
Katz asks about childhood prayers: the morning prayer modeh ani, the blessing over bread and the Passover seder with the four questions. Smelanskii recalls little and says he reads the Haggadah now. He mentions that he had asked someone about the Torah portions before the interview, and Kerler intervenes when the questioning sounds like an exam.
31:22
From the machine transcript
After some talk about water and apologies for the long questioning, Kerler and Katz ask about Smelanskii's family. His grandfather and earlier forebears were from Smila, his father from Cherkasy, and his mother from Smila. The father's and mother's names are given, but the transcript is unclear. Questions then turn to synagogue and blessing terms: the one who stands at the lectern, the cantor's place, a blessing after recovering from illness or returning from war, and the thanksgiving blessing.
12:07
From the machine transcript
Shapiro says two of his brothers left during the Petliura time, and that his father was an elder of the synagogue in Vinnytsya. He speaks of the elders' society and the wish that its members live to a hundred and twenty. He ends by explaining the name Ilya to a man in the society.
3:01
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Katz ask Shapiro about Jewish life in Vinnytsya before the revolution, including holidays, prayer and observance. Shapiro recalls a Jewish town with five rabbis and five synagogues, among them the Sandagerska (?) synagogue with a separate women's section and the Krochyk synagogue with a children's choir. He describes Yerusalimka, the neighbourhood where he was born, and his father's search for a larger apartment in the centre. He mentions his late wife's written memory of a Vinnytsya wedding, and explains that his father Yosele was a dayan, who settled disputes and was more popular than the rabbi.
10:16
From the machine transcript
Shapiro talks about his family. He recalls a grandmother's story of a daughter's match to a young man who studied well but was poor, and the in-laws' reactions. He then mentions that Vinnytsya had five rabbis and five synagogues.
14:51
From the machine transcript
Braverman describes the layout of prewar Solkhov, the main road, and the absence of electricity until after the war; Semyon Braverman adds remarks on Ukrainian villages. She and Kerler discuss local food and dairy terms. She speaks of the Jewish population, the kloyz and the synagogue, the low riverside site, the mikvah her mother took her to, and the seder at her grandparents'.
34:42
From the machine transcript
Braverman recounts the first postwar visit, in 1946, when her sister found the house plundered, and she describes the family home. She talks of the many Polish families, teachers and watchmen near Solkhov and how they spoke Polish. Kerler asks about the name Solkhov in Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian, and she recalls the Hasidic kloyz, Jewish holidays and a childhood memory of the synagogue gallery at Sukkot (?).
17:15
From the machine transcript
Semyon Braverman describes the Zhmerynka synagogues and what they became after the war (a club, a bakery, a library, a militia building). His pious father led the congregation and made Yiddish calendars that were mailed across the country. The father's biography, from a Jewish gymnasium graduate, appears in a published book, and Semyon mentions a police fine for an unregistered prayer gathering. Semyon then begins the story of Zhmerynka friends who wrote a letter in 1948 asking to go to Israel.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Katz asks in English how far Jewish religious life really survived in the early Soviet period, and Melamed answers in English and then Russian. He discusses the breakdown of the Jewish community after the revolution, early Soviet support for Yiddish culture, the 1926 rabbis' conference in Korosten and persecution of Hebrew, Zionists and underground cheders and yeshivas. He then explains that sources are mostly external, from NKVD and party files, and that he is gathering material for a book on old Zhytomyr. He mentions about 50 synagogues and prayer houses there around 1900, the rabbinical school and Haskalah figures.
26:35
From the machine transcript
Melamed describes the language shift across generations: Jews arriving from Poland spoke Yiddish, the next generation was bilingual and his own generation spoke only Russian. His grandparents used Yiddish at home. His grandmother came from a shtetl and his grandfather from Korostyshiv. He recalls a childhood visit to the surviving synagogue and being punished at kindergarten for mentioning it, and the double life of religion in the Soviet period. Later, as a historian, he found official reports on religious holidays and pilgrimages to a tsadik's grave, which the authorities suppressed.
19:30
From the machine transcript
Kipnis recalls early childhood with her grandparents in Sloveshne. Her grandfather, a moderately observant man, made her carry his prayer shawl to synagogue on Sabbaths, which embarrassed her as a Pioneer. She also mentions children's games and songs in the courtyard, and begins to speak of her father's centenary in 1996 (?).
12:02
From the machine transcript
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.
46:20
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about synagogues in Skvire, and Torchinsky names a prayer house kept by a yeast maker and cantor. He describes a recent visit with American rabbis and Hasidim to Skvire, where he said Kaddish at the site of his father's grave and found nothing left of the cemetery. Kerler asks for Yiddish terms for the cemetery, such as holy place and good place, and explains their meaning. He answers whether the tutor taught him the morning prayer Modeh ani, and comments in Russian.
38:32
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Torchinsky recalls the prewar synagogue and bes-medresh in Skvyra, where only men went to pray and women sat apart, and describes praying there with his grandfather. Kerler asks about klezmorim, wedding customs and a place name (apparently 'tsvinter'). He continues with expressions used when mentioning the dead and then with greetings, thanks and congratulation, the word for stomach and for book, and the difference between 'sick' and 'sleepy' (the transcript is unclear on some of these). Torchinsky mentions his own Yiddish-Ukrainian dictionary of six thousand words and begins to read another poem, about Passover and the Exodus.
49:25
From the machine transcript
Khandros talks about his father's religiosity, from fanatical devotion to a turn toward freethinking. He recounts that his father was denounced for attending synagogue while a Soviet teacher. He describes the rabbi in Ozarintsy, Gedalye Roytberg, who was learned, and the church built in the 18th century by Polish magnates, which closed in 1931. He recalls the Poles, Ukrainians and Jews in Podolia. The Yiddish writers read at school are named.
2:27
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Khandros says Hasidim lived in Ozarintsy in the early 1900s, but the tzaddik died when he was a child and the community declined. He remembers praying with the tanner Hershl Koyfman and Koyfman's old mother Rachel, who told him and his cousin Lusia Bible stories. He wrote these down in his booklet. He recalls the mikveh near the mill, where his father's elder brother Itsik Khandros, who lived in Mohyliv, took him as a boy. He also describes the town's three prayer houses, among them the beys-medresh, whose walls still stand.
48:29
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker describes his cheder lessons: Chumash beginning with Vayikra, the letters, and the prayers. He says he can still read the siddur fluently but does not understand every word. He now goes to the synagogue because it is the only place to speak Yiddish, with the rabbi Yakov Dublikh (?). He mentions the languages he studied: English, German and French. He adds that after the war relatives in Canada found the family's address, which was in the Urals, through the evacuation centre.
52:08
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker describes the Club of the Heretics in Kyiv, a former synagogue building, and its Yiddish library and drama circles, and recalls the Berdychiv theatre built before the revolution. He mentions klezmer musicians at weddings and prewar prayer in secret. He says that in 1933 a rabbi secretly prepared him and his brother for bar mitzvah.
3:24
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia describes her parents. Her father went to the synagogue daily and on Sabbath and holidays, and her mother went on holidays. After the war the synagogue was taken away, Jews gathered in private homes, and the police fined them for it. She describes the prewar synagogue with its two floors, with men below and women above reading from prayer books. She gives her father's name as Isaak (Shloyme) and her mother's maiden name as Shepelski, with her first name given as Malke. Her father was a carpenter and her mother a housewife who raised three daughters.
17:41
From the machine transcript
At the request of a second voice for more about the synagogue, Rusakovskaia describes how Jews went to synagogue on all holidays and how her mother prepared for them at home. At Passover her father led the seder from the prayer book and neighbors without a husband joined the family at the table. Kerler asks about the four questions, but her father read alone.
21:45
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia answers questions about what makes a 'good Jew'. She recalls her mother helping people in need and collecting money for them at the synagogue. She describes the separate Jewish and non-Jewish cemetery fields in Chornobyl', where her parents are buried. Only gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions remained after the war. Visitors from Kyiv came to the graves of their parents, and Jews gave money for memorial prayers. She describes women reading in the upstairs part of the synagogue and shows her father's handwritten copy of the prayer book.
4:37
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker talks about a film on Yiddish culture, apparently made for the Moscow Kultura channel. He gave the filmmakers cassettes and sent one to his brother in New York, who had it converted to the American format. He offers the brother's phone number and a Russian text. He then speaks of Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, chief rabbi of Kyiv for about fifteen years, whom he met around 1991, and of how his work as a laboratory head kept him from the synagogue.
7:26
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker describes his career in chemical technology for leather: laboratory head at a large plant, work at a scientific institute, and chief engineer at a plant in the Urals during the war. After Bleich arrived he cut back his work and began attending the synagogue. He mentions teaching a Yiddish course at the Sholem Aleichem university, now closed, and his Sunday school. He also describes a Jewish school on the left bank of the Dnipro and the other Yiddish teachers and groups in Kyiv.
MDV 514David (Duvid-Hersh, or sometimes Duvid-Tsvi when called up to the Torah) Abramovich ViderKolomyya, 2003
54:06
From the machine transcript
Vider tells how his parents, before they were married, were brought to the Botoshaner Rebbe, who gave them a religious wedding, while the civil registration was done separately. He says he was too young to remember Jewish weddings or a badkhn well, and recalls matchmakers, the Rebbe's gabbai and payments and gifts to the Rebbe. He tells of a cousin of his mother, Reb Mayer, a cantor and righteous man who owned a mill and was paid well for singing in Iași, and of the Rebbe's wife and three children, whose names he gives; he cannot recall the Rebbe's full name.
21:32
From the machine transcript
Vider recalls Yiddish children's theater in a cellar and school festivals in Hebrew, Yiddish and Romanian in Hîrlau, then visiting cantors and an actors' club (the Dybbuk is mentioned). He talks about Yiddish newspapers, one of them illegal, and about the Cuzist (Cuza/Codreanu) antisemites who in 1939 (?) wanted to burn synagogues and whom Jews resisted. He says he belonged to Gordonia, while his brother was in Maccabi and later Betar and a chalutz who could not emigrate until after the war.
29:24
From the machine transcript
Vider and Kerler discuss the bathhouse with its mikveh in his town and the idiom about leading someone into the bath, which Vider explains as meaning that someone who is not pleasant gets no good treatment. Asked for a wordless niggun of his rebbe, he does not recall one. He sings a Hebrew song his father sang at the third Sabbath meal in the synagogue, beginning with the line "Yedid nefesh"-type text, followed by a few words on a sentence Kerler elicits about the word rov.
33:01
From the machine transcript
Vider answers Kerler's questionnaire on plural forms of rov/rebbe (rabonim, rebbes) and on the Yiddish term for a good place as a euphemism for a cemetery. He says a cemetery was called a holy place or house of life. They then discuss the word Litvak, Lithuanian Jews and their Yiddish pronunciation, an anecdote about a Lithuanian youth praying in a local synagogue, the word misnaged, and whether he had heard of the Vilna Gaon and the Baal Shem Tov.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about prewar Kolomyya and its synagogues. Grayf says it was almost a Jewish town, though Christians lived there too. He names a local man, Boyko, who knows more of the town's history but speaks no Yiddish. Grayf says Boyko has a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, and objects to the rule that recognizes descent only through the mother; Kerler explains the rabbis' practical reasoning. They discuss the old synagogue, called the Jerusalem synagogue. Grayf says his parents kept the Sabbath, and answers Kerler's question about the taste of gefilte fish (sweetish).
33:39
From the machine transcript
Vider sings liturgical pieces, a holiday version of Adon Olam and then Lekhu Dodi, and Kerler asks whether he remembers Kol Nidre. Vider then describes the Friday-night Sabbath in his childhood home: coming back from synagogue with his father, greeting the angels at the door, and the mother's challahs for the family. He starts the Kiddush, which he then says he has forgotten.
34:30
From the machine transcript
Bileichuk speaks about his mother's Christian confession and his own earlier interest in Sabbatarian (Subbotniki) and other Protestant groups. He says he read their literature and concluded that they take from the Torah and misuse it, including tithing, and he describes arguments with them. He mentions studying with Sasha Babichenko and Kolesnikov at the synagogue, reading the weekly Torah portion, and feeling that he as a non-Jew has no right yet to teach others. He answers Kerler's questions about the Subbotniki, the New Testament and the groups he met.
37:10
From the machine transcript
Vider sings the song about Jacob lying on the stone, with an orphan boy asking the cantor to say kaddish with him. Kerler thanks him, and Vider then begins telling a joke about a worker who drinks before going in to see the factory director.
5:19
From the machine transcript
Vider talks about his health and about past synagogue life, including Rosh Hashanah and being called to the Torah. He confirms that he studied at a yeshiva in Iași, which he calls a beautiful city. Kerler asks about the 1939 pogrom there, and Vider speaks of killings by Cuzists and someone being shot; the transcript does not make clear who. Much of the rest is wishes for health, talk of gifts and medicine, and Russian side remarks.
38:28
From the machine transcript
Vider tells that his father was a shoykhet who pitied the animals, and that the family had six children. His father also served as cantor in the synagogue on Simchat Torah in Iași. Lemster asks whether he knows of Zelig Barditshever. Vider recalls reading Hershl Ostropoler stories in Romania and describes a tailor neighbor who was a freethinker. Lemster also asks about a Romanian song on the tallis.
51:25
From the machine transcript
Krotsh describes how, in the synagogue today, non-Jews and others leave slips with names and money, in the belief that it helps, and he wonders whether this is permitted. They talk about visitors from America who come for the holidays and send photographs, and Krotsh mentions two visitors named Mendel (?) and Nachman (?). Kerler then asks for another song and Krotsh begins a drinking song.
49:41
From the machine transcript
Krotsh describes postwar Jewish weddings in Kolomyya, which had klezmer and Yiddish songs but no rabbi or religious ceremony. Kerler then speaks of Jews who came to Chernivtsi and of the one remaining synagogue there, and they discuss Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) and a Jew from Romania who has died. Krotsh answers questions about reading the Soviet Yiddish journal and 'Birobidzhaner Shtern', and agrees to read Yiddish materials Kerler will send.
6:02
From the machine transcript
Belous gives his addresses in Polesskoye and in Ovruch, where he goes every Sabbath for services, along with the street name and telephone number.
13:39
From the machine transcript
Futerman describes a Jewish wedding with a chuppah and klezmer, and a man who was a synagogue warden. Kerler asks about the name Kipnis and whether Jewish weddings continued after the war. She says weddings were held, and talk of singing at them follows.
35:18
From the machine transcript
Katsman recalls that Korosten' had five synagogues, and a great cantor Glazman with a choir who came for holidays from Kyiv. Katz tells where his own family comes from. Katsman also mentions a clois, women's sections, and Rabbi Matisov (?).
40:11
From the machine transcript
Katsman says he does not remember his grandmothers. He describes his mother as a pious woman who baked matzo for the town, came from Chopovychi, and prepared for Sabbath with baked challah and candles. Kerler and Katz ask about Sabbath songs and tefillin, and he describes his grandfather's and father's habits of prayer and study.
44:45
From the machine transcript
Skop recalls early childhood: his parents were very observant and not rich. He talks about paying for kosher meat, Sabbath and the holidays, and strangers coming. He loved going to synagogue with his father and was carried there as a small child. He did not attend cheder but a Jewish school.
53:44
From the machine transcript
Katz asks Skop about the Sabbath and the town before the war. Skop recalls cooking cholent, baking their own bread and buying milk, and the family trading in meat. He names five synagogues in Korosten', including one for the wealthy, a shoemakers' and a tailors' synagogue and a kloyz near the railway station open day and night. Travelers came from Korosten' and other towns, among them Berdychiv and Kasrilevke.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Skop says that until 1937 everything was as before, then schools were closed and synagogues turned into warehouses. Katz asks about childhood prayer, and Skop recalls Hanukkah money and the dreydl, Purim noisemakers, asking the Four Questions at his father's seder, and the labor of baking matzo. He then speaks of Lubavitch Hasidim, who were beloved in Korosten', and of a well-known rebbe whom people from far away, Jews and non-Jews, visited, with trips to a tsadik's grave and how it was spoken of. Katz asks about the Litvaks, and Skop describes the Yiddish of Vilna and Belarusian Jews as hard to understand and tells of his parents speaking Yiddish with Germans. The passage ends with healing practices and a story of a blind child brought to a rebbe.
4:52
From the machine transcript
Outside the former great synagogue the group discusses which synagogue is which, including a second one called the merchants' synagogue (?). They remark that there is little to see inside and that the old buildings have been rebuilt. Kerler says old houses are also being recorded, and there is brief chat about the filming.
8:53
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia says her mother used to sing Yiddish songs at home, but she herself did not sing, and she cannot recall a song when Kerler asks. She says there were observant Jews in town before the war, who attended services on holidays, and that her mother always went. Kerler asks about customs for Tisha b'Av, and they discuss a name for the burrs that stick to the beard.
15:01
From the machine transcript
Gershtein describes Holoby's big synagogue and the ritual bath he visited with his father each Friday, and names two ritual slaughterers, Chaim Wolf Goldberg and Abba Sima. He says the nearby villages had only small prayer houses, and that the dead of Holoby were taken to Mel'nytsia for burial. He mentions a rebbe in Lutsk, childhood games, bathing in the river and a Polish ball game. His siblings were pioneers (khalutsim). He also recalls the Zionist youth club, where children danced and sang Yiddish songs.
32:16
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about clubs, social life and a Friday evening event, and Gershtein recalls going with his father to the synagogue for a Sabbath evening meal and prayers. He says he can read Hebrew prayers from the siddur, and Kerler asks him to read the Modeh ani and the Kiddush blessing.
37:05
From the machine transcript
Gershtein talks about medical care and the cost of living today, noting that as an invalid he pays nothing for the doctor. He says no Jews prayed in Holoby after the war and that it was forbidden. Kerler asks about the synagogue in Kovel' in the 1960s, and the interview is declared to be ending.
43:41
From the machine transcript
Restaurant and synagogue footage. There is Russian talk about a call from Zhytomyr and an upcoming Jewish festival in Vinnytsia, and a long garbled stretch that may involve a prayer or text. Kerler explains to a passer-by in Russian that the team is on its way to Lviv and is looking for old Yiddish speakers. The man remembers neither Yiddish nor Hebrew. They also discuss an old printing house, and the end is only scraps of Russian about addresses.
36:29
From the machine transcript
Pensatii describes Sabbath dishes in Odesa, such as fried or chopped and filled fish and a sweet kugel, comparing them with a meal he had on one of three visits to New York. For Sukkot he recalls visiting a Jewish bookbinder who built a sukkah in his home. He speaks about fasting on Yom Kippur and the shofar blowing in the synagogue with an old rabbi, and people who came especially to hear it.
18:17
From the machine transcript
The group visits the Hasidic cemetery in Zhovkva. They discuss who built it and when, how Belz Hasidim stop there on the way to Belz, and the tombstones reused under the Communists in a wall. Kerler also asks about a Yiddish word for a Shavuot item and the terms for cemetery (beys-oylem, beys-khayim), and explains the title of a book written by the tsadik buried there.
46:45
From the machine transcript
Leibel recalls a song his sister sang at the Yiddish kindergarten, remembering only the first lines. He describes the Rivne street where he lived, its Jewish and Polish neighbors, the synagogue on the hill, and local figures including a children's doctor who survived the war. He names a professor and an economic figure or factory owner. A neighbor later hid people in a hideout (?).
11:25
From the machine transcript
Leibel describes his private religious tutor who came in the evenings after the Polish school, teaching Hebrew, Humash and some Gemara. He recalls puzzling over a Talmud passage as a child. He and Kerler then discuss the books his parents read and his parents' observance, including his father at synagogue and his mother attending on holidays.
52:24
From the machine transcript
Leibel answers Kerler's terminology questions on the difference between rav, rebbe and rabbi, tsadik, 'a good Jew', Hasid, plurals of such words, and the words for a cemetery. He then discusses the term Litvak, Galitsianer, misnagid and dybbuk. He also recalls Hasidic visitors to the Polish school and a synagogue discussion with the rabbi about Sarah's childlessness in Genesis.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Dorfman talks about Yiddish writers, journalists and editors he corresponds with, and about a film and a Lviv acquaintance who wrote to the Black Book. He discusses Yiddish periodicals in Poland and Birobidzhan and antisemitism. He then describes Jewish life in Dnipropetrovsk — its rabbi, synagogue, wealthy patron, Jewish gymnasium and press. Kerler and Dorfman also talk about exchanging Yiddish publications and about meeting Lviv scholars.
MDV 565Professor Iakov Samoilovich Khonigsman; Isaak (Itche, Itskhok-Avigdor) Moseevich MelerL'viv, 2003
34:09
From the machine transcript
The Meler interview starts, with Kerler talking with Meler about a Torah scroll and whether it is ritually fit, and about a local rabbi. Meler says that before the war his father, mother, three sisters and grandmother all perished and that he alone survived, having been taken into the army in the 1940s. He now has a new family and is going to see his daughter in Latvia. Russian side talk from others intrudes.
27:05
From the machine transcript
Meler talks about the Sabbath goy and the neighbours, who spoke some Yiddish, and about school fights. He describes cholent leftovers and cold dishes. He then recalls the Hasidic rebbe's table at the bet midrash, where herring and gefilte fish were served, and visits to the rebbe of Belz.
14:46
From the machine transcript
Dorfman points out graves and talks about people, including a teacher and school director from the Odessa region who was imprisoned in 1941 and whose brother edited a Kishinev Yiddish paper. He shows the grave of the cantor Baruch Shulman, father of the singer Zinovy Shulman, who was jailed for fifteen years. Kerler and Katz ask about dates and inscriptions, and the camera records the cemetery.
5:57
From the machine transcript
Driving and walking through L'viv, Dorfman points out former Jewish sites: a Yiddish theater, the street named for Meir Balaban, where Sholem Aleichem lived (marked by a monument), the two synagogues on a former Jewish street, the old cemetery and Jewish hospital. He also names the Jewish community building, the Bnai Brith house, the gymnasium and other institutions. Parts are in Russian and Polish with the driver, and Kerler asks about street names and the end of the Yiddish theater in 1947 (?).
15:07
From the machine transcript
Dorfman tells of the Golden Rose synagogue site and a Jesuit church (St Paul's), which the Jews were said to have helped fund, a story involving a dispute over a courtyard. The date is given as the sixteenth century (the year is unclear). The group then continues on foot along a former Jewish street, passing the Armenian church and a former cemetery, with comments on Chmielnicki, a blood libel story and modern shops.
36:55
From the machine transcript
Brandler answers whether prayer was possible in Peremyshlyany after the war. The synagogue was burned by the Germans, and nobody prayed except a doctor, Fridman, who went to L'viv. He talks about the lack of kosher meat and about a trip to L'viv to bring a Torah for a rabbi in Husakiv. Kerler compares this with the Carpathians, where kosher meat could be had.
33:09
From the machine transcript
The interview with Brandler ends and an informal talk with a second man (probably Dorfman) begins. He talks about the contemporary religious community in L'viv, its rabbi and shoykhet, the people who attend, the American connections and the two small synagogues. Kerler asks how the shoykhet learned the trade.
59:20
From the machine transcript
Leibel addresses his observance in Soviet times, when he fasted on Yom Kippur and took off as much time from work as possible. He worked at one institution for 43 years and was kept on after reaching seventy; after retirement he went to synagogue daily. A Ukrainian friend warned him he was being watched, but Leibel regards the synagogue as a piece of the Land of Israel.
16:15
From the machine transcript
Leibel talks about Rivne after the war: the Jewish street was nearly empty, a local milkman traded with peasants, and he felt a longing to return there. He then answers Kerler about his father's prayer habits, recalling carrying the tallis bag beside him as a child. He also mentions the special cap required at his gymnasium.
25:53
From the machine transcript
Leibel describes his mother baking for the Sabbath on Friday morning, with challah and cakes, going to the synagogue women's section, and lighting candles. Asked about his grandmothers, he remembers Khaye Hinde, who sold hay (?) in small quantities by weight for her living. He says he does not remember much of Sabbath at his grandparents' but that Jewish life was good though not easy.
44:50
From the machine transcript
Leibel sings a Yiddish song about Hasidic and wealthy Jews, and says the Soviet regime closed synagogues so that people prayed in small minyanim in homes. Asked about klezmer, he says his father once wanted him to learn the clarinet. He describes his own wedding under a canopy at the Lviv rebbe's house, with two witnesses, and answers Kerler on weddings, matchmakers and the absence of Yiddish-speaking non-Jews in Rivne.
24:59
From the machine transcript
Diner says he has a flat and a pension and gets by today. He says he learned a little prayer in his youth and is thinking of going to the synagogue now that he is 88. S2 adds that Diner takes part in veterans' events, that his first wife died, that he has lived with his second wife for over twenty years, and that he was a good specialist with his own business.
1:17
From the machine transcript
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.
20:08
From the machine transcript
She recalls her childhood in the shtetl, where the family had land, orchards and fields, and describes the Polish police and school, the Catholic church and the four synagogues. She talks about the weekly Friday visit to the bath house and the mikveh. Kerler asks about the synagogue buildings and colour words, and she recalls her mother's blessing over the Sabbath candles. She says she can speak and write Yiddish well after all these years.
48:58
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about Jewish life in Luts'k after the war. She says Jews gathered in a private apartment on Sabbath and holidays, there was no synagogue, a man was imprisoned, and she fasted on Yom Kippur. Few knew when holidays fell; matzo came from Israel. Questions about minyans and schools follow, and Lemster asks for a Jewish story or anecdote, which she cannot recall.
10:40
From the machine transcript
Dialectological questionnaire, with Kerler asking most items and Lemster adding some. It covers greetings, kinship terms, words for house and rooms, and food and household words, and also the Yiddish for 'Christian', 'gentile' and Ukrainian-language terms. Further items are religious and folk terms such as dybbuk, golem, cantor, synagogue, dreidel and the evil eye, and sentences testing grammar and word choice. Shvardovskaia sometimes mentions her native town and its Jewish street.
2:14
From the machine transcript
Shoikhetman tells of leading the morning prayer for a visiting group, at a service where a man said in English that he was from Derazhnya. The details of who the visitors were are unclear. Kerler then turns to the planned questions about his talk.
6:11
From the machine transcript
Shoikhetman recalls the outbreak of war: a railway running by the house and a plane dropping three bombs. He speaks of the Jews of Derazhnya, with one synagogue and several small prayer rooms before the war, and says there was a cheder but no yeshiva. Kerler and Lemster press him on a yeshiva and on a man from Proskurov who studied in Derazhnya. He also quotes census-type population figures for Ukrainians, Russians and Jews, and says almost no Jews survived the occupation.
33:19
From the machine transcript
The team drives through Luts'k with Shoikhetman, with much Russian talk among those in the van. He and the others point out sights such as a theatre and the former wooden synagogue, now a police building, then the castle-area synagogue and a building now used as a Dynamo sports hall. Passing talk about local figures (Rabinovich, Dolinsky) and a book on Jewish history is hard to follow, and there is a recogniser loop.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kaplan complains about the separation of women and men in the synagogue, which Kerler says is a debated issue among religious groups. He remembers a prewar Jewish wedding of his mother's sister with a rabbi, chuppah and badkhn, and mentions the breaking of plates at weddings. He answers questions about Purim (Purim players, going to neighbours, sending festive plates, shalekh-mones). He describes the isolation from Jewish life during thirty years of army service, Passover matzo baking at home with the utensils kept in the attic, the pre-Yom-Kippur meal and Sabbath cholent baked in the oven.
38:02
From the machine transcript
Nayman recalls his father, who sometimes hit the cows, and how he himself carried dairy goods to be sold, with gendarmes sometimes stopping them. A talk follows, about an American Jew who came each year to pray at a grave, and cantors and teachers in a nearby town (the name is unclear), with names such as Yitskhok Eyzik Yankevitsh. Kerler questions him about prayer at various places.
54:58
From the machine transcript
Snook says the minyan today meets only on Sabbath, then names her mother Esther Fuks and recalls her paternal grandfather David, who lived to ninety. Her father Leyb Abramovitsh was born around 1899, and she gives the names of the siblings who were killed. She married in 1939, lived in a nearby village for forty years and moved to Khust in 1971 for a minyan and Jewish life. Her first husband was killed, and she has a son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
32:45
From the machine transcript
Pasik describes religious life on the kolkhoz before the war: one synagogue, a rabbi and a ritual slaughterer, the keeping of animals and fowl, and fattening geese. Kerler asks about holiday and Sabbath foods (Hanukkah potato latkes, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Sabbath dishes, carp). She talks about a mother and grandfather blessing candles, and does not remember the morning prayer.
53:09
From the machine transcript
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.
21:54
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein says prewar life in Bolgrad was good, with a Jewish community. He then speaks about the lack of Yiddish speakers today; he uses Yiddish with the rabbi, whose name is Gottlieb (?). He also mentions an earlier rabbi who drank.
25:06
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein says about 80 Jews live in Voznesensk, none speaking Yiddish, and Kerler and Lemster say where they are from. He tells of a visit to the Moscow synagogue and a Jewish calendar he was given. He discusses Communism and Jewishness, saying he was a Communist and still a Jew, and that Communist ideas were good. The talk covers belief in God, a cousin who was a Communist imprisoned in Romania, and Trotskyism.
31:17
From the machine transcript
Tzentziper says a Yiddish theater existed in Dobroye, later closed and turned into a Yiddish club, where people sang and danced and traveled to other colonies. He says holidays were observed by his family, who baked matzo themselves, and recalls a synagogue and a rabbi who lived several kilometres away. Kerler asks which Jewish colonies he remembers, and Tzentziper names Poltavka (?). He also recalls the school trip to the new Jewish district in Kherson region. He then begins to sing "Lomir zikh iberbetn".
0:00
From the machine transcript
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 (?).
41:27
From the machine transcript
Masovich says he attended a Russian school because there was no Yiddish school. As a child he was afraid to learn anything Jewish. He speaks of the former synagogue in Chernihiv, now a youth theater, and says he goes to the mikveh in the Desna every day, even in winter. Kerler and Katz respond to his account.
11:40
From the machine transcript
Trachtenberg speaks about prewar Novoseltsy. He mentions that about ten synagogues were in the town and that he is a war invalid. He says he lived there until 1941, studied in a Yiddish school and a Romanian school and in cheder, learned Hebrew, and finished four classes. His teacher was called Mendele. He recalls the Jewish football teams Hakoah (?), Shomer, Betar and Maccabi.
15:26
From the machine transcript
Bakmayev gives his name as Itsik and his surname as something like Bak Meir. His mother was Jewish and from Berdychiv, and his father was a soldier there who named as Otman Abramovich. Born in 1929, he lived in the synagogue building, which in Soviet times was used by soldiers. His mother had 23 children, of whom five survived. His mother's brother and others were killed by the Germans in 1941.
26:27
From the machine transcript
The tour continues. Listengurt names the streets in the former Jewish quarter and mentions a park and a poet, speaking about language and the shift of the word 'Jew' (zhid, Hebrew). She points to a former prerevolutionary building and the rabbi's flat (the rabbi had five or six children). She remembers going to the synagogue at Yom Tov and Yom Kippur, with two synagogues and many orphans there, taught trades. She also talks about the first rabbi who came to Odesa and who blamed the Jews themselves. The recording is interrupted by suggestions to sit somewhere quieter. A remark about the Jewish tree (?) and a request addressed to Lemster in Russian are also heard.
51:46
From the machine transcript
Listengurt tells Kerler about Odesa Yiddish writers and about contemporary Jewish life: she attends a synagogue on Pushkin Street and compares crowded high holidays then with now, when many non-Jews come. She says that at the Hesed a woman named Anna Lvovna (?) can tell about the music competition and violinists. She names Wieniawski, David Oistrakh, Buzya Goldstein, and Leybele Weisbein.
16:29
From the machine transcript
Cherner talks about prewar Balta as a largely Jewish town and about playing with his grandfather and the other klezmers, four or five of them, at Jewish weddings. His grandfather, born in 1800s (the year is unclear), taught his children several instruments. He remembers playing once, around 1948, at a wedding with a canopy held outdoors. He describes the sad and happy melodies played, the guests and the food. He also tells of the synagogue in Balta, which stayed open after the war while the old congregation died out.
26:11
From the machine transcript
Cherner says holidays were barely observed at home, there was no matzo baking, and the old men marked them. He describes the shoykhet in a large courtyard after the war, who slaughtered poultry for Jews every day, and the custom of kapores. He answers questions about words for a field and a village, about dialects, and tells of his grandfather Israel Cherner and Khayim Zise, who was with them in the ghetto. A relative died in Moscow. The synagogue stayed open until the early 1950s, and few Jews now speak Yiddish.
19:27
From the machine transcript
Medved says her father did not go to synagogue but went to the cemetery twice a year for the yortsayt, and she gives his ethical summary of religion in Russian. Asked about her family, she names two brothers, Yitskhok, who died in Israel, and Khayim, and says her mother did not work. She describes her work as a port dispatcher in Kazakhstan, sending materials by rail and ship.
31:35
From the machine transcript
Tokar describes how Jewish holidays were kept before the war even by non-religious Jews, and recalls a homemade toy gun at Purim. He says literary accounts of the Purim-shpil describe something old and that most Jews were secular. He speaks of study circles, burial society, two study houses, about a thousand five hundred Jews in Zheludok, and fewer gentiles. He recalls prewar Polish antisemitism, then comments on postwar Poland and the Jedwabne killings.
13:15
From the machine transcript
Tokar describes Jewish communal life in Odesa today: the several synagogues and Chabad, the lack of a single Jewish committee, and Joint-funded aid such as food cards, medicines and the Hesed. He then names his wife as Maria (?) and says her mother, who came from Grodno and spoke Yiddish, died in the 1970s.
18:37
From the machine transcript
Tokar says prewar Zheludok had a community with a rabbi, ritual slaughterers and a cantor, but no slaughterer after the war. He recalls his father hiring a private tutor, studying Bible, putting on tefillin at thirteen, and later studying at a trade school in Lida. He then discusses the Jewish newspapers he reads in Odesa, including a Chabad paper, and what he knows of Israel from the press, while Lemster asks about Hershele Ostropolyer.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Walking toward the Odesa yeshiva, the rabbi (Shpunt, per the catalogue) speaks in Russian about the Kherson area before the war, when Yiddish was official in a Jewish district, and about a Yiddish-speaking non-Jewish driver. He recalls how a 1988 concert led to a Yiddish class, then to a Jewish society whose first chairman he became. The society reclaimed a former synagogue building, he went to a Moscow congress of communities, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe's emissaries were involved. He also mentions Yakov Gruzberg and the poet Avram Katsev, and says his Odesa work began when Avraham Wolf invited him to the yeshiva.
30:40
From the machine transcript
Vainbrand says he recited the morning prayer and the Shema as a boy, and lived in Valedniki until 1935. He describes two schools there, one Yiddish and one half Yiddish and half Russian. Instruction was in Yiddish, and he spoke Yiddish at home with his mother. He says the town had a beys-medresh and a kloyz. Kerler remarks that few people still remember the tsadik of those years.
41:25
From the machine transcript
Asked about Purim, Vainbrand recalls that his mother made hamantashn, and that there was play-acting and singing. Children were dressed up by their mother, as on the Sabbath. He then describes prewar religious life in Valedniki, with two or three minyans in the kloyz and in the beys-medresh. He says the beys-medresh was large and perhaps wooden, and that he studied there in Hebrew, but he does not remember what. Kerler then brings a prayer book with the Valedniki rite.
50:35
From the machine transcript
Asked about the term for a 'good Jew', Vainbrand says the town had one, the tsadik, to whom Jews came every year, once even from America. Kerler tells him the grave in Valedniki now has a fine building and that Hasidim still go there. They discuss Rabbi Zev Shpunt, who led the team there, and which synagogue Vainbrand attends: the large city synagogue, since he can no longer walk. He says he is about ninety.
7:53
From the machine transcript
Vainbrand speaks about weddings and the wedding canopy during Soviet times, the shoykhet who was also a circumciser, and the study house with its tables and benches. Kerler asks questions about the words batlen, dybbuk and golem and about stories of the Valedniki rebbe, mostly answered with no recollection. The talk turns to the synagogue and the Sabbath routine of carrying a prayer book, to the sukkah built beside the house, and to the town bathhouse and mikveh near a small river. Lemster asks whether people feared the Communists.
35:30
From the machine transcript
Vainbrand names towns he visited before the war, including Zhytomyr and Ovruch; he passed through Berdychiv once. He names Simchat Torah as his favourite holiday and describes the procession with the Torah scrolls round the bimah in the synagogue. Kerler asks about Sabbath songs at home, and Lemster asks who asked the Four Questions on Passover. Vainbrand, the youngest son, asked them each year at home in Valedniki.
18:23
From the machine transcript
The couple say that Brodsky's parents did not speak Yiddish to the children, but his paternal grandfather did, and he was a synagogue warden (gabbay) and an honest man. Brodsky gives his father's name as Abraham Yankel and his Yiddish name as Berl (Russian Boris Abramovich). His father attended synagogue on holidays only, and worked in textiles or as a manufacturer (a doubtful Russian word); his mother, Basia, sewed at home. The synagogue is named as Chabad Lubavitch. The interviewers talk about their American university and give Brodsky a card.
10:06
From the machine transcript
Lerner is asked what he remembers of Ostroh before the war; he was seven when it began and did not attend cheder. He says he nearly forgot Yiddish because there was no one to speak it with, apart from his mother after the war. Kerler points to the old synagogue, from the sixteenth century (?). Lerner says Yiddish was his first language and that he grew up on a Jewish street. The Ukrainian neighbors spoke Yiddish with the Jews, better than he does, but none of them is alive now. His wife does not know Yiddish.
20:34
From the machine transcript
Lerner speaks in Russian, with Yiddish interjections, about prewar Jewish Ostroh. Wealthy Jews lived in the center and the poor on the outskirts, working as porters, shoemakers and tailors. There were several synagogues, including a women's one; the main one survives, and he mentions photographs and a chandelier given from America, now in the museum. He then talks about Yiddish books and ritual objects in the museum and the Jewish calendar he owns. He also says the Jews were shot nearby and he can show the graves. Lemster and Kerler ask about Slavuta and Zaslav, and about distances.
29:11
From the machine transcript
Dorfman talks about Sabbath before the war: his pious grandparents, his mother baking Friday and doing no work on Sabbath, a non-Jewish woman milking the cow, the wooden synagogue that burned, candle blessing and Sabbath foods such as cholent. Kerler asks about sweet fish and Hanukkah latkes of buckwheat flour, and Dorfman names the dreidel and a Purim noisemaker.
36:28
From the machine transcript
Dorfman recalls Passover before the war: baking matzo at home, his father's seder, the four questions, Elijah, stealing the afikoman and no chametz in the house. He recalls Yom Kippur and kapores. After the war there were several minyans that the militia dispersed, and kosher meat was available while a shoykhet lived, but none after his death.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Dorfman answers a long run of dialectological questions, with Kerler and Katz giving Russian words and sentences to render into Yiddish. The items cover colours of clothing, birds, adjectives, degrees of distance and height, a few words about the house and village, and translation of short sentences. Later he talks about his father, who prayed and put on tefillin at home on weekdays because of work and went to the big synagogue only on festivals. He explains that the synagogue burned down in 1936 or 1937 (the year is uncertain) in a fire that started when a non-Jew was singeing a pig, and the group discusses dialect words and local terms for Litvaks and for the Belarusian border area.
32:54
From the machine transcript
After the interview with Dorfman, the team greets Feldman and sets up the recording in his home. He gives his name and birth year, and says he was born in the village of Yanova Rudnya, about 20 km from Ovruch. He talks about his father, who leased a mill and farm from a landowner and was killed in 1919, and about his mother, sisters and five brothers who went to America. He tells of his melamedim and the Velednik tsadik, whom his father followed. He recalls his father's Sabbath tunes, studying and teaching at cheder in Luhyny, and recites prayers (kabbalat shabbat, kaddish, kiddush); the transcript is garbled for most of this. He also remembers Christian farmers in his village and begins to speak about Rosh Hashanah.
13:07
From the machine transcript
Feldman and Kerler talk about the Hasidic rebbe buried in Volednyk (Yisroel Leyb, son of Yosef), the shtetl and its Jewish absence today. In Ovruch he led a minyan of older men until recently, and handed two Torah scrolls to the community. He complains that the rabbis of Zhytomyr and Kyiv do not answer letters. Kerler then asks about his home village.
27:57
From the machine transcript
Feldman says he remembers the Four Questions and the Haggadah only in part, and not Chad Gadya's melody. At Katz's request he sings a Yiddish Passover song about a grandfather who traveled to Yalta and learned what must not be told outside cheder. He then reflects that Jewish life was beautiful before the war.
34:30
From the machine transcript
Feldman says that for Purim the family travelled to the nearby village of Skrebelychi, where there was a minyan, to hear the megillah; they did not sing anything there. Katz and Feldman compare how Purim is pronounced in his area and among Lithuanian Jews.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Katz asks Feldman what he remembers of Yom Kippur prayers, especially Kol Nidre, and of services and the synagogue. Feldman recalls a few words and says he can no longer see to read. Katz then asks him to say the rabbis' Kaddish slowly.
10:53
From the machine transcript
Stotland says Jewish holidays were not marked in the orphanage. As a child he and others ran away to his maternal aunt and uncle in town for Passover. He recalls five synagogues in Ovruch, including a large wooden one near the orphanage, where the children went for treats. The aunt and uncle were poor, with five small children.
24:33
From the machine transcript
Stotland speaks of prewar Jewish institutions in Ovruch: the rabbi, two ritual slaughterers (Shiman (?) and Kaptsan (?)), and the Yiddish periodicals Shtern and Emes that reached the school. Children borrowed Yiddish books and held discussions with teachers. The synagogues were demolished in 1937, after which Jews met in private houses. He also mentions Jews from Belarus and Moldova, and visits to Transcarpathia where the Yiddish differed.
32:03
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about cultural terms; Stotland explains what a dybbuk and a golem are, and what a good Jew is. He says people have visited the tsadik's grave near Ovruch since the 1990s and that he has been there often. He says there are no Hasidim in Ovruch today, though a religious man who speaks Yiddish and attends the minyan has recently arrived. Kerler also asks about a sanatorium for Chernobyl children.
28:39
From the machine transcript
The team asks for a Yiddish song and the women say they remember only fragments. They then answer Kerler's questions about prewar religious life, saying that there were several synagogues. After the war, Jews gathered secretly in a house to pray and the militia chased them away.
25:14
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia describes the two-story beys medresh in Veledniki, with women praying on one floor and men on the other. She also mentions a former Polish church and a Christian cloister, which she says Jews called kloyster. Nothing remains of the study house, the church or the cloister. The interviewers ask for Yiddish terms.
38:36
From the machine transcript
The conversation turns to religious life today, including where a rabbi might be consulted: Zhytomyr, or a rabbi who comes on Sabbath. Turovskaia says there is a prayer gathering on Lenin Street, and she names local Jews who live nearby. She recalls how her father led the seder before the war. She says two visitors, one from America and one from Israel, came recently for Passover, with a translator. Kerler asks about the word for translator and then about the dybbuk.
31:50
From the machine transcript
Long dialectology questionnaire led by Kerler, with Katz joining. The items include numbers, vodka, street prepositions, a flowerbed, a bed, a midwife and great-grandmother, plurals, sick and well, potatoes and flowers, a shop, people, another town, half, knowing, using, and adjectives and grammar: how to say 'the way' and 'wagons'. Turovskaia mentions her father's praying and Kol Nidre in synagogue, and Katz asks about gender and diminutive forms. The tape ends with her offering to show her children.
37:08
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia explains how she keeps religious customs today. She says Yizkor for her dead relatives and gathers a minyan, with a Torah laid out when ten are not present. On a yahrzeit she lights a lamp and gives money so that Kaddish is said. She mentions saying Yizkor on the second day of Shavuot and dreams of deceased relatives.
45:21
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia describes Veledniki before the war: one hundred and twenty-five Jewish families, perhaps half the town's population, a cheerful shtetl that later became a village. There were a synagogue, a beys medresh, a Polish church and a cloister. Relations with Christians were normal.
1:00:38
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about tales and songs from her grandmother, and Turovskaia recites a short rhyme heard in school. Kerler asks about Purim. She recalls the megillah, Purim plays, hamantashn baked by her mother, and the family going to synagogue.
30:01
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia explains how her father had her record the yahrzeit dates, and how today's small minyan gathers in her community on Sabbath. She also mentions that Haggadahs come at Passover and describes her father praying as an old man.
20:30
From the machine transcript
Zak says her father was observant, put on tefillin and a tallit, and went to a small synagogue for workers. She names seven synagogues in the town before the war and recalls the street named for them. She says the Yiddish school closed in 1938, that the synagogues were closed earlier, and that she attended an anti-religious campaign in school (?). She answers questions put by Kerler and other speakers.
29:17
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Zak to sing, and she sings or recites a Yiddish song, though shy. He then asks about Sukkot, Simchat Torah and her father taking her to the synagogue, where wine was given out. She mentions travelling to Khmelnytskyi on Simchat Torah.
42:08
From the machine transcript
Zak says she founded the library in 1945 (?) and that before the war the public library held many Yiddish books as well as Russian ones, which she used. Asked about Hasidim, she mentions one Pasik (?), who slaughtered fowl (?), and that Jews gathered for prayer in private houses with ten or twenty men. She says her husband does not understand Yiddish.
MDV 639Isaak Grigorievich Vainsheinboim; Moisei (Moyshe ben Zalmen) Zelmanovich Fish bRivne, Slavuta, 2003
10:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Sabbath songs (zmires); Vainsheinboim hums or sings a fragment of one and says that after the war he did not go to pray because it was not allowed. Kerler also prompts for other melodies, and Vainsheinboim comments on how prayer is done in America versus Ostroh.
45:30
From the machine transcript
Fish recalls going with his father to the Jewish bath on Fridays, and the mikveh inside it. He says the city was smaller than Tarnopol (?) and that after the war the Soviets rebuilt it and Christians took over the emptied Jewish houses. He recalls his brother's synagogue and says each trade had its own synagogue, with some forty-four in Rivne.
6:39
From the machine transcript
Looking at a photograph, Shteingart and Kerler identify a Simchat Torah celebration in the Rivne synagogue, taken some years earlier. Shteingart says he organised the community and took over the synagogue, beginning in the late 1980s, and describes his letters asking for a Torah scroll. He mentions that a Torah was stolen, that tefillin came from someone from Israel, and that prayer books came from Chabad. Kerler then introduces Russian words to be translated.
18:33
From the machine transcript
Fish explains that his father Shloyme was a builder of houses, with Kerler helping on the Yiddish word. His father built the family house, and Fish went with him to the synagogue on Sabbaths and holidays.
27:05
From the machine transcript
Fish remembers prewar holidays: Passover matzo preparation and the kheyder lessons about Egypt, Rosh Hashanah, Shavuot, Sukkot and Purim. At Purim children from Shomer dressed up and made a bonfire in the forest; Purim plays and seders were done at home. He names Mekl(?) as leader of the Purim group, and says that at times he led prayers when there was no rabbi.
31:14
From the machine transcript
Fish talks about the synagogue's upper floor and how the congregation shifted to the Hesed. He tells of the rabbi, called Shneur Zalman (?), who took on communal matters, left for Israel and was expected back, leaving Fish to pray alone. Lemster then asks how many Jews were there before the war.
4:48
From the machine transcript
Fish talks about his friends before the war, including a boyhood friend who was poor and did not continue his schooling, unlike Fish at the gymnasium. Lemster asks about a family of a melamed, which Fish only vaguely recalls. He briefly mentions non-religious Jews who attended the synagogue.
11:23
From the machine transcript
Kleiner explains that an aunt, who had no children, took her in at age two, and that this happened to other children in town. Her uncle was a tailor. She describes Shepetivka as a Jewish town with many trades, the closing of the cheder in the early 1930s and of the Jewish school later, the six synagogues, and Rabbi Shapiro, who was sent to Novosibirsk after the war; his son Shlomo lives in Baltimore. She also discusses a charitable society for the poor on October Street, the surviving synagogue, a Russian shoemaker's sons who attended the Jewish school, and children's games (forfeits, tag, hide-and-seek, sledding), with Kerler asking about terms.
9:41
From the machine transcript
Kleiner answers questions about a Jewish library in town and the difference between a rav and a rebbe. She discusses plurals and the terms for Litvaks, Polish Jews and Galicians, and how Jews from other regions spoke. She says that anti-religious mock trials and Komsomol checks on synagogue-going and baking were held; she says there were no Hasidim in Shepetivka. She also describes the rabbi acting as judge in a Jewish court.
7:56
From the machine transcript
Kleiner recalls two years in cheder and the Ukrainian school. He says he was pressed to join the Pioneers and refused. He describes the synagogue, beis medresh and kloyz of Yampil' and the cheder teacher, known by a nickname from his house. He mentions the synagogue building's later use and his own part in the prayers. Kerler also asks about dialect.
19:06
From the machine transcript
Kleiner answers questions on Sabbath, going to synagogue with his father, and the Sabbath and Sunday school days. He speaks about bar mitzvah, and Passover customs: removing and burning leaven and kashering. Kerler asks about holiday songs, and about Purim and Hanukkah. The terms for the river and for 'tehom' are asked. He says the Torah scrolls of Shepetivka were hidden and returned after liberation.
1:22
From the machine transcript
Footage from the van and the street in Shpykiv. Krasner points out the former ghetto and houses where Jews once lived, some now occupied by non-Jews, and says only a handful of Jews remain in town. Katz asks about this and about the number of people in Shpykiv. Kerler has a long exchange with her about how a mother counted guests, and she describes the former synagogue. The stretch is full of Russian chatter, banter about the camera and Americans, and speech that is hard to follow.
14:09
From the machine transcript
The team arrives at the cemetery in the dusk and walks over a bad path. Krasner shows the graves of her mother and aunt. Katz reads the inscriptions with her and says kaddish for her mother and aunt, whose names are only partly clear. Krasner says the aunt was cremated and buried elsewhere. The speech is partly garbled.
37:26
From the machine transcript
Murovanaia talks about the Soviet Yiddish school in Haysyn and some of its teachers, though she herself attended a Russian school. She recalls that there were three synagogues, which stood until the Germans came. After the war a shoykhet and a minyan existed, and the family held memorials for grandparents.
7:10
From the machine transcript
Shvartsburg tells what he knows of Jewish Skvyra before the war from his grandmother's and parents' stories and from a book. The town had a large Jewish population, a dozen or so prayer houses, and a Jewish center. The Jews who lived there, about a thousand, were shot by the Germans, and Jews have since left for Israel, America and Australia.
25:08
From the machine transcript
The tour continues with talk about fundraising, including a portrait and the Chabad rabbi's contribution, and about the burial place of Itsik Twersky. Shvartsburg recalls that a synagogue was built in 1860s (?) and that the Soviets later closed it. Kerler asks about the postwar period and who still prayed there.
24:03
From the machine transcript
Liberzon describes how after the war her father had a small wood or square planted over the old cemetery, whose stones were used for pavements. Kerler asks whether the shtibl of Reb Pinkhas Koretz was a shtibl or an oyel. She lists the many synagogues of prewar Slavuta, such as the Pritsker and Rabinovitsh kloyzn, and the family's wealth, naming her grandfather Reb Khayim Shapira.
36:09
From the machine transcript
Liberzon says that during the war the family was in Siberia while Jewish theaters and schools were closed across the country. Her father was highly respected, and the Slavuta synagogue was the only one in the country not closed, opened at the end of 1947, after the war. Kerler asks about the permit required, then turns the conversation back to her mother's side of the family.
14:35
From the machine transcript
Liberzon talks about the hard years after the revolution and the war, when many rabbis died, including relatives, some of them with relatives in America. She says that after the synagogue in Shepetivka was closed, people travelled to Slavuta for the High Holidays.
15:41
From the machine transcript
Liberzon describes how worshippers from nearby towns came to pray after the war, with talk of cantors and music. A relative named Margolis (?) used to stay and the rabbis sat up talking all night, which she as a child could not follow. She also mentions her father's brother, a great scholar.
42:40
From the machine transcript
Liberzon discusses whether people in Slavuta were called pious or honest, with Kerler explaining the term. She says that before the war Slavuta had some great scholars and a yeshiva once existed. Her father prayed with older men and wore two sets of tefillin; her grandfather was more devout still. She recalls the pioneer's conflict with her religious grandfather.
2:43
From the machine transcript
Liberzon mentions a relative who lived in a town whose name is unclear in the transcript and who was smuggled across the border dressed as a peasant on the way to the Land of Israel. She also says her father could have left but stayed, to keep the synagogue from being closed. She also refers to stories of tsadikim sent from America.
17:16
From the machine transcript
Liberzon says drinking brandy was forbidden in her father's synagogue after the war, though Jews gathered at the house on Sabbath for kugel; her father avoided drink apart from an occasional measure. Kerler brings up the Purim commandment to drink.
48:17
From the machine transcript
Last questionnaire items on pronunciation variants such as 'various'. The interviewers then say they are looking for a wooden synagogue, and the informant speaks about wooden buildings and a wooden shul. Her Yiddish is praised, and she says that English-speaking Jews would be different.
3:25
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim recalls that the Soviets arrived in 1939 and he was taken into the army. He describes Ostroh before the war as an entirely Jewish town with many synagogues. The great synagogue still stands, and he tries to recall the Hebrew inscription in gold letters over its entrance, without success.
10:54
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about pride in the great synagogue of Ostroh; Vainshelboim speaks of an old cannonball that still hangs in the wall. They discuss how a circumcision was held, with prayers, the rabbi and the mohel. He says Ostroh had one yeshiva and at least fifteen small synagogues, including a butchers' prayer room inside the great synagogue.
48:15
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim talks about Ostroh before the war: a beautiful town where the shops were all Jewish and where non-Jews who grew up playing with Jewish children also spoke Yiddish. In a Russian stretch he recalls his two-storey wooden house, dismantled and carried off after the war, and then his work for 44 years at a warehouse in Slavuta. He recalls a clever, helpful rabbi whose name is unclear in the transcript. Kerler thanks him and says the team must move on to Zaslav and Zhytomyr.
27:01
From the machine transcript
Klein speaks about her family. Her father Shmuel, born in 1894, worked as a carpenter and furniture maker and later headed an artel. He was evacuated to Omsk as a specialist. She gives the names of her mother Rivke, grandmothers Mirl and Beyle, and her siblings, and describes their street, the synagogues and her grandmother's attendance at the Beys-Medresh. Kerler also asks about a Yiddish library before the war.
11:07
From the machine transcript
Bivson talks about Jewish religious life before the war. She mentions the shoykhet, kapores, several synagogues, a large synagogue with a poorhouse, a rabbi and a minyan, and women attending. She describes Sabbath preparation and kosher meat. She also recalls building the sukkah with neighbors' help and sleeping in it.
21:41
From the machine transcript
Bivson says she worked as a telephone operator for forty years. She describes postwar Jewish life in Starokostyantyniv, with a rabbi, a synagogue, a minyan and a shoykhet who came from Khmelnytskyi. She also answers Lemster's question about the Yiddish name of the town.
29:16
From the machine transcript
Bivson says she wanted to go to Israel and longs for her friends from Donetsk and Starokostyantyniv. She answers questions about dybbuk, golem and geshmad, and says she knows no Christians who speak Yiddish, though some elderly people understand it. She says she knows a Hebrew prayer and recites or speaks a Yiddish prayer for the cemetery. She also talks about her grandchild, her son who spoke Yiddish, and her Jewish wedding.
34:01
From the machine transcript
Bivson says no chuppah was set up at her wedding and recalls the postwar gap in synagogue life in Starokostyantyniv. She answers Lemster's question about whether the Yiddish in Birobidzhan differed from hers, saying it did not, and gives a few word variants such as mame and broyt.
1:31
From the machine transcript
Bivson, born in Polonne, recalls a good childhood there: her father was a laborer and her mother worked. She attended a Yiddish school for five grades, later a Ukrainian school, and describes the Jewish life of the town. She mentions the poet Peretz Markish as a native of Polonne, the many shoemakers and tailors, and the synagogue, and says she fled on foot when the bombing began.
6:00
From the machine transcript
Bivson says she has forgotten most songs but recalls fragments of a Yiddish song. She answers whether Polonne had a bathhouse and several synagogues. She explains that after the war she left Polonne for Starokostyantyniv because her house was bombed out.
31:01
From the machine transcript
S2 asks Bivson about Jewish life in Starokostyantyniv after the war. She says there were several large synagogues and they still attended, and mentions a woman, Bella, and the lack of Jewish loneliness. Much of the passage is garbled or in Russian.
38:41
From the machine transcript
Bivson says that after the war the holidays were kept well despite the damaged synagogue and the sorrows she lived through. She says her sons (?) live in Israel and call on holidays, and that a female relative sends gifts. Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for celebrating a holiday.
23:28
From the machine transcript
Klein recalls religious life in the 1930s: the home was Jewish, services were held in small private prayer houses, and people kept the holidays. She describes the Purim baking and the absence of masks, talks vaguely about weddings she attended as a child, and mentions klezmer. Kerler then asks about poetry.
29:37
From the machine transcript
Klein explains a wedding custom (?) and recalls that the town was Jewish and that Yiddish was spoken until the war, and less afterward. Asked about non-Jews who knew Yiddish, she says there were many, and that after the war a non-Jewish man even prayed in Yiddish. Kerler then asks where she is now.
38:24
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Klein discuss the planned route of the expedition to nearby towns and Klein talks about a rabbi in Zhytomyr whom she spoke with in Yiddish. They then talk about Kerler's own background in Moscow and his family. The passage ends as Kerler turns to Yiddish theater.
28:41
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about folk customs, including pouring wax, an egg for fright and prayers for the dead, which Tartinets mostly does not recall. She says the Jews in the village were poor and worked with horses and carts, and that after the war she returned at about fifteen and worked. She mentions a Jewish wedding that was beautiful, burial customs, the word for the Jewish prayer house versus the church, and an American visitor. The conversation also touches on Kerler's speaking a different kind of Yiddish.
30:05
From the machine transcript
The scene moves outdoors in Haysyn, where Burshtein points out the old Jewish houses, a former synagogue replaced by a sewing factory, and how few Jews remain. The team thanks him and takes leave. A local man discusses in Russian how the children of Yiddish speakers lost the language, and the team talks about a Lithuanian-Yiddish speaker.
10:07
From the machine transcript
Yakuta says that after the synagogues were closed Jews gathered in private homes to pray, and that there was a Jewish militia for some years. Kerler tests a few words by having her translate from Russian. She then describes her father's brother, who kept a small kerosene shop. A chairman of the Yiddish soviet had him arrested and held for a winter when he could not produce gold, and he came out in a terrible state. The family was poor.
19:03
From the machine transcript
Asked about the town's synagogues and prayer houses, Gliazer distinguishes Hasidim from the less observant. He says that after 1939 the Soviets did not close the synagogues but restricted prayer to Sabbath. He then describes how the economy changed: no factories, small trade, and taxes on artisans.
40:18
From the machine transcript
Gliazer describes Passover: the seder, matzo and the four questions, with his father's response, and the door opened for Elijah (or the Messiah). He describes Simchat Torah as a joyful day of dancing with Torah scrolls and calling up all to the Torah. Kerler asks about a custom of calling up the children, which Gliazer does not remember.
36:32
From the machine transcript
Liza Petrunenko joins and gives her name and Yiddish name. The talk covers her parents and grandfather, and the family's work in the kolkhoz. Reznik and Petrunenko recall prayer in private houses, the many prayer houses of the town, and Sabbath and Passover customs. Reznik names her siblings and recalls childhood games. They discuss non-Jews who spoke Yiddish before the war and today, and Reznik shows the old mezuzahs on doors and windows and her old house.
3:24
From the machine transcript
Tkach, born in 1935 in the small town of Chernivtsi ("Kleyn Tshernovits"), talks about her parents, grandparents and the traditional Jewish house with its mezuzah. She recalls her uncle the gabbai, the synagogue with its women's gallery, her aunt reading tkhines, and the killing of another aunt's family. She describes the war years, refugees and the ghetto, the postwar schools and her brother's studies, and her forty years as a journalist in Yampil'. She then covers food customs for Sabbath, Passover, Purim and Hanukkah, children's games, Yiddish-speaking neighbors and friends, and weddings with their dances and musicians. She also talks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, the postwar fear of speaking Yiddish and the antisemitism of the Doctors' Plot, and Ukrainian literature. The last part is a dialectological questionnaire: she is asked how various Russian words, phrases and sentences would be said in Yiddish (greetings, house and window words, colors, comparatives).
40:27
From the machine transcript
Interview with Preger outside her home. Preger says she was born in Tomashpol' and that her parents were from there too. She calls Yiddish a jargon and says she prefers to speak Ukrainian. She describes the seven-class Yiddish school and the pedagogical technical college in Vinnytsia, where she studied for three years. She describes wartime in Tomashpol' and her work as a teacher of large classes of 45 pupils until retirement. She also covers present-day hardship, prices, health and the Joint help. She says her father was a worker, her mother a housewife who baked on Friday, and mentions the prewar synagogue.
16:12
From the machine transcript
Formal interview with Sapozhnik, who says she is a native of Tomashpol' and speaks Yiddish with her brother in Israel. She talks about her parents Nusn and Rukhl and the kolkhoz, her siblings, the old synagogue and how women prayed, her father's siddur and her poor childhood. She recalls the war, with her brothers drafted and the killings and ghettos under Germans and Romanians. She also mentions the town's remaining Yiddish speakers, and answers Kerler's questions on Yiddish words and on fish, melay and Passover food. Katz adds a general question about the best years.
51:19
From the machine transcript
Interview with Dora Guzman, who is welcomed into her flat. Katz states the date as 28 June 2005 and asks about her earliest memories. She was born in Tomashpol', attended the Yiddish school up to the fourth class and then Ukrainian school in Pishchanka, where she stayed with her mother's brother. She names her father Benyamin/Bentsion Abramovich, who worked in the clothing trade, was pious and prayed in one of the three synagogues, and her mother Sara, from the Odessa region. Katz also asks about Yiddish songs, the rabbi, Passover seder, Purim pastries, Hanukkah, the Sabbath and fish dishes.
8:41
From the machine transcript
Interview with Sapozhnik in her yard. She describes how hard her life is now, living alone, not eating well and missing her teeth. She gives her name, birth in Tomashpol' in 1924, her parents Nusn and Rekhl and the family surname, and lists her brothers and sisters, with their birth years and where they ended up (Israel, Moscow, the Far East). She recalls the kolkhoz where her parents worked, the old house with mezuzahs, the Romanian occupation and the ghetto with refugees and killings, and her marriages and the deaths of her husband and son. She also describes Sabbath, Hanukkah and Passover food and fish dishes, the old synagogues and the Yiddish school she did not attend, Yiddish-speaking non-Jews, and a rabbi killed in the war. She tells of her garden and sea-buckthorn oil, and of her mother's folk healing and cupping.
0:00
From the machine transcript
After opening chat among those present, Shusterman gives her father Toyva's name and says he was born in Tomashpol' in 1901 and died in 1995 aged 94. He worked in several jobs, including at a bank, and wrote well in Yiddish and Russian. She describes him as an honest and pious man who prayed daily and led the Passover seder. After the war he acted as a kind of rebbe, saying kaddish for the dead, and the militia broke up prayer gatherings. She says she cannot tell about Jewish life before the war and then talks about his singing and her own love of music. She talks about her own accounting career, leaving work at 53 to care for her blind father, and then knitting and selling at the market. She also covers her own illness and depression. The few Jews left in Tomashpol' (eight) gather for holidays and yortsaytn, and she explains why she will not emigrate and a relative in Germany. She says antisemitism was present earlier, and she describes her wartime evacuation to Mordovia and the postwar housing and compensation. She also talks about her husband, a non-Jew, and a lost love from Odesa. The passage ends with Kerler's thanks, a promise to send Yiddish songs, and fragmentary talk.
0:00
From the machine transcript
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.
9:23
From the machine transcript
The interview with Guzman begins with her name, birth in Tomashpol' and her family: her father Bentsion, a shop worker beaten by the gendarmerie, her mother, and her brother. She recalls Yiddish and Ukrainian schooling, prewar holidays (Purim, Passover, Sukkot), food, the synagogues and the shoykhet, weddings and the library. She describes the ghetto, where non-Jewish villagers brought food, and forced labour in the fields. She mentions the famine and her stay with an aunt and uncle, as well as work after the war, photographs, relatives in Odessa, America and Israel, and Tul'chyn. Roughly the last quarter is word elicitation: greetings, colours, adverbs, 'pigeon', 'ear' and other items, which Guzman answers with difficulty.
30:48
From the machine transcript
Asked about Jewish holidays she remembers, Shveibish recalls that her grandfather Yekhiel was a trader and that there were ten synagogues in Tul'chyn, none of which remains. Candles were blessed, Sabbath and Passover were kept, and food was kosher; today there is no shoykhet. She speaks of the community's modest help for the sick and poor, and of paying for burials of lonely people. Kerler asks what is meant by erecting a memorial, and he also asks about her father, whom people called Nyune.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shveibish answers dialectological questions on words for colours (blue and light blue), pigeon, 'also', near, late, ceiling, floor, face and cleanliness, and on the dreydl game. She also talks about Tul'chyn: its Jews, today's Jewish concerts, pensions for camp survivors and the religious revival. She describes the one postwar synagogue, the shoykhet, and prayer meetings broken up in the 1960s. Kerler and Katz ask about Jews in nearby towns (Mohyliv, Vinnytsia, Nemyriv, Bratslav, Uman, Sharhorod) and about the Romanian-run ghettos and Pechera during the war.
14:08
From the machine transcript
Kogan describes conditions for refugees from Bukovina and Bessarabia in the Bershad' ghetto. He recalls going to the synagogue under Soviet rule and saying Kaddish for his father. Kerler asks about prayer houses, and Kogan recalls Passover observance in private homes before the war.
18:30
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Bershad figures such as a shoykhet and cantor who was killed, and Kogan describes a prayer house that still exists and fear of the militia when baking matzo after the war. He says his father had been in America and returned. A brother (younger) lives in Indianapolis, where Kerler also lives, and he had two sisters who died. The conversation turns to Kogan's contact with his brother, his brother's illness and whether Kerler can carry greetings or a photograph.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shveibish tells about her husband Itsik's family from Horyshkivka. His father came from Tul'chyn after the pogroms, he was a craftsman, and there were six children. She describes the Romanian-era ghetto in the village club, a sister who was shot at and traumatised, the siblings who emigrated or have died, and the parents' graves in Tomashpil. She talks about Horyshkivka as the model for Sholem Aleichem's Kasrilevke, the Yiddish theatre troupe in which her husband's father acted, and pogroms in Tul'chyn and Khmelnytskyi's time. She then describes Jewish life in Tul'chyn today (the community's difficulties, no shoykhet, no minyan, a memorial, aged pensioners), and Jewish food and holiday customs, with a recipe for gefilte fish. The passage includes dialectological questions on words such as store, courtyard, well, potato dishes, thanks and please, and idioms.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Presler gives her parents' and grandparents' families: both parents were born in Tul'chyn, and her mother had six sisters and two brothers. Her maternal grandfather was a glazier, and her father's family were musicians who played in a klezmer band for weddings, Purim and holidays. She describes growing up in the Kapsynivka quarter by the little river with crowded houses, and the family gatherings there with food, dancing and Yiddish songs. She recalls the 1933 famine, in which a relative died, and the dollars her sisters sent from America. She describes prewar hunger and poverty, and discusses her sisters' wartime and postwar lives, one of them marrying a non-Jewish officer. She answers Kerler's questions about plural forms, Yiddish words and dance names, and recalls Purim and weddings. She also talks about her grandson's singing and her prewar religious life, a synagogue building taken over, and her father's prayer. The passage ends with photographs of Pechera camp survivors, including one from 1990, the year her husband died.
12:40
From the machine transcript
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.
6:22
From the machine transcript
The guide continues about the site: a medical school was here after the war, where she studied nursing (?) before going on to Vinnytsia. She says travellers once stopped overnight at a Jewish house here, that Jews still lived here after the war and that non-Jews live here now. Kerler and Lemster ask about visitors from Israel and about the many synagogues before the war.
26:51
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij says a neighbour speaks Yiddish better than he does. Her father Misha Katsop (?), a Christian shoemaker, spoke Yiddish and brought a Torah scroll into the Pechera camp. Katsop is a nickname.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij answers questions about his life, mostly in a loosely ordered conversation. He says he trained as a driver in Bratslav in 1937 and drove for decades. During the war he drove in Poland and Finland and served in Odessa; he was wounded in the leg, sent home, and later spent a year in the Pechera camp. He drove a general through Budapest, Prague, Vienna and Berlin, and describes the hunger in Budapest and a general's profiteering. He describes the 1919 pogrom in Tul'chyn, in which his father (a hatmaker), mother and grandfather were killed by a bandit band, and how his grandmother raised him and his brothers in poverty, with a Polish priest involved in his rescue. A brother died in the war, and his sons now live in America. He also names the Jewish streets of Tul'chyn and gives the Jewish population as over ten thousand. He talks about Stalin, Trotsky and Lenin, his school, an old synagogue, Poland and Finland in 1939–40, being wounded in Odessa when the war began, the ghetto in Bershad', and the visitors' own homes.
0:59
From the machine transcript
Pecherskaia and the team try the dishes she has prepared. She speaks about her son, who lives in a new district of Tul'chyn, and about relatives in Israel and America, including half-sisters whose city she does not know. She describes going to Pechera every year at Rosh Hashanah, where her family lies, and being photographed and interviewed there. She names her family and gives her name, maiden name and birth year; her father Yosif worked as a coachman or carter. She had four siblings, including her brother Hershl, killed in the army at seventeen, and her sisters Shele and Rivele, who died in Pechera. She gives a long account of Pechera: her mother killed with shovels, her sisters' deaths, her escape and recapture, the German camp in Bratslav with its killings in the forest, and hiding in a pit and with a Polish woman until the partisans came. After the war she worked at a brewery in Bratslav and married in 1945. She talks about her husband Shune, her stepfather, her children and grandchildren, and a daughter in Israel. She recalls prewar Bratslav, a field wedding, her grandfather and prayer, Passover, the Bratslav tsadik's grave, and the hunger of 1933. She also talks about Tul'chyn after the war, her fasting, Passover matzo and gefilte fish.
7:09
From the machine transcript
Family: a sister who went to the front and an uncle in America who wanted to take her out. The father died in the 1930s, perhaps during the famine, leaving the mother with two children. The informant says her grandparents are no longer alive and recalls that the family lived in the synagogue building where her mother prayed. Her mother was a cook; Kerler wishes her health to enjoy her grandchildren, and the talk touches on Israel.
35:33
From the machine transcript
A Rubin describes his wartime service: the officer school leaving Odessa for Moldova on the first day of the war, a first fight with a German, being encircled, then Moscow, the Volkhov, Kalinin and Smolensk fronts. At 18 he commanded forty soldiers and burned tanks with bottles. He tells of being shot and wounded on the Smolensk front, with six operations, and is now a disabled veteran, with a pension of 180 hryvnia, who attends prayer with a rabbi.
39:20
From the machine transcript
Rubin says he and the other go to services on Sabbath. Kerler asks about the year of his marriage, and when he went to Odessa and when he was drafted: he says he was in the army before the war, in 1940.
8:20
From the machine transcript
Efim and Motl describe Jewish Buki as a large town with many Jews, mostly locally born. It had one large synagogue with separate women's and men's sections, three shochets and a rabbi whose name is partly remembered (Zarnitski?). Kerler asks what the town was called in Yiddish, and the electric station is mentioned.
29:50
From the machine transcript
Teplitskaia says her children have non-Jewish spouses, including the daughter-in-law of her son in Germany. She says the son has a tallit and tefillin and attended synagogue in Germany. Kerler asks whether the children know Yiddish and ends by beginning a question about a synagogue in the town.
31:04
From the machine transcript
Teplitskaia recalls her parents' daily prayer with tallis and tefillin, and says her father kept faith in God during the German occupation. She says she wanted to leave Ukraine with her children, but could not leave her three children behind when her sisters offered to take her. She says her children treat her well.
29:35
From the machine transcript
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A gathering at the grave of Nahman of Bratslav. The community members discuss Rebbe Nahman and his disciple Rabbi Nosn, the Bratslav teachings, the ten psalms and the idea that every Jew has some good point, and they sing Bratslav melodies together, including one about a joyful year. They talk about Sabbath songs and the differences between Bratslav and other Hasidic groups. The talk turns to Yiddish and Hebrew vocabulary, with some word discussion and a few parables. Katz and Kerler are asked about themselves (Katz born in New York and now living in Vilnius, a professor of Yiddish language, literature and history), and the group talks about yeshivas and rabbis of Lithuania, Poland and Brooklyn, and about praying together.
1:34
From the machine transcript
Rubin tells of a friend's funeral in Buki, apparently before the war (the transcript gives 1938 or 1939), at which the man woke up and walked home. He asks Kerler to greet Matl, a relative from Buki whose wife has died and whose son lives in Ashkelon, and says that a few Jews still pray in Uman' and that their rabbi is Rabbi Fish from America. He and Kerler recall an earlier visit about three years before and discuss an illness that doctors could not cure.
8:22
From the machine transcript
Rubin says that great numbers of people come to Uman' for Rosh Hashanah, Purim, Hanukkah and Passover, and that he has been going for fifteen years. He gets kosher matzo at Passover, reads Yiddish letters only a little, and says there are no prayer books in translation. He and Kerler talk about a Yiddish story book and a siddur with a Yiddish translation. Rubin also speaks about Matl's ill sister, a son who lives in Jerusalem and works at a dairy firm (?), and his own visits to his mother's grave in Israel.
18:55
From the machine transcript
Rubin recites or sings short Yiddish songs, including one about a tailor and one about a girl sewing, together with a saying attributed to Reb Nahman about dancing in hard times. Kerler asks him to repeat them for the microphone and asks about their source. Rubin recalls his grandfather, who died before the war and who took him to the beys-medresh and sang Sabbath songs. Rubin says he studied in Odessa before the war.
33:28
From the machine transcript
Rubin describes prewar religious life in Buki: Jews gathered in small groups in a house away from the centre to form a minyan, and quietly so as not to be seen. He recalls that his uncle Velvl, a butcher, brought kosher meat, and notes the word the Jews used for meat.
38:02
From the machine transcript
In Krasheny's flat Kerler tries to get a deaf man to talk about Uman' and Yiddish life there. S4 and S3 explain in Russian that photographs show a first minyan some fifteen years earlier, and that a man in them went to America. An elderly man (S2) rambles in Yiddish about the first pilgrims to arrive, Yom Kippur, his grandfather the tsadik and a dream; the transcript is too garbled to follow in detail.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Krasheny talks about going to the synagogue and praying, saying he prayed there for three years and at the minyan. He mentions when the synagogue was being built and that he can say Kaddish by heart, and Kerler and Katz ask him to say it. He also talks about an American visitor, Rosh Hashanah, a dream of visitors coming, and his older daughter's move to Germany with her family. He says he wanted to travel to Israel.
48:57
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler, Waldman describes Reb Nahman's grave in Soviet times and today. After the war there was a small building at the site, and she recalls tombstones and a wall. She describes the pilgrimage of Hasidim, with thousands coming each Rosh Hashanah and a new multi-storey kloyz being built. Before perestroika people came quietly, because religion was controlled. She also mentions the director of a tourist organization for Hasidim and her trips abroad.
MDV 741Nukhim Moiseevich (Moshkovich) Gvinter; unidentified informant (Bershad'); Efim VigodnerUman', Bershad', 2008
32:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Gvinter talk about who in Bershad' still knows Yiddish, naming Efim Vigodner (Mikhailovich) as a good Yiddish speaker. Gvinter discusses in Russian a younger woman whose first language is Yiddish and says whether she can come. They settle whether to film in the synagogue, for which he would fetch the key, or in the flat.
23:35
From the machine transcript
Katz remembers cheder, where only the Torah was taught and not the meaning of the prayers, and prewar religious life. The interviewer asks whether anyone has written down his account; he says his account of the camp was recorded in Yiddish by someone, and mentions a small book with a Kyiv connection.
46:16
From the machine transcript
Halpert describes how hard Soviet life was, since he could not admit he had sisters in Israel. Under Gorbachev things improved and in 1988 they visited the sisters for the first time. He talks about Jewish life today: Hesed, children learning Yiddish and Hebrew, the prayer house, a rabbi from America and Chabad, Rabbi Menakhem Mendl Taykhman, Russian-language newspapers and contacts with the Israeli ambassador.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Halpert speaks Hungarian on the phone and then in Yiddish about arranging the team's further interviews, giving an address and a phone number so that a local man, a former head of the Uzhhorod Jewish community who speaks good Yiddish, can be met. Kerler asks about local prayer times (minyan only on Friday night and holidays) and for more phone numbers; then Kerler announces he will put some sentences to translate from Russian.
48:38
From the machine transcript
In the restaurant, the formal interview begins with Naybauer's family, whose parents died in Auschwitz. He describes his childhood in a poor family in Mala Dobron (Kis Dobron), where he was born in Natkapash (?). His father, from Dubove, died when Naybauer was ten or eleven, after a failed shipment of cabbage; Naybauer then helped support the family. He talks about his grandfather and uncle, lists the Jewish families of Mala Dobron and describes its stone synagogue, rabbi, shoykhet and mikveh. He also mentions receiving compensation in Budapest and being liberated by the Americans.
30:33
From the machine transcript
Shor names his father Yosl and mother Dobresh. His father was a ritual slaughterer who also led services, officiating as a cantor after the war in a Vinnytsya synagogue. Liudmila's father Yidl sold flour in a shop; in the 1930s the family was dispossessed and expelled from their home and moved to Verkhovka, where he learned hairdressing. Shor recalls his own mother and children being evicted in the rain and the creation of a Jewish kolkhoz.
1:14
From the machine transcript
Kerler explains that the recordings will go to a university archive, and the Shors are invited to begin telling about Kopayhorod. They place the houses near a river and describe a wholly Jewish town with a rabbi and several ritual slaughterers. Liudmila recalls seeing the rabbi praying as a girl and says she spoke both Yiddish and Ukrainian with her mother. Grigorii says four synagogues were reduced to two, closed in 1925 and 1926 (?), and they discuss a bakery and the street named after the synagogue.
13:58
From the machine transcript
Under the Romanian occupation the former synagogue became a Romanian administrative office. Pressure began on the rabbi, the Torah scribe and the cantor to renounce religion, and it was announced in the district newspaper; those who refused were sent away. People then secretly gathered to pray.
16:13
From the machine transcript
After 1936, Jews prayed in private homes and asked that the authorities not know. Liudmila recalls her mother gathering women on holidays and reading to them in Yiddish from a prayer book, and being sent out when they wept. The couple name the Jewish holidays, then recall matzo baking in the war years, with Liudmila's mother ill, and communal baking by several families after the sale of machine matzo stopped.
12:51
From the machine transcript
Questionnaire items continue, covering the words for 'deaf', 'groats' and 'golem'. Kerler asks about the interviewee's father as shoykhet and about the bime, and about the words 'bentshn' and 'gomel'. A last item asks for the word for a well.
36:07
From the machine transcript
Poberevskii describes Sabbath before the war. Her mother lit the candles and went to synagogue, and on holidays and fasts as well. She says there were four or five synagogues in town, including the butchers' synagogue, the main synagogue and the beys-medresh, where women prayed upstairs. Her father died in 1937 and had given sermons in the beys-medresh. Kerler then says he will ask a few words.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Chirkova speaks about teaching in a dance class for children for about six months, and Kerler asks whether her parents took her to synagogue in Krasne. She mentions separate prayer groups of the shoemakers and tailors and answers questions about Hasidim in the town. She then moves to her postwar working life, studies and a long, partly unclear story about an illness and treatment.
28:43
From the machine transcript
Katz asks about tsadikim and a hazzan and rabbi in Krasne. Chirkova describes a boy becoming a Jew at age twelve with the tallis, and gives advice on how to be a good person, to help others and keep faith in God. She says who can be a tsadik or a 'good Jew' and a rabbi.
36:19
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler about earliest memories, Furer recalls being sent to cheder at six or seven. When classmates mocked him at the Yiddish school, he ran from the melamed. He also describes the Yiddish school and the town's synagogues, one of which later became a theater.
7:45
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Sabbath and holidays at home. Furer remembers the Passover seder at his grandfather's, with the grandfather's six sons and the children asking the questions, and children running home after the shofar on Yom Kippur to eat. About Sukkot he recalls his grandfather's small attic that opened up as a sukkah. Kerler then asks about Hanukkah food.
12:41
From the machine transcript
Asked about songs from that time, Furer says he does not remember songs, only the singing in the synagogue on the Sabbath, where he still goes. He recalls the hard years of his youth, when he hunted for bread and waited at the kolkhoz kitchen for scrapings of porridge. His father died when he was fourteen. Kerler then turns to Russian words for the questionnaire.
21:32
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what was baked for Passover. Furer recalls his grandfather's geese kept in the attic and taken to the shoykhet before Passover, and matzah brought from Kyiv. Kerler then asks questionnaire items such as bald, young man, pot, book and near. Furer remarks that few of the fifteen people who go to synagogue today know Yiddish.
1:12
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn talks about her family today: one son in Vinnytsya and two grandchildren. She says Sabbath services are not currently held in the synagogue because of repairs, so Jews gather on Friday, and older people are afraid to go out at night. She remarks on the amount of antisemitism today, and Kerler then states the date and place of the recording.
12:50
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn describes Jewish life in prewar Sharhorod: the many synagogues, the great synagogue that still stands, and the Romanian Jews who prayed there during the occupation. She recalls Passover at home, her six years at a Yiddish school, kosher meat and the shoykhet, and the two tsadikim's graves that the Jews refused to have moved.
31:50
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about religious practice in her family. Barshteyn was not taught a morning prayer, and she recalls some blessing fragments. There were no cheders in her time, though her father told of attending one; he prayed in the synagogue with tallit and tefillin and went to a synagogue of the Levites.
15:10
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn leads the team through the former Jewish quarter of Sharhorod and points out former Jewish houses now lived in by non-Jews. She says there were ten synagogues, of which only the big one remains. She describes a church and a monastery, visiting theater troupes, wealthy men and cantors from other towns, and Jews working as tailors and shoemakers. She says she left Sharhorod for Vinnytsya in 1983, recalls her mother's holiday cooking and Hanukkah latkes (?), and says she studied in a Yiddish school and can read Yiddish (Sholem Aleichem, Peretz, Mendele). Her family house was pulled down and is now a garden; the former synagogue is now a library, and she points out traces of a mezuzah, the house of a woman called Klara, and a place linked to hiding. Several Russian exchanges with locals occur.
36:39
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn says non-Jews took over the Jewish houses. Lemster asks about stories, and she says her father told Yiddish stories, including an anecdote about a joker and a stern rebbe. She recalls the town cantor and describes weddings with klezmorim brought from Moldova and Bessarabia, the chuppah held at the synagogue, and the women's gallery upstairs. Better cantors were hired from Zhytomyr and Moldova.
45:55
From the machine transcript
Lemster and Kerler ask what 'Litvak' meant in Sharhorod. Barshteyn says it was not pejorative, only a person from Lithuania or Latvia. She does not recall special Jewish games, and says Romanian Jews who came during the war sang many Yiddish songs, while older local Jews no longer understood Yiddish. Interviewers and locals then discuss a Christian who still speaks Yiddish, the Bible museum and the keys, and a robbery at the synagogue. Items mentioned as stolen include a gramophone, Jewish books, candlesticks and samovars; furniture and books remained. Much of this is in Russian.
4:39
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn tells how the synagogue was built from an ancient wall found in the ground, many years or even thousands of years ago, according to her telling. She describes the large building, visiting cantors, and its size (some hundreds of worshippers). She says that during the occupation only Bukovinian Jews prayed there. She recalls the beautiful beis medresh, which was crowded with Romanian Jewish refugees, and says many died of disease. Kerler and Katz press her on dates; the passage ends with Russian talk about going to a café.
49:21
From the machine transcript
Brief exchange in which Lemster and Kerler ask about a place with music and a temple, apparently the synagogue and its past, with some years mentioned. The passage is largely unclear, and a Russian remark about an old cemetery follows.
18:40
From the machine transcript
Sobol answers questions about the river and the bathhouse, and recalls the big synagogue on Stavyshche (?) Street that her parents attended. She says that today there is no minyan and the Kaddish is paid for or read in Russian letters. Asked whether Christians spoke Yiddish, she says yes. She says her husband knew Yiddish, Romanian, German and some Hebrew but no Russian when they married. She also tells how her husband had lost his parents and how they lived in her father's house with her stepmother.
12:15
From the machine transcript
Fishman explains that he was sent from Odesa to Yampil after the institute and worked as a credit inspector at a bank. He lodged with an elderly Jewish couple and learned Yiddish from them. He recalls the synagogue near their house and a story about a Jewish elder in the ghetto under the Romanians. He estimates the Jewish population of Yampil after the war, notes there was a synagogue and a shoykhet but no rabbi, and mentions his grandmother taking chickens to the shoykhet.
22:13
From the machine transcript
Fishman discusses where his Yiddish comes from, mainly from Yampil, and then his career moves. He was sent to Yampil after the institute in 1953, was transferred to head a bank office in a district centre where Jews had been shot, probably Tyvriv, and moved to Vinnytsya in 1959. He describes Jewish life in Vinnytsya, with one synagogue on Krasovsky street that was crowded on holidays, and says that before the war there were many synagogues.
39:29
From the machine transcript
Tsodikovich says he lived in the Kopayhorod ghetto as a child, apparently at a station about five kilometres from the town. At home the family spoke Yiddish with his mother and grandparents. He recalls that his grandparents were strongly observant and that the town had two or three synagogues. He remembers Passover, Purim and Hanukkah gelt, a hard year in 1946, and that his family left in the 1950s. He also remembers good relations with non-Jewish neighbours.
6:58
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about expressions and terms: the evil eye, a dybbuk, a golem, an apostate, and the word for a cemetery. Tsodikovich often does not know them. He then says a few things about Vinnytsya after the war: Yiddish theater troupes visiting, and a small synagogue on one street where many Jews stood outside on holidays. He also answers a question about the phrase 'a good Jew'.
33:00
From the machine transcript
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.
31:17
From the machine transcript
Yatskova describes the Yiddish school, with seven classes and many Jewish children. Next to it stood a two-storey synagogue, men below and women above, where she liked to listen to the prayers. After the war the building was gone and the site held a village council. Her father, as a teacher, did not go to the synagogue but prayed at home, and the family kept the holidays, buying matzo brought from Mohyliv (?). She says a shoykhet lived in the town.
4:59
From the machine transcript
Nayman gives her birth year, 1925, and birthplace Turya-Bystra, a village with only a few Jewish families, where she lived until the deportation in 1944. She names her father, a blacksmith and kohen, and her grandfather, and describes the beit midrash with separate women's and men's sections. She talks about her mother, the family's animals and kosher practice, listening in on cheder lessons without paying, and working the fields and the family's land.
9:11
From the machine transcript
Nayman describes how liberated prisoners died of typhus after eating too much rich food, and her stay with an old German woman in a town after liberation. Kerler asks whether she believed in God in Auschwitz; she says she did and still does, and she describes her prayer book and psalm book.
14:21
From the machine transcript
Kerler interviews Goikhman, who gives his name and birth in Pervomaysk on 1 January 1927. He tells of the 1933 hunger, his father's move to Birobidzhan, Russian schooling, factory work and mobilisation to Blagoveshchensk, and his mother's death in 1947. He came to Zhmerynka in October 1947 to his father's brother. He then recalls Pervomaysk as a large town with many Jews, synagogues drawing visiting cantors, and Yiddish-speaking Jewish and non-Jewish friends. He also recalls Sabbath, his mother's gefilte fish with sugar and pepper, Hanukkah gifts, latkes and Purim foods, and the Zhmerynka shul on Sovetskaya Street, later a children's library.
11:14
From the machine transcript
Shpitz recalls kheyder, whose teacher was the local shoykhet and who also fed the children, and says he learned to read Yiddish. He describes his father, a poor religious cobbler, attending the cook-shul and prayer on Passover, Purim and other holidays. He tells of carrying gifts to the shul and Simchat Torah, and says he no longer remembers the morning prayers; he also talks about observance today.
31:38
From the machine transcript
Geller describes the synagogue, prayer house and Itzik the crooked (der krimer), who served as helper and caretaker. He recalls the Jewish director of the Ukrainian school who had children throw stones at worshippers, and talks about childhood friends, one killed by the Germans. He also speaks of non-Jewish classmates, Passover matzo given to them, and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, then answers questions on the use of Yiddish at home.
24:47
From the machine transcript
Burshtein sings a Yiddish song about a poor refugee who has lost his luck and become a street singer. He says he knows many songs from Poland, including love songs. He then describes the prewar synagogues: the shoemakers and tailors each had their own prayer house, and there was one big synagogue where the kheyder boys would go.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Burshtein sings a song he composed about leaving his hometown Goworowo and the longing for it, then a song of hope. Kerler asks about Hebrew songs; Burshtein says there was no Hebrew singing in cheder and mentions Sabbath and liturgical chants. He then sings Yiddish songs from Polish childhood about a wedding, an orphan child, love, hope of going to the Land of Israel, and a prisoner's return, with remarks on how they were sung.
13:38
From the machine transcript
Antsis recalls the three synagogues of Lyubar, and a bathhouse with a mikveh. Her mother learned to pray from her own father, and Antsis recalls her reading aloud at Yom Kippur while the women wept around her. She remembers learning the Modeh ani prayer, her mother blessing the Sabbath candles, and being taken to kheyder for a few months at about three or four years old, led by a helper (a belfer). She also remembers her father working and Sabbath observance.
8:13
From the machine transcript
At the synagogue a man who says he is American, from near New York (Monsey), talks with the team about finding old Berdychiv Yiddish speakers. He mentions a phone call, a local Berdychiv Jew named Iakov (Yasha) Shor, and says the team wants a local Jew rather than a Litvak. They discuss a minyan the next morning at nine, getting the shul opened, and hotel arrangements.
13:00
From the machine transcript
Conversation in Berdychiv about the Jewish community today, apparently with the rabbi: about five hundred Jews remain out of a city of some ninety thousand, where Jews were once the great majority. Other topics are the hotel and its water supply, a song attributed to Avraham Fried, old synagogue items, a visitor's family from Slovakia and Skver, and plans for travelling on.
4:59
From the machine transcript
Camera and walking footage of Berdychiv streets. The guide points out the synagogue, a children's polyclinic, and an old journalists' building, and the group finds a gate closed and rings to be let in. They then reach a newly built yeshiva complex, where a mikveh is being built. Its funding is attributed to a rich man living in America, named something like Mendelevich (unclear). Much of the speech is garbled.
8:57
From the machine transcript
The team enters the Berdychiv yeshiva building and sees the prayer room, a Torah scroll and the dining hall. They briefly speak with students, who say they study mostly in Russian with Russian translation and that Yiddish plays only a small role. Kerler remarks on the former building being bought and taken away, and on the 'great miracles' of Jewish children studying there again.
12:08
From the machine transcript
At the mass-grave site and memorial near the old airfield, Russian voices say where Jews were shot and where the pits and the obelisk are. Skobilitskii recites Kaddish and discusses how many Jews were killed in the area. The figure is heard as roughly eighteen thousand six hundred (uncertain). Most of the Yiddish here is garbled.
17:06
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii shows the house on Kachenivka street where he lived and his younger brothers were born. It belonged to a rich man whose family name sounds like Krupnik (?), and tenants paid him rent. He remembers sledding in winter, and describes the large synagogue that stood nearby, with a mikveh and bath fed by the river. He mentions friends from Berdychiv now in Haifa and Netanya, the mostly Jewish surroundings, and walking to synagogue on Shabbat.
51:15
From the machine transcript
Geller describes the prayer houses of Pyatka: a shul, a beys-medresh and a kloyz. He explains the differences when Katz asks, saying the kloyz was small and used for a minyan. In 1941, 169 people were gathered from the kloyz and driven to the river and killed. The beys-medresh was closed around 1931–32, was used as a carpentry shop, and was then burned, with a local man named Itsik the Krimer blamed. The shul stood until the war, and a wooden building from it was taken to Berdychiv.
22:55
From the machine transcript
Introductions and conversation with Chane Gitl and Zhenia Koyfman. Koyfman was born in Chernyakhiv, a shtetl about 30 km from Zhytomyr; her father was from Zhytomyr and her parents were bookkeepers. She says her parents told of a large synagogue that later became a theater and cinema. She recalls holiday gatherings in homes, matzo baked secretly behind closed doors, a Yiddish school in Chernyakhiv, and her family, in which two of six siblings survived (?).
35:02
From the machine transcript
Interview with Tsipe Partnaya (née Kamenir), who has lived in Zhytomyr since 1962. She recalls her grandmother's religious household, a small synagogue and a shoykhet, and her grandfather the shoemaker, who sang songs. She also says her daughter knows Yiddish and that the area was called the 'Jewish district'.
45:59
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls the start of the war and the bombing of his town. His family took refuge in the prayer-house, where the Torah scroll was opened and psalms said. After Polish soldiers announced the Germans' approach, the family fled by night with his father, mother, two sisters and two brothers. They ran into German motorcyclists and reached Ostrów Mazowiecka, where Jews were driven out of their homes and assembled and some were held for days. He describes hunger, bread thrown over the fence, shooting and a curfew, a German officer's cruel jokes, and the Germans' searches. His father and a brother were held, and the family searched for them. They crossed a bridge to the Russians' side, where the rabbi's wife told how Goworowo's synagogue was burned with people inside.
43:58
From the machine transcript
Burshtein describes the many small prayer houses in Gorove, each trade having its own, and one large synagogue. The Polish town commandant would come and sit with the Jews there.
48:01
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler ask about conversion to Christianity and to Judaism and about hasidim in the town, and Burshtein says there were very few such cases. A second voice and Burshtein discuss the rebbe and the "good Jew" to whom people came with questions. Burshtein says there were hasidim who sat in the beit midrash but cannot say whose. He recalls the rabbi, shortly before the war, crying out in the beit midrash that Jews should be taken out of exile.
47:40
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions on holiday food, she names hamantaschen and pancakes. She says her mother made gefilte fish with raisins, and recalls her father going to synagogue on Sabbath and her mother on Rosh Hashanah.
50:01
From the machine transcript
Groisburg says that pews at the large synagogue were costly and her religious family could not afford them. She recalls that her grandmother was at home on Sabbath, which was observed. The children worked on Sabbath, while the father went to synagogue with his tallit, in which he was later buried.
14:54
From the machine transcript
Geller says he remembers one Jewish wedding, held in the large courtyard by the synagogue under the huppah. He recalls watching it, though not the details of the celebration. He then moves to Komsomol members who gathered older schoolchildren and threw stones at the synagogue on holidays.
16:54
From the machine transcript
Geller describes how, after the hunger, the beit midrash was turned into a carpentry workshop. A lame man, Itsik der Krimer, a veteran of the Japanese war, carried wood home at night, and a fire destroyed the building. Answering Lemster, he describes the Jewish fire brigade of the Pipchek (?) family, with its horses and pump, and says Jews and non-Jews helped each other and fought fires together.
25:47
From the machine transcript
Geller recalls the synagogue with its women's section upstairs, and his grandfather's brother, who raised the children after the father died and took the child to synagogue each Sabbath. He describes Purim visits and paper masks. He lists his siblings: five children, one died of hunger, a sister in Ashdod, and a brother who went to America and died there. He mentions another Pyatka family in Zhytomyr and a wedding of a fish seller, then ends the interview with thanks.
44:03
From the machine transcript
Burshtein talks about prewar Goworowo and its destruction. There was one large synagogue, where cobblers and tailors also had prayer rooms; the town had a police commandant, and bandits burned the synagogue and killed people. He mentions a letter from a man in Vilnius, and Kerler asks about Polish school. He then recites a Polish children's poem on washing in the morning.
0:22
From the machine transcript
Shpitz gives his surname and says he was born in Zhytomyr. He recalls going to synagogue with his father as a child. His father was a poor cobbler with eight children. He began factory work early, around the fifth grade, and the passage ends with a muddled mention of the post-war years.
9:37
From the machine transcript
Shpitz says his brothers were killed in the war. He speaks Yiddish with his parents at home. Asked about Yiddish theater, he answers only vaguely. He describes his father as an honest man, a poor cobbler and a synagogue gabbai. He mentions a brother Yasha who was an artist and painted. Lemster asks about his two sons, and a Russian aside interrupts the exchange.
29:41
From the machine transcript
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.
31:18
From the machine transcript
Burshtein describes the German entry into Gorovo, when the synagogue was undermined and the Jews were herded together. He says a great rebbe had blessed Ostrów Mazowiecka, and that many people tried to flee there. The rebbe was thrown into a fire. He was a child and studying gemara at the time and does not remember details.
32:46
From the machine transcript
Burshtein says he spoke, studied and wrote in Yiddish in Poland. He recalls reading a journal, and says he knows many Yiddish writers but cannot recall their names. He describes his present routine of getting up early and going to the synagogue twice a day.
11:43
From the machine transcript
Sandler says his family was not rich. Kerler asks about Purim. Sandler recalls his mother baking poppy-seed hamantashen and says he was not sent with Purim gifts. He does not know the term purim-shpil. He mentions the synagogue, which functioned until the war, and his own cheder attendance. Kerler asks what challah is, and Sandler recalls his mother baking on a stove. The passage ends with Kerler asking how many years he did not speak Yiddish.
41:09
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy says that on Sabbath he carried his grandfather's tallis and tefillin to the synagogue as a child, and that he can read prayers only in a Russian-language siddur. Kerler mentions that he has copied the prayer in Hebrew letters from his dictation, and Nibulskiy offers to give his Toronto relatives' address.
46:47
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy tells how a childless Christian woman came to the Velednik rebbe on a Sabbath in the synagogue and asked for a child. The rebbe prayed for her, she bore a son and afterwards came every Friday to bring candles to the synagogue. The son later defended Jews in a pogrom, as his grandfather told him.
16:14
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia says there was no synagogue in the kolkhoz village, but her father, a very observant man, always went to the synagogue in Korosten, where he had a place of honor (?). She does not remember her grandfathers, only from stories.
41:42
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia talks about Jewish life in Zhytomyr. Her father went to synagogue every day until his death in the 1950s (?), and baked his own matzo at home before it began to be baked at the synagogue. She says he was a strongly observant man while she and her siblings were nonbelievers.
43:23
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia describes the synagogue in Zhytomyr with its shames and gabbai, then talks about her brother David, who went to the front and had a wife and child, probably in Moldova. She gives her husband's biography: evacuated with his parents, he studied at a pedagogical technical school and an institute, and later taught drawing. They lived poorly with three children, moved to Zhytomyr in 1977, and she taught math for 39 years.
15:27
From the machine transcript
Motl is mentioned as a partisan, and Kerler invites him to speak. The speaker says something about a synagogue shames and brothers; the passage is short and garbled.
15:20
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy recalls going to his grandmother for Hanukkah money, carried through the mud on a youth's shoulders. He speaks of the three small synagogues, attended daily only by the rabbi and the old believers, and of carrying his grandfather's prayer shawl to the Sabbath service. His father wanted him to learn some Yiddish, but there was no cheder in the Soviet period, and he recalls the older cheder.
15:19
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia says her father, Meir (son of Menashe?), held a real seder every year until his death. He attended synagogue daily, in Korosten (three synagogues then, closed later) and in Zhytomyr after the war. She also mentions his work and small pension, her mother, and the hard life.
34:02
From the machine transcript
Shraibman recalls four prayer houses in the prewar town, organized by trade and class (shoemakers, tailors, a poor people's and a wealthy people's one), all closed in 1937. At age seven he had to enter the Ukrainian school because the Yiddish one was closed. Old Jews prayed in private rooms, and after the war a minyan was hard to find. Kerler asks about the beis-medresh and about the custom of throwing burrs at older people on Tishe b'Av, and they compare the names for the burrs.
14:50
From the machine transcript
Asked about prewar Zhytomyr, Bluvshtein says little: his father went to the synagogue, and Jews kept the Sabbath. He and Kerler discuss how his parents made dairy ice cream in a mould and sold it from a stand near the post office.
21:31
From the machine transcript
Bluvshtein says he has attended the synagogue for about seventeen years and has been its shammes for ten. He says Yiddish was spoken at home before and after the war, because his parents came from Zhytomyr and his father could not speak Russian. The father lived to about ninety years.
5:53
From the machine transcript
Sandler talks about his family. His father was a wigmaker and his grandfather David a shoemaker; his grandmother was killed when a ceiling fell in the old house. He had eight siblings, of whom two sisters live in Germany and a brother in Jerusalem, and he lists several by name. A second speaker then tells of a grandfather who headed the community just after the war, in 1945, when a synagogue was being built on Babin Street; the Krevitsky name comes up.
24:02
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Sandler what being Jewish means. He answers that a Jew must remain a Jew, and discusses whether going to synagogue and praying is what matters. Asked for a message to American Jews, he wishes them long life, health, peace and no war, and talks about friendship between Ukraine and America and politics. Kerler thanks him and turns to the next interviewee.
26:51
From the machine transcript
Margolis gives his Yiddish name, Moyshe ben Yoysef, a kohen like his father, and his Russian name, Moisei Iosifovich Margulis. He says he was born in Zhytomyr. His maternal grandfather, Yosef Krivitsky, was a well-known cantor who lived and died in Zhytomyr with a large funeral, and his mother was called Inda in Yiddish. He says Yiddish was spoken at home, then gives his street address (Lysenko Street, formerly named for Sergei Lazo).
59:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish poets and prose, including a work 'By the Dnieper' whose author is unclear in the transcript. Nibulskiy says he reads Yiddish periodicals every day at 83 and keeps tefillin. He recalls carrying his tailor grandfather's prayer shawl to the tailors' synagogue every Sabbath, and the few kopecks and sweets he earned. He remembers poverty, carrying Hanukkah gifts, and a childish prank in his grandfather's workshop that frightened the tailors. Kerler then asks which stories he still wants to tell.
6:28
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the three synagogues in the town and until what year people could attend services. Nibulskiy says it was until the early 1930s, when he was a boy of eight or nine (?), after which the synagogues were closed.
15:42
From the machine transcript
Mester describes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur before the war: dressing up for synagogue, the fast, which she began at thirteen, the shofar and Kol Nidre, and cantors brought in from the city. She recalls Sukkot in the sukkah, the guests brought from the synagogue and her mother's baked fare, and Simchat Torah with kissing the Torah. She also describes lighting Hanukkah candles in order by family member and the Hanukkah dishes, distinguishing them from Purim food.