32:16
Rezmovits talks about his family and speaking Yiddish before the war. He recalls antisemitic sentiments among Christian boys. Rezmovits returns to his education at a talmud torah school.
Topics › Language
Yiddish language and dialect
Talk about Yiddish, dialects, who spoke what, language attitudes, Hebrew and other languages, plus every dialectological-questionnaire segment (which also gets activity elicitation).
884 passages on 495 tapes, 299 speakers · most often in Chișinău (64), Zhytomyr (47), Budapest (45), Rivne (45), Khmel'nyts'kyy (43), Kolomyya (40)
884 passages
44:25
Rezmovits talks about his return to Debrecen in the 1953 and postwar Jewish life. He then shares an example of how his mother spoke Yiddish.
51:29
Rezmovits addresses his liberation by the Red Army. He specifically recalls a Russian Jewish soldier who spoke Yiddish to him. He then speaks about his life in Israel and search for survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Rezmovits wrote an article in Hebrew about it.
59:19
Rezmovits addresses regional differences and studying Aramaic in Israel.
5:06
Rezmovits sings a comical song portraying Hasidic life ("Oy di rebetsn") and then again the funny Zionist song. He also repeats his mother's way of speaking Yiddish.
39:13
Rezmovits discusses his childhood memories, particularly games. He then addresses the influence of Zionist organizations before and after the war, before speaking about languages of communication within his family.
15:17
Rezmovits answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire and recalls folk customs. He then addresses traditional weddings and Yiddish sayings.
31:28
Rezmovits answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then addresses Yiddish literature.
33:26
Galambos talks about his life during World War II. He worked as carpenter in the labor division of the army. Galambos then addresses his life after the war. He returned to Vaja in 1945 and lived there until 1950. Before moving to Budapest in 1974, Galambos lived in Üröm from 1958 to 1959 and then Debrecen. He then speaks about his family and their fate durin World War II, as well as addresses the languages (Hungarian and Yiddish) spoken at home. Galambos has relatives in America and Canada. Galambos attended his grandnephew's bar mitzvah.
52:06
Galambos answers questions about cultural terminology, before the team chats with his wife. She shares an episode about running away from the private Yiddish tutor during her childhood and therefore did not learn how to speak Yiddish.
41:08
Smajovics talks about his family. In particular, he recalls his grandmother's charity. He then remembers visits to Israel and lists Hebrew words that are part of the Yiddish language. He also speaks about life today.
5:22
Smajovics talks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. According to him, Jews used a different kind of Yiddish, so non-Jews would not understand. He then addresses yeshivot in the Transcarpathian region and describes his cheder.
47:07
Smajovics answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then speaks about prewar Passover celebrations and food customs. Smajovics then speaks about his family and passing on the Yiddish language to his daughters. Smajovics states that he prepared his grandson for his bar mitzvah.
53:17
Smajovics answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then addresses his life in Budapest before and after the war in the late 1970s. He worked there for nine months.
58:05
Smajovics answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Smajovics answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
55:16
Herbst speaks about languages spoken at home. He then addresses regional differences among communities, before talking about his religious education in Rakhiv. Herbst then describes Sabbath dinners at a rebbe's home.
19:13
Herbst answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
45:21
Gotlieb speaks about Sukkot celebrations before the war. In particular, she describes her family's sukkah. Gotlieb then speaks about prewar Jewish life in her hometown and addresses conversions to Christianity. She also recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and the use of Hebrew terms among Jews.
10:33
Rezmovits speaks about food customs before the war. He then addresses different regional Yiddish dialects.
48:07
Rezmovits talks about contemporary community members. He then speaks about his father's friend and gives a glimpse of their political conversations in prewar Debrecen. Rezmovits then addresses regional Yiddish dialects. He then returns to contemporary community members.
57:02
Rezmovits addresses dialectology regarding his native Yiddish.
4:19
Rezmovits addresses local Yiddish dialectology.
0:23
Rezmovits speaks about his life in Debrecen after the war. He worked in the metal business. He then shares an episode when he encountered a Yiddish-speaking Polish family.
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.
5:05
Herbst answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then discusses his childhood memories, including games and daily food customs.
10:31
Herbst shows his gravestone inscription. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
55:36
Herbst addresses Yiddish dialects.
16:32
Herbst speaks about the Jewish community and the use of the Yiddish language after the war. He moved from Debrecen to Budapest in 1951.
1:49
The formal interview with Deutsch begins at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Budapest. He speaks about his teachings at the seminary. Deutsch also discusses regional dialects.
8:43
Deutsch speaks about his family and their fate during World War II. He grew up with two brothers. He then talks about his life after the war, including his life at an orphanage. Deutsch explains how they divided school classes between Yiddish and non-Yiddish speaking students. Before the war, Deutsch underwent eight years of schooling.
20:59
Deutsch discusses his childhood, including languages spoken at home. He then speaks about his family. His grandfather owned a shop for matches.
51:25
Pearl answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also addresses different regional Yiddish dialects and answers questions about cultural terminology.
3:49
Doman discusses his childhood memories, living in Budapest. He states that he began speaking Yiddish as a yeshiva student. He also addresses his family. Doman's father, a rabbi, went to the Frankfurt yeshiva in Germany. Doman states that his father's family spoke Yiddish, whereas his mother's family spoke Hungarian.
27:25
Doman recalls a Yiddish song about the Nazi occupation, he learned in the yeshiva at the end of the 1930s. He then addresses Yiddish dialects in prewar Hungary.
1:32
Gotlieb discusses her childhood memories and languages spoken at home. She then recalls childhood games.
26:41
Gotlieb addresses prewar holiday celebration, including Purim. She recalls Purim shpiels in Hungarian, performed by boys; as well as Purim shpiels in Yiddish at the Polish rebbe's house.
27:48
Gotlieb addresses prewar life in Sátoraljaújhely. In particular, she remembers a visiting priest, who spoke Yiddish. She also addresses the Jewish occupational structure and institutions in town. Gotlieb then describes the local bath house.
56:25
Blobshteyn answers questions about cultural terminology and addresses regional language characteristics.
2:18
Blobstheyn addresses Jewish life in the 1970s, when Jews from Mukacheve prepared emigration. He then answers questions about dialectology and cultural terminology.
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.
46:13
Herbst speaks about prewar Jewish life in Berlabashe and explains how he learned Ukrainian and Hungarian. He then speaks about his return home from the concentration camp Mauthausen. Herbst explains how he was taken in a car from Mauthausen to Merikó,Hungary, which was under Red Army command. He then headed to Budapest, via Bratislava, Slovenia.
3:19
Herbst talks about his visit to America, where he went to services. He then answers linguistic questions and mentions friends.
1:54
Doman talks about his yeshiva education, including spoken languages, in Verpelét, 2:00 Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg county, Dorog and Galánta (today in Slovakia) in the late 1930 and early 1940s.
10:36
Doman talks about his life before the war and regional Yiddish dialects. He then speaks about prewar Jewish life in the region.
24:13
Reti speaks about prewar life in Rohod. He recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. According to him, twenty Jewish families lived there. Reti speaks about his father's observance as Kosoner hasid and the Kosoner rebbe. Reti then talks about his family today.
11:19
Reti addresses Yiddish dialects and talks about Russian Jewish soldiers during the liberation. He then talks about his family.
29:17
Reti speaks about his life during the war, particularly as forced laborer. He then talks about his liberation by the British Army in Ebensee, Austria. Reti remembers a Jewish lieutenant who spoke Yiddish to him. Reti explains how he evaded a potential massacre, shortly before liberation.
43:01
Samadi speaks about his education at a religious school (cheder) until he was eleven years old and then Talmud Torah school for two years, which was located in Újfehértó (Yiddish: Ratsfelt). Samadi then talks about prewar religious life in Újfehértó. He recalls how his mother instructed him to learn Yiddish, so he can communicate with Jews anywhere.
51:30
Samadi speaks about his and his sister's life in the immediate postwar period. He then talks about his family and language education, before addressing his cheder education.
38:04
Reti speaks about Jewish life in the region. He then discusses his childhood memories. He explains the game nuts, which was done on Sukkoth according to Reti. He also recalls a non-Jew who worked for his family and spoke Yiddish.
0:00
David discusses her childhood memories, in particular the visit of a rebbe. She also talks about her family and provides personal information. David's father was born in 6:25. Her family moved to Mukacheve when David was two years old. She explains that she learned Yiddish from a scribe and attended a Hebrew primary school.
15:25
David talks about her life in Mukacheve before the war and addresses languages. She then talks about her visits to America and Israel, including her relatives.
14:44
Faiershtein answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
30:51
Faiershtein answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
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.
47:11
Altman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
The tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Malka Zelikovna Altman. Altman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
14:01
Altman talks about postwar Jewish life and the difficulties practicing religion. She then answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. Altman also talks about life today.
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.
42:18
Bukshpun answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He then talks about life before the war and food customs. They produced butter, cheese, and duck fat. Bukshpun discusses his brother’s bar mitzvah at his uncle’s home.
25:27
Reizman remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, before she discusses Jewish occupations and culture before the war. Reizman recalls a wedding and aspects of prewar religious life. She then answers a number of questions about cultural terminology.
7:48
Reizman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
36:15
Tsipora and Meyer answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
MDV 130Isaak (Itisk) Yakovlevich Boltykh; Semyon (Shimen) Semyonovich Katerberg; Tatyana (Tube) Yakovlevna KaterbergBriceni, 2005
6:19
Boltykh speaks about life today and his family. His relatives recorded his mother's biography in Yiddish.
40:06
The Katerbergs answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
49:11
Kalussky speaks about Purim celebrations and recalls how non-Jews played Jewish music on the streets. He then addresses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
51:11
Kalussky speaks about life during the war and mentions how Yiddish-speaking non-Jews told on Jews during the war.
32:06
Goldberg speaks about prewar life and violence in Călărași. She also recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
36:26
Roif addresses regional Yiddish dialects. He also mentions Adrian Popovich, who rescued Jews from Chernivtsi, and historians of local Jewish history during the war.
51:19
Roif answers linguistic questions about his Yiddish, as well as dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. They also discuss Jewish languages and linguistics.
8:30
Roif speaks about prewar Jewish life in Duruitoarea. In particular, he mentions a girl who converted to Christianity. He then remembers a Yiddish song about this topic and local Christians who spoke Yiddish.
12:55
Roif answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
42:42
They answer linguistic questions. Zelda then addresses prewar Passover celebrations and her family.
0:00
Roif speaks about life today. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Roif also briefly addresses his religious school (cheder) education.
28:50
Zelda and Roif talk prewar Jewish life in their hometown. In particular they recalls their homes. Roif then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Roif also speaks about his visits of the church on the kolkhoz, he ran.
58:36
Farber sings a Russian-Jewish song about Yiddish.
35:41
Shmid answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Shmid answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
44:30
Shpitalnik talks about her education and studying Hebrew. She then returns to her family, before addressing her childhood memories of traveling.
7:39
Shpitalnik speaks about a Moldovan family, who rescued Jews during anti-Jewish pogroms and then continues addressing Jewish and non-Jewish relations. She then speaks about her life before the war, including childhood friends. Shpitalnik states that she learned how to speak Yiddish from her grandmother during the war.
18:43
Shpitalnik recalls Jewish refugees in 1940. Her family received a Hungarian-speaking family from the Transylvanian region. She also addresses different regional Yiddish dialects.
0:00
Mester provides personal information and discusses her childhood memories, including friends. She also addresses her education. Between the ages of six and thirteen, Mester received religious education with a private tutor during winter and at a religious school (cheder) during summer. Mester states that the teacher (melamed) would not allow the pupils to speak Yiddish. Mester also attended a Romanian school for four years in Stolniceni, from the age of six.
29:19
Mester answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then speaks about her family. Mester's father was a tailor. She grew up with three sisters. Mester also addresses prewar Jewish life in Stolniceni and discusses songs.
0:00
Mester answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also answers questions about cultural terminology.
0:00
Bengelsdorf speaks about his family and addresses Yiddish dialects. His mother was born in Sławatycze (Yiddish: Slovotitch), Poland and his father was born in 2:43, Poland. Bengelsdorf's father moved to Argentinia and did a tailor apprenticeship and also attended a local Yiddish drama circle. He then addresses his father's move to Birobidzhan in the 1930s and his involvment in the Birobidzhan Yiddish Theater. Bengelsdorf explains how his father went to study with Solomon Mikhoels in Moscow for four years, before returning to Birobidzhan in 1934. Bengelsdorf's mother moved to Palestine and worked as maid in a Jerusalem hospital. She then returned and studied at the Jewish workers' faculty at Moscow State University. Durin that time, Bengelsdorf mother met his father and they then moved to Birobidzhan together.
MDV 146Sergo Bengelsdorf; Marina Mikhailovna Shraybman; Moisha Motylevich Lipovetskiy and 1 moreChișinău, 2005
7:13
Shraybman speaks about how she met her husband in 1969. She then speaks about her husband's publications. Shraybman also addresses how she learned Yiddish.
MDV 148Rabbi Zalman Abelsky; Sara Solomonovna Shpitalnik; Moisha Motylevich LipovetskiyChișinău, 2005
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.
0:00
Kishlyansky answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
28:37
Roif answers questions about cultural terminology and Yiddish dialects. She also briefly recalls prewar traditional weddings, before addressing folk customs. Roif remembers Christian Moldovans practicing healing customs.
39:55
Roif talks about life before the war, particularly non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
49:22
Roif answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
54:07
Roif continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Roif answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
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.
26:28
Gordin talks about prewar life, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He also addresses prewar Jewish life and healing customs. Gordin recalls a sick friend that was healed through healing practice.
48:17
Sherman shares a Hasidic anecdote about visiting a rebbe. He then continues to answer questions about cultural terminology and adresses Yiddish dialects.
16:36
Sherman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:48
Sherman speaks about the Yiddish literature he would read during his childhood. He then answers more dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
32:25
Sherman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
44:20
Sherman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then addresses prewar Jewish life, including occupational structure. Sherman then describes how locals traveled to Chişinău with Christian coachmen.
48:09
Sherman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also addresses prewar praying customs.
55:33
Sherman speaks about prewar Jewish life, particularly wealthy residents, before he continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
57:25
Sherman speaks about prewar holiday celebration, particularly Tisha B'Av. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
13:06
Diner answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire, as well as questions about cultural terminology.
18:46
Diner speaks about her childhood friends, before she addresses her mother's cooking during the winter season. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
15:08
Mitlaeva speaks about her life, including education, before the war. Her mother taught her how to write and read in Yiddish. She then attended a Yiddish school for six months, which was run by a female principal. Mitlaeva maintains that there was a Romanian and a Yiddish school in the same building and the Jewish students would learn in the afternoons. She then describes her teachers and recalls the switch to the Romanian school. Mitlaeva then describes her education and teachers at the Romanian school and shares an episode about three priests coming to school and blessing the school.
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.
28:09
Mitlaeva addresses Yiddish dialects and then answers questions about cultural terminology. Mitlaeva also recalls Yiddish poem about Galician Jews.
12:39
Mitlaeva speaks about her family. She then talks about her work as teacher after the war and discusses languages.
16:39
Mitlaeva answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also shares episodes from her daily and political life in Chernivtsi.
1:01:29
Muchnik answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also speaks about her life today.
15:48
Muchnik answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire and questions about cultural terminology. She also talk about her life today and shares Yiddish and Hebrew sayings.
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.
0:00
Goldman speaks about prewar Jewish life in Chişinău, particularly recalling a kosher butcher shop. Goldman also address different Yiddish dialects.
5:57
Goldman answers questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
54:11
Benderskaia and Benderskij address prewar life in Nisporeni, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. They then discuss Yiddish songs and food customs.
44:20
Dajch speaks about her family, particularly her mother's observance. She also mentions how her mother married off successfully her daughters. She then speaks about life before the war and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
12:21
Dajch answers questions about cultural terminology and from the dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then talks about her family.
22:35
Dajch answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses prewar Jewish occupations in Nisporeni (29:40).
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.
0:00
Rotner addresses Yiddish dialects and answers questions about cultural terminology. Rotner also mentions her family.
3:13
Rotner answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
7:54
Rotner shares her mother's recipe for gefilte fish. She then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses her family's life before the war (28:00).
55:06
Manevich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also speaks about contemporary religious life and talks about Jewish life in Birobidzhan.
7:30
Fershtman speaks about his life before the war. He recalls great poverty in his family during the Great Hunger in 1932/33. Fershtman attended a Yiddish school for six years. He then addresses his life in Odesa, where he also studied at a Yiddish professional school and graduated in 1940. He states that the school was run in Yiddish until 1938, before the official language was switched to Russian (38:00). Fershtman learned at the turnery department.
18:20
Fershtman speaks about Jewish life in Pishchanka before the war. He also remembers his childhood friends and languages of communication. Fershtman then talks about his family.
23:42
Fershtman addresses life before the war and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He then describes childhood games.
12:05
Rojtman talks about her life and education before the war. She attended a Romanian primary school for four years and then studied at a Romanian secondary school in Botoșani. Rojtman mentions a letter exchange between herself and her grandfather in Yiddish. She then recites a poem in Romanian.
7:39
Rojtman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses Yiddish-language groups (10:00).
5:44
Yaruskaya speaks about her life and childhood home before the war. She recalls poverty and describes her grandparent's observance. Yaruskaya then talks about prewar Jewish life and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
52:18
Leibelman talks about prewar Yiddish culture and theater. She also recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, in particular a Russian friend.
29:03
Leibelman answers linguistic questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. She also tells anecdotes about prewar Jewish life.
0:00
Kaplan answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:03
Kleyman answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
MDV 187Maria Leibovna Kleyman; Iosif (Yosel) Matveyevich Shvartzman; Raisa Aizekovna ShvartzmanLipcani, 2005
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Maria Leibovna Kleyman. Kleyman answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
17:13
Iosif addresses his childhood memories and prewar Jewish life. He then talks about his education and discusses holiday celebration. He attended a religious school (cheder) and a Moldavian school. He recalls a class conducted in Yiddish twice a week.
32:18
Iosif returns to his life during the war. He recalls how his father was shot by a Romanian gendarme on the way to the Bershad ghetto. Iosif then explains how to play nuts and addresses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
34:19
Iosif recalls snippets of a prayer. They then answer a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
MDV 189Raisa Aizekovna Shvartzman; Iosif Matveyevich Shvartzman; Elena (Leyke) Haimovna AkkermanEdineț, 2005
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Raisa Aizekovna Shvartzman and her husband Iosif Matveyevich Shvartzman. The Shartzmans answer a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
23:50
Akkerman talks about her return to Edinet after eight years of evacuation in Uzbekistan. When Akkerman returned, she found a Christian family living in her house. Akkerman’s neighbors told the family that she lived there before the war and was then allowed to move in. The family vacated the house the next day. She then talks about her family. Her two sons learned the Yiddish language. Her step-maternal grandfather was a rabbi. Her birthmother died when Akkerman was very young.
3:03
Akkerman answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses her husband’s work as an accountant in a factory for military goods in Uzbekistan (17:27). Before her husband was promoted, he worked in the lithic department together with Akkerman.
20:09
Mundrian talks about using the Yiddish language among her family. She then talks about living in a communal apartment in the 1960s together with Jews and non-Jews. Mundrian then discusses Purim celebration after the war, her son’s bar mitzvah, and a positive relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish students after the war.
21:02
Kigel talks about prewar Jewish life and occupations in Orhei. She recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Kigel then talks about Passover celebrations and remembers parts of the Four Questions, before discussing Sabbath celebrations and 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.
7:56
Sharhorodskij speaks about a Jewish neighbor who converted before the war and remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
27:57
Kotliar speaks about life before the war, particularly her non-Jewish neighbors who spoke Yiddish. She also remembers a Christian woman, who converted to Judaism.
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.
1:00:06
Kotliar answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
5:02
Boiarskaia speaks about prewar Jewish life and recalls a positive relationship between Jews and non-Jews. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
31:53
Magetman talks about life today and then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Magetman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
16:49
Plotnik talks about holiday celebrations, including Shavuot. She then addresses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish in Dumbraveno.
38:51
Plotnik answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Plotnik sings a short Yiddish song about an unpleasant girl. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
7:36
Rolshut answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
MDV 205Meyer Khaimovich Furman; Tsipora Yankelevna Furman; Dina (Dine, Donye, Dosye, Dintse, Disele) Abramovna MirenburgBălți, Soroca, 2005
0:00
The Furmans answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
55:36
Mirenburg talks about her education at a Romanian school and her training at the medical institute in Soroca. Her father hired a private tutor from Soroca for Mirenburg's religious and Hebrew language education. Mirenburg grew up with two brothers and one sister.
21:35
Mirenburg talks about life before the war, including her childhood friends and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She then talks about prewar cultural life. Mirenburg attended concerts by Sidi Tal.
26:16
Mirenburg briefly answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire, before the team concludes the official part of the interview.
7:44
Plotnik mentions her school education. She attended a Romanian school for six years. She recalls how the local rabbi came to teach at her school twice a week. She then returns to life before the war, including her family, and also mentions non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Plotnik grew up with two sisters. Her half-sister moved to Israel. She then talks about her grandmother, who stayed in the village of Lublin during the war and was shot by a Romanian soldier. Her grandfather owned two watermills. Plotnik then talks about her grandparents' arranged marriage.
53:55
Nusbrokh answers questions about dialectology from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He also addresses contemporary religious life.
0:00
The team arrives at the local synagogue and community center. Then the formal interview with Milevskaya begins. She talks about her family and life today. Milevskaya has children in America and Israel. She also discusses the use of the Yiddish language in her family, as well as the local contemporary Jewish community.
10:31
Milevskaya provides personal information and speaks about her life after the war. She was a midwife. Milevskaya also speaks about her family. Her father was the director of a beer factory in Pervomayskoye and her mother was a German-language teacher. Milevskaya states that she only spoke Yiddish with her grandparents.
36:20
Dunaevskij talks about prewar life and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He then recalls Jewish press before the war.
59:40
Dunaevskij answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Dunaevskij answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
42:42
Klichinskaia answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then addresses prewar cultural and social life.
52:04
Klichinskaia answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then sings again the Yiddish love song "Sorele."
4:17
The formal interviews with Luminskaia and Goldshteyn begin. They provide personal information and then Luminskaia talks about her family. Luminskaia's father was a day laborer before the Soviet occupation and built furniture afterward. When the family moved to Vodvizhan 7:49, he was the directory of a factory department, which was later turned into an artel. Luminskaia recalls how non-Jews would speak Yiddish in the co-operative. She has relatives in America.
55:02
Goldshteyn talks about life before the war and recalls non-Jews who told anecdotes in Yiddish. Luminskaia then talks about the "Jewish" artel, she spent time at during her childhood, where non-Jews spoke Yiddish. Goldshteyn then recalls the interactions between Jews and non-Jews during Passover and Easter.
31:08
Goldshteyn and Luminskaia answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
56:28
Butorski talks about life today and then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
20:39
Meir talks about life before the war. He recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and Jews who converted to Christianity.
0:00
Meir answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
David talks about his education at a Talmud Torah school (Jewish primary school) and a Romanian school after the war. He recalls his teacher Lebovich who taught Yiddish at the Romanian school.
32:52
David answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
9:27
Finkel talks about her life before the war. She attended a Romanian-Jewish school in Suliţa. She also studied with a privately hired tutor, who taught religion and the Yiddish language. Finkel helped out her family after school.
11:35
Brief talks about his life and cultural life before the war. He attended a Romanian school. He studied the Yiddish language with a private tutor. Brief then recalls performances by Sidi Tal, who was his mother's cousin. He also lists theater plays, he watched before the war.
15:24
Grinberg recites poetry Yiddish and Romanian. She then addresses dialectological matters.
46:44
Cohn speaks about his childhood memories. He mentions non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and then addresses traditional weddings.
12:45
Cohn answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He then speaks about his life after the war and how he met his wife. He also remembers his traditional wedding.
MDV 232Iosif David; Sami (Shmiel) Kurtsberg; Iosif Kunovich BurgȘofrîncani, Botoșani, Chernivtsi, Siret, 2006
40:48
Burg tells the Joseph story from the Torah. He then answers a dialectological question.
24:31
Grunfeld speaks about prewar life and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. In particular, he describes an encounter with a Romanian soldier in Tighina during the war, when Grunfeld was a forced laborer. He then addresses customs of Havdalah (bidding farewell the Sabbath) and recalls the family's sabbath goy.
3:47
Grunfeld speaks about prewar Jewish life and Yiddish dialects.
20:34
Grunfeld answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
7:41
Hershkovich talks about prewar life, in particular non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and holiday songs.
12:16
Hershkovich addresses prewar cultural life and reading in the Yiddish language. He also mentions different Yiddish dialects.
39:50
Hershkovich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Hershkovich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
41:33
Grunfeld speaks about food customs, in particular gefilte fish. He then speaks about contemporary Jewish life in Cluj-Napoca and answers a dialectological question.
55:00
Kraus addresses Yiddish dialects. He then talks about food customs, including onions with egg. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Kraus answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also explains how to play nuts.
5:39
Kraus answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
21:49
Hershkovich talks about prewar Passover celebrations at home. He then answers linguistic questions.
50:40
Hershkovich answers questions about cultural terminology. He then addresses Yiddish dialects.
53:20
Hershkovich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Freundlich addresses linguistic questions and then talks about her family. Her father owned a store in Satu Mare. Freundlich also recalls the moment her grandfather passed away. Freundlich maintains that her grandfathers gave her a Torah when she was a child.
51:33
Freundlich speaks about her family life before the war. Her family conversed in Hungarian during the week, but, Freundlich maintains, on Sabbath they only spoke Yiddish. She also addresses Purim celebrations and costumes.
16:04
Freundlich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then addresses folk and healing customs. Freundlich explains how to avert the evil eye.
34:54
Freundlich answers questions about cultural terminology and speaks about life today. She also addresses Yiddish-speaking communities in the region before the war.
7:36
Grunfeld speaks about prewar Jewish life in Luduș. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and speaking Yiddish at home.
0:00
Kraus and Grunfeld speak about life today and geography, as well as Yiddish dialects. Grunfeld then shares a joke about Litvaks, he heard from his grandfather.
24:31
Grunfeld again tells the joke about Yiddish dialects.
36:17
Grunfeld talks about his life during World War II as forced laborer. He describes how he was taken from the fortress to the city of Tighina in 1943. In particular, he recalls a Romanian police officer who spoke Yiddish.
38:19
Kraus and Grunfeld speak about Jewish life before the war, in particular Sabbath celebrations. Grunfeld then addresses dialectology.
44:50
Meir answers questions about cultural terminolog and answers linguistic questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He also talks about his wife.
55:03
Meir talks about prewar life, in particular non-Jews who knew Yiddish words. He then speaks about traditional weddings before the war. Meir maintains that non-Jews attended Jewish weddings and vice versa.
0:00
The team sets up the interview with Shaia. He then provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with a sister, who lives in Iaşi, and a brother, who lives in Israel. Shaia then talks about his education and provides more information about his family. He attended a Romanian school and recalls how difficult it was for him to speak Romanian at first. His father was tailor. His mother, born in Gertsa, Ukraine, was also a tailor and helped out Shaia's father. Shaia then talks about the fate of his wife's family during World War II.
19:14
Shaia answers questions about cultural terminology and dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also addresses prewar Purim celebrations and religious life in Dorohoi.
27:32
Isidor remembers Shaia's father. Shaia then addresses prewar life and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. In particular, he remembers his father's non-Jewish apprentice.
0:00
Isidor and Shaia talk about contemporary Jewish life and support from the Joint Distribution Committee, as well as dialectology.
4:26
Grimberg addresses literature. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
15:32
Grimberg addresses Yiddish songs. She then speaks about her family. Her father was born in Ripiceni. She also addresses Yiddish dialects and continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Isidor talks about the contemporary Jewish community of Dorohoi and his activities as the head of the community. Isidor states that he only spoke to his mother in Yiddish.
18:13
Isidor talks about his life during World War II. He was confined to the Mohyliv-Podilskyy and Sharhorod ghettos. His mother worked in a kolkhoz kitchen. He then describes how he learned Yiddish and shares an episode when he was a student at the religious school and the conflict with the rebbe about drinking unkosher water.
26:25
Isidor answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
16:43
Hirsch talks about prewar Jewish life in Luduș. He then addresses antisemitism. He grew up speaking Yiddish and Hungarian.
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.
12:57
Abramovich answers questions about cultural terminology and speaks about his Yiddish-language education. He also mentions prewar culture, including organizations (Hashomer Hatzair and Gordonia).
35:12
Grinberg provides information about local schools in Romania that teach Yiddish. She then speaks about her school education at a Romanian school, which included Yiddish language lessons.
30:38
Finkelshteyn remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He then speaks about contemporary Jewish life and visitors.
29:57
Karuel talks about his life after World War II. He served in the Romanian army. The conversation returns to holiday celebration, before addressing organizations. Karuel recalls Sukkot celebrations at his grandfather's home. He then mentions Jews who converted to Christianity and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Karuel also addresses literature and prewar and postwar Jewish culture, including Yiddish theater performances.
54:53
Karuel talks about his family. He raised a son. Karuel then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
57:28
Karuel addresses food customs and then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
They discuss geographical terminology.
34:42
They talk about geography and speaking Yiddish. Iakob and Ruti then recall their father's anecdotes and jokes from daily life.
47:19
They answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Iakob then tells a joke about greetings.
24:57
Resh lists prewar Jewish organizations in Chernivtsi, including Maccabi, Borochov and Hasmonea. He then speaks about prewar life and holiday celebration. Resh recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
33:57
Resh speaks about Jewish life before the war and recalls Polish refugees to Chernivtsi in 1939. He then addresses different regional Yiddish dialects and his family.
50:03
Resh recalls Yiddish proverbs and answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Resh raised one daughter.
0:00
Resh answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
19:20
Shtaigman speaks about his Yiddish language and literature education in Rădăuţi after the war for approximately five years. He then addresses prewar war life in Rădăuţi and his life in the 1960s. In particular, Shtaigman remembers how a large majority made aliyah.
27:18
Shtaigman addresses Yiddish dialects and Jews from other regions.
51:09
Shtaigman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Shtaigman briefly speaks about Polish migrants to Rădăuţi in 1939. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
5:20
Shvartz speaks about his family and then his life before the war. He raised one daughter. Shvartz attended a Romanian school and then a Romanian Jewish school for four years until 1941. He recalls his Yiddish and Hebrew classes. Shvartz then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Bîrlad.
40:19
Shvartz answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
56:16
Shvartz recalls two brothers who converted to Christianity, as well as a Christian who converted to Judaism for his wife. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Shvartz answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
38:55
Kaizerman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
8:48
Chirilau discusses her childhood memories and games. She attended a Romanian school. Chirilau maintains that she only communicated with her friends in Yiddish. She then addresses the occupational structure among Jews.
2:24
Chirilau answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
16:18
Chirilau answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses prewar kosher butchers and matchmakers, as well as geography.
26:06
Chirilau answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then speaks about her friends.
0:00
Leichtner speaks about writing letters in Yiddish, before he addresses prewar religious life.
16:57
Leichtner answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
29:48
Freundlich talks about his work as merchant and then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Baia Mare. According to him, eight hundred Jews lived there. Freundlich also recalls enmity between Hasidim and Ashkenazim. He then talks about his father and different Yiddish dialects.
21:54
Freundlich addresses Yiddish literature in Hungarian translation.
23:49
Freundlich speaks briefly addresses the local Zionist organization, he joined before the war. He then speaks about his life and family after the war. Freundlich visited Israel for the first time in 1968, where he met siblings. He then recalls his experiences and use of Hebrew in Israel. Freundlich mentions that he studied Hebrew at home after his visit to Israel.
33:28
Freundlich addresses different Yiddish dialects within praying customs. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
51:16
Freundlich speaks about prewar Jewish life in the Maramureş region, where poorest Jewish families lived according to Freundlich. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
14:44
Freund addresses different Yiddish dialects. He then discusses his childhood memories. He attended a Jewish school in Oradea and attended a cheder and Talmud Torah school in Baia Mare.
32:44
Freund answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
14:44
Freund addresses different Yiddish dialects. He then discusses his childhood memories. He attended a Jewish school in Oradea and attended a cheder and Talmud Torah school in Baia Mare.
32:44
Freund answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
37:48
Macarie mentions Purim celebrations and answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Freundlich speaks about social geography and languages of the region in the prewar period. In particular, he recalls poor visitors (mainly peasants) from the Maramureş region to Baia Mare on Sabbath.
38:46
Grinberg speaks about her Yiddish education at a Romanian school Fălticeni in the 1950s. She explains how a female teacher taught at her school twice a week for two years. Grinberg then speaks about her family and childhood memories. Her father was a glazier.
38:10
Grinberg mentions a positive relationship between her and her non-Jewish neighbors. She then answers questions about cultural terminology and addresses Yiddish dialects.
10:23
Grinberg speaks about religious customs. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
42:45
Grinberg speaks about the Yiddish language. She then speaks about hasidism, specifically Chabad.
34:01
Cojocaru answers questions about cultural terminology. She then addresses prewar life, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She then speaks about her life today and her husband's family. She also addresses her family's occupations before the war.
50:46
Cojocaru talks about Hanukkah food customs, before she answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:12
He speaks about Jewish life after the war, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
44:00
Kurtsberg speaks about local Jewish life today. He also recalls how his grandfather criticized Polish Yiddish. Kurtsberg then shares an anecdote about a rebbe and his wife Sure, before telling another anecdote about a worried mother, whose son is about to be drafted. Kurtsberg remembers the stories from his grandfather.
17:58
Kurtsberg speaks about Jewish life before the war, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and the Zionist organizations Yichud and Comitetul Democratic Evreiesc (Jewish Democratic Committee). Kurtsberg also addresses prewar cultural life.
0:00
Cojocaru answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
11:01
Cojocaru addresses healing customs and continues to answer dialectological questions.
37:57
Galambos speaks about Yiddish dialects and his life after liberation.
23:52
Weinberger speaks about prewar Jewish life in Stropkov and Košice. He then addresses food customs and answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
37:26
Weinberger answers dialectological questions. He then talks about Isaac Bashevis Singer and Polish Yiddish songs.
55:25
Weinberger speaks about his family and observance. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
21:32
Chaimović sings a song, he recalls from the Zionist organization, Mizrachi. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and mentions cemeteries in Prešov. Chaimović also addresses Yiddish dialects.
30:49
Chaimović talks about the Golem of Prague. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
49:38
Pivnik addresses life before the war. She does not recall antisemitism. She then talks about life after the war and housing, before Pivnik addresses her life in evacuation. She worked in a sugar shop. Pivnik then talks about her husband, who was an actor. She got married in 1942. Her daughter Ala Pivnik joins the conversation and explains how she learned to speak Yiddish from her aunts. Ala came to Balta at the age of three, when Pivnik moved back from Birodbidzhan.
30:09
Khotenko discusses cultural life after the war, in particular theater. She then talks about prewar life at home, in particular Sabbath and Yom Kippur celebrations. Khotenko remembers her non-Jewish friend Pavlik, who spoke Yiddish. She then talks about her family and prewar cultural life. Her grandfather was a tailor.
8:22
Khotenko talks about prewar Jewish life. She then talks about contemporary Jewish life and her different last names; before she talks about her family. She remembers her mother writing in Yiddish.
10:30
Guzman speaks briefly about her family in America. One of her mother’s sisters, Rukhl, lived in the United States, and used to write to her in Yiddish in the years after the war.
16:05
The interview begins. Kazakevich was born in Lityn in 1925. Both of her parents were from Lityn. Her father was named was Leyb, and he was a tailor. Her mother name was Feyge, and was a housewife. Kazakevich has difficulty both with Yiddish, and with discussing her siblings and parents, none of whom are living.
24:36
Childhood and friends before the war. Kazakevich attended Ukrainian school with a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish children. There were only a few children who attended Jewish schools, and they spoke Yiddish at home.
27:16
Family. Her father died before the war, but her mother survived (?) together with Kazakevich herself. Her eldest brother was named Chaim, her older sister was named Bronye. Kazakevich slips often out of Yiddish, and her bibliographical details are supplied by a family member off-screen, in Russian.
52:59
Life in the Ural region during the war very difficult. Her mother was a teacher at a Yiddish technical institute before the war, and taught both in Yiddish and Russian, so was able to speak with the other evacuees who came from Poland and Lvov. When they were sent to the Ural region they all lived in 1 room. Her father was a director of a factory.
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.
58:13
The tape ends with linguistic questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
The team continues to ask dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire throughout the tape.
13:24
The conversation turns to life after the war. Due to his achievements as a cardiologist in Rivne, he was made honorary citizen as the only Jew among eight honorary citizens of the city . He still works as the chief cardiologist in Bila Tserkva. The camera briefly cuts to his wife Sonya, who was born in Bila Tserkva, and they discuss Yiddish dialects.
24:45
The conversation moves to Berman's childhood memories. He did not grow up speaking Yiddish, but learned the language reading Yiddish journalism and sports magazines. He studied at a Hebrew-language school, organized by the Tarbut movement, before he switched to a Polish school. In ninth and tenth grade, Berman studied at a Russian school. He then talks about the ceremony he attended commemorating the fifty year anniversary of the Warsaw uprising, where he gave a speech in Polish. The conversation returns to his childhood years and prewar Jewish life in Rivne. He mentions different Jewish institutions, which produced a lively Jewish community in Rivne. The institutions include Jewish parties, a Yiddish and a Hebrew school, and three Jewish sport clubs. Berman traveled to Kyiv to see his relatives in 1939, one week before the war broke out.
MDV 335Khariton Berman; Chara Yakovlevna Bublitskaia; Chara (Chare) Yakovlevna BublitskaiaBila Tserkva, 2005
38:54
She talks about elderly Romanians who spoke Yiddish before the war before she returns to her education at the Yiddish school and childhood memories in general.
54:21
The team asks Bublitskaia a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
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.
43:41
Berman talks about prewar cultural life in Rivne, in particular the struggle between Yiddishists and Hebraists. He refers to Hayim Nahman Bialik.
9:39
Dialectological questions. Before the war and the wine region.
10:20
Dialectological questions. Childhood
23:17
Dialectological questions
24:38
Efim shares information about Yiddish-speakers of the region.
24:38
Yiddish-speakers in the region
25:34
Dialectological questions and life after the war, in particular about the Jewish cemetery in Uriev
34:39
Bella and Isaak speak about prewar Jewish life in Berdychiv, as well as mention Yiddish newspapers and writers. They recall Yiddish spoken on the street. According to Isaak, 60,000 Jews lived in Berdychiv out of a total population of 80,000. Bella then speaks about family letters, written in Yiddish.
1:30
Dialectology
1:32
Bella and Isaak answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
7:21
Isaak and Bella address food customs, particularly latkes. They then continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
14:26
Bella talks about her family. Her father was a refugee from Poland during World War I. Bella recalls the dangers to receive a Jewish education during her childhood. They then continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:22
Bella remember a well-known wedding song, before they continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
1:55
Bella and Isaak answer questions about cultural terminology and discuss Yiddish dialects.
12:39
Isaak and Bella answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire, as well as questions about cultural terminology.
26:06
Bella and Isaak answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Bella also addresses prewar Passover celebrations at home (27:50).
22:47
Skobilitskii addresses his schooling routine before the war. He also recalls a non-Jewish friend who spoke Yiddish with him after the war. Skobilitskii then discusses Yiddish spelling.
2:21
Skobilitskii answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
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).
20:01
Skobilitskii answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also speaks about his family, including his relatives' occupations (21:00).
27:45
Skobilitskii shows a book by Viktor Korzhuk who writes about Skobilitskii's military service. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
34:33
Skobilitskii discusses prewar Jewish life in Berdychiv, as well as answers questions about cultural terminology and linguistic questions.
MDV 344Efim Grigoryevich Skobilitskii; Raisa Iosifovna Chukh; David Zelikovich FurmanBerdychiv, 2002
0:00
Skobilitskii briefly speaks about Yiddish literature, before he answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
5:40
Skobilitskii discusses his childhood memories and remembers how his maternal grandfather practiced kosher slaughter. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and linguistic questions.
10:42
Skobilitskii discusses Yiddish literature, before continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
19:53
Skobilitskii continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Chukh continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
13:19
Jewish secular school and dialectology
17:12
Dialectology
24:00
Dialectology and prewar Jewish life
33:11
Yiddish-speaking Jews in the region and current affairs
34:52
Mixed weddings and Yiddish-speaking non-Jews
5:42
Vanshelboim talks about his childhood memories, including alcohol consumption and non-Jews, who spoke Yiddish. Vanshelboim also recalls individuals who converted to Christianity.
57:28
Prewar Jewish life and life today. Hodinger briefly addresses prewar Jewish life and speaking Yiddish in Berehove. He then talks about his life today: he has a vineyard, and makes his own wine.
52:03
Berkovich's family and potential interviewees. Berkovich lived in America for thirty-five years. His son lives there. He returned to Berehove because his wife fell ill three years ago. In America, he worked as a carpenter. They also discuss potential interviewees, and potential Yiddish-speakers in the region.
8:22
The formal interview with Murovanaia begins. She addresses speaking Yiddish with her family.
30:16
Murovanaia answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
11:28
Kozak answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also briefly addresses Passover celebrations (23:00).
27:11
Kozak continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
31:22
Kozak addresses food customs and continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
32:05
Kozak speaks about folk and healing customs before the war. She then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
35:02
Kozak speaks about prewar Tisha B'Av celebrations and answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also talks about prewar religious life and her family.
0:00
Leiderman answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
8:06
Leiderman speaks about her experiences during World War II. She evacuated to the Urals. After the war, she returned to Bershad. Leiderman continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
26:40
Bershadskaya answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Bershadskaya addresses food customs on Sabbath. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
7:01
Bershadskaya talks about prewar Purim celebrations. She also addresses prewar Yiddish cultural life. She then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:54
Shor discusses his life and education before the war. He attended a Yiddish school for four years and finished his school education at a Ukrainian school. Shor then speaks about his Yiddish school education. He also writes Yiddish words on a piece of paper.
34:33
Shor addresses Hanukkah food customs. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Shor speaks about religious life after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
24:28
Gvinter answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
12:53
Feldman speaks about contemporary religious life. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
26:08
Feldman speaks about her life today, communicating in different languages.
22:39
Teitel talks about the non-existing opportunity to speak Yiddish in town after the war. She then talks about her family, in particular her children. She then discusses her work as an accountant and returns to talking about her family and their life during the war.
59:06
Loyf answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
0:00
Loyf answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. 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.
34:29
Berkovich dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
22:40
Pustilnik talks about her life after the war. She attended a Ukrainian school and worked on the Lenin kolkhoz in Yire. According to her, it was a Jewish-Ukrainian kolkhoz. Her family moved from Yire to Yampil after the war. Pustilnik remembers a non-Jewish woman who spoke Yiddish to her. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
10:34
Pustilnik answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
32:43
Miaskovskaia answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
18:12
Kupershmidt answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
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.
35:50
Sofia addresses prewar holiday food customs, particularly on Passover. They also discuss Passover, as well as the contemporary community. Sofia and David also speak about Yiddish dialects and Hasidism.
48:43
Sofia speaks about her life today and family. Her sister lives in Israel. They then answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
57:10
Sofia talks about her family, specifically her grandmother. David then explains how he learned Yiddish after the war. Sofia then speaks about the beginning of the war, the day her family evacuated. Sofia describes how her parents had to let go of their animals.
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.
31:44
Kelmenson talks about her family, particularly her father. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. They then chat.
43:41
The team concludes the interview with Kelmenson. They also address Yiddish dialects.
7:09
Dialectology and family.
10:32
Linguistics.
24:06
Dialectology.
28:19
Dialectology.
37:32
Cultural terminology and dialectology.
42:42
Dialectology.
57:39
Dialectology.
0:00
Interview with Nina Markovna Bielaia. Dialectology and return after war.
39:01
Life today and Yiddish sayings.
29:38
Burg talks about his life as a Yiddish writer and his contemporary activities in promoting Yiddish culture in schools for instance. He talks about the difficulties setting up Yiddish language classes at a Jewish school. Burg then talks about contemporary Hasidic life, before he talks about his family.
43:01
Burg describes one of his stories about Yiddish teaching in Germany. He then talks about his studies with Eliezer Steinberg.
0:00
Burg talks the destruction of Yiddish cultural and intellectual life by Hitler and Stalin. He also addresses how Israel did not encourage the continuation of Yiddish cultural life. Burg recites a Hebrew poet about Yiddish culture. Burg then broadly discusses the history of Jews and contemporary Yiddish life, including an event in Berlin, commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz. He also talks about the encounter with the German author and correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Michael Martens, who published a book about Burg called “Irrfahrten: Ein Ostjudisches Leben” (odysseys: an east-Jewish life).
17:26
Burg talks about prewar Jewish life in Chernivtsi, which was divided between the assimilated German-speaking Jews and Yiddish-speaking Jews. Burg states that the Yiddish-speaking population was divided between Litvish and Bessarabian Yiddish.
31:51
Burg talks about different kinds of Yiddish from his childhood and prewar Yiddish culture. He remembers the theater group Vilna Troupe, who brought in a different Yiddish dialect to Chernivtsi.
24:41
Burg discusses his childhood memories in his hometown Vyzhnytsya, including Hasidic family of Hager. He mentions an episode of the local priest and the Rebbe of Vyzhnytsya, who showed mutual respect for each other. According to Burg, the rebbe carried a cross on his shoulders to help the priest. Burg remembers non-Jews, their neighbors, who spoke Yiddish. He then talks about his encounter with the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya. His mother went with Burg when he was ten years old, so he can be blessed. Burg explains that that rebbe did not bless because, according to him, Burg was already blessed.
0:00
Burg recalls his encounters with Ful beShames*, who taught medieval Russian literature. Burg tells a story how Shames invited him to hear a Russian-speaking woman Nina recite a poem by Shmuel Halkin in Yiddish. She later was to become Burg’s wife. He then talks about his first time leaving the Soviet Union in 1989, traveling to Austria. He was invited by the Austrian ministry for culture. Burg then talks about his wife, who studied with Shames and then worked as a teacher. Burg taught his wife Yiddish.
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.
42:08
Geinik answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
9:25
Kleiman talks about Jewish life and childhood memories before the war in his hometown Vadrashkov. He attended a Romanian school. His parents hired a private religious tutor, who taught Kleiman in the afternoons. He describes the studies with the tutor. According to Kleiman, he was fairly well-versed in religious texts at the age of nine. Kleiman recalls how he learned Yiddish from a Communist newspaper, “Der veg” (the path).
50:46
Kleiman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
Kleiman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. Kleiman briefly talks about the history and language of Bessarabian Jews. The second part of the tape includes town footage of Chernivtsi.
32:31
Gimelbrandt discusses her childhood memories. She mentions holiday celebrations, in particular Purim and Passover. Gimelbrandt finished one year at a Yiddish school. She grew up with a sister and a brother, who attended religious school (cheder) and lives in Israel. Gimelbrandt remembers how her non-Jewish friends, who spoke Yiddish, celebrated Purim with her before the war. She then describes food customs for Sabbath, Shavuot, and Passover.
8:20
Gimelbrandt talks about life after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her sister moved to Israel and suggested to Gimelbrandt and her two sons to make aliyah. Her sons, who were raised in Yiddish, made aliyah, but Gimelbrandt only went to visit twice. She talks about the good relations to her non-Jewish neighbors.
17:29
Gimelbrandt answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
57:00
Shternberg talks about prewar Jewish weddings in Khotyn and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
0:00
Shternberg talks about her family and her hometown Khotyn, including a non-Jewish tailor who spoke Yiddish. Shternberg then sings a number of Yiddish songs about drinking in the tavern, living a Jewish life, and life in the Kopayhorod ghetto Shternberg wrote herself. The ghetto song deals with a girl who sits next to her dying mother.
37:38
Burg addresses Yiddish-learning students and the team concludes the interview.
42:27
Dialectology and life today
10:06
Life today and information about Yiddish-speakers in the region
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.
51:37
Srulova answers questions from the team’s dialectological and sociolinguistic survey. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Chortkiv, Novohrad-Volyns’kyy (Zvil), Kiev
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Asya (Esye) Petrovna Srulova (b. 1928 in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy (Zvil)) (part 2 of 2. See MDV 425). She answers questions from the research team’s dialectological and sociolinguistic survey, briefly discussing traditional Jewish foodways from her youth.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Volf Tsalevich Leibel, recorded in Lviv. Leibel, born 1921 in Rivne, answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
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.
14:35
Shekhovich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. Shekhovich also explains that she has mostly lived in a Ukrainian environment and speaks predominately Ukrainian. She then discusses religious customs, before responding to more dialectological questions.
30:35
Shekhovich answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire and mentions Yiddish sayings.
38:48
Shekhovich mentions the different languages she spoke before the war, including Polish and Yiddish. She then talks about life today and before the war.
22:31
Shekhovich describes in Polish the Polish-language environment she lived in before the war.
19:29
Schreier talks about Jewish life before the war. He then talks about the languages he spoke at home, including Polish and Hebrew for Schreier’s bar mitzvah. Schreier’s father grew up in Yiddish and his mother in Polish. He studied with his uncle for his bar mitzvah, who told him to recite part of his parsha in Polish. Schreier then talks about the poor Jewish neighborhood of Drohobych. He recalls how he visited this neighborhood with his teacher Bruno Schulz, who drew sketches of the buildings there. Schulz worked at Schreier’s school since 1924 without an official teacher’s permit. Only after Schulz passed his exams in 1936 at Cracow University, he received an official permit. Schreier continues to talk about Schulz, who studied drawing and carpentry, including his life during the war and legacy.
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.
53:01
Shekhter answers questions about cultural terminology and dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
Shekhter answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also tells a linguistic joke and explains how they made dreidls (00:40:00).
55:17
Khasidovich answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also talks about life today and the Great Hunger in 1932. According to Khasidovich, her family did not suffer from the famine. She lived in Israel for one year.
0:00
The team, together with Shekhter’s wife, greets Kopyt at her house and sets up the interview with her. She talks about life today and how she studied Yiddish with an older Polish woman during evacuation in Uzbekistan.
0:00
Murovanaia continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
5:00
Murovanaia sings the Hanukkah song "Khanike Oy Khanike," before she addresses postwar Hanukkah celebrations, including food customs. Murovanaia then continues answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
31:31
Burshtein addresses his return to Haysyn after the war. According to him, it was embarrasing to speak Yiddish. He then mentions non-Jews who spoke Yiddish in Sobolivka before the war; particularly his grandfather's friend.
23:32
Burshtein answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Burshtein also talks about food customs on Passover, as well as shares Yiddish proverbs.
53:03
Yiddish-speakers from the region
53:31
Dialectology and religious customs after the war
55:56
Life during the war and dialectology
0:00
Dialectology
11:50
Concluding the interview and information about Yiddish speakers in the region
11:09
Iuris discusses her childhood memories and talks about her parents. She explains that her grandmother told her to speak Yiddish at home and Russian with her Jewish and non-Jewish friends to avoid being made fun of. After the war, her parents moved from Moldova to Chernivtsi, into a house, formerly part of the Chernivtsi ghetto.
44:13
Bukshtein talks about his family and contemporary religious life. Bukhstein serves as assistant rabbi. He then discusses the history of the region and prewar Jewish life in Novoselitsa. Bukhshtein recalls many non-Jews speaking Yiddish. He then lists Zionists organizations, including Hashomer Hatzair, Betar, and Poale Zion. Bukshtein was a member of the youth organization Hashomer Hatzair and recalls its activities to prepare chalutzim (young pioneers preparing aliyah to live in agricultural settlements). Bukhstein’s cousin made aliyah in 1935.
50:05
Bukshtein talks about the Sovietization of Ivano Frankivsk in 1940 and his life during this period. He worked as a tailor and was sent on a work assignment to Mykolayiv at a 51:28 construction site. Bukshtein explains how he and other tailors were called away by the Jewish director of a tailoring factory. He maintains that most workers at the factory were Jewish and the young workers were called to a meeting in 1940, held in Yiddish. Bukshtein states that his plans for returning home for vacation were interrupted as World War II broke out.
10:53
Bukshtein sings a Yiddish song about the joy of the Yiddish language, he composed the melody for. He then talks about contemporary Yiddish literature and reads a story by Avrum Karpinovich, published in “Vilne, mayne Vilne” [Vilna, my Vilna].
22:59
Bukshtein talks about his family. His maternal grandparents raised twelve children. His mother was a tailor and born in Edinet. The majority of his family was murdered during the war. Bukshtein then states how important it is to cultivate the Yiddish language and discusses Yiddish dialects. He continues to share information about his family. He grew up with four siblings. He then talks about his brother’s fate in a Romanian-occupied ghetto during the war, he learned from his mother. In particular, Bukshtein tells a story when his brother looked for food and he fell into icy water.
29:19
Bukshtein answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire and remembers Yiddish drinking songs and a Zionist song.
MDV 448Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein; Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich KatzIvano-Frankivs'k, 2003
29:49
Katz talks about his traditional wedding in 1940 with a wedding canopy set up in the rebbe’s court. He then discusses his education at the religious school (cheder) with two teachers and discusses his childhood memories, including swimming in the river and going to the bathhouse. At the Polish school, Katz also received Hebrew-language instruction.
0:00
Katz discusses holiday celebrations, including Shavuot and Yom Kippur. He then talks about a Sabbath goy he remembers from home and food customs. Katz also addresses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, antisemitism, football clubs, and drama circles. Katz then lists political organizations, including Hashomer Hatzair, Gordonya, Poale Zion, the Bund.
41:01
Katz answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Genrikh Moiseevich Katz. Katz answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:32
The team speaks with a number of congregants, including Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein, about Yiddish dialects and regions. A congregant from Proskurov (today Khmelnytskyy) talks about his family members that perished during the war. He also briefly addresses his education.
2:46
Information about Yiddish-speakers.
6:21
Dialectology and family.
14:51
Dialectology and family.
36:40
Dialectology
0:00
Dialectology and concluding the interview
15:10
Dialectology and work after the war
48:48
Yiddish dialects and anecdotes
1:29
Once she agrees, the interview begins. Kraidman was born in 1923 in what was then western Poland. Sometime in the 1920s her family moved to Babruysk, Belarus, then in the Soviet Union. There she completed 10 grades in a Soviet Yiddish school, where she studied four languages: Yiddish, Russian, Belarusian, German. In 1939, this school was converted into a Russian-language institution. Kraidman also recalls the town’s Yiddish library, where she attended a reading of “Notre Dame” by Gogol’ in Yiddish. Kraidman also mentions other Yiddish authors she read for school, such as Dovid Bergelson.
12:50
Before the war, Kraidman spoke Yiddish with her family at home. During the evacuation, Kraidman switched to Russian, a language she reports speaking with Jewish workers from Odessa who were also evacuated to the same area.
13:48
Kraidman married a man named Mikhail in 1945 in Zhytomyr. Although he spoke some Yiddish, they spoke only in Russian to each other. Her husband’s uncle lived in America, but they lost contact with that branch of the family when he died.
15:20
After the war, Jews in Khmel’nyts’kyy spoke only Russian at work/in public spaces, speaking Yiddish at home, if at all. Today, Kraidman reads and translates Forverts articles for other community members in Hesed (elderly welfare organization). She also shares her attitudes towards different dialects of Yiddish.
21:24
Kraidman speaks about her work as an accountant and her two sons. Kraidman states that she can read and write in Yiddish fluently, but finds speaking difficult. She takes pride in the fact that she recently translated Yiddish-language archival material for a scholar from Kam’’yanets’ Podil’s’skyy for his dissertation research.
26:02
Kraidman mentions that there was a person who taught Yiddish at Hesed recently, but this was a class which only emphasized speaking; reading and writing were taught in the Cyrillic alphabet.
30:13
During and after evacuation, Kraidman spoke to her mother in Russian. Her mother would answer in Yiddish, as she never learned to speak Russian well.
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.
7:31
The tape cuts to Professor Kerler singing and then speaking Yiddish with Dr. Lemster at the request of another Hesed employee. Liudmila Makedonskaya returns and talks about her grandmother. She also mentions that her grandson learns Hebrew in the local Jewish school and comments on the linguistic and demographic composition of the contemporary community. Yiddish was once taught in the town’s Jewish school, but in Cyrillic characters. The woman states that she has three children and seven grandchildren, some of whom live in Israel. There is a debate among the employees as to who speaks Yiddish in the town and to whom to send the team. Dr. Lemster suggests that there may be Jews in the town unconnected to Hesed, but Liudmilia assures him that those who are not connected to Hesed are likewise unconnected to Jewishness [evreistvo].
16:38
The social worker reads the Yiddish poem “Yidn redn yidish.” by Mani Leib which was reprinted in a recent local paper.
1:00:54
Sonya states that she completed ten years of Yiddish-language education before the war.Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Khmel’nyts’kyy (Proskurov), Medzhibozh, Stalingrad, Kharkiv, Kaliningrad, Moscow.
17:11
Both interviewees comment on how they have known many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Sonya Gaiviker spoke to her daughter in Russian, but she reports that she does understand a bit of Yiddish.
44:43
The rest of the tape consists of the research team asking questions from their linguistic and dialectological survey, interspersed with brief discussion of the interviewees’ views on Israel and their memories of military service, the war and the Baltic republics.
13:14
Yarmolnik spoke Yiddish at home in her childhood, but spoke mostly in Russian with the other children in her school. She sings fragments from “Bay mir bistu sheyn” and “Papirosn,” and recites the lyrics of another song about two lovers discussing their respective families.
21:45
In the postwar period, Yarmolnik reports, few people knew about the Besht or his gravesite but her husband, Misha/Monia Borisovich, told her about it. Yarmolnik lived with her husband for forty-six years. Their one son was circumcised in a private home by a local rabbi, an action she was unafraid to take, although she knew it was risky. (“Why should we have been afraid? I was not a Party member, my husband was not a Party member”). Yarmolnik states that she was not afraid of being sent to jail or of what the non-Jews might think or say. Professor Kerler also asks Yarmolnik about her use of a particular Ukrainian-language expression in her Yiddish.
28:20
Yarmolnik states that there were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish in Khmel'nyts'kyy since, on her street for instance, non-Jews were a minority. Yarmolnik speaks briefly about her maternal aunt, whose husband was a Party official and registered her as an ethnic German.
30:43
Yarmolnik spoke only in Yiddish with her husband and son. Her grandson understands but does not speak Yiddish. Her grandson finished the local Jewish school.
32:01
The research team begins their questionnaire related to Yiddish sociolinguistics and dialectology.
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.
36:41
The research team returns to their linguistics questionnaire.
44:44
The team returns to the linguistics questionnaire.
53:12
The team returns to the linguistics questionnaire.Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Khmel'nyts'kyy (Proskurov), Bila Tserkva, Medzhibozh.
0:00
This very short tape consists of the last few minutes of a formal interview with Sonya (Sure) Petrovna Yarmolnik. The research team asks her several questions from Professor Kerler’s survey about sociolinguistic and dialectological issues.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with Aba Davidovich Kaviner, born in 1921 in the town of Derazhnya, Ukraine. He received a double education in his youth, graduating from a Soviet Yiddish school, while simultaneously attending a yeshiva. At 19 years of age, he was drafted into the Red Army, a year before the war broke out. With his entire family killed, after the war, Kaviner moved to Khmel'nyts'kyy, where he got married. His wife died four years ago. Kaviner shares his attitudes towards “loshn-koydesh” (the “holy tongue” of scripture) that he learned in yeshiva, in comparison with the “Sephardi dialect” of Modern Israeli Hebrew.
47:52
Kaviner reports that he knows all these stories from his reading them in Yiddish both before and after the war.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Aba Davidovich Kaviner (b. 1921 in Derzhanya, Ukraine). Kaviner recalls seeing the Torah scrolls burned in his town during the war, a traumatic moment for him. He also comments on the fact that all the non-Jews in the town spoke Yiddish.
27:54
Professor Kerler gives Kaviner a copy of his father’s book. Kaviner reads the poems aloud, commenting on the difference between Soviet and Standard Yiddish orthography. The research team arranges a subscription to the newspaper Forverts for Kaviner, and he talks about the Soviet Yiddish writers now working for the Forverts newspaper. They also talk about non-Jewish writers who knew Yiddish.
21:37
Kaviner reports that his daughter, who lives in Khmel'nyts'kyy, understands, but doesn’t speak Yiddish.
22:17
Kaviner shares his attitudes towards different dialects of Yiddish and discusses a work by Soviet Yiddish author Dovid Bergelson: “Der toyber” (The Deaf).
30:36
Kaviner tells the story of one of his most memorable reading experiences: When he was twelve years old he visited a local rich man’s large library from where he obtained Avraham Mapu’s “Ahaves Tsiyen" (Love of Zion) in “loshn-koydesh” (Hebrew). He remembers hiding in the attic in the summertime to hide from his father in order to read it. Kaviner further discusses “Di klasiker” and the Soviet Yiddish writers that he read in his youth.
3:15
Kaviner talks about his Yiddish school teachers as well as the science and mathematics curriculum in those institutions. At the request of the research team, he shares the terminology used in these classes for mathematical concepts.
8:09
Kaviner comments further on the Soviet Yiddish school curriculum as it pertained to literature and language, explains the logistics in obtaining enough books for all the students, and notes the storyteller-performers who would come visit the school. Kaviner shares his mostly negative attitude towards Israeli Hebrew. He recites the lyrics of “HaTivka” (The Hope) in Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, then sings the song.
33:50
Kaviner and the researchers briefly discuss issues related to sociolinguistics and dialectology.
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.
7:47
Vaisblai discusses Khmel'nyts'kyy’s remaining Yiddish speakers and other Jews. He also talks about life in the postwar Soviet Union, specifically detailing the troubles he had with housing. Vaisblai also comments on his contemporary health and financial problems.
20:13
The research team begins their survey of sociolinguistic and dialectological questions, asking about terms such as “dibek,” “goylem” and others.
24:36
The team returns to their linguistics questionnaire.
3:47
The rest of the tape consists of Kramer answering questions from the research team’s sociolinguistic and dialectological survey.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Sura Melekhovna Bivson (née Frierman, b. 1926 in Polonne) conducted in Starokostyantyniv. Dr. Lemster asks Bivson questions from the AHEYM sociolinguistic and dialectological survey. Bivson also briefly discusses wedding and culinary customs from her youth.
16:20
Bivson shares her views on what it means to be a Jew, stating that Jews are morally decent people, who have love and pity for other people and animals. Dr. Lemster then returns to the linguistic questionnaire.
5:16
Vaisblai briefly talks about the four grades he completed in a Soviet Yiddish school. He also comments on the state of the contemporary Jewish community and the Yiddish language in Khmel'nyts'kyy. He considers himself a unique interviewee because he remembers so much so clearly and was old enough to understand what was going on during the war.
24:28
Vaisblai sings “Fraytik af der nakht” (“Friday Evening”) and shares his attitudes towards the decline of Yiddish and about the State of Israel.
58:13
Professor Kerler asks Kaviner about a particular idiomatic expression he uses.
30:18
Snook remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish before the war. She then talks about food customs for holidays.
56:57
The team asks a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. Katz briefly discusses his religious education (cheder).
16:46
Zinger talks about Hasidism and Zionist organizations before the war. He remembers the rebbe of Mukacheve visiting Velykyi Bereznyi. Zinger remembers Zionist organizations who would prepare children for aliyah. Before Zinger was drafted into the Czech army in 1936, he spent two years in Hachshara (a preparatory camp for emigration to Palestine) in Czechoslovakia, where he learned Hebrew and worked in a textile factory.
16:38
Snook’s son Shloyme arrives. Snook discusses life today and answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
24:53
Dialectology and prewar cultural and religious life.
4:02
Dialectology and explanation of AHEYM project.
0:00
Dialectology.
7:19
Family and teaching Yiddish.
5:16
Yiddish.
26:35
The role of Yiddish.
27:46
Food customs and dialectology.
25:08
Non-Jews speaking Yiddish.
29:27
Food customs and dialectology.
38:32
Prewar religious life and dialectology.
19:46
Yiddish and prayer books.
11:31
Non-Jewish Yiddish-speakers.
8:21
Friends at school and learning Russian.
1:46
Dialectology.
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.
29:13
He sings a loshn-koydesh (the Hebrew-Aramaic "holy tongue” of prayer and liturgy) song that he learned while a student in the Beys-Arn Yeshiva. He describes the yeshiva’s teachers and curriculum, and recites some of the Hebrew grammar and verb conjugations that he remembers. Vider also explains the difference between a "rebe” and a "ruv”.
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.
17:49
Vider details his early education in the Jewish schools in Hîrlau where he studied in Yididsh in the morning and in Hebrew in the afternoon. School met six days a week, according to Vider, and taught Modern Hebrew similar to what is now spoken in Israel. Vider then sings HaTivka.
0:00
Vider answers questions from Professor Kerler’s sociolinguistic and dialectological questionnaire. He also speaks about how his mother made "khale” (special bread for the Sabbath).
18:26
Vider shares his attitudes towards different dialects of Yiddish, and mentions the many Yiddish-speaking non-Jews he met both in Romanian and the Garagum (Kara-kum) desert in the Soviet Union.
29:24
Vider briefly discusses the Jewish bathhouse in his shtetl that was used as a mikve (ritual bath) by the town’s men on Friday night before shabes. From this topic, Vider and Professor Kerler discuss the origins and uses of the idiom "firn in bud arayn” (lit. "to lead somone into the baths”). Vider reminisces about the nignum (traditional wordless melodies) sung by his Rebbe. He then sings a loshn-koydesh (the Hebrew-Aramaic language of prayer and liturgy) song that his father would sing at the third meal before the end of shabes.
33:01
Vider answers more questions relating to sociolinguistics and dialectology.
41:04
Professor Kerler and Vider return to the sociolinguistic/dialectological questionnaire. Vider also details how he mother cooked and shares his recipes for "gefilte fish” and other foods.
53:51
Vider tells the story of how he learned to speak Russian and, on a related note, how he became a miner in the Soviet Union, in addition tot he other jobs he held. Vider answers further questions from Professor Kerler’s sociolinguistic survey.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). It begins with the interviewee answering questions from Professor Kerler’s sociolinguistic and dialectological questionnaire. He also recites a fragment from the Yiddish rhyming folk cure "dray vayber zitsn af a shteyn” ("three women sit on a stone”) and shares an anecdote about a Jew in Odesa to explain the idiom "fargoylemen zikh”.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Iosef (Yosl) Grigoryevich Grayf (b. 1922 in Kolomyya). He speaks generally about prewar Jewish life in Kolomyya, and mentions that there is another Jew in the town who knows the history better than he does, but not Yiddish. Noting that this person is Jewish only on his father’s side, Grayf shares his negative views of Jewish law vis-à-vis the question of matrilineal or patrilineal descent. He comments on shabes (Sabbath) observances from before the war, focusing on the foods they would eat, including gefilte fish.
8:52
Grayf details other holiday observances and traditional foods, and speaks about Yiddish dialects and Kolomyya’s contemporary Jewish community. He briefly returns to the subject of general prewar Jewish life, noting the different Jewish professions and many Jewish artisans in the town.
17:42
Grayf discusses the non-Jews who spoke Yiddish in Kolomyya before the war, and speaks more broadly about anti-Semitism and Jewish-Christian relations in that period. He comments on contemporary economic conditions and the drastic changes in the town in the prewar, postwar and post-Soviet periods.
27:17
Grayf answers questions from Professor Kerler’s sociolinguistic and dialectological survey.
57:28
Krotsh then describes a typical day in his secular school, noting that Yiddish was never a formal subject there, but that he spoke this language at home. Like many others, Krotsh states that he could not speak Romanian until he started attending government schools.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti). Another AHEYM interviewee, David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei), is also present. Krotsh discusses prewar Passover observances and celebrations, including a description of the dishes that were used and the foods that were eaten. Krotsh and Vider discuss the nuances of the differences between the terms "erlikh” and "frim”.
18:55
Krotsh speaks about Jewish-Christian relations in his shtetl (town), noting that many Romanians spoke Yiddish as well as the Jews.
25:21
Krotsh begins answering questions from the AHEYM sociolinguistic and dialectological survey.
45:41
Krotsh talks about different holiday foods and shares his attitudes towards Yiddish dialects. He then continues with the sociolinguistic and dialectology questionnaire, during which time he also sings the song "Freyen zikh iz git” (Being Happy is Good).
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti). Another AHEYM interviewee, David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei), is also present. Krotsh discusses his contemporary health problems, as well as the state of Yiddish in the Kolomyya present-day Jewish community. Krotsh speaks about his marriage and three sons of whom only one is now alive. Krotsh moved to Kolomyya in 1949.
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.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti). Another AHEYM interviewee, David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei), is also present. Krotsh answers questions from the AHEYM sociolinguistic and dialectological survey.
12:22
Krotsh answers questions from the AHEYM sociolinguistic and dialectological survey.
46:25
Grayf answers a series of questions from the AHEYM sociolinguistic and dialectological survey.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). He answers questions from the AHEYM dialectological and sociolinguistic questionnaire.
27:28
Vider speaks briefly about folk remedies for a "git oyg” (the "Evil Eye,” lit. "A Good Eye”) including "leyshn koyln” ("extinguishing coals”). He then continues with the linguistic questionnaire.
41:42
The camera cuts to a formal interview with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti). Krotsh answers questions from the AHEYM dialectological and sociolinguistic questionnaire and speaks about the influence of Romanian and other languages in Yiddish.
56:29
Krotsh answers other questions related to Yiddish linguistics, discussing religious customs, such as "tashlikh” (going to the river on the Jewish New Year to rid oneself of sins). He also speaks about his visit to his hometown in Romania in the postwar period and begins to detail his family’s wartime experiences.
55:58
Krotsh shares his views towards Christianity and discusses the Yiddish terms he knows for Jesus.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Aron (Urn) Kalmanovich Biter (b. 1918 in Popel’niki). He discusses his education and shares his knowledge of Latin and Polish.
15:44
Krotsh answers linguistic questions. He then speaks about his life after the war and visits to Lviv.
23:24
Krotsh recalls Soviet Yiddish songs about drinking. He then remembers postwar Yiddish press and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish before the war. In particular, Krotsh remembers how non-Jewish and Jewish children played and celebrated holidays together.
36:13
Krotsh recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and addresses prewar religious life. He also speaks about the yeshiva students and mentions story about the Ştefăneşti rebbe and a military tailor. Krotsh recalls the story from his master craftsman.
58:34
Krotsh speaks about prewar Purim celebrations. He sings a couple of Purim songs in Yiddish and Hebrew. The first one is about non-Jews not understanding conversations among Jews.
42:04
Krotsh speaks about his life in Moldova before the war and addresses linguistic differences.
6:13
Krotsh talks about his family and visit to the Rădăuţi synagogue. They then address non-Jews who speak Yiddish.
9:14
Krotsh answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also addresses regional dialects.
17:30
Krotsh addresses his life before the war and contacts with local Communists. He then speaks about his work life after the war, particularly communicating in Yiddish in Mukachevo, Ukraine, early 1950s. Krotsh went to further training in military tailoring in Moscow in the early 1950s.
41:56
Krotsh speaks about his family, particularly his son. Krotsh also mentions people with whom he communicated in Yiddish after the war.
8:47
Studying Yiddish and education
19:23
Yiddish teaching and Voleniker Tsaddik
29:23
Learning Yiddish
30:33
Yiddish-speakers in the region
17:10
Dialectology
39:36
Ocheretianyi compares prewar and contemporary Jewish life. According to him, Korsun had a Jewish population of 2,500. He then continues to recall Hanukkah and Passover celebrations. Ocheretianyi also remembers non-Jews speaking Yiddish, in particular a wagon driver called Ivan Nahayets. Ocheretianyi explains how Nahayets was mistaken for a Jew at first during German occupation.
51:42
Ocheretianyi answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then talks about life today and his family in Israel, as well as Jewish life in prewar Korsun.
MDV 544Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi; Samuil (Shmiel) Borisovich BelobrovKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
30:24
Belobrov answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire and addresses food customs. An unnamed woman talks in Russian about her family. Belobrov also compares a “dorf” (village) and a “shtetl” (market town).
0:00
Belobrov compares a “shtot” (town) and a “shtetl” (market town). He then answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:13
Kislinskaia discusses her childhood memories and prewar Jewish life. She recalls the poverty in her family. She then talks about her life during the war, when her family evacuated. Kislinskaia describes how they evacuated and lived in evacuation:I was 17 years old when the war broke out. And my brother was 15 years old. When the war broke out we were walking to the train station. What could have possibly taken with us?! Nothing. To put on some clothes. We couldn't even take a pillow because it would have been too heavy to carry. It was five kilometers away. [...] We needed to walk five kilometers there. When we arrived there and the rail car was standing there, in which we should... We were sitting down and they would take us. Where to and when and with whom we didn't know. The money for the amount of work we did wouldn't be paid off. Everybody would take their own and we tried to get out. We were passing through quite a few stations and then they would take us off the train and they would take us to a canteen and gave us something to eat. This is how we traveled for I don't remember how long. It was not a passenger train, but a freight train. [...] Then they would take us off the train and would set up for us to work in a kolkhoz. They gave us a cart with two bulls and they would take us to the kolkhoz. [The kolkhoz was] in the Rostov region. This is where we worked and there was a German kolkhoz. We would understand them a little what they talked about and they would understand us a little. Yet (mayn?) we spoke in Russian and not Yiddish. Then the Germans came when we had stayed there until winter. And then we had to continue to travel. They gave us the two bulls with the cart. [...] And it was still at this kolkhoz where there was someone with five children. Her husband was drafted for the war. She was sitting with the children and we had to walk by foot after the bulls. Here we were traveling and the German came toward us. So, we had to turn around, to continue on a different side. The bulls had no more strength to lead us. But we managed to escape. We arrived in ? where were sitting and sitting. Then they would give us a ship and we would travel. And we arrived in Shkalov. There the Germans wouldn't get there. There I worked, the brother worked and my mother worked. My mother was a janitor in the factory and my brother was taught to be a locksmith. And I would not struggle (?) in the factory. I left for Shkalov where they told me. I went to work in a ? factory. When I worked at a ?, I received products. I would receive flower with a piece of bread, a piece of soap - whatever one didn't need I received. And I lived where my mother was with my brother. We were there until the war was over.
50:19
Kislinskaia talks about her education at a Yiddish school before the war. She also addresses life after the war. She explains how she had pen pals in America, writing letters in Yiddish. She then talks about life today and the use of the Yiddish language.
0:00
Kislinskaia addresses the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, as well as recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She then briefly discusses her education at a Yiddish school, before talking about life today.
19:25
Kislinskaia answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
MDV 548Tsili Davidovna Kislinskaia; Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich GroysmanKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Tsili Davidovna Kislinskaia. Kislinskaia answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
51:51
Groysman talks about prewar Jewish life and holiday celebrations, as well as food customs at home. He also addresses prewar Yiddish culture and cinema. He then recalls non-Jews speaking Yiddish.
9:00
Groysman answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
29:24
Leiderman talks about her family. She grew up with a brother and a sister. Leiderman then speaks about her life after the war. During the war, she worked in a military factory. Obodovskii and Leiderman then talk about how they met in 1962 and discuss the use of Yiddish at home.
46:04
Obodovskii and Leiderman discuss postwar and today's Yiddish press. They then answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Obodovskii and Leiderman discuss contemporary Jewish life in Kotovsk. They then answer questions about cultural terminology. Obodovskii also talks about the Yiddish language and their life and cultural life after the war.
12:25
Obodovskii answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also describes his personal documents that were issued in Moldova.
15:50
Obodovskii speaks about his working life after the war. Specifically, he describes his job in the fur business, as well as recalls a non-Jewish co-worker, who spoke Yiddish. Leiderman also remembers a non-Jewish woman communicating in Yiddish with her.
0:00
Dialectology
12:35
Yiddish speaking friend.
0:00
Dialectology.
7:36
Pensatii discusses his life before the war in Odesa. He studied at a Jewish technicum, where the language of instruction was Yiddish. Pensatii explains that the students of the technicum were sent to learn a profession at a factory in 1928. Pensatii became a turner within six months.
11:52
Pensatii talks about prewar Jewish life in Odesa. He mentions the positive relations between Jews and non-Jews and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
0:00
Lebvol answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
40:04
Nisman provides personal information and addresses her language skills, as well as Yiddish literature.
16:01
Nisman speaks about her life before the war, particularly her education. She studied at a Talmud Torah school for three years and remembers singing and dancing. Nisman states that she corresponded with her parents in Yiddish while learning in Chişinău. When Nisman finished her apprenticeship she worked as tailor in Chernivtsi.
38:13
Nisman attended Purim celebrations at the rebbe's house in her hometown. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Nisman speaks about life before the war. She remembers non-Jewish neighbors who spoke Yiddish and positive relations between Jews and non-Jews. Nisman also talks about the contemporary relationship between Jews and non-Jews.
32:42
Leibel shares an episode about a Polish refugee, who was hungry on Yom Kippur in Lviv in 1939. He also discusses dialects.
28:57
Dorfman speaks about his family, particularly his wife's biography. He raised a son and a daughter. Dorfman also addresses his Hebrew language skills.
51:53
Meler answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
56:52
Meler continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Meler answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
13:48
Meler speaks about prewar life and continues to answer questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
57:46
Brandler reads prayers, after addressing Yiddish dialects.
44:44
Brandler answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Brandler answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
6:13
Brandler speaks about prewar Yiddish theater performances and proverbs, before he continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
22:59
Leibel talks about Yiddish dialects, the local library and prewar press.
42:50
Leibel addresses prewar holiday celebration and Yiddish dialects.
28:22
Diner speaks about his childhood memories. He states that he stopped speaking Yiddish when joining the military. Diner's wife shows family photographs and briefly addresses her biography.
43:27
And phone call about potential Yiddish-speakers in the region
7:30
Dialectology and terminology
30:00
Origins of Yiddish name for town Sofievka and family
32:22
Prewar Jewish life and dialectology
10:40
Dialectology and different Yiddish dialects
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.
32:27
Kaplan shows the interviewers his Party membership card for the Communist Party. In the army, Kaplan says he experienced no anti-Semitism because of his serious sense of duty, a quality he now brings to his work in the Jewish community. Kaplan knew many other Jews in the army, including his commander. Anti-Semitism, Kaplan says, however, has been, is and will continue to be in the world, even in Germany and Israel amongst the Jews themselves. Kaplan also answers a series of questions related to sociolinguistics and dialectology, sharing the meaning of various words and idioms. He also remembers various culinary traditions, including his mother’s gefilte fish and homemade horseradish, pitse (calf’s hooves), mandlekh (soup nuts), latkes, mamelige, melay (a baked cornmeal bread), homemade wine, vaynshl nalifke (a kind of cherry liquor) and specific holiday recipes related to Passover and Chanukah. During the war, Kaplan was at first in the ghetto in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and later sent to the camp in Pechera. From there, his family fled to the town of Zhurin, only to be brought back to Pechera before fleeing to Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits). In the latter town today, Kaplan relates, there are only five or six Jews left, two of whom were recently killed by their neighbors who, upon seeing the Jews assemble their belongings to emigrate from Ukraine, murdered them and stole their money.
27:31
Kaplan answers a few brief linguistic questions and he and Professor Kerler say their goodbyes in front of Kaplan’s home.
28:35
The camera cuts to a formal interview with Tsilia Borisovna Khaiut, who was born in 1917 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Her father, a shoemaker known as Berl Adeser, was also born in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Khaiut’s mother Rukhl was born in Bessarabia, a fact which causes her to remark about the dialect difference between her Yiddish and that of Bessarabia, as well as the killing of Bessarabian Jews in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy during the war. Khaiut’s maternal grandparents and their family immigrated to the United States during the Tsarist era and she remembers how her mother used to receive dollars from them, with which they paid rent. When Soviets took power, Khaiut remarks, however, the official exchange rate made these remittances worthless and contact between these familial branches ceased. Khaiut had two sisters, Ester and Ronya, and a brother, Khoskl (who moved to Israel) all of whom have died. Khaiut also talks about her education in Soviet Yiddish schools and the traditionally religious life at home during her youth. Before beginning her formal education at ~4-5 years old, Khaiut studied with a melamed (private religious teacher) named Mendl. The melomdim were the very poorest people in the shtetl, and she tells a joke/anecdote about their poverty. Her first son (b. 1938, d. at age of 42) also learned with a rabbi. Khaiut has another son who still lives in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, as well as four grandchildren in Ashdod, Beer-Sheva and elsewhere. Khaiut shares her views of child-rearing and the difference between children today and in her youth. In her home as a child everything was done “Jewishly”. Khaiut discusses her marriage and family life, including the custom of taking off a bit of dough from the khale (challah) and burning it. She speaks about the curriculum of Soviet Yiddish schools, recalling for instance "Vi bisti geveyn ven dus gelt iz geveyn" (Where were you when there was money) as one of the songs they learned. In school she studied writers, such as Sholem Aleichem and Itsik Fefer, as well as sciences and mathematics, algebra and chemistry all in Yiddish. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. During the war, Khaiut lived in the ghetto in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and was transferred to a camp in Transnistria. She relates how she would dress as a Ukrainian woman and buy goods in the bazaar, taking off the yellow star that identified her as a Jew, but was nevertheless hit by a German on one of these outings. At this time, her husband was serving on the front with the Red Army. Khaiut also recalls a number of recipes of Shabes (Sabbath) foods, including: yukh (chicken soup), tsimes fasolyes (bean stew), kigel (casserole), and different kinds of fish. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ashdod, Beer-Sheva.
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
24:39
The rest of this tape consists of a formal interview with Berta (Betya) Aronovna Vaisburd, who was born in 1931 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. While her father, Arn, a factory worker, was born in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, her mother Gitl was born in a very small village nearby. Without siblings, Vaisburd is an only child. During the war, Vaisburd was in the Pechera camp along with her mother, aunt, paternal grandmother Reyzl, and cousin, the latter of whom was in charge of burying the camp’s dead in the forest. One night in 1942, this cousin smuggled Vaisburd, her mother and her aunt (her grandmother had died in the camp earlier) in a wagon generally used for carrying corpses. At first, the family hid in Sharhorod, and then returned to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, where they squatted in abandoned houses, and then were sheltered in a cellar by a Christian neighbor who knew Vaisburd’s mother from her village. Although this cellar was used as common storage by many families, Vaisburd and her relatives were never given up. Eventually, Vaisburd’s mother and aunt found an abandoned one-room house, where they and seven other kids lived until the war’s end. Vaisburd remembers in particular going to the local Russian market in disguise in order to buy food. Vaisburd also shares her few memories of the Pechera camp experiences, such as when people were shot for trying to get drinking water from the river. Vaisburd then turns to the pre-war period, describing her grandmother, and the different foods she would make for shabes. Before the war, Vaisburd’s family raised geese, a multi-purpose affair she describes in detail. She also shares her family’s recipe for gefilte fish. Her paternal grandfather died on the way to America. After the war, Vaisburd studied in Tashkent, where she married a non-Jew. She has two daughters, one of whom lives in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, and another in Israel; her grandchildren live in Canada. Vaisburd also recalls her mother’s folk remedies against the evil eye and the one pre-war Jewish wedding she attended, the most memorable aspects of which were the food, her mother’s relatives and the klezmorim. Throughout the latter part of the interview, Vaisburd also answers the research team’s questions related to linguistics and dialectology. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Chernivtsi (city), Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), Nemie, Pechera, Sharhorod, Murafa, Tashkent, Beit She’an.
22:30
Fiksler discusses life at the beginning of World War II during Hungarian occupation, including the social and political discrimination of Jews. Fiksler remembers non-Jews speaking Yiddish, and even a Romanian boy, who attended religious school (cheder).
36:54
Fiksler talks about Purim in the prewar period and about Purim shpiels, during which she would dress up in costumes. Fiksler talks about Yiddish-speakers today.
50:57
The team travels to the next interview with Hershel Ylyevich Vider in Mukacheve. After they enter his apartment, the team sets up the formal interview with Vider, born in Mukacheve in 1922. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His three brothers moved to Canada after the war. Vider then sings a Hasidic song in Hungarian, before he talks about Jewish life in Mukacheve today. Vider laments that Yiddish is not passed on to the next generation.
58:55
Vider recalls prewar Jewish life in his home town. He attended religious school (cheder). At home, he spoke Yiddish with his grandparents and Hungarian with his parents. Vider then talks about his family. His father served in the Austro-Hungarian army.
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.
6:21
Vider remembers prewar Sabbath celebrations. He sings a Sabbath song in Hungarian. Vider learned some Hebrew from friends who attended the Hebrew school. He then describes prewar Jewish life. Vider explains that he had at one point joined the Mizrachi movement and later joined Betar, where he once saw Zeev Jabotinsky speak. He then joined the Hashomer Hatzair movement, thereby switching from the extreme right to the extreme left within the Zionist spectrum. He laughs that he went wherever the girls were.
42:40
Nayman talks about prewar Jewish life in Klyachanovo, including occupations and political organizations. He remembers book peddlers from Mukacheve. Nayman then discusses prewar holiday celebrations and remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Nayman then answers terminological questions and recalls food customs.
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.
25:03
Nayman briefly talks about his life during the Soviet period. He owned a vineyard and produced wine. He then answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
41:56
Nayman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Moyshe Nayman, recorded in Klyachanovo. Nayman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
32:18
Vider answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. Vider recalls a non-Jewish girl running errands for his family for Sabbath celebrations.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Hershel Ylyevich Vider in Mukacheve. The team continues to ask a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
41:02
Pasik addresses prewar holiday celebrations and remembers how non-Jews spoke Yiddish. She then talks about Jewish life on the kolkhoz and lists towns of Jewish kolkhozy, including Novopoltavka Bereznehuvate, Dobre, and Romanovka.
31:38
Endelshtein talks about his family. His mother’s family lived in Odessa. He then discusses his childhood memories and recalls the beginnings of Romanian fascist rule. Endelshtein describes how he and his classmates had to go to the barber, who shaved a cross on their head. Endelsthein describes the population structure, consisting of Jews, Bulgarians (the majority), Romanians, Moldavians, and Roma. He studied with Bulgarian students at a Romanian school and addresses the positive relationship among the students. He remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
0:00
The first brief part of the tape includes an informal chat on the street with Mark Borisovich Lipkovich. Lipkovich talks about his family and mentions that he only spoke Yiddish with his grandmother.
43:01
Kenin answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Mikhail Vladimirovich Kenin. Kenin answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire and about food customs.
44:52
Masovich talks about his family. He then discusses Sabbath celebrations at home, as well as Yiddish dialects.
51:05
Masovich talks about prewar Jewish life in Nizhyn and answers questions about cultural terminology and a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also mentions how he was not raised religiously during the Soviet period.
51:01
Trachtenberg answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Trachtenberg answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He speaks Yiddish, Russian, Ukrainian, Moldavian, and Romanian.
54:35
Cherner discusses Yiddish dialects. He then talks about his family. His mother was born in Balta and his father in Odesa.
59:23
Cherner answers questions about cultural terminology and from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
Cherner answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He concludes the interview by listing Yiddish authors and discusses prewar Yiddish culture.
35:00
Medved answers a number of questions about cultural terminology and linguistic questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
50:55
Medved tells an anecdote that takes place at a cinema in Odesa. She then talks about her family and learning the Yiddish language. Medved then talks prewar Yiddish cultural life and Yiddish schools. Her father participated in the local Yiddish theater in Horodkivka. Medved lists several theater pieces and recalls a performance by Clara Young at a summer theater in Leninogorsk in 1943. She also remembers performance by Anna Guzik in Makhachkala in the 1960s.
0:00
Tokar talks about contemporary Yiddish press.
24:17
Tokar talks about his life during the war. He states that his parents and sister were shot on May 9, 1942. He then discusses prewar Jewish life in Zheludok and neighboring towns, including educational and political institutions, as well as sports clubs (Tarbut school, Poale Zion, Hashomer Hatzair, Mizrakhi, Algemeyne Tsiyonistn, Betar, Kholes Hatzair). He recalls enmities between Yiddishists and Hebraists.
41:28
Tokar talks about his family. He raised a daughter who works as an accountant. He then talks about prewar cultural life, including libraries. He then talks about his contemporary work, leading a Yiddish language and history circle at the community center.
7:53
Vainbrand talks about traditional weddings during the prewar Soviet period. He then addresses prewar religious life, including Sukkoth celebration, as well as answers questions about cultural terminology.
56:06
The team concludes the interview and Vainbrand addresses Yiddish students. He then recalls childhood memories and talks about Israel.
10:06
Lerner addresses his childhood memories, as well as postwar Jewish life in Ostroh. He also recalls non-Jewish neighbors who spoke Yiddish.
16:00
Lerner answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then remembers a couple of Yiddish songs and speaks about his early school education.
14:12
Dialectology and prewar religious life.
38:01
Words in loshn-koydesh and life today.
48:23
Dialectology.
0:00
Dialectology and different Yiddish dialects.
32:36
Potential Yiddish-speakers from the region.
36:33
Anecdote and non-Jews speaking Yiddish.
7:22
Yiddish dialectology and family.
10:31
Cultural terminology and Yiddish dialectology.
23:14
Yiddish dialectology.
31:50
Dialectology.
45:15
Yiddish expressions
MDV 639Isaak Grigorievich Vainsheinboim; Moisei (Moyshe ben Zalmen) Zelmanovich Fish bRivne, Slavuta, 2003
0:00
This tape begins in the middle of a formal interview with Isaak Grigorievich Vainsheinboim in Slavuta. It begins with Professor Kerler asking questions related to Yiddish linguistics.
11:38
Vainsheinboim shares his views on language and how loshn-koydesh words have changed change in modern Israeli Hebrew.
19:22
Professor begins asking questions from his sociolinguistics survey. Vainsheinboim in this context shares his perceptions of Lithuanian Jews and their hard to understand Yiddish, and explains several concepts, such as gefilte fish, the definition of dibek, different words relating to funereal practices and other topics.
39:28
Professor Kerler returns to his dialectological questionnaire.
48:17
The tape then switches to a formal interview (Part 1 of 2 See MDV 640) with Moisei (Moyshe ben Zalmen) Zelmanovich Fish b. March, 1922 in Rivne. He talks about how towns and villages in the area were heavily Jewish before the war, but most of his family was lost during the war. His son lives in Russia, near Finland. He can read and write in Yiddish.
14:53
Fish continues to describe his education: at the age of seven he began to attend a “shule,” a Polish-language Jewish school for seven years. There the students spoke Polish to the teachers (who were ethnic Poles) and Yiddish among themselves (only Jews).
16:15
There were a few individual non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Fish yells a story about one ethnic Russian who spoke Yiddish “exactly like a Jew” to him in the post-war period. He had grown up in a village populated almost entirely by Jews and the children played among themselves in Yiddish.
19:49
In the 1930s, he would participate in Shomer Akiva, a socialist youth group, where young people learn how to work, dance and singing. He then sings a fragment of the movement’s anthem in Yiddish [starting 21:20]. At the club, the young people learned Jewish history, as well as different songs in Yiddish and Hebrew.
24:46
Fish briefly comments on the difficult realities of Jewish life in the Soviet Union and why his children do not speak Yiddish.
7:20
He then talks about Yiddish and Polish-language Jewish newspapers from before the war.
21:34
Professor Kerler begins his survey of sociolinguistics and dialectological questions, in which context Fish discusses his attitudes towards “Askhenazi vs. Lithuanian” Yiddish, gefilte fish recipes, gefilte fish, and Jewish drinking practices.
37:37
Professor Kerler continues with his linguistic questionnaire.
42:32
The rest of the interview consists of further questioning related to linguistics and dialectology.
35:48
In the Soviet Yiddish school, Kurliandchik read authors such as: Sholem Aleichem, Y. L. Perets, Mendele Mokher Sforim, Bialik, Dinezon, Goldfaden, Bergelson, Fefer, Markish, Hofshteyn. He also learned Russian and Ukrainian language and literature and took science and math classes in Yiddish. His subsequent professional and personal life, however, was lived in Russian and Ukrainian.
44:52
Kurliandchik lived in Chernivtsi for forty years, a city where one heard Yiddish in the streets, but spoke Russian at work. In this city there was a Yiddish theater until 1952, where Sidi Tal’ performed as well as others such as Nehama Lifshitsaite and Zinovi Shul’man.
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.
11:31
The camera cuts to later in the same interview. Professor Kerler begins his sociolinguistic and dialectological questionnaire. In this context, Kurliandchik discusses tsadikim, words pertaining to funereal customs and the differences between various dialects of Yiddish as he perceives them, among other topics.
13:12
Litvak gives a detailed description of her education in Soviet Yiddish schools, recalling the names of teachers and the interesting subjects she learned, including world history, geography, algebra, math, and Russian. In her Yiddish language and literature class, she read many stories by Sholem Aleichem, whose characters were referenced in everyday language.
17:34
Litvak still has many books in Yiddish, even though her husband did not speak Yiddish. She spoke Yiddish with her first son (b. 1950), who, she claims, has “not a drop of goyish in him”. He observes shabes (the Sabbath) and cares about Israel; “he has a Jewish heart".
1:00:06
Litvak then tells a story about how she was sick after she had given birth to her first son, and she could only speak in Yiddish, even though her husband did not understand her.
0:00
Sonia Shevelevna Litvak begins talking about her former classmates from the Yiddish school who are still alive. She also shares her attitudes towards the Yiddish language and towards those Jews who do not speak the language.
3:58
Litvak further details the curriculum in the Yiddish schools: Russian language and literature was studied most often, while Ukrainian and Yiddish were learnt only two times a week. German was also taught, but very infrequently.
9:00
Asking about the state of the language in America, Litvak speaks briefly about she perceives differences between various Yiddish dialects.
13:57
Litvak remembers Non-Jews who spoke fluent Yiddish, especially those who lived on the Jewish Street. She also remarks on the change of societal values since then; Before the war, on the Jewish Street, people were concerned with community affairs and with helping their neighbors. Now, the attitude is more individualistic.
50:57
Professor Kerler begins his sociolinguistic survey discussing cemetery terms and other concepts with the interviewee.
57:35
Professor Kerler returns to his linguistic questionnaire, asking about terms for various food items and other topics.
19:44
Professor Kerler begins to ask questions from his sociolinguistic survey, to which Litvak replies in rich details, sharing some unique idioms.
26:18
The researchers return to their survey of linguistics and dialectology.
36:26
Litvak shares her experiences about contemporary Jewish politics in the community, describing in the detail conflicts that arose around her teaching Yiddish. She also expresses her love for the language.
40:46
The tape concludes with further questioning relating to linguistics and dialectology.
0:00
This tape begins in the middle of a formal interview with Sonia Shevelevna Litvak. It starts in the midst of the researchers asking questions from Professor Kerler’s linguistic survey.
28:12
Shteingart describes his father's work, and how he learned how to read Yiddish at home from his father. He then continues with his description of pre-war Kovel’, a town with many non-Jews, Poles and Ukrainians, who spoke Yiddish. Shteingart also remembers the town’s various churches.
10:39
Professor Kerler asks a series of questions from his linguistic and dialectological survey.
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.
34:22
Khiterman also speaks about her sons’ inability to speak Yiddish. Her older son does speak some Yiddish, but, Khiterman laughs, with a very strong accent. Before the war, according to Khiterman, there were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She remembers one such person, Nikolai, who spoke the language particularly well.
0:00
The tape consists of a formal interview with Moisei Zelmanovich Fish (b. 1922). He speaks briefly about the contemporary Jewish community in Rivne and its few remaining Yiddish speakers.
13:09
Fish reports that there were no Yiddish schools in Rivne, only Hebrew-language institutions. Despite this, Fish can read in Yiddish. He then recalls the names of several Jewish and Yiddish newspapers that circulated in Rivne before the war.
33:09
According to Fish, before the war, 28,000-30,000 of Rivne’s 40,000 residents were Jews. In the last Ukrainian census, Fish reports, there were 442 self-registered Jews in the city, 7% of whom said they could speak Yiddish. Fish maintains that at least 80% of the these Jews are from mixed families. [00:35:26] Fish relates his experiences during the war years, travelling by foot to the Polish-USSR border, where he was then evacuated into the Russian interior and, eventually, into Kazakhstan. After working in a Korean kolkhoz (collective farm), he was eventually mobilized into the Red Army, fighting in Belarus, Poland, Germany and the Far East.
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.
51:11
Fish returns to the subject of prewar Jewish life in Rivne, speaking about Yiddish films and Jewish sports organizations. He remembers the special 1938 “Makabiade” games between Jewish soccer teams across Poland in honor of the republic’s 20th anniversary. Professor Kerler also asks Fish about words and phrases relating to sports and gameplay.
57:43
Fish learned English in gymnasium, but does not remember it well since he has no one to talk to in that language in Rivne.
2:39
Fish briefly speaks about non-Jews speaking Yiddish, describing one young Russian female co-worker who spoke the language without any accent.
16:54
Fish spoke half in Yiddish with his wife, and in Russian with the kids. Fish read and subscribed to the Yiddish journal Sovetish Heymland, but remembers it as being in the Russian language.
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
In this part of the interview, Vaisman discusses the ghetto set up in Sharhorod during the war. His sister used to credit Ukrainians with helping the Jews, as one woman in particular helped his family by bringing them food and other supplies, but he himself does not remember the war. When the Romanians came to Sharhorod, Vaisman relates, they did not kill any Jews. Rather, the Romanians brought their own Jews to the town, thousands of whom died of hunger and were subsequently buried in the Sharhorod Jewish cemetery. Vaisman also tells a Hershele Ostropolyer story, and shares his memories of Passover, when his mother would bake matzo kugels and bagels. He relates how one bakery would receive official permission to bake matzos for the whole town. Vaisman answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions on the Yiddish language. Vaisman’s daughter, Klava, shows photos of her Jewish childhood friends who spoke Yiddish, most of whom have now emigrated. Vaisman also shares his opinions about the contemporary state of Yiddish and life in Israel.
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
The camera focuses on the interior of his house with its newly placed mezuzahs. Exterior shots of courtyard. Street scenes of Bratslav. Researchers speaking and taking photos with the informant outside his home. Street scenes of Bratslav. Kupershimdt leads the team to the Bratslav cemetery where Reb Nosn haTsadik is buried and tells them about the shtetl along the way. Scenes of the Bratslav cemetery. Scenes of Sharhorod. The researchers begin a formal interview with Mikhail (Motya) Isaakovich Yerikhman, who was born in Sharhorod in 1939. (Part 1 of 3. See MDV 658 and MDV 659) He starts his interview talking about his family, including his son, now in Israel, and his nephew, who still lives in Sharhorod, who has became religious. Yerikhman remembers Sharhorod as being a Jewish shtetl into the 1990s, where all the non-Jews spoke Yiddish. During the war, Yerikhman tells the interviewers, only two Jews died in the town, both of whom, a deaf man and a woman, were killed by accident. He also describes the town’s wartime ghetto population as being almost exclusively women and children, as most of the local men were drafted into the Red Army and were thus on the front. Yerikhman also talks about the Pechera camp where Jews from the whole region were killed.
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.
31:57
Dialectology
36:27
Dialectology and Soviet period
26:34
Dialectology and education.
20:30
Life today and dialectology.
21:22
Family and dialectology.
6:22
Shvartsburg talks about his family and explains that he learned to speak Yiddish from his family. He has been the chairman of the Jewish community for the past fourteen years.
3:34
Family and dialectology.
29:16
Life today and Yiddish-speaking non-Jews.
34:01
Postwar religious life and Yiddish dialects.
35:06
Dialectology and prewar synagogue service.
29:37
Cultural terminology.
31:57
About AHEYM and dialectology/cultural terminology.
36:52
Ba'al Shem Tov and cultural terminology.
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.
10:56
Tartinets answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then talks about food customs and life after the war.
17:39
Tartinets talks about life today and Yiddish sayings.
0:00
Burshtein answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also recalls Polish Jewish refugees in his hometown Sobolivka during 1939. Burshtein then shares a prewar episode from Sobolivka about a man who was arrested.
8:39
Burshtein continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
27:46
Yakuta answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Yakuta continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Yakuta also talks about life today.
9:52
Yakuta speaks about prewar Hanukka celebrations at home, before she continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also recalls Tishah b’Av, as well as Sabbath food customs before the war.
26:12
Marinina returns to the subject of her youth in the Crimea and sings a fragment from the popular Soviet Yiddish song “Dzhankoye.” She also comments on the various Yiddish writers she read for pleasure and in school. She states that although her father was not religious, he was nevertheless a highly educated and proud Jew. He thus encouraged Marinina to speak, read and write in Yiddish. She recites a fragment from the song “Makheteyneste Mayne.” Marinina’s mother was very religious and strictly observed Passover. Marinina observes Passover today and makes many of her mother’s traditional foods.
3:23
Marinina talks about the “Gern” or “Subbotniki” (ethnic Russian converts to Judaism/practitioners of Jewish customs), that lived on or near the kolkhoz. According to the interviewee, they attended Yiddish schools and spoke Yiddish better than the Jews, some of them even registering as Jews in their internal passports. Marinina also comments on the generational differences within this group, noting that younger Gern (converts) spoke Yiddish better than their elders and were more likely to marry Jews.
7:56
Marinina speaks about Jewish life in Teplyk before her family moved to Crimea, stating that she had both Jewish and non-Jewish friends. There were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish well in the town, according to Marinina, and many of them were killed by the Germans during the war.
16:25
Marinina answers questions from the research team's survey of dialectological and sociolinguistic inquiries. There is also a short discussion of Jewish funeral customs when Marinina asks the researchers if it is allowed in Judaism to repair a deceased relative's damaged gravestone.
31:14
Marinina briefly comments on intermarriage and the contemporary situation of Yiddish in her town, stating that she has no one to talk to in the language. The rest of the tape consists of the interviewee answering more questions from the AHEYM dialectological survey. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Teplyk, Shchebetovka, Simferopol’, Uman’.
11:04
Palatnikova describes her family life, detailing how she spoke Yiddish at home with her parents and sister. Her grandparents and uncles moved to America in the early 1920s during the Petliura pogroms and used to send packages to her family, but she lost contact with those relatives long ago. Palatnikova further details kolkhoz life, discussing the work done in the fields and in the home. She emphasizes the widespread poverty, mentioning that children had to share a common pair of shoes.
12:40
Palatnikova also talks about Jewish religious life in Crimea before the war. She describes the practices of the “Gern,” who were ethnic Russians who followed the Jewish religion and learned to speak Yiddish, although their outward appearance remained non-Jewish.
17:09
The rest of the tape consists of the interviewee answering questions from the AHEYM dialectological and sociolinguistic survey.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Mikhail Abramovich Zhovtis (b. 1927 in Khmil'nyk) in Bar, Ukraine (part 3 of 3. See accession #09-010.02-F MDV 330 and MDV 331). He answers questions relating to sociolinguistics and dialectology.
6:56
Zhovtis reports that there were no Yiddish-speaking non-Jews in his town. The Jewish children in the shtetl thus spoke Ukrainian to each other on the streets. He further comments on linguistic relations between different ethnic groups and shares his attitudes towards non-Yiddish-speaking Jews.
9:53
Zhovtis answers questions relating to sociolinguistics and dialectology.
0:00
Conclusion of a linguistic and dialectological interview with Tsila Borisovna in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy.
0:00
Continuation of collection of linguistic data from Manya (Mintse-Freyde) Izrailevna Gingold.
36:19
Shveibish answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
0:00
The continuation of the formal interview with Rita Davidovna Shveibish in a café in Tul'chyn. (Part 2 of 2. See MDV 708) She talks about the Jewish community and life in Tul'chyn today and before World War II. In the past, there was a thriving cultural life in Tul'chyn. She talks about ghettos during the Romanian occupation. She continues to answer a series of dialectology questions about the Yiddish language. She then discusses religious practices immediately after the war. She provides more information about local Yiddish speakers in towns nearby.
0:00
Kogan addresses prewar Jewish life in Bershad, including Jewish and non-Jewish relations. Kogan also recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. He then talks about the local Yiddish school in Bershad. According to him, non-Jews also attended the school. Kogan then addresses his school education.
28:04
Kogan answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then talks about his life today.
22:52
Kogan answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
35:59
Kogan talks about his family, before he answers questions about cultural terminology, as well as dialectological questions.
0:00
A formal interview of Rita Davidovna Shveibish at a restaurant. She talks about life in Horyshkivka and Tul'chyn before and after the war. She then moves on to discussing today's Horyshkivka. She then discusses the difficulties of working with today’s Jewish institutions in Tul'chyn. She gives a short description of agricultural life before and after the war. She also reflects upon how non-Jews experience postwar times. She talks about pogroms in Horyshkivka and Tul'chyn before the war. The conversation then turns to a series of dialectological questions. She then talks about Jewish food customs and the difficulties of practicing Judaism in today’s Tul'chyn. Shveibish then discusses food customs and recipes. The conversation then moves to the mystical Jewish tradition. The interview concludes with a dialectological questionnaire about the Yiddish language.
22:36
Golfeld answers questions about cultural terminology, before answering dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Golfeld also discusses Yiddish dialects.
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.
43:28
Golfeld talks about the prewar infrastructure of Tulchyn, before he continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
47:28
Golfeld remembers folk and healing customs after the war. He explains how a non-Jewish woman practiced the custom of "rolling an egg," in the attempt to heal him. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Presler shows the team family photographs, before she reads a Yiddish excerpt. She also discusses the Yiddish language.
35:22
Presler shares her recipes for malai (corn meal cake) and Mămăligă (maize flour porridge). Presler also lists cuts of meat in Yiddish.
48:46
Presler dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Presler then shows the team her oven and explains how to use it.
26:51
Yurkovetskij addresses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish in prewar Tulchyn. In particular, he shares an episode about "Misha Katsop," who smuggled a Torah scroll to the Jewish inmates in the Pechera concentration camp.
2:34
Spectrovna speaks about her life and family before the war. She learned how to speak from her grandmother. Yurkovetskij addresses the prewar relatioship between Jews and non-Jews. They also discuss non-Jews who speak Yiddish.
27:54
Shveibish answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. The team then concludes the formal part of the interview with Shveibish.
0:00
Dialectology
1:38
Non-Jewish Yiddish speakers
6:02
Information about potential Yiddish-speaking interviewees
MDV 741Nukhim Moiseevich (Moshkovich) Gvinter; unidentified informant (Bershad'); Efim VigodnerUman', Bershad', 2008
32:12
Potential Yiddish-speakers and Jewish life today
29:45
The next part of the tape is a formal interview with Ernest (Ari) Osipovich Halpert and Tubi Halpert in Uzhhorod (Yiddish: Ungver), born 1923 in Mukacheve. They moved to Uzhorod after the war. Ernest explains how they ceased to speak Yiddish after the war.
49:51
Ernest talks about his family, in particular his sisters. After they were liberated from the concentration camp, they continued to live in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia until 1948. As soon as Czechoslovakia was about to become another Soviet satellite state, his sisters emigrated. He learned from his cousin that his sisters emigrated, because after his military service he was not allowed to communicate across borders. He was able to meet his sisters for the first time after the war in 1964 in Prague. However, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, he could only stay in touch with his sisters through his cousin who lived in Czechoslovakia. He communicates with his sisters in Hungarian. He only spoke Yiddish with his parents at home.
59:37
Ernest remembers Jews who spoke a daytshmerish (interspersed with Germanic words) Yiddish. They then talk about how little they knew about the fate of Polish and Ukrainian Jews during the war. According to Ernest, Jews were by and large not oppressed under Hungarian occupation.
34:22
Ernest discusses his school days at the Czech school. He remembers how he spoke with his classmates in Yiddish and with the teachers in Czech. Ernest talks about Yiddish, Czech, and Hungarian literature and remembers one book in particular, written by his uncle Shloyme Moshkovich from Mukacheve called “A-do vos se gayt inter” (The place where things go down). He was able to purchase Yiddish books in religious bookstores.
3:26
The team asks Ernest and Tubi a number dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. They also remember childhood games at the beginning of this segment.
17:31
The team briefly asks Naybauer a number of dialectological questions from the Yiddish AHEYM questionnaire. The camera cuts to the outside of Naybauer’s home. He shows the team a number of family photographs and other documents.
22:19
The team continues to ask Naybauer a number of dialectological questions from the Yiddish AHEYM questionnaire.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Nusn Leyb Naybauer. The team continues to ask a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
38:00
Dialectology
0:00
The Shors answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
5:26
The Shors continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire, as well as questions about Yiddish terminology.
12:51
The Shors continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
17:50
The Shors continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
20:12
The Shors continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
24:58
The Shors continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
30:44
The Shors continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
15:42
Chirkova talks about her Yiddish books, before she answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
14:07
Furer answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Furer also addresses Yiddish dialects, he remembers from his childhood.
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.
23:52
Furer briefly talks about contemporary Jewish life, before he answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
4:28
Vainer-Shpak addresses prewar life in Vinnytsya and remembers a non-Jewish family that spoke Yiddish. She then speaks about her life today.
20:32
Vainer-Shpak talks about her family and her faith in God. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
45:55
Childhood memories and discussion of non-Jews speaking Yiddish
7:50
Encounter with Yiddish-speaking non-Jew Matteu
57:33
speaking Yiddish and family
6:58
Religious life in Vinnytsya after the war and dialectology
14:59
Dialectology
24:04
Childhood memories and Yiddish-speakers from the area
36:33
Concluding the interview and Yiddish-speakers from Vinnytsya
1:16
The AHEYM team enters Khazin's house and there are introductions. Khazin explains that he will be speaking mostly in Russian, since he does not know Yiddish very well.
2:42
Khazin moved to Vinnytsya when he was two years old and lived there until 1941. His father was imprisoned in 1937, and he lived with his grandmother and then with his aunts. He spoke primarily Russian growing up.
24:30
Khazin's paternal grandmother spoke to him in Ukrainian but in Yiddish to his mother. Khazin's wife left him for another man. Khazin's daughter, who was five years old at the time, chose to stay with her father, but his son was only one year old, so he was sent to live with Khazin's ex-wife's mother. When Khazin's daughter grew up, she went to live with her mother in order to attend university, since the second husband of Khazin's ex-wife was an influential surgeon in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Eventually, Sof'ia's second husband passed away, and she moved to Israel with all of the children.
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.
0:00
The tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Arnold Grigorevich Khazin (b. Tul'chyn, 1925), conducted in Russian. Khazin sings a song in Russian. Then he sings "Shabes zol zayn" ("Let it be Sabbath") in Yiddish. He mentions that mothers in Vinnytsya used to brag about the fact that their children did not understand any Yiddish.
21:37
Khazin recalls Sholem Aleichem's play “200,000,” which he saw when he was young. He then remembers a song from Goldfaden's operetta. Khazin says that he knows a little bit of Hungarian, German, and Polish.
24:50
Khazin shows the interviewers his Russian-Yiddish dictionary. He says that he bought it with the intention of working on his Yiddish, but he never got around to it. The interviewers ask some questions from the AHEYM dialectological questionnaire. Khazin talks about his opinions of modern medicine.
29:52
About speaking Yiddish
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.
47:56
Nayman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. She then discusses Yiddish songs and remembers song snippets, before talking about life today.
5:15
Nayman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
21:15
Lebvol answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. She then discusses her childhood memories. Lebvol began her training as seamstress at thirteen. She recalls how she and her boss secretly worked on Sundays and hid when a soldier passed by the workshop.
49:56
Lebvol answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
16:16
Dialectology.
32:21
Dialectology and childhood memories.
36:40
Childhood home and dialectology.
11:41
Dialectology and religious customs.
19:01
Anecdotes and dialectology.
28:14
Dialectology and proverbs.
36:52
Dialectology and proverbs.
21:45
Dialectology.
3:04
Dialectology and Rabbi Shloyme Wilgelm joins.
0:00
Dialectology.
23:55
Dialectology.
2:54
Dialectology.
40:36
Using Yiddish today.
7:06
Dialectology.
31:27
Holiday celebration and Yiddish skills.
46:52
Food customs and dialectology.
48:15
Dialectology.
0:00
Dialectology.
53:37
Dialectology.
12:20
Dialectology and life today.
16:12
Speaking Yiddish and evacuation.
22:23
Dialectology and Yiddish-speakers from the region.
43:40
Non-Jews and Hebrew.
49:37
Dialectology.
0:00
Dialectology.
28:28
Dialectology, life crises.
35:45
Mester answers questions about cultural terminology. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
Passages where only the machine transcript mentions this topic
1383 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 1383 passages
0:00
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits and Kerler discuss other Yiddish speakers he can recommend to the interviewers, including a Russian-born man, a blacksmith from the Carpathians who got extra rations in forced labor, and a man of Polish descent who speaks Yiddish. Rezmovits then mentions meeting Polish Jews and speaking Yiddish with them during his time in Israel.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Rezmovit and Kerler first settle how his surname is spelled in English and Hungarian, and Rezmovit offers his email. He then talks about people who come to the local Yiddish club, among them a professor of anthropology and sociology of Lithuanian descent who knows no Yiddish, and a German woman and an artist from the Hebrew club who cannot speak Yiddish. He also mentions a young mathematician who brings material, and says that many of the older members have died.
6:51
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits answers Kerler's questions about how to say 'sick' and 'holy place' in his Yiddish. He then talks about his mother, who could read Hebrew and ate pork when it was necessary to stay alive, and about his father, a poor ritual slaughterer. He mentions Romanian Yiddish theater from Bucharest.
9:17
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits recalls a Yiddish theater visit after the war and the humorous way his mother retold the performance. Kerler asks about a Yiddish newspaper and about the terms 'dybbuk' and 'golem', which Rezmovits explains from his mother's stories, and he also mentions films. He adds how the word 'golem' is used for a fool.
24:06
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits sings or recites a song about poverty and a village fool that his mother knew. He says the family was poor and seldom travelled, and describes Sabbath meals of soup, meat and fish without sugar. In answer to Kerler's questions he gives words for a non-Jewish cemetery, talks about Christmas customs and a rhyme about Yossl, and describes 'zakhor' bundles and a charm against the evil eye.
29:13
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits repeats a rhymed saying against the evil eye that he heard from his mother, who performed it humorously. Kerler asks him to say it again, and Rezmovits adds a related spitting formula and discusses the phrase 'three persons'. A Russian-sounding opening formula is also noted.
25:34
From the machine transcript
Gross answers questions about yeshiva life: he did not find studying hard, read little in Hebrew, and does not know the word shaymes. He says he went home for holidays and spent four months at home, and gives the number of terms in each yeshiva town. He talks about the cost of yeshiva education today in America and mentions that a brother's family in New Jersey is paying for it.
40:32
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the expressions "a good Jew" and "a good place" in a cemetery. Gross talks about relatives buried there and about hasidic rebbes, mentioning the Satmar rebbe and Kaliver rebbe. He sings the Kaliver rebbe's Hungarian tune and says a relative was the Kaliver rebbe's attendant.
44:29
From the machine transcript
Gross recalls the weddings of his three sisters, with Gypsy musicians and no badkhn. Kerler asks about Hebrew words used in Yiddish, including words for money, and Gross recalls a song and Hungarian coin names. He is then asked about the Messiah song and tells a joke about a man who goes to the Messiah.
58:37
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the term for mother tongue and Gross talks about his mother's prayers, including the tkhine (Yiddish prayer) and the Tsene-rene read on Sabbath. He also describes an aunt who wore tefillin and a cousin who was a rebbe's student; the passage ends with a telephone remark.
51:28
From the machine transcript
Smajovics gives a saying about stealing under the Russians. Kerler asks about Talmud study, and Smajovics recalls cheder, his grandfather's non-Hasidic style, and learning prayers by heart under examination by the teacher. He tells of a childhood friend he met again in Israel, a farmer who studies in the study house, and of their visit.
59:22
From the machine transcript
Smajovics speaks about the late 1930s, when he worked at shoeing horses, and mentions the arrival of Polish refugees. He says he could not speak Hungarian at that point, but learned it in the forced labor battalion from Hungarian boys.
22:06
From the machine transcript
Smajovics briefly says that he has not taken part in the Sabbath-end gatherings since the war, and Kerler asks about holiday songs and Hanukkah songs. He then sings a Yiddish song about a son and his mother's worries over money and love, in which the girl has a rich suitor. Kerler has him repeat the song line by line, and they discuss an unknown word in it, glossed as 'critique' or 'send away' (?). A second woman joins in the song.
32:54
From the machine transcript
Smajovics sings a Yiddish song about a couple on a stroll who talk about marriage, in which the man declines the proposal after the woman's teasing. Kerler has him repeat the text line by line and asks about words like 'speculate' and 'mock', and the second woman helps with the lines. He then sings the whole song through again.
44:05
From the machine transcript
Smajovics speaks about Hanukkah doughnuts (pontshkes) both before the war in his village and in Israel, where he bought them at a bakery in Jerusalem. He says that latkes were not made in his village and that potatoes were called krumpirn there, with other words discussed for them.
44:43
From the machine transcript
Smajovics talks about language use in the Soviet Union after the war. He and others spoke Ukrainian at work, Yiddish at home, and many Jews' children could not speak Yiddish. His own children, though, learned Hungarian from newspapers he ordered, and his daughter could work as she could read, write and speak the language. Kerler then asks for another song.
50:24
From the machine transcript
Herbst recalls childhood games with a wooden top, sleds and skis on snow, and speaks about Hungarian and Yiddish words at home. He tells of his father, who did not eat before reciting Psalms, welcomed poor guests and wanderers, and kept few books. He recalls eating paprika and tomato for the first time at an uncle's home in Rakhiv, and fruit such as apples and plums.
2:48
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Herbst about cultural terms such as 'baal-shem' and 'dibbuk' (placed in Prague, with a question about the golem). Herbst then sings a song about a destitute man who sleeps on boulevard benches and is woken by a policeman's stick. Kerler has him repeat it line by line to write down the words. Herbst says it was brought by a cousin from Sighet; Kerler then starts a question on 'barkhes' and challah.
9:13
From the machine transcript
Herbst answers a question on whether his family said challah or 'barkhes'. Kerler asks where in Hungary Jews spoke Yiddish; Herbst names small towns in the north of the country, among them Tokaj and Kalov, where there were many Yiddish-speaking Jews, and the talk turns to Slovakia. He says he would rather talk about the hard postwar years another time. Kerler thanks him and asks for a religious saying he remembers.
10:49
From the machine transcript
Herbst recites a rabbinic saying about honouring the place, and Kerler asks about the sense of 'makom' as God. Herbst describes a Yiddish club in Budapest and how he speaks Yiddish words to Jews he meets in the street. He recalls the prewar poverty in which his father still invited passing guests to eat while going without himself, and says he now offers food to anyone who comes. Kerler also talks about making a copy of the recording for him, and finally asks about Purim.
14:31
From the machine transcript
Herbst says people went to see the Purim play and recites a Purim rhyme, with Kerler asking about a word in it. Kerler mentions his own trip to a Carpathian place, and Herbst mentions a man who came from the Carpathians. Kerler asks whether Jews in southern and western Hungary spoke Yiddish. Herbst replies that Hungarian Jews were called 'Hungarian donkeys' and Carpathian Jews 'Polish', and he explains Hungary as 'mameland'. Kerler ends by turning to Passover and the four questions.
32:03
From the machine transcript
Dof says he is now a cantor in a Budapest community in Buda. He describes the big Khust synagogue with its cantor and a strict beit midrash, and his cheder with a fine rabbi. He recalls hearing a Yiddish sermon on Yom Kippur in a 'Polish' synagogue on the street where the family lived before the war; Kerler asks for the year. He lives in Buda now and says the synagogue there has Friday-night services. Few Yiddish speakers are left, since many died in the Holocaust; Hungarian Jews spoke Hungarian, some German.
42:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler meets Shloyme Levkovich, who comes from a village near Debrecen. They talk about whether he speaks Yiddish and about Hungarian being a hard language. Kerler explains that Levkovich is nicknamed Tsures-bachi because he is always complaining, and that he is the best Debrecen speaker he has met. Levkovich says Purim was celebrated with baking and recalls a bit of the Purim play. Kerler then talks with a colleague, partly in English, about the meeting and his age, and they leave to see the synagogue, where they see Yiddish-speaking children with sidelocks from Vienna.
55:25
From the machine transcript
The team greets Gotlieb in her apartment and introduces themselves by first names. Kerler explains the Yiddish interview, and she says she has no one to speak Yiddish with. They speak of the Yismach Moshe Teitelbaum, buried in her home town, and she refers to her husband and son, now dead, and relatives in Brazil. She says the town was called Ihel in Yiddish, and Kerler states the date and begins the interview.
23:33
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says she spoke Yiddish as a child and learned Hungarian in school, with some German. She mentions many Jewish children around her and that some non-Jewish children also knew Yiddish. She remembers her mother as clever and helpful, then describes the Sabbath food: soup, meat, compote and the baked Sabbath stew (cholent). She also talks about fish dishes and the difference between Hasidic and other tastes.
33:47
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says her father was not a Hasid and visited the tsadik's grave only once a year on the yortsayt, as did her uncles, who were Orthodox. In response to Kerler's questions she explains terms such as baal-shem and the cup-pouring at Passover, and what "good Jews" meant.
39:30
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb recalls a big Purim shpil performed by Hasidim in which men dressed as women, and she says it was in Hungarian as well as Yiddish. She recites some Hungarian verse from it. It was about the story of Esther, in which Haman is hanged; she says she was a small child and does not remember more.
41:51
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says stories were told at Sabbath gatherings but she recalls none. Kerler asks about words such as dybbuk and golem and then about Hanukkah food; she names meat and soup and, with some difficulty, fried dough foods. She tries to give a recipe for flódni, partly in Hungarian, and Kerler discusses strudel and poppy-seed flodn.
50:36
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Gotlieb lists Jewish trades in town, including baker, shoemaker and carpenter. She discusses the words for the Sabbath bread (barkhes, challah, kalach) and for potatoes. She says there was no regular theatre, only children's plays at school and at Purim.
55:08
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb recalls prewar Jewish weddings as beautiful, with singing but no instruments among the Orthodox and men and women separate; she says the rebbe danced a mitzvah dance with his followers. She describes sermons in the synagogue given in Yiddish or Hungarian and Hasidic life of study and singing. The passage ends with a discussion of the difference between rov and rebbe and their plurals, with Neolog and Orthodox rabbis.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb answers questions about terms for a cemetery, a good place and a good (pious) Jew, and says she does not know the expression 'Hungarian donkeys', the word for an opponent of the Hasidim, or the word for a Lithuanian Jew. In Budapest she lived among Jews who were less observant than her family at home. She met Polish and Ukrainian Jews but not Romanian ones, and discusses names for Polish Jews. She says that Polish Jews were called untrustworthy, and gives an anecdote about her husband's father, a trader.
5:57
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb answers questions about the baked goods her mother made, which she calls very fine, and about wine and brandy (palinka). She then speaks about healing customs. As a very sick child she was given a red ribbon from Jerusalem and prayers were said for her. She and Kerler discuss extinguishing coals in water as a remedy, and the havdalah custom of putting money in the pocket for a blessing.
10:05
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb answers questions about terms for a non-Jewish cemetery and for a church. She does not know several of the words and says there were three churches. She recognises the word for ritual impurity (tume), used when Jews were not allowed to enter a church. At the end Kerler thanks her and asks her to repeat the second Purim play.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits and Kerler discuss Yiddish poets (Mangar, Latshteyn, Sutskever and others) and Rezmovits's reading of their poems. He says he began writing his Yiddish poems late, after his wife died, when he was anxious about the responsibility for his two children and could not sleep. He adds that he can write better in Hungarian.
7:37
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits recalls poverty in childhood: bread spread with lard and paprika as a snack. He describes his father's attitude toward self-important people in the community, and the nickname "karpn-kop" (carp head) his father used for them. He and Kerler compare the fish word in Hungarian and in other Yiddish dialects.
57:37
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler about Yiddish theater in Debrecen, Rezmovits says only the Bucharest Yiddish theater came after the war. He also says Hungarian Jews had difficulty understanding Yiddish dialect. He then addresses Hungarian Jews' negative attitude toward Polish Jews, and being mocked in Israel for his Hungarian accent.
MDV 82Latsi Galambos; Adolf (Avrum, Bumy) Smajovics; Herman (Avrom-Tsvi) Herbst and 1 moreBudapest, 2006
1:39
From the machine transcript
Informal conversation, probably at a restaurant, about Yiddish and German and how they get mixed up when a person knows both. Kerler and a second speaker discuss a woman now in America, originally from Berekszó (?), who taught Yiddish. One speaker recalls the Jews of a small place before the war, who were partly German-speaking and partly Ukrainian-speaking, got on peacefully, and mentions a father who spoke Russian and Yiddish. Kerler also talks about filming for posterity.
47:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Herbst's schooling, and he says he attended a four-class school in Berlebash, taught in Russian or Ukrainian. He then returns to postwar Debrecen, where he lived in a small room and received meals and money from the Joint, and mentions a yeshiva. He describes attending synagogue and meeting a Russian rabbi (Moshe Weiss, ?) and speaks of a rabbi's sermon in a mixed Hungarian and Yiddish setting.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opens with a remark about which languages a woman knew: Russian, but not Hungarian. Kerler then asks Herbst about Purim in Upper Vişeu and in Bornobash. Herbst recalls being alone one Purim in a strange town, cared for by a friend of his sister, and children going from house to house with Purim rhymes. Kerler asks whether there was a Purim play about a chimney sweep, and Herbst does not remember one. A side conversation with S2 turns to work and jobs. The passage ends with Kerler asking whether non-Jews in Bornobash spoke Yiddish; there were too few Jews for that.
26:47
From the machine transcript
Herbst explains how his mother made mamaliga, layered with cheese, sour cream and butter and baked in the oven. He also says how it was eaten with milk, and what he and Romanians called it (a word possibly tokan). Kerler then asks about cultural terminology: what 'a good Jew' meant (a Hasidic tsadik), and the word for a cemetery as a holy place. He goes on to ask about the golem and the dybbuk, the latter of which Herbst knows only by hearsay. The passage ends with Herbst saying he began work at a sawmill after his bar mitzvah.
31:27
From the machine transcript
Herbst says he worked at the sawmill with Russians, Ukrainians and Romanians and heard no Yiddish there, and that after the war he met few Yiddish speakers outside the hospital. He and Kerler talk about his Yiddish, which resembles that of Hungarian-Jewish Debrecen, and about the words 'Litvak' and 'pani' (thief) as Yiddish usage. Kerler asks about photographs, and Herbst describes postwar friends, including musicians, a pianist he met in hospital, and professors. He mentions a painter friend (name unclear, perhaps Anton Revis) who painted his parents.
41:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what languages were heard among the Jews in the camps. Herbst says most of his fellow prisoners were Hungarian speakers and that the Germans forbade Yiddish. After a short remark on the Haggadah, Herbst offers to sing table songs (zemirot) next time. Kerler asks for a Hasidic tune or a Yiddish song. Herbst starts a song about a butcher at the end.
6:18
From the machine transcript
Herbst mentions a cousin in America, then he and Kerler talk about drinking and drunkenness: the saying that a drunk is a non-Jew, and the habit of having a snack with a drink. Kerler remarks that many books will be written by many people, and Herbst says there will be nothing without his name.
8:33
From the machine transcript
Herbst talks about a female friend in Jerusalem, an ethnomusicologist who wants to write a booklet about him, and gives his address. Kerler remarks on the dangers he survived and asks about a Polish man who saved him. Long Hungarian stretches concern friends and acquaintances in Budapest and people to visit. Kerler compliments Herbst's Hungarian and asks about Yiddish speakers in Budapest after the war.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Outdoors, the team chats with several men of the community about Yiddish. They discuss who speaks it, among Hasidim and Lithuanian-style Orthodox, in Israel and in Hungary. A speaker mentions someone from Mukachevo who now prays here, and the talk turns to Yiddish in the yeshiva system and shiurim given in Yiddish.
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.
37:29
From the machine transcript
The team talks with Eduard Deblinger, born in postwar Vienna, about how he knows Yiddish and about Yiddish and Orthodox Jews in Vienna. Kerler explains the project of interviewing older Yiddish speakers, mentioning Ukrainian shtetls visited. There is an exchange of contact details and of his name.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Deutsch explains how Torah verses were learned and translated in Budapest in his school days, giving the opening words of Genesis in that traditional manner. He and Kerler discuss the different terms for God. The passage ends with Kerler stating the date and the setting, the Jewish Theological Seminary in Budapest.
48:35
From the machine transcript
Deutsch is asked about a Hungarian Hasidic melody but says he cannot recall it. He explains that he knew little German, that his grandmother knew it, and that his parents spoke it to keep things from the children. He describes four years of cheder, where prayers were learned without translation and Bible stories about Saul, David and Goliath were told, and a children's illustrated book.
52:26
From the machine transcript
Deutsch answers questions about the terms for "mother tongue" and about German, Hungarian and Yiddish in his family, noting his grandmother's German. He then speaks about children in villages knowing several languages and about Polish Yiddish speakers. He mentions a woman who lit Sabbath candles.
56:00
From the machine transcript
Deutsch speaks about Purim before the war, when he studied the megillah and a Purim play was staged in Hungarian at his school under the headmaster, Adolf Deutsch(?). After the war he performed in half-Yiddish, half-Hungarian plays in several places. He cannot recall the plays, and Kerler asks him to repeat a piece.
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.
9:58
From the machine transcript
Pearl names his father's sister, who died in Auschwitz, and then answers questions about strong drinks. His family made its own kosher wine, enough for Sabbath, holidays and Passover, and he explains the custom of buying grapes and pressing them. He then discusses brandy at services and at Passover, and Kerler asks the Yiddish word for it.
13:56
From the machine transcript
Pearl discusses how matzo was made before the war: shmura matzo baked for weeks before Passover and regular mitzvah matzo baked on the eve of Passover, in a place in the village where each household did its own. Kerler then asks about what is said when mentioning a deceased person, and Pearl recalls that the dead were addressed at the grave with the name of a mother. He recalls this from age six or eight.
25:58
From the machine transcript
Pearl answers Kerler's question about speaking Yiddish after the war and shows photographs of his family, including a younger sister who did not return. Kerler asks to record the names of his siblings. The talk drifts into Hungarian with others and to Pearl's mother, who played piano and went to school in Košice. He shows a Yiddish Bible, the tsene-rene.
7:04
From the machine transcript
Doman says he entered the yeshiva at age thirteen, after his bar mitzvah, in 1937, and stayed until he was eighteen. He had learned German at school but no Yiddish. His first yeshiva was in Verpelét, his mother's birthplace; he then went to Bicske (?) and to a yeshiva in western Hungary whose name is unclear. The passage ends as the interviewers bring up his book about the yeshiva world.
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.
31:15
From the machine transcript
Doman says that during holidays at home he sometimes spoke Yiddish with his father, while his mother spoke only Hungarian. He was an only child. Kerler talks about his own family, who were born in Moscow and left in 1971, and about relatives he lived with in Jerusalem.
37:53
From the machine transcript
Doman says that in Hungarian Yiddish the dreidel was called a trendele and describes it as having four sides. Kerler asks about a comic parody for Passover and Doman recalls something similar. Kerler then goes back to Moscow and the Jewish holidays there.
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.
53:12
From the machine transcript
Doman says he was in a labor camp. After liberation he began university studies in parallel with the rabbinical seminary. He says the observant Jews who spoke Yiddish in Budapest had mostly left for America, Israel and Australia. Kerler asks for a story about the old yeshivas, and Doman says he has too many to choose from.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The passage begins mid-conversation about languages, mentioning Polish and Russian and Ladino among the Jews of Salonika. It then turns to closing the interview: Kerler says he is leaving soon and plans to spend the night commemorating the Holocaust. Greetings are sent to relatives, thanks and farewells are exchanged, and the interviewee says he rarely gets the chance to speak real Yiddish. A woman who learned Yiddish in Lithuania and reads Yiddish and Hebrew books is mentioned, followed by brief concluding remarks about Yiddishkayt.
12:40
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says her pious mother taught her to pray and to read and write the holy tongue, though she herself was unwilling to learn. She attended a Hungarian school, where some Yiddish was also taught. Her father worked in leather, her mother was named Chaya Sara, and a long stretch about a professor and other people is garbled; Kerler and Gotlieb end by discussing songs she learned.
33:16
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb answers questions about holiday food: Passover dishes such as potato dishes, matzo-meal dumplings and eggs, and wine, with an expensive wine for some. For Hanukkah they ate soup and meat and latkes made from potatoes, not sweet. For celebrations they ate simple pastries with nuts, poppy seed and apple, and Kerler asks for a song her mother or grandmother sang.
53:45
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says Jewish history was taught at school by a woman teacher, but in Hungarian, not in Yiddish. Her mother taught her to read, and Gotlieb says she was unwilling. She says her father's mother sang with the family on Sabbath and mentions Sabbath songs, and Kerler asks about a song about the Messiah. She says her mother spoke with the Polish rebbe, whose Yiddish she could not follow, and she was angry at him for a remark about her mother.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb and Kerler discuss the idea of founding a school for learning Yiddish in Budapest, and Kerler's wish to come and teach. They talk about Yiddish study at the university and among Lubavitch Hasidim. Gotlieb recalls a young man in Israel who would not or could not answer her in Yiddish.
3:08
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb answers questions about food and kinship-related terms: flodn, kugel, the Sabbath morning cake (koilitsh versus khale), the dough offering taken from challah and the word for midwife. S3 and Kerler help in Hungarian and Yiddish when she cannot find the Yiddish word. Kerler and Gotlieb also compare Slavic words and names such as her husband's and Kerler's.
31:20
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb answers questions on prewar cultural and religious life: the library with Hungarian and Yiddish books and the beis medresh. She also answers questions on terms such as 'good place' for cemetery, 'good Jew', and Polish Jews. Kerler explains that the second woman speaks Sátmar Yiddish well and could be a rebbetzin.
34:56
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb recalls a grand wedding in Sátoraljaújhely of the rebbe's daughter, married to the son of the Munkács rebbe; Kerler places it in 1933. She speaks about the rabbi (Meizels), his Yiddish and her neighbours. The conversation moves to Yiddish speakers today, who can speak it but will not, a planned visit to the grave of a tsadik, and relatives' marriages in Hungarian.
16:36
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn says that after returning he worked as a butcher for fifty years under the Soviets in Mukacheve and then moved to Budapest in the early 1990s. He explains that Yiddish was spoken at home, Hungarian in the street, and Russian too. He describes childhood poverty, a mother who knew what was allowed to be given to Rusyn neighbors, and lack of pensions for Jews, and his father's difficulties under the Czechs.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opens with an exchange about Hungarian and Yiddish words, such as a term for the TV or a kind of drink (?), and the blessing after a meal. Blobshteyn then describes Hanukkah at home: goose, card games including twenty-one, dreidels, and gambling for money. He explains that children's study was forbidden on Hanukkah and on one other day of the year. Kerler's question about folk protection against the evil eye ends the passage.
6:27
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn explains the name of a bread, apparently of Hungarian origin, and a dish eaten with it, with milk or fried onion, as food of the poor. Kerler asks about Hanukkah foods, and Blobshteyn names fried doughnut-like pancakes with jam, calling them by a name he says is Hungarian and Russian rather than Yiddish. They discuss whether the word has a k or a g. He says that turkey was eaten only at Purim.
12:33
From the machine transcript
Briefly discusses wall decorations in the home, including Purim items, papercuts and children's pictures, and the terms for Sabbath bread (challah versus barkhes). Blobshteyn then describes his father's place at the table and the respect given to him, including that no one sat in his seat.
38:41
From the machine transcript
Asked about a song on the coming of the Messiah, Blobshteyn says he cannot recall it and mentions the Hungarian song 'Szól a kakas már', associated with the Kolever rebbe. Kerler asks about a secret language used so that others would not understand, and Blobshteyn tells of a servant girl who knew Yiddish. They discuss mame-loshn as a name for Yiddish, and Kerler asks about non-Jews who became Jews.
42:53
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn explains the word for a disturbance (krivaln?) and a story about a Jewish girl who left with a non-Jew, and talks about fire brigades and Jewish work on Saturday. He then speaks of religious life under the Soviets: synagogues taken, Yom Kippur services broken up, and fear of arrest. He says that his friend, the chief of the militia, warned him about planned antireligious actions, and that he was able to buy flats for his two children.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn tells of a trip to America to see relatives. The passage includes his religiously observant sister, a visit to a relative named Mermershteyn (?), and a Sabbath with his brother after about fifty years apart. He also tells of a young man sent from America to Lithuania who ate non-kosher food. Kerler asks what Hungarians and Russians were called in Yiddish and whether Ukrainians had a name, and Blobshteyn answers. He then begins on the emigration of Jews from Mukacheve and Torah scrolls being taken away.
8:41
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn explains several terms (golem, a non-Jewish house of worship, dybbuk) in answer to Kerler's questions. He goes on to compare Christian and Jewish teaching, including the weekly Torah reading and Sunday services. They then discuss the Christian claim to be the true Jews and the origin of the Arabs. Blobshteyn also recalls a Jewish butcher who was denounced and imprisoned, and a village man he knew as a child.
24:07
From the machine transcript
Smajovics speaks about the Hungarian takeover of 1939. He left the cheder to apprentice as a smith and repaired wagons for Polish refugees who passed through the village. He attended a trade school with Hungarian instruction. Kerler asks about the Hungarian poem he learned there, and Smajovics tries to recite it and has trouble recalling it. He ends by saying he worked for a master in the village, paid by the day, and came to Budapest in 1942.
6:05
From the machine transcript
Smajovics talks about visits to his home area after the war and about the Jewish cemeteries in Sevlush, one in the town and another outside it. A few Jews remain there. Kerler then asks him for Yiddish words for a Jewish cemetery, a church, a synagogue, a golem, a dybbuk and a good Jew, and Smajovics gives the terms and explanations. Kerler also asks about pouring a glass of water.
20:32
From the machine transcript
Smajovics sings two Yiddish love songs. In the first a young man leaves home for his girlfriend; the second is about a couple walking and quarrelling. Kerler asks him to sing slowly and then asks about the meanings of words such as 'sakurn' and 'freiles'. He asks for further songs, about the Messiah and Passover, which Smajovics does not know.
28:58
From the machine transcript
Smajovics sings an ironic Yiddish song about being a good Hasidic follower, once sung by older boys before the war, when Hashomer Hatzair pioneers were already active in Transcarpathia. He also sings a song about where a girl slept and what she covered herself with. Kerler asks about the Hungarian words used, such as 'paplan' and 'abrik', and they discuss featherbed and hayloft terms.
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.
48:53
From the machine transcript
Smajovics speaks about Yiddish reading, including Sholem Aleichem, and Soviet Yiddish press and journals, and mentions Birobidzhan newspapers. He tells of a Yiddish concert by American Jews that he attended in Beregszász (?) or a nearby town in the 1960s (?). He describes a trip to Israel and a taxi ride there. Kerler asks about Sovetish Heymland and Yiddish authors. Smajovics then talks about Russian war books on marshals Vasilevsky, Zhukov and Rokossovsky and the Stalingrad front, before Kerler thanks him.
43:06
From the machine transcript
Herbst talks about working to support his parents before the war and giving all his wages to the family. In answer to Kerler's questions, he says he was a good child and discusses words for a non-Jewish cemetery, mentioning the Jewish and reformed cemeteries in his town. He says the Jews lived among the non-Jews.
56:27
From the machine transcript
Herbst answers Kerler's questions about the golem and the dybbuk, saying the golem figure was kept in a synagogue attic. He is then asked about his current life, and the passage becomes a discussion partly in Hungarian.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Doman briefly discuss the state of Yiddish and Jewish life in Russia, including a rise in antisemitism there, in eastern Europe and in western Europe. Kerler then outlines the interview plan, asking about the difference between Yiddish and the German used in the yeshiva and about Yiddish in Budapest. Doman says he studied in four yeshivas, naming Verpelét, Dorog (?) and Galánta, the last now in Slovakia.
7:37
From the machine transcript
Doman says that Orthodox and Neolog Jews observed the commandments alike and differed mainly in dress, the Orthodox wearing black beaver hats and white stockings. He talks about his father, Ernst Doman, who was a rabbi for some fifty years and Orthodox, and gives his own Jewish name. He says Hungarian Orthodox Jews spoke Yiddish-German rather than true Yiddish, and he mixes some of it with English.
21:58
From the machine transcript
Reti speaks about his family: his mother Perl, who worked at home, and the nine children, six brothers and three sisters, whom he names with Kerler (the eldest Khaym Menakhem, then Ester, Sheyndl, Rivke (?), Shloyme Yoysef, Aron Yoytz, Yisroel and himself). He says that Yiddish was spoken only at home, while the non-Jews spoke their own language.
41:57
From the machine transcript
Reti speaks about Shavuot and Purim. For Shavuot they ate dairy foods such as cheese dumplings. On Purim, Jews sang and danced in the street, and there was the Yosef play. He recites passages from it, says his brother played Yosef, and that the young men from Rohod, Nyírmada and Vaja performed it for two hours; only boys acted, and local non-Jews attended without understanding. He also mentions his studies in Balkány and the Lichtenstein tallis factory.
57:44
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks for a story about a rebbe or wonder-worker; Reti recalls none. He recites again part of the Purim Yosef play, then Kerler asks about weddings. Reti says there was a feast and music after the chuppah, played by Gypsy musicians ("shkhorim"). He says the word "klezmer" was not used in his village, only "muzik".
2:19
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the evil eye, and about the entertainer at weddings, and Reti is unsure of the term. Reti says his grandfather died before he was born and that his brother is named after him; the grandfather was a learned man. The talk turns to the women who helped at births and the small Sabbath loaves given to children visiting after a boy's birth (barkhes, which Kerler compares with challah), then to other expressions and a yahrzeit blessing.
9:36
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what a 'good Jew' means, and Reti answers that it means a kosher, observant Jew, and that there are few such people now. Kerler notes that Hasidic rebbes were called tsadikim. Reti gives a saying that where the tsadik is present there is light and glory, and where he is absent there is neither.
10:54
From the machine transcript
Reti recalls a fish-seller, the 'fish Jew', who brought fish from Debrecen every week on his back to the villages; Reti's Hasidic father bought fish for the Sabbath. Kerler asks how it was prepared: Reti describes cold boiled fish and the stuffed fish made from the skin, using a Hungarian name for it, and says he dislikes the sweet Israeli version, which he calls Polish. They go on to the terms for Polish and Lithuanian Jews, whom Reti regards as very pious people.
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.
20:10
From the machine transcript
Reti says there was no matchmaker in his village and that the Torah was read on Mondays, Thursdays and Sabbath; there were no Jewish newspapers. Before the war he lived in Rohod, in Balkány and in Fehérgyarmat (?), the last two places not clearly heard, and he mentions a rabbi in a small village. Children spoke Hungarian and all attended a Hungarian school, since there was no Jewish school. He describes cheder from age three or four, morning and evening sessions, with primary school during the day.
24:01
From the machine transcript
Asked about visits before the war, Reti names nearby towns, including Kisvárda, a Hasidic town; he says it now has a minyan only on Friday night and Sabbath and that Yiddish speakers have died. Kerler then asks about baked sweets and other foods: Reti names cheese-filled pastries (delkerlekh) and cheese or cocoa pastries, then Passover and Hanukkah dishes made from potato, and does not know several terms Kerler asks about. Kerler also asks about tomatoes, apples, mushrooms and the word dybbuk, none of which Reti recognises.
29:15
From the machine transcript
Reti answers Kerler's questions about the meaning of 'golem' (a clumsy person) and about a good place near Rohod. He then says he must leave soon; Kerler arranges to talk again the next day and closes the session with thanks.
23:03
From the machine transcript
Reti sings a Hungarian song about the coming of the messiah, and Kerler asks him to sing it again. Kerler then asks about Purim play-acting and holiday games. Reti says the play-acting was only for Purim and he does not remember any at Hanukkah. He describes a Sukkot nut game and the card games played at Hanukkah, with the children's game using a dreidel (?) and the grown-ups' cards called by a local word. Kerler also asks how a winning turn of the dreidel is named.
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.
46:13
From the machine transcript
Samadi talks about meeting elderly Yiddish speakers in Florida and how they spoke Yiddish while their children spoke English. He continues with his education, studying in a yeshiva in Tiszaeszlár for four or five terms after the talmud torah. He then trained as a baker and as a locksmith, and later worked as a merchant and in a sanatorium (?).
11:33
From the machine transcript
Samadi sings a Yiddish potato song he knows from his father, with Sunday-to-Friday potatoes and a potato kugel for Sabbath. Kerler asks him to repeat it slowly to learn the words, and they discuss the Yiddish word for potatoes and a word in the song that Kerler explains. Samadi then tells and sings the song of two brothers, one rich and one poor, and the angel who comes for each of them. Kerler finally asks about a song on the Messiah, and Samadi says he sang that one in Hungarian.
39:18
From the machine transcript
Gurshteyn, now the interviewee, gives personal information: born in 1921, now in Debrecen, and in Budapest he spoke mostly Hungarian. He grew up in Shamshon, near Debrecen, and his first name is Simkhe. His father's name is given as Zalmen (?). Until fourteen he lived in Shamshon, then learned tailoring in Hajdúbagos. In Budapest he was drafted into the army for about two years, and he returned to Shamshon and worked. In 1948 he was in Israel as a soldier building roads for about a year. He also says he knows a little Hebrew.
46:04
From the machine transcript
Gurshteyn recites a Hungarian Purim play from memory, a comic monologue about an assimilated Jew who is not a good Jew, and then a scene with a cholent pot and friends. He says it was performed in his shtetl, the Hajdúbagos area (?), by three players including himself at twelve. Kerler asks about the date and about his Hungarian name and its Yiddish equivalent. Kerler ends by asking for a short Yiddish song and arranges to continue.
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.
44:00
From the machine transcript
Reti and S2 talk about the Purim play and the other, summer play. They discuss how the plays were staged in a hall or school, with warm air for the heat of the desert scene. They also cover how non-Jews came and saw the play, the story being told first in Hungarian, and Reti's schooling in a non-Jewish school as there was no Jewish school in the village. Kerler ends by asking about Hungarian poetry from school.
47:58
From the machine transcript
Reti recalls school and Reformed prayers and a Christian blessing recited before meals, and the Hungarian words he had to say when passing a cross or roadside shrine. Kerler and S2 ask about words for such things (a cross, a church) and what they were called in Yiddish and Hungarian. Questions on terminology are intermixed with Reti's recitation. At the end Kerler asks about a man who sang and served in the army in Israel.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler and the others first settle which language to use. Stern then gives her Yiddish name, her married name Stern, her maiden name Tsigler and her Hungarian name. She was born in the village of Sonkad, near the Satu Mare area and the old border. Her maternal grandfather and her parents are named, and her father worked in agriculture. She was an only child, and a few other Jewish families lived in the village. Kerler asks about her family, and she says that at home they spoke Yiddish and Hungarian. She says she is ashamed of her Yiddish. A relative who married into a rabbinic family is also mentioned.
20:00
From the machine transcript
The interview ends. Kerler thanks Stern and says he will try to learn Hungarian. Stern says in Hungarian that she has not spoken Yiddish for fifty years. In Debrecen she was once taken for someone from Transcarpathia because of her Yiddish.
21:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what her parents called her in Yiddish and who her grandfather was. Stern says in Hungarian that she had no trade and, after moving to Debrecen, worked in a cooperative making plastic children's toys. The conversation also covers the words for city and village, an American Yiddish speaker, and her husband's job as chief bookkeeper on a state farm. She says they wanted to emigrate but were refused. The tape ends with some talk about travelling on to Oradea and about a woman from Mukachevo who lives in the building.
11:12
From the machine transcript
David says her father was a shoemaker and her mother Sara a housewife, and that there were two children. Her brother was killed in Birkenau, apparently of illness and burned. They discuss the names in the family, Jewish versus Hungarian. Talk then turns to a rabbi from Israel who speaks Yiddish and to rabbis in Hungary and elsewhere who do not, and she mentions acquaintances in Vienna.
27:02
From the machine transcript
Mostly informal conversation, much of it in Hungarian, about food and drink offered to the guests, fruit, her diet and illness, and her flat. Kerler and David touch on a Purim greeting and on which towns it is known from, and S2 remarks that men rather than women used to speak Yiddish. David talks of her health, an operation, her age, and a move to the present flat from the Kossuth street flat (?). Kerler says he recently came from America and describes his travels and his parents' ages at death. The passage ends with thanks and goodbyes to David.
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.
25:43
From the machine transcript
Galambos speaks about his late brother and the last time he saw him. Kerler asks about the proportion of Jews to non-Jews in Vaja and in other places, such as Czechoslovakia, Munkács, Huszt and Beregszász, and where Yiddish speakers remain. Kerler then asks about Jewish weddings, and Galambos recalls three weddings of his sisters in the family. He says non-Jews did not speak Yiddish in Vaja, but did in the Carpathians.
46:58
From the machine transcript
Galambos says he still makes his mother's dishes, such as gefilte fish and cholent. Kerler asks about Sabbath loaves, dumplings and the terms for them, and Galambos says he still has matzo meal. They discuss whether Jews drank palinka and whether it had to be kosher. They also cover wine, drinking on Passover and Purim, and toasts at kiddush in the synagogue. The recording has English and Russian fragments from others in the room.
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.
42:17
From the machine transcript
Galambos and Kerler talk about stale noodles, then about America and Canada, democracy and Israel, and how the United States has helped Israel. They go on to talk about the Jews of Debrecen, Romania, and Galambos's learning of Hungarian. Galambos says he spoke only Hungarian at school and Yiddish at cheder.
19:05
From the machine transcript
Galambos says the Vaja Jews were not Hasidic and did not wear the shtrayml, only the shoykhet had one. He then discusses prayer and the shtrayml-wearing Jews of Munkács, with some doubtful words, and begins to talk about the Tosher rebbe. Kerler asks about the meaning of "shtrayml-wearing", and about the modeh ani prayer taught to children.
35:34
From the machine transcript
Galambos speaks about the Sabbath goy who lit the fire each Sabbath and did not know Yiddish, and what his father said to him in Hungarian. He says Jews numbered 41 families and the non-Jewish population of Vaja was about 2,000, with 3,800 today (?). He mentions reciting a text from the prayer book (?) every Sabbath, the transcript is unclear on which.
42:57
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions about folk beliefs against the evil eye, Galambos says he does not remember such sayings and that Yiddish in Vaja was plain Hungarian-style Yiddish, not Polish. He mentions the Tosher rebbe's grandchildren who visited from Canada this summer. He criticizes the fund-raising of the Satmar rebbe's followers and recalls the Satmar rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum in Kleinwardein before the war. Kerler then asks about holidays.
57:22
From the machine transcript
Galambos says his mother read the Tsene-rene at home, for his sisters and the neighbors, and Kerler asks when this was. He answers questions about the term baal shem and a "good Jew". He then reflects on the state of the world and prays for Eretz Yisrael, before starting to talk about the hardships of a yeshiva student.
42:16
From the machine transcript
Altman talks about her poor childhood and her father, a baker who worked nights for an employer. She grew up with three siblings and never attended school. She names her siblings and her parents, Zelik and Feyge, and says the family came from Bălți. She describes games played in Yiddish with friends, a blind-man's-buff or hide-and-seek game with counting to ten, and chasing games.
38:20
From the machine transcript
Altman answers questions about the meaning of 'a good place' and 'a good Jew', and about the Yiddish of Baltic, Polish and Ukrainian Jews. She describes a Jewish wedding before the war: the canopy, music, dancing, and uninvited guests. She tells of a violent local man nicknamed Feyse Laber (?) who disrupted weddings and singing.
43:26
From the machine transcript
Altman recalls a few lines of the song about Beltz, her little town, and describes running from synagogue after Sabbath services to a river. She and Kerler then go through the meanings of several words: a story about demons, a dybbuk, a golem, 'a taste of Sabbath', and a type of wooden clapper.
8:00
From the machine transcript
Bukshpun answers questions on Sabbath preparation, saying his mother cooked on Friday and a Christian came to light the candles. Kerler asks about the term for a Shabbes goy, which Bukshpun does not know. He recalls Sabbath food, gefilte fish, the shoykhet in Kurzhevits (?), Jewish tailors, Passover matzo, Sukkot, Purim and fasting. His uncle's tailor shop and its sewing machines are mentioned. He notes the Yiddish was spoken at home and he now has little chance to speak it.
29:12
From the machine transcript
Bukshpun speaks about childhood: three children, schooling with Christians, Yiddish at home with other Jewish children, and his mother reading in Yiddish on Sabbath. They told stories in the long winter evenings. He answers questions on the evil eye and its spells, on the Briceni rebbe, on the cemetery and graves at Briceni, and on saying Kaddish.
35:00
From the machine transcript
Bukshpun does not know the questionnaire terms for a cemetery, 'a good place' and a dybbuk, and finds it hard after years without Yiddish. He says ten members of the family died in the war. He then describes his postwar work as a brigadier, in a warehouse and as a manager, mentions a medal and a pension, and says he had a son and three daughters. He married in 1948 a Jewish woman from the village he met in the camp. The son lives in Haifa, the daughters in the village with Christian husbands, and he lists grandchildren.
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.
42:31
From the machine transcript
Reizman discusses the evil eye and how Jewish women cured it, including a healer who treated her after a dog scare, with a knife and spoken charms. Lemster asks about dybbuk, golem, a Jewish funeral with a washing hut, a lullaby and a cradle, and she answers a few terminology items. She says she does not remember songs from her youth.
48:27
From the machine transcript
Reizman says she prays for peace and asks the dead for their intercession. Lemster asks about words used to ward off the evil eye, and she says she knows none.
19:03
From the machine transcript
Furman discusses prewar occupations, Jewish organizations and non-Jews who knew Yiddish. He describes learning the hat-making trade from his father and the parts of a cap with ear flaps. He recalls Yiddish entertainment, Hasidim, and travel to see a rebbe, including the Ștefănești rebbe by coachman. He visited the Rîbnița rebbe after the war.
31:53
From the machine transcript
Furman answers questions about terms and expressions, including a good place for burial and the use of the word Litvak. He explains that Bessarabian Jews were called Romanian Jews. He then talks about attending prewar Jewish weddings, with the groom's procession and klezmer musicians.
42:53
From the machine transcript
Furman and Tsipora discuss folk remedies and sayings, the evil eye and the use of coals, and Hanukkah customs such as the dreidel. Lemster asks about terms such as dybbuk and golem and about funeral and cemetery customs. They also talk about memorial days, grave visits and blessings for the dead.
6:53
From the machine transcript
Furman says she finished two classes before the war, one year in Romanian and one in Russian, with no Yiddish, and ten classes after the war, then worked as a librarian. She recalls childhood games and sledding. She describes the Sabbath at home: her mother's candles, the oven-kept cholent and the baked bread. She recalls a spring outing with the melamed Berl, who danced with the children by the river. She explains that her brother studied in Berl's cheder, which cost more than Hershl's. She also describes Hanukkah dreidels, gifts, matzo brought from Capresti, and the turkey fattened in the attic from Purim until Passover.
29:42
From the machine transcript
Furman answers a few questions about customs and terms: a word for the matzo eaten at the end of the seder (?), what is asked for at a holy place, and an expression about speaking at night. The answers are brief and partly unclear.
MDV 130Isaak (Itisk) Yakovlevich Boltykh; Semyon (Shimen) Semyonovich Katerberg; Tatyana (Tube) Yakovlevna KaterbergBriceni, 2005
9:44
From the machine transcript
Boltykh compares Soviet times with today: shortage and affordability then, high prices and small pensions now, and a house that is cold in winter. He says about ten camp survivors remain in town. He recalls a man who prayed at home and organised yortsayt prayers, mentions that Berts has a Jewish community without a rabbi, and answers Kerler's questions about his Yiddish and the languages of his home.
44:13
From the machine transcript
Tatyana explains how she prepares gefilte fish, from skinning to grinding the flesh, adding salt, pepper and sweet water, and baking or boiling it; the questions go on to fish skin stuffed with pieces and fish broth. Lemster asks about further details.
46:32
From the machine transcript
The Katerbergs say that people spent winter nights with different families, and Tatyana explains that Berlinți and the neighboring village of Bilavintsy (Beleavinți) had Jews who often gathered in the latter. Asked about Yiddish reading, they recall little; their son cannot speak Yiddish.
53:08
From the machine transcript
The Katerbergs describe prewar Berlinți as a pleasant village with many Christians; the children played and attended Romanian school together. Semyon says he studied for seven years. They discuss whether Christians spoke Yiddish and say Jews and Christians were not distinguished, even in the army.
54:10
From the machine transcript
Katerberg briefly says he was in the army and on the Transbaikal (Japanese) front (?). Asked about Yiddish writers from Lipcani and about Soviet Yiddish press, he and Tatyana recall little, and she says people feared keeping such a journal in the house. Kerler closes by explaining the project and its dialect research aims.
24:29
From the machine transcript
The Katerbergs answer questions about terms: what 'getoyg' means and the folk cure of 'speaking away' illness by a Christian woman healer. The woman took coal and spoke words over the person, charging nothing. Lemster asks about doctors in the village.
30:57
From the machine transcript
The Katerbergs recall the Yiddish theater of Sidi Tal in Lipcani and travelling troupes, and the question of film. Kerler asks about words such as dybbuk, golem, apostate and convert, and the Katerbergs say what they remember about them.
33:54
From the machine transcript
Katerberg gives recipes for kamish bread and esikfleysh, the Jewish meat dish in sweet and sour sauce. She also describes filled goose neck and giblets, stuffed fish, kishke and potato latkes made for Passover. Kerler and Lemster ask which dishes were Jewish and what they were called.
49:00
From the machine transcript
The Katerbergs talk about contemporary life: they speak Yiddish together only a little, do not hear Yiddish broadcasts, and there are few Jews in Briceni. They say they have no contact with former residents, apart from a quarrel with a relative in Israel. Kerler and Lemster thank them and end the interview.
28:17
From the machine transcript
Kalussky sings a Yiddish song that mentions Simchat Torah, explaining the word rendlekh (gold, brilliants). He answers questions about a Yiddish writer, saying there were none locally. He distinguishes the rebbe who taught Torah from the teacher who taught writing and Yiddish song (the "doyne moyre").
9:05
From the machine transcript
Answers questions from Kerler and Lemster about the meaning of terms: a 'good Jew' (a rabbi who judged disputes and gave blessings), hasidim, a holy Jew, giving a pidyon, a dibbuk, a Litvak and a golem. He mentions the yeshiva in Chișinău and the shoykhet who slaughtered only chickens. He also describes how a rabbi ruled on questions about doubtful chickens, depending on whether the asker was poor or rich.
22:50
From the machine transcript
Kalussky says he had a traditional wedding with a chuppah, and that the marriage was registered with the state only a year later. Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for the register entry.
40:37
From the machine transcript
Asked about childhood in Soroca, Faiershtein says she remembers little because of the camp. Non-Jewish neighbors did not steal from them. She mentions her two sons, one a musician, and says she suffered beatings in the war. Her family lived in rented rooms, and her grandparents in Rakovets, in the Soroca district, had a large house and a mill. She says she speaks only Yiddish when she meets Yiddish speakers.
42:56
From the machine transcript
Faiershtein says she has written 1,017 poems, mostly in Russian, with her own music. Kerler asks about the earlier interview for the Americans, which was in Russian. She says it is hard for her to tell war episodes in Yiddish, and begins a story about a nine-year-old child and a coat.
43:10
From the machine transcript
Goldberg says her son and daughter were born in Bravicea, where the family lived until 1957, when the district was abolished and the Jews left. Questions follow on the Jewish cemetery, terms for it, and whether there was a grave of a righteous man or a prewar rabbi.
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.
51:17
From the machine transcript
Goldberg answers questions on how her mother prepared gefilte fish, which was salted rather than sweet, and on how she makes it herself, with pepper. They then discuss baked goods, such as Purim shalakhmones sent as gifts and what was put in the pastries.
53:37
From the machine transcript
Goldberg answers questions on folk beliefs: the evil eye and non-Jewish women who charmed it away, whom she did not consult. They ask about pouring wax, and about a dybbuk and a golem. Kerler then turns to her work as a nurse.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Roif talks about the present day: speaking and losing Yiddish and Hebrew, his daily unpaid community work, help to sick and elderly Jews through a German sponsor, and payments made to homebound people. He then speaks about Romania's official recognition of the Holocaust, the denial of it by ordinary Romanians, and the estimated numbers of Jews killed in Bessarabia. Kerler asks which government recognised it, and a passage on Jews without citizenship follows.
42:19
From the machine transcript
Roif answers questions about his name Shabs and its variants, and about his prewar education: the Romanian school and a separate Jewish school (cheder) held in a rented house and supported by his father, taught by hired teachers. He did not attend in winter, studied Hebrew and the alphabet, and mentions the form of address to the teacher. He and Kerler also discuss the Hebrew of the region and Shraybman.
32:40
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the term for a good Jew and the Yiddish name of a cemetery, which Roif gives as a holy place; Roif describes the winter in the camp near Rîșcani. People froze, starved or died of disease. The bodies could not be buried in the frozen ground and were left under snow, where dogs ate them. He then recalls a nearby site at a station where a Russian colonel was friendly and thousands of Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina were shot.
42:32
From the machine transcript
Roif jokes about his own wedding after five years of service in the Black Sea fleet, and says he has been married over fifty years. Kerler then asks about terms like the seven blessings, a Lithuanian Jew, dybbuk, golem, and about Hebrew in Yiddish. Roif talks about the decline of Yiddish among Ukrainian and assimilated Jews, intermarriage, and today's meetings and monuments to those shot. A Russian aside by another person intrudes.
49:25
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks how Roif's Yiddish speakers talk about the dead, and Roif gives several set phrases for the deceased and for blessing. They discuss whether a grandfather is said to intercede with God on behalf of the living. Roif also remarks on troubles in Israel and tensions with Arabs.
13:52
From the machine transcript
Zelda sings the song about the girl Sanyele who converted. Her mother begs her to come home, while the Christian tempts her with shoes and dresses on condition that she wash Jewish linen. She says she learned it from a relative called Sroel/Israel from Edineț and remembers it from about seventy years earlier (?). Kerler and Lemster ask why the girl would wash the linen, and there is talk of Kerler's university in New York.
48:47
From the machine transcript
Roif and Zelda are teased by Lemster about how they met and why she chose him; Roif had served five years in the fleet. They go on to acquaintances and relatives, including people in Israel, a Rîșcani book in Yiddish by someone named Yozik (?) and a relative who left as a halutz in the 1930s. At the end Lemster and Kerler elicit a word of Moldovan origin (written as skapet) for something dropped or lost.
53:00
From the machine transcript
Roif and Lemster talk about Passover food: fattening geese, using goose fat, and potato dishes. Roif recalls his father making basturma and a visiting official who came to his kolkhoz to eat geese and fish. Roif was a kolkhoz chairman for many years. Lemster and Kerler ask how the geese were marinated and smoked, and Kerler asks for the Yiddish term for what is left after rendering fat, with griven and an unclear word offered.
55:12
From the machine transcript
Farber sings a song about travelling to Odessa, in alternating Yiddish and Moldovan. It is a version he rewrote with verses in both languages and he says he put it on a disc.
22:55
From the machine transcript
Farber describes his mother as a Jewish housewife who baked, cooked, sewed and sang, with a cheerful home. He says his brother has lived in Israel for about fifteen years (the transcript is unclear whether a nephew is meant) and that he lacks people to speak Yiddish with. He sings Yiddish songs at non-Jewish weddings. His father worked as a clerk until 1940 and then went to the mines.
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.
46:08
From the machine transcript
A Yiddish song about dancing is heard, with Farber taking part. Lemster and Kerler discuss a word in it, and Farber then says his one plan is to keep singing, mentioning a festival he has just been at in Germany.
50:00
From the machine transcript
Farber speaks about performing before German audiences who took a keen interest in Yiddish songs. He says he was asked in Israel why he sings in Yiddish rather than Hebrew. The interviewers urge him to record songs, and Farber says he sees his as the last generation to know Yiddish.
17:58
From the machine transcript
Shmid tries to recall spoken charms against the evil eye and gives a short rhyming formula about a woman going to a field. The interviewers then ask the meaning of terms such as dibbuk and golem. Shmid does not know dibbuk, and the question is repeated with Russian help from S2.
15:43
From the machine transcript
Shpitalnik describes how Jewish pupils in the Romanian gymnasium were taught religion in the corridor by a rabbi (Epelbaum or Yampolski). Asked about Hasidim, she says she knew of none before the war but knew of a good Jew in Bender and of the Ribnitser rebbe Chaim Zalbul(?), who died in Queens. Kerler then asks what 'a good Jew' and 'a good place' (cemetery) mean, which she answers briefly.
24:26
From the machine transcript
Shpitalnik answers Kerler's questions on cultural terminology: the word dybbuk and its local meaning, a convert to Christianity (meshumed), the golem, formulas said after a dead person is mentioned, and a blessing that the deceased may plead for the living. She also recalls a known convert (Rovinovitsh (?)) from before her time.
4:42
From the machine transcript
Mester talks about childhood hide-and-seek, which she says was played in Yiddish, and gives the Yiddish name for the game. She names her melamed and says he came from a village near hers whose name is unclear. She recalls Hebrew phrases such as asking permission to go out and the form of address for the teacher. Lemster begins a question about a wedding.
37:03
From the machine transcript
Mester says only Christians went to the tavern; the family bought a small bottle of brandy for Sabbath. She talks about her mother's trips to Edineț for shopping, by cart in summer and sleigh in winter. She answers questions about the burial-ground phrase 'a good place', plurals of rabbi and rich man, and the meanings of dybbuk and golem.
40:22
From the machine transcript
Mester describes three years in the Berlivka camp, including a stay in Vertiujeni where Romanian gendarmes beat prisoners and tore at rabbis' beards. She recalls being held in a forest for a few days and her elderly mother being helped to walk. In Berlivka, prisoners lived in a barn, her mother sewed for Christians in exchange for food, and they were taken to repair a bath house. Young people sang and danced; Germans searched for partisans, and the camp was freed by partisans in German uniform. Lemster and Kerler ask about words in camp speech.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Abelsky talks about a Chabad yeshiva in Jerusalem where his student teaches and the students learn Gemara in Russian. He discusses the place of Yiddish versus Hebrew in Chabad and other Hasidic institutions, with Katz and Kerler commenting. He notes that few yeshivas teach in Yiddish and that Chabad uses Hebrew as the easiest route to Jewishness.
7:33
From the machine transcript
Abelsky talks about sending his students to a yeshiva in Jerusalem and about a report in which one of the great Hasidim used a Yiddish expression. Kerler and Katz help with a Yiddish word that Abelsky does not catch at first. The passage is partly unclear.
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.
28:37
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about his Yiddish school, which is called Vaysman after its director. Instruction was in Yiddish apart from one lesson in Romanian. The school and the talmud torah gave meals, kosher and paid by rich people. He explains the Romanian-derived word for money and its Hebrew equivalent, and cannot recall the poems studied.
31:17
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy briefly mentions evacuation to Kazakhstan, in the Kostanay district. He returns to the Yiddish school, where Romanian was also taught, and describes the Russian-language lessons in evacuation with a German teacher. After the war he finished school and became a teacher.
53:54
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy talks about his siblings (a sister, a brother and another sister who died) and says he was the youngest of four. He recalls the Passover seder and the four questions asked by his father and grandfather. He tells how the talmud torah taught in Yiddish and Hebrew and the melamed spoke Yiddish.
55:56
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy remarks that today's Jews in the community do not know Yiddish. He describes prewar relations with non-Jews, with Romanians calling Jews by a Romanian word and not allowed into the synagogue. He then speaks of postwar hunger, Stalin's rationing and cards, and the cosmonaut Gagarin.
3:04
From the machine transcript
Lipovetskiy answers questions about Purim and Hanukkah-time performances, saying he remembers little and mostly saw actors in a theatre. He recalls attending a kindergarten, called by a Romanian name, where Jewish children were fed and played with balls. Kerler elicits the Yiddish and Romanian words for 'ball', and Lipovetskiy says he is unwell. Kerler then asks him to recall prewar life in Chișinău.
21:34
From the machine transcript
Kishlyansky speaks of the hard life of the poor in Briceni and how people were helped, and about fasting on Yom Kippur. He recalls building a sukkah and mentions Purim. He reflects on Yiddish and Jewishness, saying the language should not be abandoned and many Jews no longer know it.
36:07
From the machine transcript
Kishlyansky answers Katz's terminology questions: a cemetery, a fence, the word tsadik, and a Lithuanian Jew. He mentions the Jewish wedding canopy and says he does not recall wedding songs. He describes how a woman charmed away the evil eye, with three women sitting on a stone, and is asked about dybbuk and golem, which he doesn't know well.
45:27
From the machine transcript
Kishlyansky recalls the return after the war, finding the house where the family had lived and speaking Yiddish with a neighbour. He grieves for the murdered Jews and asks where God was. He says he is now old.
54:26
From the machine transcript
Kishlyansky answers questions about the evil eye and its cure by incantation: three women on a stone, melting wax, and extinguishing coals, which he says were practised by non-Jews. He says he knows no Jewish equivalent. Katz then prepares to ask for Yiddish equivalents of Russian words.
15:38
From the machine transcript
Abramovich talks about material sent to her from Sholem Aleichem's house and about her visit to Israel and the Knesset. She shows a golden harp tie-pin given to her great-grandfather, which gained symbolic meaning when she graduated from the conservatory in harp and music history, and mentions Łódź (?). The talk turns to Mendele's children, who spoke European languages but not Yiddish, and to a poet grandson, Mikhail Abramovich. The transcript here is partly confused by the noisy Yiddish line.
46:11
From the machine transcript
Roif sings the song of the Jewish girl who converted a second time. Katz asks for another Yiddish song, one sung by girls before the war or in the camp, and she says she knows only Russian and Romanian songs and only snatches of Yiddish ones. Katz then announces lighter dialect questions with a Russian word to translate.
29:42
From the machine transcript
Gordin answers questions about terms: a dybbuk, which he explains as someone possessed, and a golem, which he does not know. He then gives the term for the cemetery and explains that in Florești the Jewish and Christian fields were adjacent but separate.
52:46
From the machine transcript
Gordin talks about his years at a mirror factory and explains how mirrors are made. He describes the chemical silvering method and the later vacuum method with electrodes, aluminum and varnish, often in Russian, and Katz asks him to tell it in Yiddish. He mentions that he traveled to factories in other cities.
14:22
From the machine transcript
Gordin recites a short Yiddish poem he knows from childhood, about a grandmother and her grandchildren with apples and berries, and repeats it at Katz's request. He then recites a Hebrew poem built on repeated word pairs. He offers a school piece in Romanian or French but says he did not study Yiddish formally.
15:58
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what games Sherman played as a child; he does not remember. He confirms that the Soviets set the road and the town on fire in 1941 to deny it to the Germans. He then describes the cheder: a poor rebbe, a plain table and the children learning Yiddish, Torah and blessings. He can no longer recall the prayers but says he reads Yiddish and Hebrew.
20:39
From the machine transcript
Sherman says he reads and writes Yiddish well and loved literature. He recalls the Yiddish library in Telenești, with works by Sholem Asch, Sholem Aleichem and translations of world literature. Young people read and met to discuss Zionism and communism; there were no formal debate evenings. The library was open to everyone.
22:23
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Sherman knows Unetaneh Tokef; he recalls only part of it. Questions about the library follow: borrowing, whether books were paid for, and whether it held Romanian as well as Yiddish books. He says he read Tolstoy in Russian once he had learned it, and Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish.
46:20
From the machine transcript
Sherman remembers that in Telenești weddings had a chuppah and music from a small klezmer band, with Jewish dances; the musicians were non-Jewish Moldovans who had learned the tunes. Kerler then asks terminology questions: the plural of rov and rebbe, and the meaning of a "good Jew".
57:53
From the machine transcript
Sherman quotes a saying he attributes to the poet Rivkin (?), a former colleague of an acquaintance, and describes how that man's wife visited after he was taken away. Lemster and Kerler ask whether he knows songs by Zelik Bardichever and other poets, and ask about a formula said after mentioning the dead.
32:47
From the machine transcript
Diner answers questions about Purim masks and about Passover, saying her father led the seder and was an honest man, which is why he was shot. She describes her grandfather, who prayed daily in a tallit and was her confidant. She tells how a teacher dressed another girl in her national costume for a school holiday, how her grandfather taught her to value learning and to give charity from her Hanukkah money, and which languages were used at home and school.
51:02
From the machine transcript
Diner is asked about Yiddish songs, films and her own Yiddish. She sings fragments of Yiddish songs she remembers: "A brivele der mamen", "Lomir zikh iberbetn", "Ikh hob dikh tsufil lib" and "Ikh bin farlibt in mayn eygenem man". She says she speaks no Yiddish with anyone now. The interviewers then ask about amateur theater in the town.
38:20
From the machine transcript
The formal part of the interview ends and the interviewers ask whether Diner remembers any songs her mother sang, but she has forgotten the Yiddish ones; Kerler recalls lines of a song about in-laws (makhetunim). She says her sister taught her to read in Romanian from the age of four so that she would not have to learn from religious texts. Lemster tells of a very old acquaintance who remembers everything. Kerler thanks her warmly.
32:20
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva talks about another non-Jewish neighbour, a Romanian woman of Jewish origin, and about a vocational Yiddish school where Yiddish and world literature were taught. She lists the languages she knew, attended a French lycée and describes taking the baccalaureate in 1936 with several hundred candidates. A Karaite friend paid the fee, and she was rewarded with gifts and a dress. She describes the written and oral exams.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva and Kerler discuss Yiddish sayings, including one about the length of the Jewish exile and expressions with 'Jewish' and 'gentile' (luck, head). She says she was active in Poale Zion, where there was singing, dancing and plays in Yiddish. She recalls a rich synagogue and Zionist library and kindergarten on Nikolaevskaya Street. She also remembers a Baptist circle where a Jew spoke Yiddish, which she once attended with a friend's mother.
9:13
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva says she was a teacher before the war of French, Russian, Romanian and German, after studying at the French lyceum, and mentions Greek, Latin and Old Church Slavonic. She recites a few Greek words and a Latin saying. She taught Romanian at the private Yiddish school of the Vakhman family. She also describes the pupils and how her teaching documents were lost in a bombing during the war.
32:48
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva answers Kerler's questions about prewar holiday food at home: Hanukkah gelt, latkes made from buckwheat flour, potato pancakes and Passover dishes such as matzo kugel. They discuss tsimes and its varieties, fruit compote and the plum-based drinks. She says children were not given brandy except for a taste of wine at Passover.
36:19
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva answers terminology questions, including the old and new cemetery fields in Chișinău and the meaning of tsadik. Kerler then asks about traditional Jewish weddings, who spoke to the bride and groom, the covering of the bride and women's crying. She recalls little of the details.
8:29
From the machine transcript
Mitlaeva says that after Bukovina she worked as a teacher in Străşeni, a large town with several schools, including Russian and Romanian ones. She recalls a pogrom there in tsarist times, a conflict with a colleague who was dismissed, a Jewish surgeon and Jewish veterans working in the town. She also says she knew Romanian well and speaks it today, though she has never been to Romania.
27:10
From the machine transcript
Muchnik compares her own prayer habits with her father's. He prayed in Ashkenazi pronunciation, while she uses Sephardic (modern Hebrew) pronunciation from school. At Kerler's request she recites the morning prayer Modeh ani and a blessing, in the way he said them. She then recalls a childhood Passover seder, where she as the youngest asked the questions, and her parents' custom of inviting soldiers as guests.
30:19
From the machine transcript
Muchnik describes how two Jewish soldiers from the barracks sat at the family seder, and how the household managed without a maid. She tells about their Moldovan non-Jewish helper Moshe Alekseyi, who carried water and did Sabbath tasks, and an anecdote about the wine of the plagues. She also tells of his belief that he was Alexander of Macedon. Lemster asks whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish, and she says she did not know any who did.
25:12
From the machine transcript
Muchnik tells how, after a school year when she received no prize book, a parcel slip from Bucharest led to a post-office package of books from the royal publishers. This became the start of her own library. She says she now reads mainly Russian, never read Yiddish, and studied French and German at the gymnasium.
39:12
From the machine transcript
Muchnik tells how she started travelling to Orhei to find the graves of her relatives and finds her grandfather's Yiddish gravestone; on the day she mentions it is a brother-in-law's yahrzeit. She speaks of the rabbi's wife Leah Abelsky, the Sabbath table, and the rabbi's Lithuanian-style Yiddish. She asks the rabbi about a Hebrew birth date.
47:16
From the machine transcript
Asked about the word 'dybbuk', Muchnik explains it as a stubborn person; Kerler and Lemster also ask about other words. She then describes her wealthy maternal grandfather, a landowner with a carriage and horses, and his richly furnished house. She also recalls the all-Jewish street where she grew up, and a Moldovan who bought a house there and became friendly with the Jews and learned Yiddish.
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.
2:09
From the machine transcript
Muchnik tells how her elder brother acted in a Yiddish theatre, taking the role of Death, and forgot to remove his wristwatch, so that he was nicknamed after it. Lemster and Kerler ask what plays were staged and whether they were in Yiddish. She recalls a symposium of Hebrew specialists where her brother, a carpenter, corrected a professor, and talks of her brother's love of Hebrew and Yiddish and of cheder.
18:46
From the machine transcript
Muchnik answers questions about Yiddish writers: she has heard of Bialik, Sholem Asch and Sholem Aleichem but did not read them. She mentions an older Jewish woman in Chișinău who reads Yiddish. She recalls writing letters in Hebrew to her brother, and her religion lessons at the gymnasium with a private teacher who had studied in Vienna. She can read an Israeli newspaper only with vowel points.
54:30
From the machine transcript
Goldman answers questions about the term 'a good Jew' and about her father's observance: tefillin and Passover practice after the war. She describes borrowing Yiddish and Romanian books from the library, naming Yiddish writers such as Sholem Aleichem, Peretz and Mendele. Kerler asks about buying Yiddish books from her.
1:00:23
From the machine transcript
Goldman answers questions about the meaning of dybbuk and golem and about folk remedies and sayings against the evil eye, recalling little. Kerler then announces a change of cassette.
27:27
From the machine transcript
Benderskaia recalls the Purim play and children's visits for treats, but remembers only a scrap of a song. She also recalls Hanukkah money for children, kapores before Yom Kippur, and her mother reading in Hebrew. Kerler asks about Hebrew learning.
42:19
From the machine transcript
Benderskij recalls Passover in the 1990s, when they received three kilos of matzo from the Hesed. Benderskaia then discusses her father and kosher meat, with Kerler asking about meat terms such as brisket. She tells of a stay in Iași, where doctors prescribed non-kosher meat when she was ill as a child.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Nisporeni's bathhouse and mikveh, about the custom of throwing crumbs into water before the New Year (tashlikh), and about the pond or lake there. The couple and Kerler then discuss the Yiddish words for a pond, a river and a stream. The passage ends with Kerler turning to the subject of evacuation.
24:07
From the machine transcript
The couple discuss prewar drinking customs, saying that Jews did not get drunk, and a mad Jew in town. They go on to trades in the town such as tailors, shoemakers, smiths and harness makers, and winter and summer clothing. Dishes and their names follow (gefilte fish, kishke, potato pancakes, Passover potato dishes), with Kerler and Lemster comparing local terms.
28:56
From the machine transcript
Benderskaia and Benderskij answer Kerler's questions about the words dybbuk and golem and the "good eye" charm. Kerler then asks about quenching coals as a healing practice. Benderskaia says it was not done in their home but tells of a hospital episode in 1953 (?), after the war, in which Christian women used the custom.
49:38
From the machine transcript
Benderskaia describes the return to Nisporeni in 1945. They found no house of their own and rented from a Christian, then lived in her aunt's house and in her grandfather's, where floors and fittings had been torn out. Lemster and Kerler ask the Yiddish word for floor. They then say they have one child, who works in Chișinău and is in the mid-fifties (?), and mention their grandchildren.
53:05
From the machine transcript
Dajch answers terminology questions, with Kerler asking for the Yiddish word for a Romanian term. She says she was in Iași from 1931 to 1936 and describes going to the national theatre there to hear Joseph Schmidt. She recalls Purim, with gypsy musicians going from house to house, children in masks and a Purim rhyme, and Sukkot customs, including the shoykhet's rounds, Hoshana Rabba and the shofar.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Dajch says she cannot recite songs in Russian, since Romanian was spoken before the war and Russian came only afterwards; she says she left in 2000. She describes folk signs her mother used, such as a spinning object used to tell whether a young man would return. She also describes a home remedy of dough smeared with honey for a boil, and answers Lemster's questions about how the dough was made.
30:31
From the machine transcript
Rotner answers questions about idioms and terms, including a phrase involving a good place and the term for a good Jew (a rebbe visited), and says there was no rebbe in the village. She says Jews in the village did not drink heavily and describes her mother baking challah and the village having a bakery. She also names a Jewish doctor, Yigilski (?).
34:20
From the machine transcript
Rotner answers questions about folk-belief terms such as a gesture against the evil eye, a dybbuk and a golem, and says she does not recall such customs. She says that as an adult she concentrated on bringing up her daughter and her husband's return from the war and did not think about her youth.
56:19
From the machine transcript
Rotner speaks about clothing before the war, fabrics brought from Orhei and village tailors and shoemakers. She says life in the village was good until the war and Christians worked their own land. She answers questions on terms for peasants and repeats that her sister moved to America. She says Yiddish was spoken at home, Romanian at school and Russian after the war.
12:52
From the machine transcript
Manevich says she did not count the Jews of Tiraspol, which also had Moldovans and others. She recalls going to synagogue on holidays with her mother until about age seven and then stopping when she entered school. She describes the Yiddish school, where reading, writing, arithmetic and literature (Sholem Aleichem, later Peretz and Mendele) were taught in Yiddish, with Russian lessons alongside. At Kerler's request she tries a Pushkin poem in Russian, remembering only a little, and says she has forgotten much of the Yiddish.
20:13
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about childhood friends and the languages of instruction. Manevich says she was taught in Russian and in Yiddish, with German and Ukrainian also taught, that geography and history were taught in the Russian school, and that literature was taught in Yiddish. At home she spoke Russian with her parents, a mix with her grandparents. She recalls her grandmother and grandfather visiting, walking with a stick, and the children leading them home. She mentions a stay in Turkey (or among Turks) during the war, but evacuation in Central Asia is not clear in the transcript.
25:43
From the machine transcript
Manevich says her father read Yiddish when he had time, but her mother was unlettered in Yiddish and later learned to write Russian. Russian was the language used in the city. She names Jewish holidays she remembers (Passover, Hanukkah, Purim) and the Soviet holidays celebrated at home, such as the anniversary of the October Revolution, May Day and Constitution Day. Asked about a New Year tree, she is unsure. A discussion follows about Sholem Aleichem in Russian-letter versus Yiddish-letter editions.
36:16
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Jewish history and holidays were taught in the Yiddish school. Manevich says they were not, since it was a Soviet school in an essentially Russian city. She says that outside the home people spoke Russian rather than Yiddish and that a person can be Jewish without Yiddish. She mentions speaking Turkish during the war, and recalls a time in Moldova when only Moldovan was supposed to be spoken, and how the Jews were regarded by others.
12:37
From the machine transcript
Fershtman describes the Yiddish school in Pishchanka: all subjects, including mathematics, were taught in Yiddish alongside German and Ukrainian, and he names a teacher called Rabinovich. He and the interviewers discuss Yiddish and Ukrainian literature he studied, naming Sholem Aleichem, Mendele, Peretz and others, and he briefly tries a Yiddish saying. He says he can no longer read Yiddish. The passage ends with a question about his bar mitzvah.
36:24
From the machine transcript
Fershtman is asked about songs his mother sang; he recalls only Ukrainian songs recorded on a tape recorder and no Yiddish ones. He then speaks about Odesa after 1938, where the language of school and daily life moved to Russian even in the vocational school. He mentions that there was a Yiddish theater in Odesa.
44:46
From the machine transcript
Fershtman describes postwar service: he was called up again and trained at courses in Odesa. He was a tank platoon commander in Florești and then at a tank regiment in Chișinău, and stayed there from 1956. He worked at a factory (instrument-making) until retirement in 1991. He says he has had no one to speak Yiddish with, mentions veteran status, and travel abroad to Finland, Germany and Bulgaria, as the best times of his life.
19:52
From the machine transcript
Rojtman recalls Purim and Simchat Torah in the town, with masks and the park, and the poor children who went house to house for money. A Russian-language stretch concerns a woman living on Bendery street, and there is talk about whether the town had an upper and a lower part. She also discusses Romanian-speaking Gentiles, the term 'podvalnik' (?), and Christians who spoke Yiddish. She describes it as a pleasant town with respected doctors, educated people and no bad people she can remember.
47:50
From the machine transcript
Rojtman answers Kerler's questions on terminology, including the words for rabbis, rebbes and the title 'good Jew', and names a few food items. She explains the role of a 'good Jew' as a person to confide in. She describes four such people in town and their families, and speaks of a Jewish man who crossed the Dniester and the many who were shot.
59:06
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the meaning of words in local Yiddish, including a stubborn or obstinate person, 'mamzer', and 'goylem'. Rojtman answers using Russian equivalents. She then answers questions on drinking, saying she remembers no vodka but brandy at kiddush and on yahrzeit, and that there was a Jewish tavern. Kerler asks for the Yiddish word for cemetery and for a 'good place', and she gives words for cemetery and explains the customs of visiting graves.
4:17
From the machine transcript
Rojtman recalls arriving in Chișinău in January 1945, her husband having brought his institute there from another town (garbled in the transcript). She describes her Jewish wedding in 1946 and who officiated. She discusses what language she spoke with her husband, Naum Rojtman, who knew several languages but little Yiddish. She says she worked as a doctor for forty-two years, and Kerler then begins the questionnaire.
22:03
From the machine transcript
Yaruskaya sings a Yiddish song about a tailor and recalls meeting Polish Jews during the evacuation, noting their different accent. She describes returning to Hâncești after the war. The murdered Jews of the town were dug up from graves shown by a local non-Jewish woman. Remains were found, including the rabbi's candlesticks and children's shoes, and were reburied in the field. Her mother's parents had stayed behind and were killed there.
36:22
From the machine transcript
Yaruskaya tries to recall Yiddish proverbs and sayings and discusses the wording of one with the interviewers. She repeats the Purim rhyme and mentions songs about cigarette sellers. She names her husband Makhl from Nariv (?) and a saying about people from Nariv. She says she spoke Yiddish with her husband and sons. Her sons live in Israel and America and she did not join them; she has visited America and her relatives there.
43:12
From the machine transcript
Yaruskaya answers questions about cultural terminology: the meanings of terms for a bad or foolish person, and what a dibbuk is. She explains pouring lead to cure fright, which old women did in Hâncești, and her mother's charms. She says matchmakers were not used in the town. She also describes prewar weddings with fish, bread and brandy, and says her sons had bar mitzvahs in Chișinău.
24:06
From the machine transcript
Shmid says she met her husband Aron, a native of Chișinău, while living at her sister's, and married before the war (?). She attended a vocational school in the city and says she learned Yiddish there but Romanian in the village school. Kerler asks about the languages of instruction (the answers vary), and about her reading Yiddish books and using a library.
38:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts questions about the meaning of cultural terms: dybbuk, golem (including a clay golem) and Litvak. Shmid answers hesitantly, giving Russian equivalents and Yiddish explanations for some and not knowing others. The talk is mostly Yiddish with a few Russian prompts.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks Shmid about a Yiddish word and about the 'good Jews', wonder-working rabbis who visited the village and whom people travelled to see. Kerler asks whether her father taught her Yiddish or prayer. She says no; she learned in Chișinău at her sister's, at a vocational school where Yiddish was taught but not Hebrew. Kerler then starts a question about a remedy against the evil eye.
2:52
From the machine transcript
Shmid recites a spoken charm against the evil eye, in which a woman going to the field meets Elijah the prophet. Kerler has her repeat it, notes the three spittings, and tries to get her to recall who meets Elijah. Others in the room help prompt, and she complains that she forgets with age. Lemster asks about a word and about quenching coals, and she explains the coal-heated iron and how the coals were put out.
8:51
From the machine transcript
Shmid recalls the coal-heated irons of her childhood home and her older sister's bakery in the city, which sent sacks of coals home. She names her sisters, says there were seven children, and says one brother went to America. She says she speaks Yiddish with her relatives. Lemster and Kerler then ask the meaning of 'dybbuk' and 'golem'; she knows the latter as a madman.
20:11
From the machine transcript
Shmid recalls Purim gifts of food sent from her sister's bakery in Chișinău to the groom during her engagement. She describes Sabbath at home, where her mother blessed the candles and was somewhat religious. She speaks of her maternal grandfather, who was something like a lawyer, her parents' village and city origins, how they met at a wedding and her father sent a matchmaker, and Yiddish as the home language. Kerler and Lemster then discuss with each other what to ask Gordin, and she praises her son-in-law.
24:31
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shmid not to touch the microphone, then asks about her work. She finished a vocational school and worked after the war in a factory in Chișinău, perhaps a knitwear factory. Lemster again asks about a word, and she tries once more to recall the Elijah charm and what place the woman was going to, and Kerler suggests the cemetery. She complains of forgetting, praises her son-in-law, and apologises that she has no baking to offer her guests.
12:01
From the machine transcript
Leibelman describes her native village, where three Jewish families lived, and her schooling in a Romanian school there, then in Rezina from 1932, where she lived with her mother's sister Manya. She recalls the melamed's teaching, poverty and beggars in Rezina, and an aunt's daughter now in Los Angeles. She recalls a wedding with gefilte fish, the chuppah, klezmer musicians and a bridegroom's jester. She ends with an Easter-time antisemitic threat and hiding in the cellar, and says Yiddish was spoken at home.
38:12
From the machine transcript
Leibelman recalls childhood play with non-Jewish village children, speaking Moldavian with them and Yiddish at home. She was not allowed to play with the children in the other village, and mostly played with her sister. She describes her mother's Sabbath bean and other dishes and the lack of a shoykhet, so meat came from Rezina. She also describes the Purim noisemaker custom and her mother reading the tkhine with its fables on Sabbath, while sewing during the week.
45:15
From the machine transcript
Leibelman answers questions about youth organizations in Rezina, such as Zionists and Communists who were arrested, and about the Yiddish library there, where she borrowed books. She recalls reading Romanian books and Turgenev. She recites the words of a Romanian soldiers' song and a Russian ghetto song about buying cigarettes, saying she remembers no Yiddish songs.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Leibelman says she spoke Yiddish with her husband, whom she married after the war; he had learned Russian only after the war. She and the interviewers discuss Jews in Soroca (?) and Rascov, then she tells a story about a Jew sending greetings to a wealthy man. They also discuss the Ribnitzer rebbe (Chaim Zanvl) and his immersion in the mikveh, and Jews in Saldinesht (?). Asked about youth activities in Rezina, she mentions the Tarbut meetings, with hidden communist booklets. She says she read Sholem Aleichem and Mendele in Yiddish before the war.
15:26
From the machine transcript
Leibelman describes the Bershad camp, where people lay like sheep and the dead were carted away, and the Bershad memorial. After liberation she walked to Rîbnița in April, barefoot. The army would not let them cross toward Rezina, and in a village they were given food and found a house empty for years. She then answers Lemster's and Kerler's questions about dybbuk, golem and a legend of the dreamers' boards, about speaking like a Litvak, and about dialect differences.
34:31
From the machine transcript
Kleyman talks about Jewish life in her childhood village. About forty Jewish families lived among some four hundred people; services were held in the house of her aunt (Khantse), where Jews from Belts and Chisinau sometimes came. She describes her mother lighting Sabbath candles, her limited Jewish schooling, speaking Yiddish with Jewish children and Moldovan with Christians. She tells of a Jewish mother and a Ukrainian father whose children did not learn Yiddish. She also tells of a trip to the rebbe in Chernivtsi at Sukkot and a conversation with Christians about guilt for the death of Jesus.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what village Jews did for a living. Kleyman says there were few craftsmen, only some tailors, and that many Jews worked the land and threshed alongside others. She mentions her family's poverty and her father's aunt, who left many daughters. Kerler then asks terms for a peasant, a tsadik and a rabbi, and Kleyman discusses how Yiddish differed between Latvian, Ukrainian and Bessarabian Jews.
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
55:02
From the machine transcript
Akkerman mentions that her son's children live in Israel. Kerler asks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, Jews who converted, and a prewar Yiddish newspaper; she recalls a newspaper issued in Edineț. She also answers about the cinema, Hasidim, her stepmother's husband being a rabbi, and how her mother made gefilte fish, with sugar.
42:34
From the machine transcript
Mundrian answers questions about idioms and terms, and talks about religious life: her uncle going to synagogue in Kishinev, going to rebbes for blessings, cheder, slaughter of fowl before the holidays, and Passover dishes such as latkes, kugel, and potato and matzo meal dishes. She describes how a child's eye trouble was treated with spells and a village healer, and a doctor visit with a relative. Lemster also asks about sayings (a good place, praying on behalf of others, a bright paradise, not to be spoken of, rules about night-time knocking).
59:28
From the machine transcript
Mundrian talks about her grandmother's life after the war. The grandmother was reluctant to speak of her hardships, but in her last years was respected and lived with Mundrian's family. Lemster asks about the grandparents' wedding, which took place in Susleny with a chuppah. The passage ends with Mundrian giving a term for carrying the bride's dress, which Lemster asked about.
37:13
From the machine transcript
Kigel talks about a Hasidic rebbe from Ribnitsa (Rîbnița) who was visited by Jews and non-Jews, who bathed in winter and later traveled abroad. She says she knows of him from after the war, not before. She then answers questions on terminology: the difference between rov and rebbe, plurals, and the evil eye and its remedies.
40:54
From the machine transcript
Kigel briefly mentions a Jewish wedding, which had a chuppah but no music. Kerler asks about food terms and baked goods: sweet stew, plum compote, fruit, honey cake, strudel and pastries filled with raisins and almonds. Kigel starts a lullaby about raisins and almonds.
44:35
From the machine transcript
Kigel sings part of a lullaby, noting that she does not remember all of it. She talks about drinking vodka on Sabbath mornings before the war without getting drunk. Kerler asks about toasting songs and about meanings of words such as a stubborn person or a fool.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Before the formal interview, Grinshpun tells anecdotes from her work as a teacher and from her life in Moldova. They involve Moldovan and Romanian speech, how people took her for a Jew, and an examiner who sent her to the synagogue; the talk partly switches to Russian. Kerler closes the passage by stating the date and place and introducing her.
4:42
From the machine transcript
Grinshpun says her parents spoke Yiddish at home and that her son, who is married and lives in Russia, does not know it. She tells of a trip to Romania in the 1930s (?) and an awkward visit to a monastery, where she kept silent about being Jewish. She worked for 42 years as a teacher of Romanian and some French, and says her father was an optimist.
14:23
From the machine transcript
Grinshpun says that after the war her father worked as a village accountant for four years in Kobylna, then in a district town, and later near Chișinău. He learned Russian during the war and also knew Hebrew. She then discusses her grandmothers, including a stepgrandmother, and briefly switches to English with Kerler.
28:27
From the machine transcript
Grinshpun speaks about her husband, who kept animals, especially rabbits, and sold them, and about their son who moved to Moscow. The son now works as an engineer in Korolev and sings in a restaurant. She says her husband spoke Yiddish but did not sing in it, and that she speaks it with difficulty. The talk turns to emigration and her relatives abroad.
10:28
From the machine transcript
Sharhorodskij recalls studying at the Rîbniţa Yiddish school, which he describes as a ten-class school. He names teachers (Markus for Yiddish literature, Garber for mathematics and physics, Khane for chemistry and Russian, and Kardonskij, a German teacher). He says Kardonskij warned the pupils that German would be of use if they ever met Germans.
23:01
From the machine transcript
Sharhorodskij talks about a neighbor who was a German prisoner of war in the First World War and did not expect the Germans to kill Jews, and about those who evacuated. Kerler asks what he learned in Ukrainian and German classes; he names Ukrainian writers (Shevchenko, Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, Marko Vovchok) and Yiddish writers (Sholem Aleichem, Peretz, Bergelson, Pfeffer), recalling the lives of Sholem Aleichem and Mendele.
41:27
From the machine transcript
Sharhorodskij says he studied seven classes at the Yiddish school, which was closed in 1936–37 because few Jews were sending their children, and became a Russian school. He talks about the teachers' retraining, the fate of the literature teacher Markus, who he says went to the war and did not return, and the Jewish history lessons (Egypt, Mesopotamia). He also recalls how holidays were described in class.
9:15
From the machine transcript
Sharhorodskij answers questions about the meaning of words such as dibbuk and golem, with Russian glosses, and about other terms. Lemster then asks about children's games at the Yiddish school. He recalls reading books and playing with nuts, and mentions buttons as in Mendele's writing.
3:32
From the machine transcript
Kotliar recalls going at age seven to a Yiddish school for four classes. It was then closed and she moved to a Russian school, where it was hard at first because she had no Russian. She recalls a teacher who read to the class against religion, the school subjects, and that everything in the Yiddish school was taught in Yiddish. She says she remembers little from before the war.
9:11
From the machine transcript
Kotliar describes her childhood: games taught by her father, Yiddish at home and Moldovan between the parents when they did not want the children to understand. She talks about her father's love of dancing and her parents' origin in Raşcov(?), and about a relative in a large family there who was a butcher(?). Lemster returns to school games, and she mentions singing, her nickname, and her father's work with horses.
20:57
From the machine transcript
Kotliar speaks about her mother-in-law's encounter with the Rîbniţa rebbe, and about the rebbe's winter bathing in Rezina(?), his work as a ritual slaughterer and his help to the poor. Lemster then asks about Moldovan words her parents used and she gives a few. Kerler encourages her, and Lemster notes the words he records.
51:30
From the machine transcript
Kotliar answers Lemster's and Kerler's questions about folk beliefs and healing. She talks about healers who used spells, visits to them by her younger sister, and a bonesetter. They also ask about terms for a dybbuk, a golem, a holy place and a Christian cemetery.
54:40
From the machine transcript
Kotliar talks about her son, with whom she speaks Yiddish at home, and says there is no one left to speak Yiddish with. Kerler asks about songs, and she recalls that her father, not her mother, sang. They return to the rebbe and his charity, and she speaks about her childhood, being the eldest and always working, her father's work as a driver with horses, and a brother's illness.
24:44
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia and the interviewers discuss challah and bread baking, including the custom of throwing a piece of dough into the oven and baking at home. She says she knew no Hebrew blessings and that her mother, who was unlettered, kept the traditional women's observances. She then describes how her mother koshered meat, with a braided basket, soaking and salting. Kerler asks what was said at salting and about the evil eye.
27:27
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia describes how an older Jewish woman in the village cured the evil eye, with coals from the oven and onion peel, and how her husband did something with the onion peel. The interviewers say where they were born (Moscow; Edineţ in Bessarabia) and ask the word for cemetery in Yiddish, Romanian and Russian. She describes her grandfather's grave and says her mother, as a kohenet, did not go to the cemetery. She worries that nobody remembers anything any more.
58:18
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia describes how Hanukkah was observed in the village, with a small cut piece of wick or rag lit in oil because there were no candles. Kerler then asks for the Yiddish word for Christmas, which she does not know; the interviewers continue to the next questions.
1:00:24
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia answers questions about the meaning of terms such as dibbuk and golem. She gives the Russian equivalents and the sense of a fool or simpleton. The passage ends with her offering to show the interviewers her house.
19:38
From the machine transcript
Magetman answers questions about the meanings of dybbuk, golem and related terms, saying a golem is a bad non-Jew who did not help Jews during the war. She then recites the verbal charm she used against the evil eye for her grandchildren, with spitting three times, and describes a local woman healer, Brokhe the sprekhern(?).
26:43
From the machine transcript
Asked about travel to a distant tsadik, Magetman names a local holy man, Moyshe Papovtsan (spelling unclear), a ritual slaughterer who was still living in Soroca after the war. She explains the terms rebbe and rov and the word litvak, which she takes to mean a left-handed person, and does not know the word epikoyres. She declines to sing.
18:37
From the machine transcript
Plotnik answers Katz's questions about the meaning of a few Yiddish words, including dybbuk and golem. She describes how she was treated against the evil eye: her mother took her to Jewish and non-Jewish healers, an old Christian woman and a Jewish woman called Malke, who used spoken charms and a knife. She also describes pouring wax for fright. Lemster asks whether she remembers more, and she says she does not bless properly.
18:46
From the machine transcript
Rolshut recalls speaking only Yiddish as a child at home, then learning Romanian at school, and Russian from her parents. She attended a Romanian lyceum, finishing in 1936. Her mother died in 1927 and her father in 1928, and she was raised by other people. She married in 1945 her husband Eynekh Rolshut, a doctor who served in the war; her son was born in Germany and her daughter in Soroca.
25:29
From the machine transcript
Rolshut speaks of prewar rabbis in Soroca, including Rabbi Kalker, shot in the woods at the war's start at about ninety years old. She learned to write and read Yiddish from an old woman tutor hired by her parents and read Sholem Aleichem, but has largely forgotten it. She spoke Yiddish with her husband and his family, but now speaks Russian with her children and has almost nobody to speak Yiddish with.
39:33
From the machine transcript
Rolshut answers questions on cultural terminology: dybbuk (which she knows from seeing the play), golem, local place, and wishes for the dead. She then talks about prewar Passover at home, with separate Passover dishes, kept in the attic. As a child she asked the four questions beside her father, found the afikoman, and opened the door for Elijah. She also describes her mother lighting Sabbath candles and the Yom Kippur eve table.
1:52
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster explain the Russian-to-Yiddish translation task, and Lemster asks if she remembers poems and whether she had a friend. Rolshut describes prewar leisure in Soroca: walks, the park, cafés, the cinema, Yiddish and Russian theater and visiting concerts. Lemster asks about the phrase "a good Jew" and a tsadik; she says there were none in Soroca and defines a tsadik as a good man who gives blessings. She mentions visits to Chișinău and Bucharest with acquaintances.
40:54
From the machine transcript
Asked by Lemster how she lives today, Rolshut says she has a pension, including a German pension. Lemster then asks about Yiddish curses and blessings, and she repeats a few formulas she does not know well. Lemster thanks her and closes the interview.
MDV 205Meyer Khaimovich Furman; Tsipora Yankelevna Furman; Dina (Dine, Donye, Dosye, Dintse, Disele) Abramovna MirenburgBălți, Soroca, 2005
42:15
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg describes her family. Her father, from Sguritzy as were his father and grandfather, traded in grain and the family owned about six hectares of field. Her mother had two names and kept a small shop. She says three cousins live in Israel, and that people in the family speak a mixture of languages rather than Yiddish. She recalls her two grandmothers, Rokhl and Etl, and how Rokhl's will left her a pair of gold earrings. She later bought similar earrings and gave them to a grandchild as a keepsake.
25:45
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg describes religious life in Sguritzy: sending questions to the rabbi about whether meat was kosher, and trips to the Ştefăneşti rebbe (Shtefaneshter rebbe), about which she knows little. She answers questions about terms for a holy man and a holy place and about prayer at graves. She also answers questions about drinking, the blessing 'azgile'(?) and folk remedies for the evil eye.
31:01
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg answers questions on the meanings of 'dibbuk' and 'golem', then at Kerler's request tells of the war. Following the German and Romanian entry into Sguritzy on 22 June 1941 (as she gives it), she describes relatives arriving, soldiers shooting into the house and her family fleeing, her search with an old woman for her family among dead townspeople, and being reunited with her parents. She recounts the forced march to the Rubleniţa woods, then the Cosăuţi woods, with little food from villagers and men taken for labor; then Yampil, where a German soldier brought food. After returning home they were crowded into a Soroca synagogue, held at Vertiujeni for two months, and told they would go to Rîbniţa but were returned.
24:42
From the machine transcript
Plotnik sings a Yiddish song about the difficulty of gathering documents. Asked about prewar culture, she says a Yiddish theater troupe visited Soroca and the young people walked there from Dumbraveni. She recalls and sings fragments of a song from a stage production about burning, love and sacrifice; Kerler and Lemster discuss its words with her.
53:03
From the machine transcript
She answers questions about the meaning of expressions such as a good Jew and a Hebrew term. She then describes the private tutor who taught her at home, with notebooks and arithmetic. She recalls the postwar Russian-language touring troupe of Dina Zlatiyaner, which performed songs in Russian and Moldovan. Kerler asks about conversion to Judaism.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about folk protection against the evil eye. She recalls women who whispered charms to avert it, and a question about quenching coals. She recalls that people used to consult a rebbe or a 'good Jew'. She tells her mother's story of her widowed grandmother going to such a rebbe with a neighbour. The rebbe may be the one of Rybnitsa (?), and Kerler asks about the word for a rented room.
7:16
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about the difference between a rabbi (rov) and a rebbe or 'good Jew', and about the expression for being buried in a good place. She recalls Khayim Kishkar (?), the local maker of kosher sausage, and gives the Russian term for jellied meat. She then describes customs around a boy's birth: amulets hung up, reading the Shema, the brit on the eighth day, and the lack of a ceremony for girls beyond naming her.
13:05
From the machine transcript
Describes prewar Jewish wedding customs as she remembers them from childhood: the breaking of a plate, the huppah, and a ritual of a 'malekhs breytl' (angel's board, ?) and a wedding game with bread after the huppah. Kerler asks about the badkhn, the wedding dances and her mother's songs. She says she cannot recall songs or dances, because of the war years.
36:50
From the machine transcript
Nusbrokh says he does not remember attending Jewish weddings; after the war weddings were mixed. When asked about wedding songs he names "Mayn shtetele Belz". Lemster then asks about Jewish dishes (gefilte fish, Sabbath foods, tsimes, potatoes) and Nusbrokh talks about a landlord, Shloyme Roytman (?), and his buyers.
42:16
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks Nusbrokh about folk terms: dybbuk, golem, what was said at a grave, the Yiddish word for cemetery, and the idea of praying for the living at a grave. He knows the dybbuk but not golem, and speaks of kaddish and visiting the cemetery.
49:38
From the machine transcript
Nusbrokh recalls that the family lived well while his father, a cattle dealer who traded to Romania, was alive; the father died before the war. After the army he was called to the party district office and given work in communal services, though he was not a Party member. He also mentions Jewish girls after his return and the languages spoken with his mother at home.
52:56
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks Nusbrokh whether he reads Yiddish and what Yiddish writers he read in Russian translation; he says he does not read Yiddish and does not remember which writers, including Sholem Aleichem.
5:56
From the machine transcript
Milevskaya says her Yiddish is poor and that her sister studied Yiddish in Israel. Kerler and Lemster ask who else speaks Yiddish: Teitel, Dora and Sofia Bengard, with ages of about 75 and 70, and someone in Artsyz who is about 85. She then talks about her husband's military training and tank service, and the interviewers ask about other elderly people.
14:22
From the machine transcript
Milevskaya briefly describes the family's return after the war: her grandfather was invited back to the poultry plant. Her father grew up in an orphanage and was taken in by relatives. He knew Yiddish, studied, and was a wise man whom Jews in Pervomaysk consulted. She moved to Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyy in 1970 after her husband's service in the Far East on the Chinese border, and her children finished school and university there.
19:29
From the machine transcript
Milevskaya remembers her mother's lovely singing of sad Jewish songs, which made her cry as a child, and she recalls fragments of a song. She says Yiddish is forgotten for lack of anyone to speak it with. She mentions Yiddish books received from the Hesed in Odesa.
36:16
From the machine transcript
Milevskaya talks about elderly community members, many unable to speak Yiddish, and about young people having left for America and Israel. She describes former ghetto prisoners, including Ida Lazarevna (recently buried) and a woman held in the Savran camp under Romanian rule, and Pogrebinsky's family who hid in a tree and now live in Germany. The remaining speech covers the town's population and the geography of Pervomaysk, Golta, Bohopil and Olviopol, and the beer factory is mentioned. Arrangements for a visit to Sofia Lvovna follow.
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.
13:32
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij talks about the Jewish school in Ştefăneşti, where subjects were taught in Romanian and Hebrew was also spoken, and poor children were given food and clothes. All Jewish children attended it up to the fourth grade. He recalls learning to write Yiddish, reading short Yiddish books, and one by Sholem Aleichem about an orphan. Kerler shows him the book and he recognises it.
43:42
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij says that a Yiddish theater came from Iași and that films were shown. He answers questions about cultural terminology: the Ştefăneşti rebbe's followers, a Litvak (a Jew from Latvia), and a tsadik. Kerler then asks the Yiddish word for tomatoes and for peppers, and Dunaevskij gives terms for red and blue vegetables.
48:38
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij answers questions on folk beliefs: tying a red string or ribbon on a child against the evil eye, and the practice of whispering charms to remove it, though he does not know the words. He is also asked about pouring wax, quenching coals, a dybbuk (a possessed person) and the golem.
59:07
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij says his daughter knows some Yiddish from home, as does his son. He gives their birth years, apparently 1945 or 1948 for the daughter and 1952 for the son, although the transcript is unclear.
12:49
From the machine transcript
Klichinskaia says the family was evacuated to the Stalingrad region, where she and her mother worked in a hospital. She was 15 when the war began. At home they spoke Yiddish, but in evacuation they no longer did, and her father put on tefillin out of sight. She mentions her sister Adl, who had an operation.
21:09
From the machine transcript
Klichinskaia says she attended a Romanian school for four years. Her brothers went to the talmud torah while the girls did not, and her father spoke Yiddish at home. She and Kerler then discuss the meaning of a line of the song she has just sung, which she describes as a humorous song.
36:29
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what the children played when she was a child. She and Kerler talk about blind man's buff and a game with kremenis (?). She does not remember what language they played in. Kerler asks for another song from those years.
50:18
From the machine transcript
Klichinskaia mentions her mother's practice of curing the evil eye with spoken formulas, and describes breaking an egg into a glass of water. She tells how the eyes seen in the water were interpreted, and Kerler asks for the Yiddish word for "such".
55:36
From the machine transcript
Klichinskaia talks about her health, including eye operations, and says that she has few people to speak Yiddish with. Her sister lived in Israel for three years and returned, and she mentions her sister's operation. She has a son, who understands Yiddish but does not speak it. Kerler mentions his mother's army service and her work in a sanatorium.
8:03
From the machine transcript
Goldshteyn says there was no rabbi in the village, only in Bălți; there he and his brother obtained tefillin at thirteen, learned the blessings, and had a bar mitzvah with a tallis and kippah. Lemster then asks about the term 'a gutter yid'. Both informants explain it as an honest man who helps the poor and also as a rebbe visited by Hasidim. The talk turns to terms such as 'Litvak', 'Galitsianer' and 'Bessarabian Jew'.
28:17
From the machine transcript
Goldshteyn and Luminskaia answer questions on terms for a person: dybbuk, golem, a blessing at the cemetery and a curse (a wish that evil be kept away). They have not heard of the golem, and recall the other terms with difficulty. The passage ends with a question on whether other forms of the formula were used.
10:52
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about Grinberg's childhood. She recalls illness as a child and that she attended a Moldovan school, where she spoke Moldovan and had no one to speak Yiddish with. Asked how she lived with her parents and what she played with friends, she answers only briefly, saying she had enough to eat, and she does not say what she played.
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.
44:40
From the machine transcript
Butorski speaks of his present life, living alone and with two sons abroad. Lemster asks about the meaning of several Yiddish terms, such as dybbuk, golem, 'a good Jew', Litvak and Polish Jews. Butorski mentions his father's grave and relatives in Poland and America. He also says he now speaks Yiddish at home and in a small group of ten people, and that he spoke only Yiddish with his family earlier.
35:39
From the machine transcript
Elizaveta describes Chimishliye as a small town with a synagogue, where people spoke Yiddish and Moldovan and non-Jewish servants of Jews learned Yiddish. She says she remembers little from before the war, only that she learned sewing at sixteen. After the war she worked as a crane operator in Russia in severe frost and later returned to sewing.
46:35
From the machine transcript
Elizaveta says her sisters and brothers are all dead, some having gone to Israel, and that her father and two brothers were killed in the war. She talks about her mother Gitl, who died young, and the grandmothers she cannot name. She says the family speaks Yiddish, Moldovan and Russian, and Lemster asks about Sabbath candles.
54:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster put terminology questions to the couple: a cemetery, a holy place, a dybbuk and a golem. Elizaveta says she no longer remembers much Yiddish. Moisei explains the term 'a good Jew' for a rebbe and the custom of travelling to a rebbe, and says there were enough rabbis in Chişinău.
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.
16:36
From the machine transcript
Meir says his paternal grandparents lived in Botoșani and his maternal ones in Sulița (?), where they kept a cow and made kosher dairy products only for themselves. He recalls Passover customs: extra dishes, cleaning, keeping Passover things in the attic, and his father leading the seder with the four questions. He also describes Sabbath coals on the stove and fasting on Tisha b'Av and Yom Kippur. At home they spoke Yiddish and Romanian.
48:22
From the machine transcript
Meir describes folk remedies, such as cooked onions and a leaf, and the practice of pouring coals into water against the evil eye. Lemster asks about the meaning of the terms dybbuk and golem and about the angel of death, and Meir gives his explanations, including the Gomel blessing. At a death, he says, the Mishnah was studied.
15:29
From the machine transcript
David describes Purim customs in his childhood home, especially the Purim treats his mother made and sent with him to relatives, and discusses the terms for them (shalakhmones, Purim sweets) with Kerler. He recalls bringing Friday food through snow and past dogs to his grandparents for Sabbath. He also mentions Hanukkah money for children and that Yiddish is now less spoken than Romanian.
21:09
From the machine transcript
David answers Kerler's questions about Jewish weddings after the war, klezmer musicians who knew Jewish pieces, and the intellectual level of the Jewish musicians. Lemster asks for Yiddish words for colours and for vodka. David says Jews drank a little wine or brandy with fish, that vodka came from Russians, and that he himself does not drink or smoke.
23:48
From the machine transcript
David describes healing the evil eye with coals and a bowl, as his paternal grandmother did. Kerler asks about the meaning of dybbuk, golem and related words. David tells of a sick man he tried to bring to hospital and of the possible old-age home in Bucharest. He also talks about his life today, his friends and relatives in Israel and his visit there at 83, and says he is tired after the overnight train from Debrecen.
33:59
From the machine transcript
Finkel answers questions about the meaning of terms such as dybbuk, which she explains as someone cursed, and goylem, which she explains as crazy. She says briefly that she lived in Botoșani after coming there in the 1950s and worked at home. She also describes a folk cure of dropping coals into water against the evil eye, but cannot recall the words said.
36:30
From the machine transcript
Finkel says Sulita had a Jewish bath and perhaps a mikveh and was near a river or pond with fish. The interviewers ask for the Yiddish words for the water and the stream, and whether her father fished. They then ask where the Jews of Sulita went afterwards.
5:51
From the machine transcript
Brief recalls prewar Chernivtsi, with many Jews, a great rabbi and a large synagogue. He says he spoke Yiddish, German and Russian. His father served in the Russian army in the First World War and was a barber; his grandfathers were a stove-maker and a kvitler (?). Kerler and Lemster also ask about his grandmother's name and trade.
31:37
From the machine transcript
Brief says he married in Iași in 1953 and describes a modest wedding with a chuppah and a broken glass. He recalls being engaged at nineteen to a girl from Tecuci, which ended because she wanted to emigrate and he did not. He mentions cousins abroad, the difficulty of tracing a cousin, and says his daughter and wife know little Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opens with a remark that people from Russia, here and Canada all speak Yiddish. Kerler and Lemster then try to get Brief to recall the poet Shvartskop (Shvartskov) from Mohyliv, and the talk drifts to actors and artists. Brief says he has forgotten much.
3:14
From the machine transcript
Brief says his parents spoke Yiddish at home and describes the Yiddish books in the house. His father read a Romanian newspaper all day. Brief discusses rabbis and rebbes and the difference between a rav and a rebbe, mentions a visiting rebbe, and describes a dish made of white flour and potatoes.
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.
8:46
From the machine transcript
The speaker says he learned Yiddish at home. He learned to read Torah and to pray at the talmud-torah in Botoșani, with a teacher who knew the whole Torah and the cantillation. He describes this teacher's skill in Hebrew reading and in Rashi, and says he himself knows only a little. Kerler and Lemster ask who the teachers were and what he studied.
9:21
From the machine transcript
Informal chat with the team about languages, Romanian and Yiddish, and who came with the group. They ask the speaker's family name.
19:04
From the machine transcript
Short footage and chat, with a remark on how Yiddish speakers refer to the town's Jews and to non-Jews so that outsiders do not understand, followed by thanks.
19:47
From the machine transcript
Informal chat with a man, probably Solomon Meir, about his age, Russian at school and Romanian and about relatives in Israel and Canada. The team talks about setting up further interviews.
55:46
From the machine transcript
Cohn says the community called a rabbi from Sighet after the old rabbi, Reb Moshele, died. He then answers terminology questions on rabbi and rebbe and on visits to a tsadik, and on Jews from Galicia and Lithuania.
59:32
From the machine transcript
Cohn answers questions on the taste of his mother's gefilte fish, on schnapps, drinking on the Sabbath, kiddush and Sabbath meetings. He is asked the word for a dybbuk.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Cohn answers questions about the meaning of Yiddish and Romanian words. These include dybbuk, golem (including the phrase about sitting like a golem) and terms for a Jewish cemetery versus a non-Jewish burial ground or field. Kerler also asks how a field or cemetery is called in Romanian.
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.
17:52
From the machine transcript
Cohn recalls prewar lectures in Suliţa, where Zionist speakers came to talk, among them Jabotinsky, who came from Chernivtsi (80 km away) and spoke in Polish-style Yiddish. Another speaker, a Mr. Zekler (?), spoke in Romanian Yiddish about going to the Land of Israel. Many people emigrated. There was a hakhshara and Cohn was a halutz, and he recognises a pioneer song.
MDV 232Iosif David; Sami (Shmiel) Kurtsberg; Iosif Kunovich BurgȘofrîncani, Botoșani, Chernivtsi, Siret, 2006
12:45
From the machine transcript
A short exchange about the subject taught: history, in Romanian and English, and the American town of Bloomington. A man then says in Russian that he once spoke Russian better than Romanian, and Lemster responds. The footage cut outside mentioned in the catalogue is not apparent from the speech.
21:35
From the machine transcript
Burg talks about his recent publications: eight books have already appeared in Germany and a book in Italy, in Florence. He describes the previous day's presentation of two new books in Chernivtsi, attended by local notables, the governor's representatives, the mayor and the Romanian consul general. Speeches were in Ukrainian, Russian, German, Romanian and Yiddish, with Shaye Kleiman a rare Yiddish speaker present. A guest from the Austrian national library's literature archive also visited. Burg was carried down the stairs and was exhausted and ill afterwards.
48:56
From the machine transcript
Burg considers the word parshe/parshes, which Kerler asked about. He suggests a link to the Torah portions of the Chumash and perhaps to leaves, but is unsure. He and Kerler then conclude the interview with thanks and farewells.
33:41
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld describes playing dreydl at Hanukkah and recites a children's parody of the letters on the dreydl. Lemster asks about holiday foods, such as baked goods and potato latkes, and Grunfeld gives local terms and explains that Transylvania is called Zimbergn (Siebenbürgen). He begins to speak about Shavuot.
49:04
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld describes Sabbath eve in his grandparents' home, with a grandfather reminding his wife to light the candles, the fish from the local river, gefilte fish, soup and meat with noodles. He recalls the family singing Sabbath songs at the table and kugel on Sabbath day, and says Yiddish was spoken there although he did not study it in school. He also speaks of Yiddish speakers he met in Israel (?).
55:07
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld names the occupations of the Jews in Zău: timber merchants, a butcher shop, a tailor and a shoemaker, and none in hard manual labor. Lemster asks the term for peasants, and the term for mother tongue. He says Yiddish was his mother tongue until the age of ten and he also knows Romanian and Hungarian, but now speaks only those at home.
9:54
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld talks about learning to read Yiddish at home as a child, including the Pentateuch, and about Jewish cultural circles and conferences. Writers named include Isaac Bashevis Singer and Itzik Feffer (?), along with Romanian and European authors. He says there was no Jewish library but families kept religious books, and that Jewish schooling was in Romanian. A discussion of the golem, dybbuk and the word 'golem' follows.
15:04
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld says his mother is buried in Cluj and his grandmother in Turda; he visits the grave, says a short Hebrew prayer from a special prayer book and some Psalms, and his sister asks her mother in Yiddish to intercede for them. Lemster then asks about folk customs: the evil eye (ayin hara), pouring coals into water, and a childhood remedy. Grunfeld says Yiddish is hardly spoken in Cluj today, even at the Jewish community, and recalls visiting his sister in Haifa, then Lemster asks for sayings and anecdotes.
14:44
From the machine transcript
Returning to the village, Kerler asks about the melamed; Hershkovich says young men came from elsewhere for a term and the cheder was a small room in a courtyard. He confirms that only Yiddish was spoken at home, though his parents also knew Romanian and Hungarian, which were used with non-Jewish neighbours.
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.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich answers questions about cultural terminology: words for the cemetery, the euphemism for the evil eye, the difference between rav and rebbe, and the plural forms of these words. He says his father travelled to the Satmar rebbe (Teitelbaum family). His sister brought him a blessed coin from the rebbe, which he still keeps. They also discuss the verb for holding the Passover seder.
17:55
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich answers questions about food terms and customs. These include the loaf called dalek, meat dishes, cholent with kishke, and the Sabbath fish, with imitation fish (made of meat) as an alternative. He names the word for brandy and the kinds of fruit brandy.
21:20
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich speaks about the evil eye, the practice of removing it with water and coals, and the words connected with it. He knows the word dibbuk but does not use it. He then discusses the word golem and recites a Hebrew saying about seven things of the wise and the golem, tracing it to Pirkei Avot. Kerler closes by asking about the war years.
31:51
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich shows photographs of his family, including a grandson's bar mitzvah in Israel, a brother-in-law buried in Israel and his sister's grave in Cluj. Kerler asks about Jewish weddings and famous cantors visiting Dej. Hershkovich names some cantors, including Rosenblatt. The conversation turns to Kerler's own background, his documentation of Yiddish, and Litvaks and the Vilna Gaon.
37:41
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich answers a question about the term ilui (a child prodigy), then speaks about the head of his former yeshiva. He recalls that the rabbi's brother, a learned rav, left the Dej ghetto for Romania with ten children, while the rabbi himself refused to leave. Kerler then begins greetings questions from the questionnaire.
14:58
From the machine transcript
The new interviewee talks about languages in his youth. Jewish friends knew Yiddish, while Romanian and Hungarian were spoken with non-Jews and in town. He describes a village of about twenty Jewish families (twenty 'taleisim') with a melamed, mikveh and synagogue, between Cluj and Târgu Mureș. He recalls dressing as a peasant for Purim and visiting Jewish families, and Purim plays such as the Sale of Joseph and Esther.
1:52
From the machine transcript
Kraus gives his birth in October 1923 in Zorein, a village some sixty kilometres from Bistrița (?), and says he studied in Cîmpia Turzii in 1939/40. His father Zelik was also born in Zorein and was deported; he worked the land and kept horses. His mother Golda, a seamstress, was born in nearby Feldioara. He names his grandfathers and siblings: three brothers and four sisters, with one brother killed in a labor battalion. He says that Yiddish was spoken at home and that the village had a minyan.
36:02
From the machine transcript
Kraus recounts the war years: forced labor in Transnistria and Ukraine in places including Tiraspol, Chernivtsi, Bălți, Bukovina and Tighina, and the end of the war in Bălți (?). He returned alone to Cluj in 1945 after his parents, brothers and sisters had been deported. Kerler then asks whether elderly Yiddish-speaking Jewish women live in the city, and Kraus says an elderly woman from Satu Mare lives there but does not speak Yiddish, since in Transylvania people spoke Hungarian and German.
39:41
From the machine transcript
Answering Lemster's and Kerler's questions about terminology, Kraus says he knows the word golem, and describes the Yom Kippur custom of shlogn kapores, with a rooster for men and a hen for women. He speaks about Yiddish texts and letters, the term "a gut ort" for a cemetery, and the word for the cemetery used by the community. He says that Romanian and Hungarian are spoken in the community today.
43:56
From the machine transcript
Kraus says that Yiddish theater in Bucharest is rare today, and mentions a rabbi from France who visited. He says that before the war there were about seventeen thousand Jews in Cluj, with a number of synagogues and associations, and that Christians there spoke Yiddish. He says he first saw Hasidim at the yeshiva in Cîmpia Turzii. Kerler and Kraus then discuss the word shofer/sofer (the scribe).
50:08
From the machine transcript
Kraus describes the postwar years: most young people left for kibbutz or Israel, he spent a year in a kibbutz, and he stayed in Romania. His sister lives in Israel. He married in 1955 and has two daughters, an engineer and a doctor. He says his wife speaks Yiddish only weakly. He then discusses what is Yiddish and what is German, calling Yiddish a jargon, and Hebrew.
36:32
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster thank the two men for sharing their Yiddish, and the men say how much they value hearing it. Lemster then asks for sayings; they give drinking toasts and wishes for the sick, including one about a cloudburst. They mention Bessarabian Jews whom the second man knew from the army or work, and he compares words such as pocket (kesene and tash). A woman in the town who also knows Yiddish is mentioned, and the second man begins to recall a Havdalah song learned from Bessarabians.
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.
43:44
From the machine transcript
Talk of a traditional Jewish wedding held in the town a few years earlier, involving a woman with ties to America and a required chuppah. This is followed by an exchange about the word for pouring (anshitn) a little wine and an offer of food. Kerler and the men then discuss a woman from Satu Mare (Satmar), about eighty, who speaks good Yiddish but not English, and the second man gives his business address and telephone. The details of the wedding story are unclear.
37:28
From the machine transcript
Freundlich says Yiddish was spoken at home in her childhood, and especially on Sabbath, while her husband's family mixed languages. She shows press clippings and pictures of her son, who has travelled to many countries. She says her son and daughter emigrated, to Canada in 1985, and that her daughter, a piano teacher, spent two years in Israel.
13:00
From the machine transcript
Freundlich speaks about her sister's print shop and bookstore, where books were printed in Gothic type and in Hebrew letters for prayer books. She recalls reading books from the shop, including Cronin's. She also mentions a book by Lea Lieberman about the second generation, and Kerler asks about languages she learned.
45:26
From the machine transcript
A woman sings a humorous Yiddish song about making a living, and Kerler asks Freundlich to repeat the lyrics so that he can understand the words. She then sings the wedding badkhn's song again, more slowly.
14:32
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich answers Kerler's questions about his childhood in Bogata: Yiddish at home, Romanian with outsiders, and Hungarian learned in Dej and later in the army. He describes Jews in Dej, mostly religious businessmen, and Sabbath observance. He then speaks of the Hasidic family of the yeshiva head, who were all rabbis, and says he has lost much of his memory.
19:02
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich describes the strict daily schedule of the yeshiva and of a young child's learning, with no free time, and then recalls children's games in Bogata, such as a homemade ball of rags. Kerler asks about the word for it and about the word for money, then begins a question on how holidays were celebrated.
33:03
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler, Hershkovich describes Jewish streets and quarters in Dej, the languages spoken there, and the number of synagogues, and mentions the burial place of his rabbi's father. He also talks about whether Purim plays were performed at other times, who performed them, and Jews who learned a trade and spoke Yiddish.
54:54
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Hershkovich about folk stories (stories of a character whose name is unclear in the transcript), schnapps, the evil eye cure with coals and bread, a dybbuk, and the golem and its plural. Hershkovich also gives words for church and for a non-Jewish cemetery. Part of the passage is about speaking Yiddish and Hungarian.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich answers questions about cultural terminology. He and Kerler discuss derogatory words for a non-Jewish child and for a non-Jew, and a Jew who behaves like a non-Jew. Kerler asks about the night before a circumcision and how a baby girl was named, which Hershkovich says happened in the synagogue with the father. Kerler then asks what Hershkovich would like remembered about the region.
45:22
From the machine transcript
Freundlich says a governess taught the daughters at home, while the sons went to cheder, and that she did not read Yiddish books but read Bashevis and Holocaust literature in Hungarian. She learned German at school and mentions her sister Hinde's husband Klein, who ran a bookshop and printing press in Kisvárda (?) that printed Hebrew, Gothic and Latin letters.
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.
17:04
From the machine transcript
Freundlich speaks about life today and Hungarian radio, saying she can no longer sing. She then recalls her nursemaid from Maramureș, a Ruthenian-speaking woman who taught her Yiddish songs and refused to wear shoes on Shabbat. She also talks about wedding customs and a choir led by her daughter, and says that nowadays only Purim songs are sung.
35:01
From the machine transcript
Freundlich answers Kerler's terminology questions on what 'a good Jew' means, and on words for a non-Jewish cemetery, a church and Christmas. She says her maternal grandfather went to the Belz rabbi, her father was observant without Hasidic dress, and he ran a grocery and ironware shop that was closed on Sabbath and holidays. At the end she talks about Jewish studies at the university.
39:30
From the machine transcript
Freundlich talks about Jewish studies students at the university today and the languages taught there. She says she went to a Hungarian school and learned Romanian later, when her children began school, and that Hungarian is her better language. She recalls the Hungarian book days in July and the bookshop of her sister, with authors signing autographs.
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.
49:49
From the machine transcript
Freundlich answers Kerler's question about a Dybbuk play performed recently in Cluj. Kerler asks the meaning of 'golem' and of 'baal shem', and she answers briefly. She mentions a professor, Abraham Braham (?), who wrote a book on the Holocaust in Hungarian and came to Cluj.
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.
8:39
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about terms such as converts to and from Judaism, and Freundlich answers about whether Satmar had converts and about apostates. Much of the second half is Hungarian talk among the others.
19:41
From the machine transcript
Freundlich and others discuss the few remaining Jews and their lack of interest in Yiddish or Jewish life in Cluj, Bistrița, Târgu Mureș, Timișoara, Oradea, Satu Mare and Sighet, with much of it in Hungarian. Kerler asks about community presidents and places to visit. There is also a story of a wedding and a Passover seder that needed thirty people, a Yiddish term asked by Kerler, and a story about declaring Yiddish as mother tongue under Ceaușescu.
32:30
From the machine transcript
Freundlich recalls the census question about mother tongue: nobody answered Yiddish, though some did later, and she could not deny being Jewish. Kerler then asks about a name, Avraham Yankl, which Freundlich says was a Wallachian nobleman. The passage ends with Hungarian talk about visitors from Indiana University.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Conversation about how many Jews in Cluj and Dej still speak Yiddish, and plans for the team's drive to Dej, Bistrița and Gura Vadului(?). A bar mitzvah attended by a visitor from America whose grandfather came from Dej is mentioned, with the synagogue there and the former Jewish population of Dej.
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.
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.
9:50
From the machine transcript
The informants continue to speak of Grin as the last Yiddish speaker in town and his attendance at High Holiday services. They comment on his well-made tombstone. A proverb is mentioned and the memorial service is touched on, but the passage is fragmentary and hard to follow.
27:02
From the machine transcript
Two speakers discuss Lithuanian Jews and Bessarabian Jews, including Jews working in Bessarabia who met bearded men and asked about a minyan. They discuss a term for these people (Lipovans?). Kerler then asks about a song one of them sang.
33:10
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld speaks about his schooling and family: born in 1920 and attended a Romanian school, while his father (born 1892 (?)) attended a Hungarian one. He describes the mixed languages of Transylvanian Jews (Yiddish, Romanian, Hungarian) and compares them with Moldavia. They discuss why it is called Siebenbürgen, with its seven fortresses.
49:32
From the machine transcript
Kraus recites a wedding blessing. They reflect on their age and the Yiddish books in the community library. Kerler then asks the meaning of sayings such as 'zog a gut vort', 'a gut ort', 'a guter yid' and 'a guter bruder'.
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.
10:07
From the machine transcript
Miller arrives and is greeted. Kerler and others discuss a term for 'mother tongue' in Yiddish, Hungarian and Romanian, and the speakers briefly arrange the seating. The passage is partly garbled.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Informal chat among the participants, with practical arrangements about taking Yiddish booklets, addresses and a telephone number. Someone mentions travelling to a town (name unclear, possibly Dornavatra (?)) where the Vizhnitz rebbe used to come. Kerler relates meeting a German-speaking Jewish woman who dismissed his questions about folk customs such as quenching coals, and the others say they knew that custom too.
26:44
From the machine transcript
Meir recalls going to cheder for two years and then studying four years at the Jewish school, followed by an eight-year apprenticeship as a dyer and cleaner. He says Romanian was spoken at his aunt's home before the war, mixed with Yiddish. At the school, Hebrew and Romanian were the languages of instruction. He recalls singing Hebrew songs there, including Hatikvah.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Chirilau talks about pensions and the hard lives of the poor today. She answers Kerler and Lemster's questions on how Yiddish speakers named Romanian towns and places, such as Rădăuți, Dorohoi, Siret, Hârlău, Botoșani, Iași and Seghet. She also mentions Hungarians and Poles in some of them. The team chats about sending photographs, a daughter who also speaks with the team, and the last Jew in Siret. The interview ends with farewells.
37:54
From the machine transcript
The talk is largely garbled and mixes Yiddish with Romanian. It covers a visiting delegation from England, a former teacher of Romanian, a banquet of teachers and the search for a telephone number. Kerler explains the project and the 800 hours recorded with older speakers about prewar life and Yiddish. Isidor's own words about his family are not clear in the transcript.
12:38
From the machine transcript
Grimberg says she was born, studied and worked in Dorohoi, and she trained as a teacher at a Romanian pedagogical school. She attended the Jewish school for the first two classes before being sent to Transnistria; no Jewish school existed after her return. She remembers a little Hebrew and has two sisters in Israel, with whom she speaks by phone.
31:32
From the machine transcript
Grimberg explains that as prayer-reader she says the tkhine for others at memorial prayers, since the others do not know how and only listen. She describes prewar Dorohoi as a Jewish town with some twenty-odd synagogues, a mikveh and a poultry slaughterhouse. Jews outnumbered non-Jews, and many non-Jews spoke some Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Grimberg discusses fish dishes: gefilte fish, how it was cooked for Friday night, and a recipe question from Lemster and Kerler. Kerler also asks about a custom of throwing something, probably burrs, at a holiday. She then answers questions about whether Yiddish is still spoken in Cluj and Satu Mare. She mentions the true tzadikim of Sighet and says that today men cook better than women.
39:44
From the machine transcript
Lipovici speaks about the war years in Dorohoi. He recalls Germans arriving and being put to work, and says Jews worked in a labor unit, about two hundred according to the transcript. Lemster asks whether he has married and Lipovici, apparently, is still a bachelor. Kerler asks what language he spoke with his siblings and he answers Yiddish and Romanian. Kerler also asks whether he prayed.
46:08
From the machine transcript
Lipovici says the sheep belonged to the family, who had four brothers working with them. Lemster asks which language he used with the sheep, Yiddish or Romanian. Lipovici says he knows some French, learned at school. He says he did not study at a Jewish school, but remembers a Jewish teacher. He repeats the story of gluing the melamed's beard in cheder and Kerler asks about the burrs thrown at Tisha b'Av. He also says he does not remember his grandparents.
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).
44:54
From the machine transcript
Hirsch recalls his cheder, with a teacher named Kaufman (?), and the Jewish school, cheder and Talmud Torah housed in a single building in Luduș. He gives the town's population as about four thousand, half Hungarian and half Romanian, with about 600 Jews and some Roma, and touches on Romanian history. He mentions the Jewish pupils' gatherings, the rabbi, and a kosher restaurant in Târgu Mureș. He names the shoykhet (Mendel Berg (?)), says there was no yeshiva, and speaks about uncles and relatives named Berkovits. He ends with the distances from Luduș to Dej, Cluj and Turda.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Hirsch discuss Jewish cemeteries and what they were called in Luduș (beys-oylem, beys-khayim, or euphemisms such as a 'good place'). They also discuss the sharp decline in the town's Jewish population and the Jewish graves left behind. Kerler then asks whether Hirsch remembers any Yiddish songs from Luduș.
18:34
From the machine transcript
Hirsch talks about his family: his religious but modern father studied at a yeshiva in Oradea. Hirsch says he worked as a translator and speaks German, Romanian and Hungarian, and learned French at the lyceum. He explains that his wife's mother tongue is Romanian, with some Hungarian. Much of the passage, partly in Hungarian, is about Hungarian history and language in Transylvania, Cluj and the Hungarian university. It closes with a question about non-Jews in Luduș who spoke Yiddish.
3:21
From the machine transcript
Hirsch and Kerler discuss gefilte fish and "false fish" (made when there was no fish), and whether the fish was sweet or salted. They discuss a Passover potato dish, sweet pastry and bundlekh, then the dishes for each weekday, including the weekly soup with meat on market day and Sabbath cholent. Many dish names are garbled.
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.
47:21
From the machine transcript
Chajim tells of playing in the military band in the army and of Passover with German soldiers and Jews, and of being locked up for several nights. He answers questions about Christian terms and sayings, and about a custom, apparently against an evil spirit (?), of placing a stone in water at night. He seems to say he was born in 1906, but this is not clear.
3:39
From the machine transcript
Chajim recalls the seder at home before the war, where his father presided and he asked the four questions, and mentions wine and bitter herbs. He tells how he shlogn kapores. Kerler and Lemster then ask whether he knows the words gramer and badkhn at weddings, and he answers uncertainly.
6:18
From the machine transcript
Chajim says that the people around him were mostly Jews but also Christians. He says he can read and speak Yiddish and used to sing Yiddish songs. He reflects on how hard it is to be a Jew, naming Kiddush, the Shema, candle-blessing and Hanukkah. The wedding is hardly addressed. Kerler then asks about life under the Communists.
14:46
From the machine transcript
Abramovich says the synagogue was built with money sent by American Jews and later repainted; as a boy he watched the painter at work and was chased away. The painter was a Romanian Jew from elsewhere. Lemster and Kerler then ask Yiddish terms such as pious Jew, honest Jew and serious Jew, and about removing the evil eye with quenched coals and water; Abramovich does not remember the details.
18:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler introduces the team to a woman, Shifra, who says she saw them in Iași the day before; they speak of passing through Hîrlău without knowing Jews lived there. Abramovich then talks about the Yiddish school with teachers brought by the community committee, and about the prewar kehile. He also went to cheder, where the rebbe's name sounds like Glik; he recalls the rebbe's strictness and mothers bringing food, and Kerler asks whether he remembers the modeh ani prayer.
21:43
From the machine transcript
Abramovich says he has children and grandchildren, one a student, who know Hebrew better than Yiddish, and that his wife is also from the town. He has been to Bucharest and Hungary. Kerler and Lemster ask whether his wife and mother blessed the candles and what they said; the exchange is partly garbled, with Shifra and a woman's voice putting in remarks. The group then looks for somewhere to sit.
26:06
From the machine transcript
Kerler greets Chajim, who says he is almost a hundred (a few months short). He sets up the interview with talk of his operation and memory, and compares prices and shopping now with long ago. Chajim says he was born in Podu Iloaiei and learns Kerler is from Israel, born in Moscow. He recalls helping a Jewish friend (Shmuel, whose parents were sent to Auschwitz) and mentions a cemetery near Bat Yam; Kerler asks the Yiddish word for cemetery, and Chajim recalls being shut in train wagons.
12:03
From the machine transcript
Chirilau talks with Kerler about the project's contact with her. A musicologist visited her last summer and wrote about her in an online journal. They discuss how to record her address, since she lives on a street with only a few houses. Kerler shows her the project description and tells her how highly he rates her Yiddish. She is also told about compensation for the project's interviews.
19:42
From the machine transcript
Chirilau says how the project found her: someone from Botoșani came to Mihăileni and asked who could speak Yiddish. She says she is 74 and finds old age hard. Her parents have died and she has a sister in Brașov. She has two children and three grandchildren: one in the French army, an engineer, and a granddaughter studying psychology in Iași. Kerler asks about a Yiddish word for joy from children, and they speak about forgetting one's mother tongue.
31:09
From the machine transcript
Grinberg describes her plan for a museum in Rădăuți about the Jews of Bukovina, gathering photographs and family items from Jews worldwide. She says the Jews deported to Transnistria took no photographs with them. She talks about her religious family, her father's prayer shawl and kittel, and her ability to blow the shofar though she cannot sing. The talk turns to the interviewers' wish to record her and to Yiddish teaching in Romania.
0:28
From the machine transcript
After the date and his name are confirmed, Finkelshteyn gives his birth date and says he never left Iași. He recalls his childhood and his large family (three sisters and six brothers, whose Jewish names he lists) and his father David, a carpenter born in Pașcani (?) who lived in Iași. His mother was also from Iași. He describes his grandfather Aharon, a stove builder who made tile stoves for wealthy households and ate only kosher food, and Kerler checks the word for the stove with him.
7:44
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn describes Sabbath preparations and kosher meat in the family: the Jewish butchers, how his mother salted meat, and the foods she cooked for Sabbath, especially stuffed pike. Kerler elicits terms such as the word for a butcher, for the Danube and for a large river or sea, and the Romanian words for these.
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.
14:53
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn answers Kerler's questions about Yiddish words. He explains words for an ignoramus and a fool, and how a well and a pump with a handle worked. Most of the passage is carpentry and joinery terminology from his trade: planes, saws, the workbench, workshop, tools and a wooden mallet. He notes that many of these words come from German.
19:23
From the machine transcript
At the memorial by the former Jewish hospital, Finkelshteyn and Kerler discuss the monument erected in 1947 for the Jews murdered in the 1941 Iași pogrom, and Finkelshteyn describes the large hospital and an orphanage. Kerler asks about expressions, such as "a Jewish head" and "a goyish mazl", and Finkelshteyn explains them. Finkelshteyn says he worked in hospitals and schools in Iași during his apprenticeship.
45:42
From the machine transcript
Karuel answers questions about Hasidism in Iași: consulting rebbes, a Ștefănești rebbe, and the Hasidic expression for a good Jew. He is asked about other sayings and about Jews from Lithuania, and says he has not heard them. He also answers about Jewish drinking.
48:38
From the machine transcript
Karuel answers questions on drinking customs and on terms such as dybbuk and golem. He speaks about cemetery customs, including kaddish and prayers for health and livelihood. He describes the folk remedy of pouring molten lead or coals into water against fright and the evil eye.
27:11
From the machine transcript
Davidovich says he returned from Transnistria at age 13 and was placed in the first class, knowing no Romanian but having learned Russian there. He knew some German from his mother, who was born in Siret and went to school in Austria-Hungary. Kerler asks about her name and work: Dvoyre (?) Shekhter, a housewife. Ruti confirms, and Kerler remarks that the twin siblings were together and spoke Yiddish.
7:55
From the machine transcript
The speakers discuss schooling after the war in Botoșani. The school was called a Jewish school but taught in Romanian, and the father taught there. They mention private tutors for Hebrew and Jewish subjects and two hours a week of Yiddish in the Romanian schools. Kerler asks about Yiddish literature and authors they read, and Itsik Manger's recorded Megillah is mentioned. The passage ends with his question about Purim after the war.
10:57
From the machine transcript
Rozenblat sings more Yiddish songs, among them a lullaby-like song and a 'Lekhayim brüderlekh' song. Kerler asks for songs from his mother not in the book and asks why the texts are written in Latin letters rather than Yiddish ones. Rozenblat also mentions a Romanian-Hebrew item, and Kerler then proposes a short visit to the old synagogue.
7:15
From the machine transcript
Resh recalls his childhood in Chernivtsi: Romanian-language schooling, the ethnic makeup of the town, and the Soviet arrival, which ended his schooling. He says he went to a Jewish cheder for about a year after a private tutor had come to the house, and describes children's games (nuts, buttons, football) and the town's many languages. He also mentions deportation to Transnistria.
31:01
From the machine transcript
Resh answers questions about prewar Jewish culture in Chernivtsi: he recalls German but not Yiddish newspapers, mentions a Jewish theater, libraries, hospital and the Jewish street, and says there were no Yiddish or Hebrew books at home. He says there were Hasidim and many synagogues, and mentions Rabbi Marcus, shot by the Germans in 1941. Lemster then asks about terms such as a good place and a good Jew; Resh defines a good Jew as one who helps others.
39:50
From the machine transcript
Resh and Lemster talk about Jewish food and its terms: falshe fish made from meat, potato latkes, mamaliga from cornmeal, kugel, lekekh, flodn with raisins and sweets for Purim, beans with tsimes, Jewish sausages and pastrami, and the names of plums and cucumbers. He says he is no specialist in baking, and kvass was not known in his home.
45:31
From the machine transcript
Resh addresses the occupational structure of Chernivtsi Jews: many were officials, merchants and craftsmen (tailors, watchmakers, carpenters), but fewer intellectuals than in Iași. He then answers questions on terms such as gvir, dybbuk, mamzer, golem, and the words used at a cemetery, which he mostly does not know.
4:38
From the machine transcript
Shtaigman describes the Iași Jewish community as well organized, with daily programs and a youth organization headed by his younger daughter. He tells about his wife's family, especially his father-in-law, who ran a kosher restaurant that was nationalized after the war, and about his in-laws' piety and emigration to Israel. His daughters do not speak Yiddish, though they understand it, and Kerler asks the family name (Gelberg?).
15:30
From the machine transcript
Shtaigman recalls returning to Rădăuți and finding their small house and his mother's family dead in Transnistria. They lived there until 1952 and then sold the house instead of emigrating to Israel. His mother remarried a baker, a good stepfather who died in 1965. He attended school and lyceum in Rădăuți, where a few thousand Jews remained after the war, but they dwindled. After studying and working, he moved to Iași in 1966. He says Yiddish in Rădăuți was somewhat more Litvak-like (Polish-Jewish) than in Iași.
22:38
From the machine transcript
Shtaigman describes postwar synagogues in Rădăuți: two large ones, a small one, and shoemakers' and tailors' synagogues. He visited Rădăuți often after moving to Iași, and his mother later came to help with the children. He discusses a film by an American about the Jews of Rădăuți and a photo album, mentioning that locals felt they were filmed unflatteringly, and the community bath was demolished. Kerler asks about the word for 'built' as used by old people, then returns to the Litvak speech question.
32:40
From the machine transcript
Shtaigman recalls going as a child to Jewish youth associations (Dror Habonim), where they sang and danced and spoke Yiddish and Romanian. He remembers Sholem Aleichem works (Tevye, Motl) from his Yiddish teacher but no poetry. He studied Yiddish in school until the lyceum, but few Jewish pupils were left, and in the last year 21 of 26 were Jewish. Kerler asks why the Jewish schools closed, and he adds that at the Iași furniture factory most of the staff were Jews.
43:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks questions about cultural terminology and Shtaigman answers, with some help from S2: the meanings of dibbuk, golem, a good Jew (pious man or good person, and a hasidic rebbe), a good place (a cemetery), the difference between a rov and a rebbe, and the expression for extinguishing coals (against the evil eye). They also discuss vodka at Purim.
34:00
From the machine transcript
Shvartz describes burial customs in Bîrlad and answers questions about words for the cemetery and for what is said at the grave. He says his parents died in Israel and that he visited them five times, but could not afford more visits. He then fails to recall Yiddish words Lemster asks about.
4:16
From the machine transcript
Kaizerman talks about his schooling in Iași, a Jewish school where Yiddish, Romanian and mathematics were taught, and says he knew Yiddish and Hebrew well. He recalls reading Sholem Aleichem and Mendele and children's games. He then speaks of his bar mitzvah, tefillin and rabbis who taught him, one of them a professor-rabbi Shafran (?).
20:02
From the machine transcript
Kaizerman speaks of Yiddish theater in Iași, including Goldfaden's theater and a performance of The Dybbuk, and of Yiddish libraries. He answers Lemster's questions about the words 'dybbuk' and 'golem'.
23:04
From the machine transcript
Kaizerman briefly addresses Shavuot, Simchat Torah, which he calls a great joy with the Torah carried in synagogue, and Sukkot, with a sukkah in the courtyard where Jewish neighbors came. He says non-Jewish neighbors saw but did not join. He says few non-Jews now understand Yiddish, and speaks of two or three non-Jews he knew who converted. One married a Jew and their children went to Israel.
31:26
From the machine transcript
Kaizerman briefly recalls Hanukkah in the house, with candle lighting and potato latkes. He then answers questions about local rabbis, the Yiddish words for a cemetery and the Hasidic groups in the city, including Chabad. He is also asked about matchmakers, written engagement contracts and the wedding jester.
15:46
From the machine transcript
Chirilau recalls a visit from her relative Natan, who came from Israel in the 1960s. She tells how she had the Jewish graves put in order and a stone repainted and dated, and how he paid her for the work. She also discusses the word 'pares' as a word for money.
58:21
From the machine transcript
Chirilau says she worked as a tailor, in handicraft and in the fields after the war, and that her husband was an accountant. Kerler asks about her family name, Haynts, from Filip's family. She says the family was Romanian and that, before the war, Jews spoke Yiddish at home, though doctors spoke Romanian or German.
6:06
From the machine transcript
Chirilau talks about her grandson, who visited today, and about the songs he sang that she recognised. Kerler explains the researchers' backgrounds and that they work in an international group. She then recalls a Sabbath song sung after services that her mother mentioned, and answers questions about animal terms and about an unfaithful or dishonest woman.
11:10
From the machine transcript
Chirilau answers questions about terms such as drunkard, fool and proverbs, and says she cannot recall them on demand. She describes the town as handsome, with well-kept houses, and recalls women blessing the candles on Friday. She says Jews stopped working on Friday afternoon, and shopkeepers and tailors took up work again after the Sabbath.
9:00
From the machine transcript
Chirilau explains that she spoke Yiddish and German at home as a child and Romanian at school, and that Romanians also spoke some Yiddish. She describes Mihăileni as a fine town and discusses the Jewish cemetery, now locked, and a family who tended it. She tells of Moshe Itsik Bernshteyn (?), who was in Transnistria with his children, and whose son Natan lives in Israel. Natan had a gravestone made for the grave of his father.
20:38
From the machine transcript
Chirilau answers questions about foods that Jews cooked: fresh fish for memorial days, and Romanian dishes cooked by Jews, such as polenta and stuffed cabbage in several variants. She discusses terms for the stuffed cabbage in Romanian and Yiddish. She also mentions kosher meat, the slaughterhouse and that Romanians raised pigs but earlier Jews did not eat pork.
54:47
From the machine transcript
Leichtner says a Yiddish theater came to the city rather than the village. He says his parents and other Jews were not originally from the village and had come from the area. On Hanukkah he recalls children playing with the dreidel and its four letters, and says latkes were not made on Passover. Lemster asks him about words such as dybbuk and golem, and Leichtner glosses golem and other words for a fool.
57:46
From the machine transcript
Leichtner speaks about youth before the war: after prayers young people went home, and older boys went to the girls. He recalls his own girlfriend. He says he married in 1952 at about thirty, to a woman from the village whose parents were also local and who was Christian. At home they spoke Yiddish, and everyone knew Hungarian and Romanian.
10:30
From the machine transcript
Leichtner answers questions about cultural terminology: converts, mad people, a well, and the muddy water given to geese. Romanian equivalents and the non-kosher status of sausage come up, and he does not know a word for fortune-tellers. He says there was no Jewish market in the area, only the Thursday market in Sighet.
13:50
From the machine transcript
Leichtner describes how his mother koshered meat by soaking and salting it, and how she baked challah and bread at home for the week. He answers questions about grandmothers, Friday-night candle blessing and fasting on the Ninth of Av, when children threw burrs from the garden. He is also asked for Yiddish sayings and some Yiddish greeting phrases.
49:00
From the machine transcript
The conversation is informal. Leichtner makes his own palinka, offers a little and says he has a long pension. One interviewer says he was born in Moscow, lived in America and Israel, and has a flat in Jerusalem; he explains the project, whose recordings go into an archive. They talk about visitors from Israel, the political situation, the Yiddish words for peasant, and a Hebrew word that also means hay; the session ends with thanks.
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.
7:45
From the machine transcript
Shwartz talks about his parents and grandparents. His father was a student at the Pressburg yeshiva and then a dealer in wheat, potatoes and other foodstuffs, and his father's family was Hungarian. He names his grandmother, a Schlesinger and a relative of a Kaliv/Warsaw rebbe(?), and his mother, Perl Hirn, daughter of Mordkhe Hirn. At home the family spoke Hungarian, while his grandmother spoke Yiddish.
13:58
From the machine transcript
Shwartz explains that after his father's death a yeshiva student named Mordkhe was assigned to study Talmud with him. He recalls a soldier billeted in their yard during the First World War who gave him sugar, and Kerler works out his age at that time. He describes the mixed Hungarian and Yiddish of the cheder children, depending on whether they were Hasidic or Ashkenazi, and says that his father was Ashkenazi and Orthodox.
19:18
From the machine transcript
Shwartz describes the Jewish community of his village: over two thousand Jews, nine prayer houses including a large Ashkenazi synagogue, a Zionist one and a few craftsmen's houses of study. The Jews were mostly merchants plus craftsmen, with about half Hasidim and half Ashkenazim. Hungarian was the general language, with Yiddish in the prayer houses. He mentions a house of study of the Kaliver rebbe and a young cantor named Yosef Meir. The large synagogue stands now but has no Jews; he cannot recall songs.
41:44
From the machine transcript
Shwartz describes the Purim play he performed in, a wedding play in which he played the master of the house and another young man played his wife. Kerler recalls a play about a chimney sweeper looking for a bride. He states the town's name in Hungarian and Romanian and that no Jews live there now; the Yiddish name is unclear. Kerler thanks him, and the interview ends with a Russian aside to the staff.
4:20
From the machine transcript
Freundlich shows photographs, including a birthday picture of her son and the grave of a Jewish actor. She recalls declaring Yiddish her mother tongue to an official in 1977 and mentions her daughter, a piano teacher in Satu Mare, and her son the professor. She also talks about Christians who spoke Yiddish, answering questions from Kerler and Lemster.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Freundlich tells of a night when a light was left burning and neighbors were asked in Hungarian to put it out, noting that many people around him spoke Hungarian. Lemster asks whether Yiddish weddings had badkhn-style rhymers and about Purim plays; Freundlich recalls a visiting troupe performing in Yiddish at Purim once, and says there were no klezmer-type performers at weddings.
17:35
From the machine transcript
Freundlich answers Lemster's questions on the terms dybbuk, golem and the words for a cemetery. He mentions having seen Sidi Tal perform in Sighet (?) or Baia Mare (?), his father's love of cantors and operettas, and neighbors gathering around the first radio in the street.
18:45
From the machine transcript
Freund says there were no Yiddish speakers among non-Jews in Baia Mare, and that he spoke Hungarian with friends and Yiddish only in cheder. He briefly says he took part in Purim plays as a child. He was deported in 1944 and put to forced labor, returning in 1947; he married in 1952 and has no children. He says Hungarian is mostly spoken in Transylvania, with some Romanian, and that Romanians object to this.
24:00
From the machine transcript
Freund briefly says he worked as an accountant after the war, including in the Ceaușescu period. He answers terminology questions: the Yiddish name of the town (Gros-Wardein, i.e. Grosswardein-type form), the word dibbuk, which he knew from a Yiddish theater performance by a Bucharest troupe visiting after the war, and the word golem.
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.
29:20
From the machine transcript
Lemster and Kerler ask word and custom questions: she does not know dybbuk but explains golem as a slightly mad person. Then come questions on gefilte fish: whether sugar or pepper was added (a little sugar), and vinegar meat. Lemster asks what she cooks today.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opening exchange. Kerler explains the project and mentions that he has spoken with a relative of Freundlich's in Cluj. Freundlich says he spoke Yiddish in childhood and that there were many Jews in his town in the past. The rest is a garbled exchange about how long the interview will take.
15:29
From the machine transcript
Freundlich describes his heder years and the rebbe, who beat the children. He says richer children paid for the talmud-torah while his family could not. He recalls the daily schedule, the long hours, and playing football with stones on the way to school. He says he was taught in Romanian at school but spoke Hungarian with his brothers and Yiddish with his mother. His father was proud of Hungarian culture. His mother was very pious, wore a head covering but no sheitl, and spoke Yiddish.
22:12
From the machine transcript
Freundlich talks about his parents. His father Moshe studied in Vienna and spoke good German. His mother Rivke came from a small town near Baia Mare, and her parents were deported. He describes summers with relatives, with a large orchard and a mill, and also an aunt and uncle in Jibou (?). He recalls a relative's harsh manner and speaking Hungarian there. Kerler asks how to say 'poor relation' in Yiddish.
18:35
From the machine transcript
Shwartz shows a recent diploma recognising his activity in the community. He then recalls the Passover seder before the war with his parents' and two families, at which he asked the four questions as the eldest, all in Hungarian, with the Haggadah also read in Hungarian. Yiddish he spoke only in the study house and yeshiva. He names the local rebbe Schönfeld, says the town had over two thousand Jews and nine minyanim on Sabbath, and mentions wishes of going to Palestine.
8:27
From the machine transcript
Mezei recalls her childhood in Sighet: the family lived with her widowed grandmother in a poor street and later moved to a better house her father bought. She describes caring for her sick grandmother, going to a preschool at three, and learning Romanian, Hungarian and Yiddish, and some German. She mentions her brother's passion for football and her own school graduation in 1939. She says antisemitism grew once the Hungarians arrived.
15:28
From the machine transcript
Mezei explains her school photograph from 1939, found at home after her return from Auschwitz, and the languages taught at her Romanian lyceum. She speaks about Jewish life in prewar Sighet: observance in her parents' home, Yiddish games with other children, and the youth organizations she attended, including Hashomer Hatzair, Hanoar Hatzioni and a Trumpeldor club. She then describes her husband's background: he was poor, lost his father early, and studied law in Cluj. His mother came from Vienna, spoke German and was a music teacher. Her husband worked as a lawyer and held a doctorate.
47:19
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's question on the language spoken at home: her parents spoke Yiddish and Hungarian, the children Hungarian and Romanian, and the grandmother Yiddish only. She recalls her grandmother's shock at her using an umbrella on the Sabbath and a sister who smoked. She says she read in Hungarian and Romanian, including Gorky and Dostoevsky from her father's library, and she begins a joke attributed to Sholem Aleichem about a widow's daughter.
52:33
From the machine transcript
Mezei tells jokes, some in Yiddish and some in Hungarian, with the second woman and a third voice helping her translate for Kerler. They include one about two men and their wife and lover and a taxi joke that turns on a brothel. Kerler asks about Yiddish joke tellers of the region and how to say the word for brothel in Yiddish.
8:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Freundlich how pickles (cucumbers) were made in his home area, and the two discuss the method, containers, brine and the local word for the jar. Freundlich also discusses the present state of the Jewish community in Oradea and Cluj, assimilation and intermarriage, and the links between the communities. The passage also includes a long, hard-to-follow stretch about an earlier interview and a communal office.
1:49
From the machine transcript
Grinberg describes her family in Fălticeni as very pious, with hasidic (Chabad) roots and several cantors among her father's relatives. She recalls her maternal grandfather's piety, and her own childhood task of calling neighbors to the synagogue on Sabbath mornings. She says Yiddish was spoken with her grandmother, while at school she had to speak Romanian and had few people to speak Yiddish with.
4:29
From the machine transcript
Grinberg says many Jews remained in Fălticeni after the war, and that Fălticeni Jews were evacuated toward Suceava but, after a change in policy, were not deported to Transnistria. By contrast, she says nearly all of Rădăuți's Jews were deported and only a few professionals and a factory owner remained. The talk then turns to whether Rădăuți Jews spoke German or Yiddish, and her arrival there in 1971.
6:51
From the machine transcript
Grinberg says she was sent to a village near Rădăuți after 1971 and worked there until 1992, going home to her parents on free days. Kerler establishes that she is a mathematician, not a medical doctor. From 1992 she worked in the community. She then speaks of the old Jews she met, who spoke only German, and of an elderly man of 97 who is deaf and blind but remembers the deportation.
9:05
From the machine transcript
Grinberg speaks about her mother's recovery after paralysis and the difficulty of finding a caregiver. The conversation covers local Jews who still speak Yiddish, a recently deceased community doctor, and her use of French. The group then discusses a gravestone made during a man's lifetime, other people of the community, and the many synagogues of prewar Rădăuți. The catalogue's recording of her father praying is not evident in the transcript.
17:06
From the machine transcript
In the community center, Grinberg and the interviewers discuss a dialect word for Purim and where it is used. She says Rădăuți Jews were less pious than those of Fălticeni, and that many in Rădăuți married non-Jews even before the war, which surprised her. She discusses children of mixed families who come to her wanting to be recognized as Jews.
1:20
From the machine transcript
Grinberg and Kerler talk about differences between their Yiddish and the Yiddish she knows. She gives her Yiddish name, Mishke, and her maiden name, Kerner, and Kerler compares it with his own name. She refuses to say her age or birth year, and Kerler jokes about it. She says she lived in Fălticeni before the war and was born there.
29:29
From the machine transcript
Grinberg answers Lemster's questions on Passover in her home, saying her father and later her husband led a fine seder. She talks about her father, who was orphaned young, and her family's observance. She says her father was not a Hasid, though a Fălticeni rabbi (Tversky) is mentioned. She mentions her mother's Yiddish songs, her own lack of a singing voice, and her daughter's accented Yiddish.
45:29
From the machine transcript
Grinberg talks about Yiddish books and traveling Yiddish theater in prewar Fălticeni. S2 mentions a Jewish revue theater run by students. Grinberg says she read Yiddish books mostly in Romanian translation and read Sholem Aleichem twice, finding him humorous. Kerler asks in what language he wrote, and the matter stays unclear. Kerler then asks about visitors from other places.
4:03
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru says she was in Transnistria (Mohyliv). She does not remember her grandparents, and her mother was also from Dorohoi. Kerler explains the project's aims. She tells of three children in her father's household, a brother Dudl and sister Haya, both in Israel. Her two children live in Botoșani. She also notes that her grandchild and son speak little Yiddish and mostly Romanian.
17:49
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru says Yiddish theater came from Bucharest after the war. She cannot read Yiddish letters; her son attended cheder but forgot. Her brother lives in Israel and her son has visited him. She says she wanted to visit Israel but did not go. She mentions the children's life in Romania.
20:17
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru says she travelled every year with family and a hired car to the rebbe's grave at Ștefănești. She explains how they prayed there for health and livelihood and that the visitors spoke Yiddish. Kerler and Lemster ask about the term "mame-loshn"; she does not give much of an answer. The talk also touches on her children's language shift to Romanian.
24:05
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru answers questions about the terms "mame-loshn" and "a gutr yid". She says there are no good Jews today, and remembers that formerly Jews were friends and visited on Sabbath. She describes an unpleasant encounter with a non-Jewish neighbour. She says she knows of no other rebbe besides the one of Ștefănești.
29:24
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru speaks about Purim masquerading in the old days and says her father was a synagogue warden for fifteen years. She talks about Simchat Torah, and a dish called einhakts (?) of eggs and potatoes. She compares Yiddish and Romanian terms and notes she once spoke Russian with a sister-in-law. She names red borscht with vareniki for Hanukkah and the Passover potato dishes.
43:33
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru describes Simchat Torah celebration in the synagogues, with singing and drinking, and what people drank. She answers questions on stuffed goose neck and Passover goose fat. She lists the towns she travelled to, including Botoșani, Bucharest and Ștefănești, and towns with many Jews. She talks about the Yiddish names for Mihăileni. Kerler asks about her husband's Yiddish and about stories.
4:31
From the machine transcript
Marcus says he attended a Romanian school in Săveni. He estimates the number of Jews in the town before and after the war, and says his Jewish childhood friends spoke Yiddish and have all gone to Israel. He recalls studying with a private Hebrew teacher for several years at home, for two hours a day, and that he once could read Yiddish. He also says touring theater groups used to come from Bucharest.
29:11
From the machine transcript
Marcus speaks about returning to Săveni from Israel, a difficult process involving housing and citizenship papers, and about his son and other family. Kerler and Lemster ask about secret words that Jews used so non-Jews would not understand, and about a woman of German origin who speaks Yiddish. Towards the end they ask about Jews who converted, and about non-Jews who became Jewish. Several stretches are garbled.
43:50
From the machine transcript
The formal interview with Cojocaru begins. She says there are few Jews left, mentions a grandchild in Warsaw who does not know Yiddish, and says she has lived in Săveni for thirty-four years. The interviewers ask her year of birth, and she says she was born in Dorohoi (the year is unclear in the transcript).
6:47
From the machine transcript
The team meets the head of the Sighet Jewish community, who says he knows little Yiddish and speaks English and Romanian. Kerler and Lemster ask about the community and its centre and which language to use; they then ask whether the building is a Jewish house and which synagogue it is, and Kerler asks how many Jews live there today.
21:00
From the machine transcript
The formal interview begins. Salamon says her father was a yeshiva student in Bratislava (as the transcript reads, 'Presburg'); the family spoke Yiddish, Hungarian and Romanian at home. She grew up with four brothers and three sisters.
22:13
From the machine transcript
Kerler elicits how Yiddish speakers say 'house' (shtub versus hoyz) for a Romanian word, while Salamon sits down, learns the interviewers' backgrounds, and says she spoke Romanian and Hungarian with earlier visitors. She agrees to speak Yiddish as at home. The catalogue's remarks on Auschwitz and her father's yeshiva do not appear in this stretch.
44:49
From the machine transcript
Salamon speaks about relatives with many children and an uncle who was a journalist. She attended a Romanian school, then Hungarian after the Hungarians arrived. She had no children, with either husband.
14:20
From the machine transcript
Salamon describes Sabbath food before the war: cholent carried to the baker's oven in a clay pot, kugel and a stuffed derma, and fruit compote. She and Kerler discuss the dialect words for these dishes and for stuffed cabbage, and she describes who sat where at the Friday table. She recalls her mother's challah baking and the separation of challah, and explains how meat is salted to make it kosher.
37:37
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about Yiddish writers and theater. Salamon knows Sholem Aleichem's name and says a theater company visited Sighet, but she has read nothing by him. She says she can read Yiddish only partly, and that she has prayer books with Yiddish translation. She shows prayer books and a wedding photograph with her first husband and parents. Kerler asks about names in one prayer book, including a person from a village near Sighet (the name is unclear in the transcript).
41:52
From the machine transcript
Salamon answers terminology questions about a dybbuk and a golem. She says she cannot read a text for the interviewers because of her eyesight. She says few people come to the synagogue now and mentions Shimon Leichter, who can lead the prayers. Kerler asks her for words of old Yiddish songs and she cannot recall any. She mentions a song about rent money and a salt bath near Sighet, and says her acquaintance in America sends cassettes.
3:43
From the machine transcript
Kurtsberg says he knew few Jews of Rădăuți but worked there in 1953 with several Jewish co-workers, whom he names. In answer to Kerler, he confirms that the Jews there spoke Yiddish.
41:14
From the machine transcript
Kurtsberg talks about prayer in small groups and matzo baked in the Bershad ghetto, made kosher with the little flour obtained. He discusses relations with Ukrainians, some of whom helped Jews while others denounced them. Kerler asks about the word for fruit. Kurtsberg comments that he is forgetting Yiddish since he has no one to speak it with.
32:53
From the machine transcript
Kurtsberg explains the meaning of several Yiddish terms (dibbuk, golem, a foolish person, and a word his father used). Kerler then asks about Purim rhymes; Kurtsberg recalls the chimney sweep play and says that Christian friends joined the Purim players and that they were all friends.
18:04
From the machine transcript
Petraru discusses his education: cheder, a Jewish school and Hebrew (not Yiddish) teachers, including one from Chişinău. Kerler asks about modern Hebrew, Hebrew songs and Purim customs, which he barely recalls. He says his wife comes from Dorohoi and that he has a son in Iaşi, an engineer. Lemster mentions a visit to the Iaşi community and asks whether anyone else in town speaks Yiddish.
26:52
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Petraru about the Jewish cemetery, from which the tsadikim were moved to Israel, and about Hasidim and rabbis in Dorohoi, including the last rabbi there. Kerler also asks what he knows about Suceava and Bukovina. The passage then turns to a language exchange about Romanian and local expressions for royalty and a dismissive saying about the dead.
29:25
From the machine transcript
Petraru answers questions about Yiddish terms such as dibbuk and golem, giving 'fool' or 'idiot' for the first and 'lout' for the second. He says Yiddish speakers in town are few, mentions that the community president also speaks Yiddish, and gives a contact name and phone number.
30:09
From the machine transcript
The team greets Mehler in front of her house and chats with her, in Romanian and Yiddish, about her origin in Iași and whether other Yiddish speakers live in Vatra Dornei. She gives them an address to visit, on the street Podul Verde. She says her father was a professor and was killed in the Iași pogrom; the date is unclear in the transcript.
33:48
From the machine transcript
Mehler talks about her life in Iași and about the few people who still know Yiddish or German. She recalls seeing Yiddish theater as a child, says Yiddish was not spoken at home, and says the Jewish community office is closed on weekends. Kerler explains the project; she mentions an American connection (Connecticut?).
49:53
From the machine transcript
Mehler addresses her childhood schooling. She attended a Romanian school for two years, was then moved to a Jewish school and later a Jewish lyceum held in synagogues, and went to a state school after 1944. She says she lived in a Romanian neighborhood of Iași and describes the Jewish quarter, where Christians also spoke Yiddish. She also mentions a stay in Cernăuți.
4:24
From the machine transcript
Mehler speaks about her mother, who came from Iaşi but went to school in Dorohoi, and about summers there. Jews sat outside their gates on Sabbath and spoke Yiddish. She names her mother's Romanian name as Clara. The talk turns to her daughter's marriage, her husband from Siret, and the German-like Yiddish of the Suceava area and Mihăileni.
36:37
From the machine transcript
Bercovici says she went to a Romanian school, then the university, and later taught physics and chemistry at a school. About four thousand Jews lived in Vatra Dornei before the war, mostly pious; now eight or ten remain and she is the oldest. She says she speaks German and understands Yiddish, but speaks it poorly.
40:35
From the machine transcript
Bercovici says she married in Mohyliv, in Transnistria, and then they lived in Vatra Dornei. Her husband was from Maramureş, spoke Hungarian and Romanian, and died aged 94. They returned in 1945; nobody lived in the house in her absence and they found only a table, chairs and a sideboard. She spoke German with her mother and Romanian with her husband.
44:27
From the machine transcript
Bercovici talks about prewar Jewish life in Vatra Dornei, a spa town with enough Jews for a Jewish life. The Vizhnitzer rebbe from Chernivtsi came each summer. She cannot say more about the rebbe; she then names another rebbe, Margoshes (?), who was in Transnistria and later in New York, where he died.
46:58
From the machine transcript
Bercovici speaks about Transnistria: they did nothing there; her sister worked, with a daily bread ration, and her father starved to death in 1944, two weeks before liberation. She says her friends in Vatra Dornei spoke German and Romanian, that she went to a Romanian school, and that she read German books. She also mentions her visit to Israel in 1973 and friends there.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Bercovici answers questions about her grandparents. She did not know her paternal grandparents, and her maternal grandfather was an estate administrator who went to Transnistria with the family (the transcript is unclear on how this is said). The conversation touches on relatives in Germany and Israel and on a German-language writer in Israel (Hedwig Brenner, name partly clear). Bercovici gives her Jewish and Romanian first names and says she was named after an uncle who died in the First World War. The passage ends as Kerler and Lemster turn to the evil-eye custom.
12:27
From the machine transcript
Bercovici and a second woman bring up a published article and a Bukovina Jewish newspaper (Shtime) published in Israel, which Kerler says he knows. The interviewers thank her and prepare to leave. Bercovici says she knows French, not English. The talk covers her life today only in passing.
2:02
From the machine transcript
Galambos says the Vaja synagogue was ruined, like the Temple. He recalls that after the war a sister and three brothers returned and began businesses. He describes poor Jewish peddlers from other towns selling religious items and books, and says he read Hebrew, Yiddish and a little German but not Hungarian literature. He remarks that the Holocaust cannot be portrayed in theater or books.
28:07
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about prewar newspapers. Galambos recalls a Jewish paper in Hungarian and no Yiddish one. He says cheder taught reading without translation and yeshiva taught Gemara. He lists towns he visited, including Debrecen and Munkács, and the group discusses travel to Košice. They also touch on the river and the word for ritual bath.
33:37
From the machine transcript
Galambos speaks about Sabbath kiddush wine and bread, and the term for the braided loaf, and about burning the challah portion as a commandment. Kerler asks about theater, and about the terms dybbuk and golem. Galambos explains the golem as a figure from the Haggadah.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Informal chat outside with Rabbi Steiner and the other men present. They mention a museum director from a town whose name is unclear, and discuss the Slovak coloring of the speakers' Yiddish and whether a man speaks Yiddish at all. One man says he comes from Brooklyn. At the end Steiner turns to a Michalovce community and the information in its book about a rabbi, a dayan, a shoykhet and a melamed.
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.
41:02
From the machine transcript
Weinberger goes through a book on the Stropkov Jewish community and the many photographs. He remembers local people: a tailor, a shopkeeper he carried milk to, a bank manager, a man who was driven through town with non-kosher sausage, and a Gardist who was a Jewish coachman's son. He also shows wartime Slovak antisemitic publications and speaks of Jews being gathered in the synagogue before deportation, and of selection at Auschwitz. He says he was a forced laborer in Sereď, and that there was Yiddish among non-Jews of Stropkov. He regrets there is no one to speak Yiddish with at home. At the end he gives his birth date (18 November 1927) and says he lives in Košice.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Weinberger talks about Jewish émigrés from Lithuania and Russia who became prominent in Israel, and Kerler comments on Litvak Yiddish dialects. He recalls meeting Jews from Leningrad and Moscow on a visit to Sochi, where a fellow Jew warned him about a suspicious stranger. He also recalls a concert by the Barry Sisters there.
5:25
From the machine transcript
Weinberger describes Jewish life in Stropkov, where about half the Jews were pious and the rest less so. During the war he lived on false papers as a coachman for a Slovak employer. When transports resumed and he was due to be taken to a labor camp (Sered'), he fled across the Hungarian border in winter via Snina and Stakčín. He describes a night in a military cemetery, a night hidden among chickens in a poor man's shed, going on foot to Bereznyi and on to Uzhhorod, where he stayed in the Jewish community. He then tells of the train to Budapest and a stranger who shared food and gave him money. Kerler asks about words such as kuchtsher and the Slovak for Yom Kippur.
35:21
From the machine transcript
Weinberger talks about life in Budapest, where he spoke Yiddish mainly with Polish Jews and kept apart from the Hungarian Jews. He tells of the German occupation in March 1944, when the Polish Committee was seized and Poles were persecuted. Under a new name, Yosef Panko, he used false papers as a Subcarpathian Rusyn. He recalls going back to Slovakia, being arrested by the Gestapo with a group but released because of his Russian name, jumping on a train in Levice, and a second border crossing. Kerler asks about words such as advent and about money. He also mentions Polish Jews who had surgery to restore the foreskin.
4:53
From the machine transcript
Weinberger answers Kerler's questions about his cheder years. He had three teachers in turn, and for his bar mitzvah preparation he went to a German-speaking teacher named Landesmann (?). He says his father also came to Stropkov, around the 1940s, after the family could no longer live in the village, and the brother went to cheder as well. He recalls that Yiddish and Hebrew were learned there, and the passage ends with a half-remembered reference to Rachel's grave.
33:33
From the machine transcript
Weinberger recalls Passover, when as a boy he asked the four questions and invented jokes about his father. He tells jokes about Passover customs, including snuff tobacco and a Purim rabbi's ruling. Kerler then raises Hanukkah and a few terms, and mentions a local man from Košice who still speaks good Yiddish and whom Kerler might contact.
10:46
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic talks about his childhood: his family was not rich and not poor, and he went to cheder from age five and to state school from seven. He describes what he learned at home, such as the morning prayer and blessings. He played with non-Jewish children in Slovak, and S2 explains a Slovak word for a ball game.
31:19
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic speaks about the Košice rabbi, who comes from Israel, is intelligent and organizes Hanukkah events, and says only two people in Košice speak Yiddish. He then recalls Prešov, where he had no relatives and ate each day at a different family's table. He says visiting preachers (magidim) came to town.
33:47
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic says his mother read the Yiddish Tsene-rene on Sabbath to women. He says he studied at the Hanušovce yeshiva with about sixty to seventy students and a rabbi who inspected them. He gives the town's Jewish population as 1,200, tells how it is said in Yiddish, and answers questions about newspapers, Hungarian, the term ba'al shem, and a wooden synagogue.
46:28
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic describes Hanukkah customs before the war: the menorah, the dreidel made of wood, and the letters on it with their meanings, which S2 helps with. He says only Maoz Tsur was sung, and he knows no Yiddish songs but names Ernest Klein, a Yiddish speaker in Košice aged 93, and offers to phone him.
5:12
From the machine transcript
Steiner speaks about Zlaté Moravce, where Hungarian was the main language and Yiddish was not spoken. He was born in 1936, lived through the war, and went to Palestine in 1949 from a religious family. In Jerusalem he learned Yiddish and Hebrew in yeshivas, including one in Petah Tikva, and he says his Yiddish is Jerusalem Yiddish. He has been in Košice about five and a half years, describes how the community feared a bearded rabbi, and mentions Hanukkah celebrations and the size of the community.
53:00
From the machine transcript
Steiner and Kerler discuss the Hanukkah event planned for the next day and whether Yiddish speakers will be there. They look for a man from Finland who speaks Yiddish and recall a Purim custom of chocolate, a Hasid in Bardejov who has died, and others who might remember Yiddish. Much of the later part is a telephone call and talk in Slovak, so the content is unclear.
4:15
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic describes Jewish inns with Gypsy musicians where people drank and danced. He tells of Passover preparations: home baking of matzo in household ovens two weeks before the holiday, shmura matzo and matzo for the pious, Passover foods and cakes, borscht from beets, and chremslach, with a recipe. Kerler asks for the names of terms and dishes, and the passage ends with a question about who spoke Yiddish in Prešov.
10:53
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic speaks about languages in Prešov, where Hasidim spoke Yiddish and others German or Hungarian. Kerler asks about coded Hebrew-based words, a baptized priest of Jewish origin, and gentile converts to Judaism, which Chaimovic describes briefly. Kerler also elicits dialect usage and then asks him to tell where he lived before the war.
35:23
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about baked goods and sweets. Chaimovic names bread, challah, cakes, egg kichel and kugel, and offers honey cake.
29:15
From the machine transcript
Klimenko speaks of the end of the war and recalls that her parents spoke Yiddish at home. Her mother's parents were from Pervomaysk, and her father also wished to keep Yiddishkeit. Lemster asks about her mother's cooking and she gives little. She names her older sister Frume, who was sent to Odesa and later emigrated. She shows postcards from her sister's family.
47:28
From the machine transcript
Milchenko remembers that after the war people sat outside in the evenings, singing and dancing, in the 1950s. She says those years were better than today. She describes the beatings and the Balta ghetto: her mother was sent to work and her brother slipped out to beg bread and was beaten. She names her parents, her father from Orël, her mother from Rezina, and says they spoke Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Milchenko speaks about her mother, who spoke Russian at markets and Yiddish at home. Lemster asks how certain words are said in Yiddish; she says she has forgotten some, and she names the cemetery. She describes asking her late mother in prayer for health for people and for her children. A second woman remarks on how few Jews remain. Milchenko says her mother attended a four-class Yiddish school before the war, and mentions the synagogue.
0:00
From the machine transcript
At the family house, Lokteva says Jewish people lived there and her mother's family stayed on. She says her mother died years earlier and she looks after her blind sister, while living alone in Rostov. She names her father's Mogilevskii family and her mother's Dorfman family, and says her father was taken to the war. She says she has two sons in America (Hartford, Connecticut). She also says she still speaks and can sing Yiddish, and answers questions from Kerler and Lemster.
6:16
From the machine transcript
Lokteva is asked where she knows Yiddish songs from and says her mother passed some on. She recalls fragments of a song learned from an uncle and discusses Yiddish in Balta in the 1950s–60s, including Jewish weddings and the custom of giving a gift called makes (?). She names her uncle Gavriil and talks about her mother's nine siblings, seven of whom survived. She gives her own name as Khayke Klara, and discusses the age of the house.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Pivnik answers questions about her family: stepsiblings, a stepmother and a stepbrother Misha who stayed close to her. Her family lived with a landlord near the synagogues and went often. She recalls her sister's wedding and being dressed up in clothes her mother sewed. Her mother worked at home as a dressmaker and her father was a baker who traveled for business and organized free kitchens in the 1930s. He was killed in the war; the transcript says that after refusing non-Jewish neighbors' offer to hide him and his daughter he was betrayed in the ghetto by a Jew. She also says Yiddish was spoken at home and recalls an aunt who spoke only Yiddish and friendly non-Jewish neighbors.
26:00
From the machine transcript
Pivnik describes her sister's prewar wedding ceremony under the huppah, with the rabbi and customs such as seating the bride on a bench and circling her. Discussion of the custom of giving 'makes' (?) to the in-laws, with Kerler asking where the term comes from and what it means. The talk moves to folk beliefs: the evil eye and its remedies, and extinguishing coals. She then recalls childhood: Jewish children in her courtyard, games of acting and dancing, and her Yiddish school.
41:38
From the machine transcript
Pivnik says she studied milling at a technical school in Odesa, a Jewish technical school, and was in the Komsomol and sent to courses. Lemster asks about Jewish kolkhozes before the war. She speaks about her sister's daughter and grandchildren, who study at a Jewish university in Odesa, and her own eight years in Israel, where she managed with Yiddish and some Hebrew. She talks about being old and staying home, the family's trips to Uman, and her reflections on memory. The interviewers talk about where they themselves live, and Balta's Yiddish name.
57:37
From the machine transcript
Pivnik and her daughter answer questions about cultural terminology and Yiddish words, such as dibbuk, golem, a nickname, 'latke'-type terms and the word for a convert (meshumed). They discuss the origin of some terms. Kerler asks about the prayer modeh ani and her mother's candle-blessing, and she says her mother died young. Lemster ends by asking about Jewish life in Birobidzhan and why it declined; she mentions her sister Khana.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The end of the Pivnik interview. An informant mentions a man taken to the front, then answers questions about Jewish and non-Jewish ovens and baking, and about Yiddish ways of saying 'thank you' and 'sick'. Kerler and Lemster discuss dialect differences and the project; the segment ends as the team turns to Khotenko.
47:16
From the machine transcript
Khotenko answers questions on Yiddish terms (dybbuk, sick, pious, convert, blessings for the dead) and on the evil eye and cures such as incantations, wax-pouring and cupping. She says her sister was treated by an old Jewish woman who spoke the charm. She mentions Yiddish tales and then her grandson, an athlete in Israel, her son in Tiraspol and the family name Shvartsman.
27:54
From the machine transcript
Gorberg talks about her mother's cooking for weddings and holidays and gives her own method for gefilte fish and fish cutlets. She also speaks of Purim foods and a Purim play at the kolkhoz, Yiddish songs, and winemaking at her dacha. She talks about her husband's family and her thirty years in her mother-in-law's household. Her husband was a vulcanizer who drank, and he died in 1990s (?). Lemster and Kerler ask about food terms such as potato pancakes and the Yiddish word for grapes.
41:46
From the machine transcript
Gorberg answers a few terminology questions: she does not know dybbuk, and gives answers for golem and meshumed. She says that in her home Russian was spoken, so her children know no Yiddish, and that her son in Israel noticed her Yiddish books. She mentions a Yiddish primer given by a teacher, then Lemster and Kerler look at family photographs; she shows her husband, the club and the Yiddish play.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Jewish weddings in Balta before the war and Epelman answers questions about a wedding-related term. Epelman describes the postwar synagogues and kosher slaughter in Balta, and says he never learned to pray. He says he learned Yiddish from his grandfather and father and has two daughters who do not speak it. He recalls his grandfather's Yom Kippur gatherings, the rhymes he told to the grandchildren, and how he prayed with tefillin and tallit.
13:47
From the machine transcript
Epelman recalls a Yiddish song about hardship and then answers questions about words and expressions: thanks, forgiveness, a curse term, words for floor and festive greetings. He also covers Kerler's questions on food (potato latkes, kugel, matzo, filled fish, sweet foods) and holidays at his grandparents' home, including Hanukkah money and the four questions. He ends by describing the folk practice of 'speaking away' (curing) the evil eye, as done by his mother.
26:23
From the machine transcript
Epelman recalls the Yiddish-speaking Jewish carters he worked beside at the coal depot in the 1960s, and tells a joke about two of them and their wives. Kerler and Lemster ask about Yiddish words for horse feed, covered carriages, watchmakers and water carriers.
30:46
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about each sibling: they live in Israel (Beersheba), America and Kryvyi Rih, and most do not speak Yiddish. Epelman says his wife is Russian and they have lived together about fifty years. He then answers questions about Jewish trades and tells what he heard of a violin maker whose hands were beaten when Germans rounded up Jews. Kerler and Lemster also ask about Slavic-derived words and expressions.
37:52
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster put further questions about words and sayings, such as a light passenger, a winter or summer fool, being sick, and an honest or pious Jew. Epelman has little to add about the future of Yiddish. The interviewers thank him and close the interview.
11:31
From the machine transcript
The team greets Borukaeva and settles in, with talk of languages: she says she speaks mostly Russian but understands Yiddish, and mentions a visit to Israel. She states that she was born in Balta in 1933, that she lived in the ghetto there, and she gives her name Ester (Esfir) Srulevna, her maiden name Mulerman and her married name Borukaeva. Kerler then begins asking about her childhood years.
5:59
From the machine transcript
Lerner speaks of her studies, her professors and her three years of teaching at a village school. She then taught at an evening school in Balta. She mentions her uncle in Chernechi, a merchant, and a colleague whose husband returned from German captivity. She says the family spoke Russian at home, with Yiddish used by the aunt and uncle. She lists her mother's siblings: an aunt who went to Palestine in the 1920s, and a brother who lived in northern Russia. She recalls the aunt's visit from Israel in 1965 and the family reunion in Kishinev. She talks about her cousin in Kishinev, an engineer, and his daughter in Jerusalem.
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.
6:41
From the machine transcript
Miaskovskaia remembers her grandfather praying and her grandmother, and sings a Yiddish song about an old couple at a sick child's bed. She talks about her children and grandchildren in Rybnitsa and Germany, their languages and her visits to Germany. She gives the names of her grandparents and her father's work as a forwarding agent at a warehouse. Her family kept pigs, a cow and ducks before the war and for selling.
35:25
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks how life was after the war and Katz asks her to tell something in Yiddish, but Kazakevich answers mostly in Ukrainian and Russian, helped by relatives. She says the family spoke Yiddish at home, that her mother looked Ukrainian and passed as one, and she recalls the Germans rounding up Jews to be shot in prepared pits and her escape. Very little coherent Yiddish speech is heard.
46:54
From the machine transcript
Outside another building, the team talks in Russian with two women about a possible interview. They understand Yiddish but no longer speak it. One gives her Russian name Zoya and her Yiddish name Zlote, and Kerler wishes her good health.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Vaynman explains that after the war her mother and she were allowed to travel only as far as Vinnytsia and could not go on to Lviv. Her mother, widowed, feared bandits (Banderites) there, so she stayed and found work in a kindergarten and later a factory, then remarried in Bar to a veterinarian. Vaynman gives her mother's maiden name Sandler and her father's family name. She says they came to Bar at the end of 1944, and discusses her Yiddish and its closeness to Polish and Lithuanian Yiddish.
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.
26:58
From the machine transcript
Kerler thanks Vaynman for the interview and praises how she has kept her mother's Yiddish; she says she has no one to speak it with. Katz asks about Yiddish periodicals, and she says they receive them and a newspaper from Vinnytsia. Kerler describes the project and leaves her some paper about it.
16:59
From the machine transcript
Zhovtis says he attended a Ukrainian school, and recalls childhood friends and speaking Yiddish before the war. He says he came to Bar in the 1960s (?) and talks about a club where Yiddish is spoken and a visit to a memorial to Holocaust victims in Israel. Kerler asks about the interviewee's life, including how the Sabbath was kept.
23:42
From the machine transcript
Zhovtis discusses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, including Romanian soldiers, and their attitude to Jews. He recounts being beaten and the arbitrary violence under the occupation, and being made to wear a cross-like sign (?). There is talk of a mayor, of Purim fare and of Passover utensils, and of not eating pork.
15:21
From the machine transcript
Marmalevskaia says the family was poor when she was nine, her father worked in a tailors' cooperative, and she and her brother attended a Yiddish school in Bila Tserkva for ten years, finishing in 1940. She cannot name the school or the subjects, says she can read but has forgotten how to write Yiddish, and still has Yiddish books. She mentions marrying in 1946 and that her husband's family was killed by the Germans.
30:19
From the machine transcript
Marmalevskaia shows her Yiddish books, including a Sholem Aleichem volume (Tevye the Milkman) and monologues that her husband knew by heart. She says she still reads Yiddish but has forgotten how to write it.
45:18
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Katz ask Marmalevskaia about weddings and food customs. She recalls klezmer music and the huppah but not the badkhn or songs, and she names her husband as the singer. Questions follow on food: gefilte fish, chicken broth with almonds, tsimmes made with dried fruit or carrots, and latkes for Hanukkah made from various flours, as well as the words for vodka.
51:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Marmalevskaia about folk healing and beliefs. She does not remember old-women's remedies but recalls the term for an evil eye and its removal by incantation, and Kerler asks about the dybbuk and the golem.
54:50
From the machine transcript
Marmalevskaia answers questions about Jewish funerals and the cemetery in Bila Tserkva, which has an old and a new Jewish cemetery. Kerler asks for the Yiddish words for the cemetery and for burial, and for the expression used when remembering the dead.
5:26
From the machine transcript
Berman recalls his Rivne youth. His father was a well-known leather merchant, and his mother led the Jewish women's organization and took him as a child to banquets where he met Ben-Gurion and others. He mentions Yiddish as spoken by Ben-Gurion, Jabotinsky and Sholem Asch, and an incident at Asch's play. He also speaks of his articles on Rivne's football team and its match against a Viennese club, and on Jewish partisan doctors, which brought letters from abroad.
34:23
From the machine transcript
After a stretch of toasting and chat with Katz about books and the correspondence of a Polish visitor, Berman recalls the war years: his parents were taken to the Sosonki forest near Rivne and killed with other Jews, and the Yiddish inscriptions there. He describes studying at the medical institute in Stalingrad, Red Army service and the role his fluent German gave him: addressing German troops by loudspeaker and interrogating prisoners, with commanders such as General Chuikov. He recalls a young Jewish lieutenant and German thanks. Some stretches of Polish and Russian also appear, along with a question about Bila Tserkva's Hebrew name.
MDV 335Khariton Berman; Chara Yakovlevna Bublitskaia; Chara (Chare) Yakovlevna BublitskaiaBila Tserkva, 2005
23:34
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia answers Kerler's questions about her schooling in Chisinau. She attended a four-class Yiddish primary school and then a Yiddish gymnasium. Teaching was in Romanian and Yiddish: Yiddish reading, writing and Jewish history were taught in Yiddish, geography, literature and French in Romanian. Hebrew was not taught, although her father knew it.
45:43
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia answers Kerler's questions about the difference between a rav and a rebbe, the plural forms of both, and the expression a good Jew (a person who shares what he has).
47:31
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia describes Jewish weddings in Chisinau, with a chuppah, dancing and a fiddle and drum. She answers questions about food terms (gefilte fish, corn mush, cornmeal dishes, tsimes, meat dishes) and about drink: wine was drunk locally, and vodka came with the Soviets. She does not recognize several of the terms Kerler asks about.
51:44
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia answers questions about words for a possessing spirit, a golem or fool, the cemetery, potatoes, and food items such as corn mush, tomatoes and peppers. She often says she does not know the Yiddish word, and some terms she calls Ukrainian or Belarusian. Kerler then begins a series of Russian prompts to be rendered into Yiddish.
7:46
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia says she wanted to speak about Dr. Berman, who knows Yiddish, Hebrew, German and French and is a known doctor whose whole family are doctors. She then describes her own family of doctors: her late husband, her daughter and her granddaughter. Katz asks whether she remembers songs.
9:12
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia recalls a few lines of the song Afn pripetchik and 'Mayn shtetele Belts', and says she has not spoken Yiddish for 65 years since leaving Beltsy because her husband knew none. She speaks about her brother in Kyiv, who died years ago and who was a Zionist before the war, and about her maternal uncle who left Romania for Israel in 1970 and whose family she writes to. She says her mother could not travel in Soviet times.
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.
19:05
From the machine transcript
Shor says that only one non-Jew lived near them in Orhei and he spoke Yiddish fairly well. Asked about Hanukkah, he remembers Hanukkah money and playing dreidel. He describes Sabbath at home: his mother baked challah, made a meat soup with noodles, and bought fish and stuffed it.
35:49
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler ask the difference between a rav and a rebbe and what is meant by a good Jew. The Vaismans say they know little about Hasidism before the war. They add that going to a rebbe with a question and to a rav for a wedding canopy is known.
37:50
From the machine transcript
They discuss prewar Jewish religious life in Berdychiv, with a view that there was one religion and no sharp split between Hasidic and other Jews. A companion tells that people used to walk at night to a grave in town and an anecdote of Rabbi Bik on the Sabbath goy. The informants also recall that the lamp was kept burning on the Sabbath. Kerler then asks plural forms of rav and rebbe.
10:05
From the machine transcript
Discussion of prayer terms such as kiddush and kaddish and how they were said, with talk about who in Berdychiv still remembers the kaddish and about who attends the synagogue today. The passage is garbled, and the catalogue's recitation of the kaddish is not clearly confirmed in the transcript.
40:37
From the machine transcript
Talks about Jewish coachmen in prewar Berdychiv, who sometimes drank, and says they spoke Yiddish. The speaker also says that non-Jews spoke Yiddish before the war because there were so many Jews, while the grandchildren today do not know it.
10:59
From the machine transcript
Kerler begins an informal interview with Fania in Yiddish. She is a native of Berdychiv and speaks Yiddish at home. Her father was imprisoned under Stalin, in the 1930s (?), leaving her mother with four children. She says non-Jews, including a friend whose father was also imprisoned, spoke Yiddish before the war, and that Jews did not marry non-Jews. Her husband is an invalid.
24:17
From the machine transcript
The team chats with other people in the courtyard. Fania says she has already been interviewed. People talk about the rabbi and kosher food. Some Russian is heard, and Kerler introduces himself as coming from Israel or America. Kerler asks about the Yiddish for 'thank you' and the speakers' family names.
30:27
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii recalls that his parents spoke Hebrew (the holy tongue) so the children would not understand, and that he spoke it with his mother. The group then moves to sit down. He mentions a book of Yiddish stories by Berdychiv Jews that can be bought.
38:22
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii recalls attending a Yiddish school where eight to ten Russian pupils also studied, and that Yiddish was spoken better than Russian. Kerler gives the date as 11 July 2002 and the place as Berdychiv and begins recording personal details. Skobilitskii gives his Russian surname and says his Yiddish name is Khayim.
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.
30:16
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii describes the German round-up of Jews in 1943 from the synagogue. He recounts his own education and says he completed eight classes in a Yiddish school, one of eight Yiddish schools in prewar Berdychiv. About eighty percent of the inhabitants were Jewish, and Yiddish was spoken in the streets. He recalls a non-Jewish classmate who later spoke Yiddish with him.
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.
16:04
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii recalls the wedding jester (badkhn), who made the women cry and the guests laugh. He speaks in rhymes and has a melody. He then answers a question about the dybbuk, said of a bad person.
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.
46:45
From the machine transcript
The team is in the van, with a Russian remark that there were eight Jewish schools in town before the war and a comment that the town was largely Jewish. Skobilitskii speaks about the old synagogue and the school building no. 9. The passage then turns to the difference between 'honest' and 'pious' in Yiddish and an anecdote about being asked about his beard. Someone says he is a professor of Yiddish, and then a speaker begins to tell of a family wedding.
49:22
From the machine transcript
A speaker recalls a Jewish wedding in a Hungarian town, Pápa, in 1948. The speaker's mother had been there, and Hungarian and Hebrew were spoken. The passage mentions a stay in Austria in Tiefenbach (?), where Jews who spoke Yiddish lived. It ends with Jewish dishes such as gefilte fish from carp. It is unclear whether the speaker is Skobilitskii or an interviewer.
24:13
From the machine transcript
Breuer discusses Russian Hasidim (Karlin, Slonim) and Chabad's closeness to the Lithuanian world. He tells about his ancestors among Chabad Hasidim, with stories of the Alter Rebbe and of a Hasid called Yomi Kletsker (?), and about his eight children. He and the interviewers discuss Yiddish among Chabad and other Hasidim in Israel, where Hebrew is replacing it.
46:54
From the machine transcript
Furman talks about his childhood and school in Berdychiv. There were many Jewish schools alongside Russian, Ukrainian and Polish ones. About 60,000 Jews lived there, and many were killed at the airfield. He gives his siblings' birth years and says his friends were killed in the army. He studied in a Yiddish school, remembers Tolstoy and Sholem Aleichem, and says non-Jews also spoke Yiddish. He lived near the edge of town.
52:33
From the machine transcript
Furman explains how he came into the army: called up at twenty, then on the front when the war began, after naval service. He says he and his friends spoke Yiddish before the war and not Russian.
1:00:31
From the machine transcript
Furman says Berdychiv was a Jewish city where everything was done in Yiddish. Asked how it differed from Zhytomyr, he says he did not go there. The interviewers then turn to Stalingrad.
28:59
From the machine transcript
Soyfer speaks about his grandmother Rukhl, who spoke Yiddish, Ukrainian, Polish and German but no Russian. In her village, non-Jews could speak Yiddish and ate at Jewish tables, including at Passover, and he recalls a related story from his father. Lemster asks about her sayings and about Christians who spoke Yiddish.
38:32
From the machine transcript
Soyfer speaks about Berdychiv before the war. Few people had radios or electricity, many Jews were very poor, and his father said a herring cost a groschen. He remarks that many Jews today cannot speak Yiddish.
39:31
From the machine transcript
Soyfer and the interviewers discuss Jewish food: fish every Sabbath and a baked stuffed stomach dish, chicken soup, and the scarcity of kosher meat. They add carrot tsimes, Passover dishes, fruit brandies, and the Yiddish word for vodka, with Lemster comparing Moldova.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Berzon gives her name, her father's name and her maiden and married surnames, and says she was born in 1926 in Berdychiv. She tells about her father, who came from a town in Poland (name garbled), where her grandfather was a rabbi, and how he was captured as a soldier and stayed in Berdychiv. Her mother was from Zhytomyr and was brought up with a brother who went to America. She mentions her siblings: a brother killed in the war and another who died in Russia, and that her father made sieves with her mother's help.
7:53
From the machine transcript
Berzon says she attended a Jewish school for four years, then a Polish school after both were closed, and completed seven grades before the war. She worked during the war to earn money. She tells which subjects were taught in Yiddish and which in Ukrainian and Russian, and says Jewish history was not taught.
15:42
From the machine transcript
Berzon talks about which languages the family spoke after the war: Yiddish with her mother and mother-in-law, Yiddish and Russian with the children. She says her daughter speaks Yiddish well, has visited her children in America three times and lights Sabbath candles. Kerler then asks about Jewish school and literature.
48:49
From the machine transcript
Semyon Berzon recites a humorous Yiddish song about a rabbi, his goat and his wife and the faith of simple people who send the rabbi gifts. Kerler has him repeat it slowly line by line, asks the meaning of words such as lotkes (pancakes), and reads back what he wrote. Berzon says he learned it as a boy in the town and adds a short riddle-like song of opposites.
13:19
From the machine transcript
The interviewee tells of her schooling: her father sent her to a Russian school because Yiddish schools were expected to close. The speakers recall that Berdychiv was a Jewish town with over thirty thousand Jews, about seventy percent, and that a few Jewish schools existed. Today one sees almost no Jews on the street.
16:45
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish literature in school. The speakers mention reading Sholem Aleichem and say Yiddish literature was little taught, only Sholem Aleichem and Mendele being allowed. Kerler also asks about writers from Berdychiv, including Vasily Grossman.
31:13
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Shveibish discuss the word for a holiday, with Shveibish describing how they say it, and then consider potential interviewees, one a Pechora survivor from Bratslav. They exchange family names, and Shveibish says she can't read Russian well and explains the choice of Tulchyn for lodging.
49:25
From the machine transcript
Kogan tells how his wife survived hiding in a cellar in the war, and returns to his school years, where Russian, Ukrainian and German were taught, and of the Yiddish-speaking youth circle. He names the school director and a brother who later lived in America.
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.
6:00
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and about Jews who converted to Christianity. Vainshelboim recalls a Christian who worked for a Jew and lived among Jews and spoke Yiddish, and says he knows of no converts, apart from vague talk about a woman who lived with Germans. He also mentions reading a book of religious law.
14:15
From the machine transcript
She names the relatives lost in the war: her mother Sara, her sisters Ester and Zisl (the youngest was four), and her grandmother. She says she will show photographs. Kerler then asks about non-Jews in prewar Berdychiv and Yiddish. Both speakers say Yiddish was widely heard in the streets and that many non-Jews spoke it. They describe a Ukrainian locksmith who spoke good Yiddish, and say that few Jews now remain and Yiddish is spoken between themselves.
18:26
From the machine transcript
They discuss the language spoken with grandchildren, who understand Yiddish, and the family in America. A grandson there is a pious Skver Hasid, and the interviewee talks about the visa and emigration difficulties and his studies there.
42:12
From the machine transcript
The interviewee recalls a home prayer room with a Torah scroll that was stolen in wartime, and says Yiddish is spoken in Berdychiv. She explains which languages were used at home and with her grandchildren. They discuss the Yiddish school, which she knows only a few letters of, and letters in Yiddish from her grandmother and mother that she will show.
12:12
From the machine transcript
Soyfer talks about life today: his wife was bedridden for twelve years, his daughter cared for her, and they live on his pension. He talks about hard work, lost savings, the cost of medical treatment and an operation for his daughter, and help from the Joint and Jewish donors. In answer to Kerler, he says Yiddish was spoken at home with his wife and his daughter understands it, that there was no Yiddish school, and that his father did not teach him to pray.
33:25
From the machine transcript
Asked what he wants remembered about Jewish Berdychiv, Soyfer describes it as a Jewish town of honest people with Jewish trades and small prayer houses on every street, where there was no pogrom because young men defended it. He speaks of Yiddish-speaking neighbours, his grandmother in a village near Zhytomyr and the Germans' killing of Jews. Kerler thanks him and asks about his daughter's Yiddish, which Soyfer explains, and the passage ends with comments on yeshiva students and mixed Jews, and Kerler handing over project information.
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.
MDV 359Rita Davidovna Shveibish; Aleksandr (Sasha) Shayevich Kolodenker; Mikhail Aronovich Vainshelboim and 1 moreBerdychiv, Pechera, 2009
49:58
From the machine transcript
The team arrives at the Vainshelboim home and Kerler asks the couple to speak with them, preferably in Yiddish, which both use alongside Russian. They are the only Jewish family left in their locality. Kerler apologises for not phoning ahead, and there is talk of drinks and baking bread and of driving around Berdychiv together. Mikhail jokes about his wife as housewife, and about the weather after recent rain.
41:55
From the machine transcript
The team enters Burmenko's flat. She first speaks Russian, and Kerler explains that they speak only Yiddish and are from Moscow and America. She says that she understands Yiddish, speaks the Yiddish of Berdychiv, and has a Jewish soul. Someone asks for a stool to translate, and Kerler and Burmenko joke about Sholem Aleichem's brother.
6:14
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether her husband spoke Yiddish, and she says he did. The name of her husband's father, Mendl, is given, and she gives Mikhail as another name.
6:44
From the machine transcript
Informal conversation among Burmenko and the research team. They discuss the Americans' Yiddish and their need for interpreters. They talk about Burmenko's own Berdychiv Yiddish, her family going back generations in Berdychiv, and Kerler's own family name. Burmenko blesses the visitors with long life.
28:28
From the machine transcript
Hodinger says he learned three Purim plays in Selish and recites them. Kerler asks him to repeat them slowly line by line, to write them down and to explain unfamiliar words, such as those for the rebbe's gabbai and for a Purim gift.
44:01
From the machine transcript
Seated, Hodinger repeats the Purim plays more slowly at Kerler's request, with Kerler asking the meaning of phrases. Hodinger explains that he performed alone in a mask.
5:31
From the machine transcript
Hodinger is asked about old Yiddish songs and recalls a children's school song and a song about childhood memories, which he sings in part. Lemster asks whether Jews sang Hungarian songs, and Hodinger says they sang both. A second man mentions the six years of Hungarian rule and the bad years around 1938–1944. The song fragments are only partly intelligible.
12:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster ask Snook about the 'gut vort', the Saturday-night greeting, and about the blessings that began it, starting with the God of Abraham. She remembers only parts and says she has forgotten much. Lemster then asks what the village Jews did for a living.
16:08
From the machine transcript
Snook says her son was taught by a melamed. She herself went to a lame teacher for lessons so as to be able to pray. She did not read Yiddish newspapers, which came from Israel. The village had a library with various books, and her daughter-in-law knows Yiddish.
26:34
From the machine transcript
Snook says her belongings were stolen, though the wartime losses are only briefly described. Her husband's parents were taken to a camp in the 1940s and did not return. She has lived in Khust for twenty years and says young people there no longer speak Yiddish but understand it. Lemster asks about Christians who spoke Yiddish.
28:07
From the machine transcript
Snook says some local Christians learned Yiddish and spoke it. She talks about Jews and Christians living side by side. She notes good and bad people in both groups, and that Christian neighbors help her today.
39:58
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Snook talk about when her son will leave hospital. Lemster asks how she made gefilte fish, and she describes it using carp and chopped fish with pepper but no sugar. Kerler says the team will leave in a day or two. Lemster asks whether she still speaks Yiddish with people in Khust.
45:36
From the machine transcript
Inside the synagogue the men talk about the many former synagogues in Berehove and say they are Orthodox Ashkenazi. One says he is from Seliš (Vynohradiv) and has lived in Berehove for about fifty years, while the other is a Berehove native. They discuss how few Jews remain, the minyan, and the absence of women singers. Kerler and Lemster ask about languages spoken (Yiddish, Hungarian, Russian, Czech, English), about nearby Jewish villages and Yiddish speakers, and about the Hesed.
22:01
From the machine transcript
Murovanaia speaks about Passover dishes (kneidlach, stuffed fish, kugel) and a childhood Jewish friend, now in Moscow, with whom she spoke Russian. Her two daughters' ages are given, along with a silver wedding in August. Murovanaia says her mother was a Communist yet believed in God; she compares Yiddish speaking in the family with Russian schooling.
27:13
From the machine transcript
Murovanaia says that after her marriage she celebrated Jewish holidays at her in-laws', whose father was a Communist but whose mother observed the holidays, without prayer, while Soviet holidays were kept at her own home. She learned cooking from her mother-in-law and describes the Passover foods. Later she mentions a grandson's seder in Moscow, and that her family is secular; Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for religious.
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.
9:28
From the machine transcript
She recalls the start of the war: a month in town, then bombing, evacuation and a long stay of a year away, and a return to Bershad in March 1944 with no house left. Kerler asks about a dialect word for 'back' or 'returned' and whether the speakers know it.
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.
18:01
From the machine transcript
Bershadskaya says Bershad was a purely Jewish town and that few young Jews remain. She speaks about a son of about 40 who works at a factory and knows no Yiddish. She attended a Russian school and later worked at a Ukrainian school, though she understands Yiddish from home. She also mentions living in Chernyatka.
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.
28:39
From the machine transcript
After the interview with Leiderman ends, an informal conversation follows with local people. They discuss Hebrew prayer, the blessing over bread, candle blessings and the four questions of Passover. They say Passover was kept in Yiddish in many Bershad' families. Much of the speech is hard to follow.
30:06
From the machine transcript
Kerler talks with a man, said to be from Bratslav, about how his parents and grandparents spoke Yiddish, and about a coppersmith in Bratslav whom the team visited. The man says he was an editor of a Yiddish paper. They also discuss Yiddish-speakers in Ukraine today, then travel plans and logistics. The speech is largely garbled, and the catalogue's talk of contemporary religious life is not clear in the transcript.
10:35
From the machine transcript
Bershadskaya talks about Hanukkah in Chernyotka, held in a rented house, including the dreidel and latkes made of potatoes. She says her father taught the children what they needed in Yiddish, and mentions that her mother died before the war. Kerler then leads into the war years.
14:43
From the machine transcript
Kerler invites the informant to tell something or sing a song, but she says she has forgotten. He asks which languages Jews spoke and whether some wanted to speak only Hebrew; she says everyone spoke Yiddish. The interview is concluded with thanks, and other people mention a scholar and an archive. Vygodner (?) says he will show the apartment.
31:50
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shor about terminology from the Soviet period (the words kulak and kolkhoz), and about what he read in the Yiddish school. He asks whether a line of a Yiddish poem sounds familiar, and the answers are unclear.
34:06
From the machine transcript
Asked about Soviet Yiddish writers, Shor names Itsik Fefer; Kerler suggests Markish, Dovid Bergelson and others. Kerler urges him to answer in Yiddish rather than Russian. Shor then recites Hebrew prayers (Shema and a Passover section) from memory or from his prayer book.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Brief exchange about cooking utensils that Shor has shown. Kerler asks whether a frying pan is called by a certain Russian-Ukrainian name in Shor's Yiddish and asks about the words for a chopping knife and a pan.
16:34
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks for the Yiddish word for a section or line of the prayer book (ray) and its meaning. Shor reads aloud from the book in Hebrew and Yiddish, a passage about visiting graves of the righteous before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
29:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about singing at home at Passover and about Soviet-era parodies; Shor mentions Russian songs but little else clear. He sings a few lines of the Yiddish song asking where the seven good years have gone. Kerler then asks about Yiddish theater.
58:38
From the machine transcript
Kerler recalls a pastry Gvinter once gave the team and she gives the recipe for strudel (the Bershad' kind): a dough made with many eggs, a sugar syrup, nuts and raisins. The participants then discuss the words for raisins in Yiddish and Russian, and what grows in Bershad' (a tree).
8:33
From the machine transcript
Gvinter describes Passover dishes made from matzo, with details of the ingredients, and says what was eaten before the Yom Kippur fast. Kerler and others talk over a food offer, and she discusses preparing salad in Bershad' today. Kerler then asks for the Yiddish words for green onions, potatoes and eggplant, and how she cooks eggplant.
20:25
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether her mother taught her folk remedies; Gvinter says her mother was a housewife who did not know such things. She mentions a child of her parents who died of smallpox before she was born. Kerler then asks the meanings of a series of words and phrases (such as a dybbuk, a golem and the Yiddish for a cemetery) and sayings used when speaking of the dead.
58:49
From the machine transcript
Gvinter talks about his brothers. One died, another worked as a loader and died after an operation, and a third emigrated to America from near Odessa and was killed by a car after three years. Asked why he does not move to Israel, he says it is hard for him. He recalls his forty years in the sewing workshop and mentions that his grandchildren speak Hebrew.
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.
21:12
From the machine transcript
Feldman speaks of her health and her daughter's treatment, then tells a story from her mother about her grandfather, who asked for a small window in his grave. She describes prewar burial customs: carrying the dead by hand, washing hands, and the dressing of the dead. She says she speaks Ukrainian and Yiddish and is proud to be Jewish.
50:24
From the machine transcript
Feldman recalls the hunger of her childhood after the war. She describes how she and her mother cooked and ate flour, potato and berry dishes, black bread and cornmeal. She and Lemster discuss the Yiddish word for maize and the Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian words for it. She then describes a semolina porridge and mamaliga with milk.
23:38
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions about postwar Bershad', Sklyarskiy says the synagogue was used and many Jews attended, and that Yiddish was spoken in the streets. He says he was married in Bershad' with Jewish music and klezmer, and that kosher meat could be bought. Kerler then asks about his granddaughter Lena in Israel and begins asking for an address for correspondence.
40:49
From the machine transcript
Sklyarskiy and Kerler finish the formal interview and he speaks of today's life, the market and the neighbours. He recalls a Jewish couple, and a pious man who prayed, and says that few Jews and some non-Jews still speak Yiddish in Bershad'. They discuss the cost of dental care and the polyclinic. He returns to the story of the two hiding places and to the geography of Ivanky and Lipovets. Kerler thanks him and offers blessings.
6:31
From the machine transcript
The guide, speaking Russian and Yiddish, shows the former synagogue and women's section and says it was used as a sports hall in Soviet times. She describes the restoration by a benefactor named Fishl (?), the current neglect of the building, and the Hebrew classes upstairs. She recalls holidays filled with 140–160 people and says it was not comfortable to speak Yiddish in the street. Kerler asks about Moldovans, Bulgarians and Gagauz in town, and the meaning of the town's name is explained.
15:26
From the machine transcript
The team drives with Milevskaya to the next interview and passes through the area; there is chat in Russian and Yiddish about the road, a phone and wine. At Teitel's place she talks about Yiddish: her family understood it but did not speak it in public for fear. Her parents, grandparents and mother-in-law spoke it among themselves.
38:44
From the machine transcript
Teitel talks about a distant relative of her mother-in-law and about her own family, her husband's death and her grief, and holidays kept only while the older generation lived. She tells of antisemitism in Sarata and why the family did not speak Yiddish, and says her husband praised Soviet power and asked for a Russian burial. She talks about Israel and the Jewish wife's role, and about her own long work life. Near the end Kerler and Milevskaya discuss matzo, the unwillingness of older people to pass Yiddish on, and the postwar atmosphere.
9:11
From the machine transcript
A second woman (Pustilnik per the catalogue) shows a kiddush cup and the talk turns to a circumcision, with small silver items mentioned. She says she is from Yampil and that her grandmother lived in Yire (?). Some of the group are shown to speak little Yiddish. The transcript is garbled.
34:20
From the machine transcript
Loyf continues about her husband's family and the deaths of his mother and her own mother, who died in Israel. She says she spoke Yiddish at home and read in Russian and Ukrainian rather than Yiddish, and gets Yiddish booklets from abroad. She mentions trips to Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil for Jewish gatherings. She also talks about her mother's older brother.
40:04
From the machine transcript
Loyf says she speaks Russian or Ukrainian with her husband, and her children do not speak Yiddish. She recalls Yiddish theater coming to Dzegovka twice and lists local trades: a wigmaker, a carpenter, a pharmacist and rich Jews. She tells of the good spring water the townspeople used for washing and cooking.
44:21
From the machine transcript
Loyf describes how her mother made gefilte fish, stuffing the fish skin, and other dishes, answering Lemster's questions about terms such as meat in vinegar and potato pancakes. She gives a recipe for onion and potato dishes, and one for semolina dumplings in bouillon that she learned from a butcher in Boryslav. Some questions on Yiddish names for dishes are also raised.
57:10
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks Loyf about terms such as dybbuk, golem and goylem, which she does not know in that sense, and about the word for cemetery, to which she gives 'holy place' (heylik-ort) and relates it to a field in Dzegovka. He then prepares to read Russian words for her to translate.
13:42
From the machine transcript
Berkovich describes Berehove as a different kind of town with Hasidim, Orthodox Jews and about seven thousand Jews. He belonged to the Zionist Hashomer Hatzair, whose meetings included singing and dancing. Asked about Yiddish, he did not read it but learned a little Hebrew in cheder. He does not recall using a Jewish library.
29:54
From the machine transcript
Berkovich answers questions about terms, including his mother tongue (Hungarian) and the Yiddish for 'cemetery', which he has forgotten. Asked about the town's trades, he lists carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, barbers and wigmakers, and says some Hasidim sold lemonade and ice cream.
13:57
From the machine transcript
Pustilnik tells how the family slept on straw after the war and how Soviet soldiers threatened them, and how her mother shielded the children by lying over them. Her father, who never returned from the war, is known only through documents. A sister in Malyn (?) was unable to obtain the pension due to the family because of the father's death, and the pension was taken by a brother. Kerler asks what language they speak among themselves, and she answers that they speak Yiddish at home and the language of non-Jews outside.
18:49
From the machine transcript
Pustilnik says her daughter speaks Yiddish and wants to go to Israel, while her son has lived in Israel for eighteen years and has forgotten the language. She never saw her father or a photograph of him; she mentions an aunt, Tabe, who helped them after the war, and describes her maternal grandfather Avrom, whose surname is unclear (Pleyder (?)), who worked in a kolkhoz. She says she studied in the village school and did well in mathematics.
38:46
From the machine transcript
Pustilnik talks about life today, saying there are no Jews left and no one to speak to. Her brother and sisters call from Israel and speak Yiddish, and she says she supports her son's children there. She says people were afraid to circumcise under the Soviets, and that she recites the groom song again without completing it. Kerler talks about the archive and about Yiddish speakers in Drohobych (?).
43:51
From the machine transcript
Pustilnik is asked what "mame-loshn" means. She recalls hunger after the war, with her mother walking on foot from Yampil to Malyn to buy soap and matches, and the children sold things at the market for bread. She remembers her sister's death in the cart.
8:14
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about cultural terminology. She is asked about a dybbuk and a golem, and says she did not know the first. She gives words for funeral, cemetery and holy place. Kerler checks whether the words are Jewish or non-Jewish usage.
5:11
From the machine transcript
She recalls going with her mother to the shoykhet for a chicken and running away as a child. She describes the long street of the shtetl, says she spoke Yiddish at home with her mother and father, and that she attended a Ukrainian rather than a Yiddish school. She names her parents' birthplaces again as Klein-Chernovits (?) and Yampil.
18:32
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster put cultural-terminology questions and she answers some, including words for a golem and a fool and a sentence about a farmer. She gives blessings and wishes for long life, recalls an expression about growing older, and answers questions about spells and folk sayings. She replies that she knows no Yiddish way to say some of them, and mentions a woman who sold dreams.
25:18
From the machine transcript
She says her father the tailor sang while sewing, and Kerler and Lemster ask about the words of the song. She says Yiddish was understood by Ukrainian neighbours and tells how her father went blind and worked in an artel. She has two brothers and a sister, and mentions a husband Pavel and a daughter Adelke, and ends by saying she loves Jews.
14:32
From the machine transcript
Kupershmidt and Kerler talk about a non-Jewish helper who understands Yiddish, and Kerler asks how to say that someone is a believing person. The interviewers explain the project, and Kerler begins questions with a Russian prompt. Kupershmidt chats about where the visitors are from and about the town of Medzhybizh.
MDV 394Musya Moiseevna Vaynshteyn; Sofia (Sime-Leye; David (Dovid) Geller and 1 moreUman', Bratslav, 2005
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler returns to Sabbath at home and asks about a Sabbath dish. The interviewee does not know the term, and they try to establish what was cooked, with beans mentioned. She also speaks briefly about her late husband.
2:31
From the machine transcript
The interviewee mentions a childhood friend who later went to America and visited her. Kerler asks what games they played and what the word for a doll is in Yiddish; she says the Russian word is not Yiddish and discusses other terms.
25:51
From the machine transcript
Sofia cannot recall Yiddish songs, saying decades of pressure made them forget. Katz and Kerler prompt her, and she and others sing fragments of 'Itsik hot shoyn khasene gehat' and 'Lomir zikh tsekushn'. She talks about her family: her daughters live in Moscow, a granddaughter studies there, and an aunt sang Yiddish songs. They now speak Russian at home. She says that Yiddish was her parents' language and that her older brother finished six years of Jewish school before the war, while she attended a non-Jewish school. Kerler also asks about Nemirov and a saying about it.
51:31
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Sabbath food. Sofia and David speak of the Sabbath cholent, which was cooked in the baker's oven. They compare chopped fish with gefilte fish, and the Yom Kippur kreplekh. Sofia explains how her own strudel and honey-baked sweets differ from the version of Kerler's mother, who was from Kremenets. They also discuss the Yiddish word for oil.
7:50
From the machine transcript
The Gellers drink toasts and sing together, including a wedding-related song. Kerler explains that he can speak Russian but does not understand it. The passage includes a Russian song and a Yiddish folk song about a peasant and a balalaika, with Kerler's thanks. Singing is mixed with chat.
MDV 398Dora (Dvoyre) Iosifovna Yatskova; Tsilya Yakovlevna Koifman; cemetery caretaker (unnamed)Kopayhorod, Bratslav, 2008
2:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Yatskova discuss the Yiddish term for a cemetery. In Russian she says she visits the cemetery often and lays flowers or stones, and that Hasidim who come from Israel know her. She gives directions to the Polish and Jewish cemeteries on the road to Vinnytsia.
34:21
From the machine transcript
Koifman says Yiddish was spoken at home and that her father was named Yosi. She notes that he prayed at home, where he had his books and a tallis. She has no children. The passage begins with little recorded speech.
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.
46:22
From the machine transcript
Kelmenson says she still works as a teacher of Ukrainian and Russian after her husband's death. She was born in Proskurov in Khmelnytskyi oblast. Her parents and grandparents spoke, read and wrote Yiddish. Her grandfather was dispossessed as a kulak, and her father Chaim was repressed in 1937. Her husband was a mining engineer who studied in Dnipropetrovsk, and her two sons are a doctor and a businessman who speak Russian but understand Yiddish. The interviewers introduce themselves and the project.
7:30
From the machine transcript
Kelmenson explains the education of her children and brother, one a doctor and one in trade economics, and says she worked at a school. Many teachers were Jewish, and former pupils call her. She mentions a Yiddish school in the building before the war and a teacher who taught history.
11:50
From the machine transcript
Kelmenson names other remaining Bratslav residents who still speak Yiddish, mostly older people, and mentions one man and his family. Lemster and Kerler ask for names and for whether the speakers are older or younger.
20:51
From the machine transcript
Kelmenson describes the house divided between her family and her parents, and says her children live in Tulchyn and she has grandchildren. Kerler and Lemster ask how important Yiddish is to being Jewish, and she answers it is a duty of the nation. She also mentions her sons' travel to Israel.
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.
17:12
From the machine transcript
Katz asks about terms such as Litvak and misnaged, and Khavin explains that Chernihiv Jews were Litvaks, speaking with a Lithuanian accent unlike Polish Jews. They discuss where a different Yiddish begins, with places named including Nizhyn and Pryluky, and a few words such as come and buy. Khavin says he had not heard of the Vilna rabbi or the Baal Shem Tov, and that two synagogues were taken before the war.
42:50
From the machine transcript
Khavin discusses with Katz the phrase for being born. He says he and his two brothers all served at the front, were wounded and survived, and mentions a brother-in-law who also fought. Kerler redirects the conversation to the holidays.
7:29
From the machine transcript
Katz asks Khavin what he remembers of prayer. Khavin says he needs a prayer book, recites a Kaddish and says he can read Hebrew only in the synagogue; he says he knows other prayers only in Russian. He then recites a blessing, perhaps one over wine. Kerler and Katz ask whether there was a beys-medresh in Chernihiv; Khavin says he only heard of one.
41:24
From the machine transcript
Bielaia says little was sung or spoken in Yiddish because of politics, and people were afraid to be known as Jews. She contrasts this with today, with the Hesed and synagogue.
55:19
From the machine transcript
Bielaia says her mother-in-law spoke Yiddish with her, but her daughter does not know it. She names latkes made of grated potatoes with flour for Hanukkah and hamantashn for Purim, which her mother baked. She finds the past hard to recall and says she is now learning Yiddish by herself.
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.
21:53
From the machine transcript
Khavin gives names of towns and villages around Chernihiv, and Katz asks how each was said in Yiddish. These include Rybka (?), Horodnia, Berezna, Sosnytsia, Novhorod-Siverskyi, Brahin, Pryluky and Krasylivka. Khavin says Jews in the twelfth century could not live in towns and lived in villages, and that Chernihiv, Nizhyn and Berdychiv were exceptions. A tsar later barred them from villages (this part is garbled).
34:32
From the machine transcript
Katz asks for the Yiddish names of towns near Chernihiv, including Kozelets, Homel, Brahin, Pripyat and Chornobyl. Khavin says he does not know the Yiddish forms of some. Kerler mentions the Chernobyl rebbe, Reb Nokhum.
46:39
From the machine transcript
Burg addresses Jewish writers in postwar Chernivtsi and his own return from Russia, where he had spent the war. He recalls attending the funeral of Mikhoels in Moscow, the anti-Jewish campaign of 1948 and his graduate studies in Moscow. He worked at a pedagogical institute and studied with Nusinov. He mentions Moscow Yiddish writers he knew, including Markish, Bergelson and Fefer, and discusses a few present-day Yiddish writers. He ends with an account of Fefer being brought from prison to meet Paul Robeson in Moscow and not telling him what had happened.
52:25
From the machine transcript
Burg answers Kerler's questions about holiday foods: potato cheese-pancakes (kayzlekh) for Passover and latkes for Hanukkah, with the word barbolyes (?) for potatoes and tatshn baked potato dishes. He discusses Shavuot greenery, Tisha B'Av customs, reading the Song of Songs on Passover and the haggadah at home. He recites part of the Four Questions in Hebrew and Yiddish. Kerler also asks how long he attended cheder.
16:55
From the machine transcript
Burg discusses the bathhouse and mikveh in Vyzhnytsya and the expression about being led into the bathhouse ("geyen in bod arayn"). He retells animal stories attributed to Eliezer Steinberg, including a sailor and a lioness, and describes Steinberg's fables and children's books. He talks about his own youth: Hashomer Hatzair, the Yiddish School Union, and evenings with writers and artists such as Itzik Manger and Shloyme Bikl. He discusses the Czernowitz language conference, with an exchange with Kerler about a commemorative conference planned for the hundredth anniversary, as well as the Yiddish theater and the Bund. He also describes the Czernowitzer Bleter of the 1930s and the writers who published in it, and the death and funeral of Steinberg in 1932.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
On a drive through Chernivtsi, the guide points out the former Jewish quarter and where the ghetto began. Kerler and the guide discuss which streets were rich or middle-class, a monument to Bukovinian victims of Jewish murder put up by Ukrainian nationalists, and street names such as Russian Street, Shalom Aleichem Street and Karl Marx Street. Kerler also asks about the non-Jewish population, converts and a Yiddish plural form; much of the talk is in Russian directions to the driver.
10:11
From the machine transcript
Hesed staff speak with Kerler about his Yiddish project of interviewing elderly speakers and about Kerler's background, partly in Russian. They discuss Yiddish in Chernivtsi after the war, including the writer Moyshe Altman, the Soviet-era pressure on him to sign a statement, and the fading of Yiddish. They talk about the hesed's newspaper and Joint support, and about attitudes toward Yiddish, Chabad and Israel, and the project's aim of studying prewar Yiddish speech, not the Holocaust.
26:45
From the machine transcript
Kleiman talks about his family: his naming after his grandfather and sister's after his grandmother, his father David son of Yeshaye, and the story of his grandfather marrying a niece (his brother's stepdaughter), apparently after a quarrel over kashrut. He gives his mother's name Golde, her father Tevye (?), her family name Utshitel, her brother's emigration to Palestine, and her role as housewife. His father was a shopkeeper before the war and worked in a shop afterwards, and Kerler asks which words were used.
12:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the taste of her mother's gefilte fish. Gimelbrandt says she makes it the same way, with a little sugar, and bakes a Sabbath loaf for the Hesed group. She names the dumpling she calls kezelekh against the Bessarabian name (?), and discusses brandy at kidesh and yortsayt. She then recalls her grandmother's remedy for the evil eye and agrees to give the wording.
29:53
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about her sister, a member of Hashomer, who went to Palestine but returned to Khotyn when the war started. She also gives her family name (Kerzhner), her mother's name (Nekhe) and her grandparents' names, Leah and Hersh. She names three sisters and a brother, and tells what happened to them in the war: evacuation and Siberia. She sings the kibbutz text to the melody of "Vu bistu geven", and Kerler asks about a Yiddish expression for a non-Jew.
18:50
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about the war years, when she was held in a camp from July until March at Kopaihorod (the name is garbled). She sings two songs in Russian that she composed there, and describes hunger, her mother bartering for bread and potatoes, and local non-Jews warning of gendarmes. She also sings a Yiddish song she heard in the camp, and speaks about praying in the camp and Yiddish among younger people today.
4:36
From the machine transcript
Shames says only Yiddish was spoken at home. Her mother was Jewish, her sister was killed by the Germans, her father was also killed, and her mother later died. She did not know her grandparents and does not know where her father was born. His family had lived earlier in Lube (?) and moved to Yanoshpol when she was small.
5:47
From the machine transcript
Shames speaks about the war years and after. She worked in a factory in evacuation and then came to Khmil'nyk, where her mother had survived the war. She worked as an accountant, did not attend a Yiddish school (she was taught at home at eight), then switched to Ukrainian. She tells how her father was killed and how her mother hid and survived, and cannot recall details.
14:44
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about childhood friends and school. Shames says she attended a Ukrainian school and there was no Yiddish school. After finishing she stayed at home helping her mother. She recalls a teacher who taught her Hebrew as a child, and Kerler asks about Purim food.
21:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether her mother made gefilte fish and whether she could read Yiddish books. She repeats that as a child she learned Hebrew from a teacher but forgot it. Questions about whether her mother taught her candle blessing and about the arrival of Soviet rule (1919 (?)) follow. She cannot recall details of her studies in a technical school elsewhere.
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.
28:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler notes that Khmil'nyk was a spa town after the war and asks whether Jews came in summer. Shames says they did, but Jewish practice faded. She worked as an accountant in an office where Jews spoke Ukrainian or Russian. At home with her mother she spoke Yiddish.
31:51
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about vodka and the word 'dybbuk', which she does not know. She recalls a holy site visited on yortsayt, with a rebbe before Soviet rule. Back in Khmil'nyk after the war she worked at a factory making boilers, in the laboratory and as accountant, before Kerler proposes a short Russian-to-Yiddish word test.
56:36
From the machine transcript
Kerler invites Shames to tell something freely in Yiddish; she says she has nothing to tell and did not expect the visit. The interviewers explain they study the Yiddish language. She says she learned Yiddish as a child and speaks it now with nobody. She describes working for 23 years in a textile factory, where co-workers spoke Russian or Ukrainian because the boss was Christian. She recounts evacuation to the Urals, her parents being taken, her return to Khmil'nyk, where her mother had survived.
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.
8:28
From the machine transcript
Gammer describes her schooling in the Khmil'nyk Jewish labor school. It taught in Yiddish up to the seventh grade and was then made a Russian school. She lists the subjects, a good Yiddish literature teacher, and the writers read, including Bergelson, Fefer, Markish and Peretz. She sent her Yiddish school books to a museum in Kyiv. She still reads Yiddish and subscribes to a Yiddish newspaper, and the interviewers discuss Yiddish periodicals with her and her daughter.
24:48
From the machine transcript
Gammer says she studied Yiddish for seven grades, reads it today, but cannot write by hand. She discusses her family. Her mother came from a rich family in Lithuania and knew prayers and Hebrew, and her grandfather Zalmen was a doctor. Her grandmother was Ite Beyle. Her paternal grandfather Shloyme was a poor tailor with six children. The matchmaking of her parents is explained by a Lithuanian typhus loss during the Petliura period. Her father, a young Komsomol member, worked for the Cheka and became a partisan.
37:51
From the machine transcript
Gammer says she worked 37 years in a bread shop and now lives on a pension. Her daughter is also an invalid. She spoke Yiddish with her husband at home, and her daughter Genia learned to read Yiddish from her father. She comments on Jews who left for Israel, Germany and America, and on the town's Jewish population: about twelve or thirteen thousand before the war and five or six thousand after.
45:40
From the machine transcript
Gammer answers questions about prewar Sabbath and holiday food. She mentions challah, fish, noodle kugel, cholent and vinegar meat, and discusses terms for chopped fish and a jellied dish. She recalls Hanukkah latkes and children singing a Simchat Torah rhyme, which she repeats for Lemster to record. There are brief answers on Purim and a Passover memory of her grandfather, the dishes and the four questions, with goose fat for Passover. She says her mother died two weeks before the war, so she has no memories of her blessing the candles.
17:52
From the machine transcript
Kapustina answers questions about her Jewish school, which was later converted to a Russian one. She recalls the teacher Zhuk, a principal, and a wall newspaper. She says that she has forgotten Yiddish and that her relatives did not go to Israel.
8:34
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about her earliest memories. She says she studied at a Ukrainian school and that Jews spoke Yiddish among themselves. She recalls Passover being kept as Jews did at home and that she was the eldest sister.
20:57
From the machine transcript
Asked about nearby towns, Shames recalls little. She has not met Yiddish-speaking Christians. She says a teacher taught her Yiddish as a child and she went with her mother to synagogue, but she now remembers nothing of Yiddish and has no one to speak with. She mentions four neighbours.
1:00:14
From the machine transcript
Asked to describe prewar Jewish life in Drohobych, Weiss gives the Jewish population as about nineteen thousand five hundred out of a larger total population. He says there were two synagogues and about twenty prayer houses, and answers questions about the Yiddish name for them.
11:06
From the machine transcript
Weiss recalls going to the Spandorf synagogue with his father on holidays. He answers questions about words for Sabbath and about whom he studied with as a small child: a melamed, plus Hebrew classes from a general Zionist organization. He says Jews mostly spoke Polish, with Yiddish used by older people and in the synagogue. Spandorf, the wealthy chairman of the synagogue, and the prewar mayor Tetlboym (name as heard) are mentioned.
30:01
From the machine transcript
Weiss talks about his Polish gymnasium: strict teachers, Latin, Ukrainian and German lessons, a favorite mathematics teacher whose name is given, and the German teacher. He earned money by tutoring. He recalls antisemitism, mostly in Lviv and also visible in Drohobych, alongside friendships with non-Jewish classmates. He then answers questions about Bruno Schulz, his drawing teacher, and tells about a cousin, Regina Hershdorfer, who was hidden, sent to camps and returned to Drohobych, where she died in 1990.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich says that few of 'our Jews' remain in Drohobych, only 'Russian Jews' whom she regards as a different people, and contrasts Polish-Jewish culture with theirs. She is bitter about Jews emigrating to Germany after what the Germans did to her family. Kerler explains the university project and, at the end, begins to put the formal opening questions on record, asking her name and the date and place of the interview.
18:17
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich attended a Polish school for ten years and, besides it, cheder; she remembers little about the rabbi or the lessons. Polish was spoken at home as well as Yiddish, and she took part in a Jewish youth organization with singing and dancing. She says she felt no antisemitism before the war, since she moved among Polish children. She talks about an assimilated Drohobych acquaintance (Shreyer, whom she names) who knows no Yiddish, about Bruno Schulz, and again about the 'Russian Jews' who came in 1939 and were seen as a different people, with Kerler and a second voice asking questions about Poles, Lithuanian and Vilna Jews.
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.
46:31
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich talks about games with the children in school and says there was also a Jewish school where Yiddish was taught; Kerler explains the difference between written and printed Yiddish. Asked about blessings, she tries to say the blessings for thunder and for lightning, with some confusion and Kerler's repeated requests; at the end Kerler turns to the Shavuot question.
49:51
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Shavuot, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur and Passover food and customs; Shekhovich remembers little, saying that her parents spoke Yiddish but the children Polish, that her family was not so religious, though Yom Kippur was fasted and Passover had a seder without bread. She says her daughter makes gefilte fish very well, but declines to give a recipe, calling it women's business. Later there is talk of Polish and Ukrainian language, her birth year (probably 1919), and her views on Israel and troubles there.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich and Kerler talk about where Jews still live in the area, and the interviewers say where they come from (Podolia, Kremenets, Chernivtsi, Israel, England, America; S2 from Toronto). Kerler then asks about the meaning of terms such as a good Jew, a pious or holy person, an honest person, a dybbuk and a golem, and about saying Kaddish for the dead. He asks about the words for fish dishes and parts of an animal. Shekhovich often answers with Ukrainian or Russian equivalents.
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.
23:31
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich briefly mentions a Yiddish song her husband sang to the children, then answers questions about words such as dybbuk and golem, which she does not know. She talks about attending cheder, her mother's candle blessing and the koshering of meat by soaking and salting, and says her mother baked challah. She describes the lack of Yiddish speakers today, even in the Hesed.
45:19
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich says she was the only one of her whole family to survive the war, thanks to her husband, who risked his life to hide her. She says she can say little about her brothers' fate. She talks about reading Yiddish, Jewish newspapers and the need for money for school, and recalls her grandmother reading a tkhine and her mother's use of Yiddish. She says her husband knew Yiddish better than she does.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Schreier recalls the end of the war and the years after it. He worked as a German–Russian interpreter without ever having studied German formally, was in Freiberg until the end of 1945, then went to Dresden (Hellerau, Klotzsche) as interpreter for the Soviet trade administration. He describes being gathered at Teltow near Berlin, the Red Cross in Berlin where he asked about an aunt and uncle in Argentina, and a camp in Grodno where he played in a small orchestra, until he returned to Drohobych via Vilnius with a fellow musician.
12:35
From the machine transcript
Talks about Sabbath and holidays at home in Nadvirna, with food such as meat and a Sabbath dish baked in the oven; his mother made the fish. He says he could pray a little and was not a reader of Yiddish books. Asked about Purim, he recalls his father teaching the children songs, which they sang for the wealthy who gave them money.
20:49
From the machine transcript
Shekhter explains that he was drafted before the war and so was separated from his parents; his father was a synagogue shammes. He never saw his parents or siblings again, and he is the only survivor of his family, with no children from either marriage. Kerler asks about Yiddish speakers in Fastiv; a woman present mentions a few people, including a man who speaks a little Yiddish.
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.
26:50
From the machine transcript
Asked about early memories of Nadvirna, Shekhter recalls a Jewish town with a river (the Bystritsa), girls and games by the water. He answers Lemster's questions about Yiddish writers (Sholem Aleichem a little, Hersh Polianker not at all) and recalls an amateur Yiddish theater and a club. He briefly says he fears traveling there now because of antisemitism, answers questions on terms (dybbuk, golem) and Purim songs, and recalls a sports club and football. At the end a woman and Lemster discuss in Russian and Yiddish who in town still speaks Yiddish.
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.
19:55
From the machine transcript
Khasidovich talks about Jewish holidays before the war, about the former Jewish street in Fastiv (Kyivska Street) and about how she is now the only Jew in her building. She answers questions about whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish and about her mother's cooking, including gefilte fish, how it was made and what fish were used, and also a dish of meat with vinegar. Kerler asks about Purim: she names the Purim pastries and says she has forgotten the Purim songs and does not know the word purim-shpil. She and the interviewers then talk about how life was before and how young people behaved, and Kerler asks about visiting Yiddish theater.
47:14
From the machine transcript
Khasidovich says that Jews who came to the bread shop spoke Yiddish with her. Kerler and Lemster ask whether challah was sold there and what kinds of bread and rolls were baked. They also ask about circumcision after the war, which was done secretly, and about her wedding: she says there was a huppah led by a rabbi, with her parents present, and describes the food at the wedding, including pastries and fish. The passage ends with questions on dialect vocabulary, for example the word for sunflower seeds, and on songs, dances and musicians.
28:49
From the machine transcript
Kopyt describes how, after the war, Jews gathered in private homes for Sabbath and prayer while the synagogue was taken over by the militia, and she names families who hosted a minyan. Kerler asks what language was spoken at home. She then complains about housing and heating repairs and officials. She explains that she cannot go to Israel because of the graves of her relatives in Fastiv, and begins to say what songs she knows.
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.
52:24
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions about songs, Kopyt sings fragments of Yiddish songs she recalls from a non-Jewish shoemaker neighbour who worked with Jews, and a toast at a wedding. She sings the tailor song again in full, adding one on Sholem Aleichem. Kerler notes how to pronounce Yiddish words in the Ashkenazic way. Lemster then asks about gravestones, and she says she has photographs showing the Babi Yar-type memorials (a mass grave of Jews and one for kolkhoz peasants).
24:31
From the machine transcript
Burshtein explains that Jews no longer read or write Yiddish. He attended a Yiddish school for four years. A new teacher, who knew only Ukrainian, then turned the class into a Ukrainian school, and in fifth grade he moved to the Ukrainian school.
7:52
From the machine transcript
Burshtein names his grandfather Mendel, who served eight years in the army under Nicholas, partly in the Caucasus. There he met a fellow townsman, later the local priest, and the two stayed friends all their lives although the grandfather refused non-kosher food. Kerler asks about the grandfather's death before the war (in the 1940s (?)), whether the town had a Jewish bathhouse or monastery, and the Yiddish name for the Christian church.
10:30
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls going with his grandfather to the synagogue on Sabbath and staying with him during Passover so that he would eat no bread. Kerler asks about the Yiddish for 'interesting'; Burshtein attended a Yiddish school for four years with a Yiddish club and council whose papers were in Yiddish, though the village council used Ukrainian. He cannot recall the songs or literature from the school.
13:36
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls a Yiddish song line about travelling to Odesa to an aunt, and with Kerler's prompting tries to sing it. He says people in town spoke Yiddish with friends, Ukrainian mainly with villagers, and he had both Jewish and Christian friends. He studied in Ukrainian before the war and in night school after it while working, received a certificate with distinction, and studied at a technical college in Lviv.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A formal interview, mostly in Russian, with an elderly woman from Odesa who says she knows no Yiddish. She recalls her grandfather's Passover seder and her father, who trained as a draftsman and architect in Odesa and studied in Switzerland. She also describes her private Russian gymnasium, antisemitism around Palm Week, and the hardships of revolution and civil war. She speaks of regretting not learning Yiddish, a Ukrainian husband who knew a few Yiddish words, and an episode at work in Bershad' when she could not understand a conversation in Yiddish.
22:26
From the machine transcript
Beigel gives personal information. She was born in Tyvriv, once a Jewish shtetl whose Jews were killed in the war. She gives her married surname (Beigel), her maiden name (Pansky) and her patronymic. Kerler and Lemster ask about her Yiddish name and the custom of double names, and about her son's name.
49:16
From the machine transcript
Beigel and Kerler discuss a Yiddish blessing about long years and when it is said. She talks about studying at a technical college in Vinnytsya to be a medical assistant, and about a Jewish school in Tyvriv that she attended for a year before it closed, naming two teachers. She also mentions a fire brigade, a Georgian one (?), and the word for cotton wool, and does not remember non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
5:15
From the machine transcript
Beigel talks about life today. She has a few younger friends in Hnivan' with whom she speaks some Yiddish, though mostly Russian. She discusses radiation and emigration, saying people stay where it is good, but that Jews are not loved here. She does not remember songs.
3:32
From the machine transcript
Iuris gives her Yiddish name, Pesl Ester, and says she was named after her great-grandmother and her paternal grandmother. She names her parents and grandparents, and says her father worked in Chernivtsi's main post office writing addresses and her mother did not work. Before the war her parents had a shop or a small restaurant in Moldova. Kerler states the date and place of the interview, and she gives her address and telephone number. She mentions a stepbrother, Yasl.
3:03
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein describes his return to Siberia after army service in 1947 and his move to Ivano-Frankivs'k in the early 1950s to join his mother and sister. They left for Poland, and he explains that he feared writing to relatives abroad because of his daughter's studies. After perestroika his sister wrote to him, and he visited Brazil via Frankfurt, seeing his sister after 32 years, and an aunt in São Paulo who was over a hundred years old. He recalls Jews gathering to sing Yiddish songs and the relatives' children speaking Yiddish and Portuguese.
15:51
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein gives his parents' names and background: his father, a saddler (harness maker), was born in the 1880s in the Novoselitsa region and lived in Edinet and Lipcani. A paternal aunt left for America in 1937. He tells how, in the war, he was kept out of the army and trained as a mechanic at a clothing factory, with courses in Moscow. After the war he went back to tailoring and became a cutter, and Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for cutter.
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.
55:30
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein states that only Yiddish and Romanian were spoken in Novoselitsa. He recalls the Cuza government in the 1930s and the antisemitic pressure on shopkeepers and customers to speak Romanian, with a joke about a woman buying figs. He then tells about a visit by a cousin from Israel and his wife Mila, a Yiddish speaker from Vashkivtsi, and an anecdote of Mila speaking Yiddish with Hasidim on a plane. He also tells about a Chabad visitor who knew a relative, and about an older sister who went to Palestine after the war.
9:11
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein recalls organising a minyan for a rebbe's descendant at the grave of an ancestor near the Lviv border, then contrasts a rabbi (rov) with a hasidic rebbe, and describes the town rabbi inspecting the kashrut of a slaughtered hen. Kerler asks about terms such as good Jew, honest, a good place in the cemetery, misnaged, Litvak and badkhn. Bukshtein recalls Jewish weddings, klezmer music and tunes shared with Ukrainian and Romanian songs, whether Jews drank vodka, and the town's one Jewish drunkard. He explains the pastry fladn, gefilte versus chopped fish, a dybbuk and a golem, and begins to recall a funeral from sixty years earlier.
25:05
From the machine transcript
Bukshtein describes a Jewish funeral from his youth: the cortege stops at each synagogue, the burial society carries the bier on shoulders, and the cry of charity saving from death is heard. He mentions the charity box for buying cemetery land. Kerler asks about how the dead are invoked and then announces that he will put questions in Russian for translation into Yiddish.
17:23
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions on cultural terminology. Topics: the difference between rov, rebbe and rabbiner, and their plurals; a good place as a name for a cemetery; a good Jew as a rebbe; Litvak; tsadik; Galitsianer; and Yiddish words for various types of person. He recalls a Jewish wedding. He also discusses the Dybbuk and the Vilna Troupe's performance with the Turkow brothers in Stanislav, which he attended in 1924.
39:02
From the machine transcript
Informal conversation in Russian and Yiddish with congregants. A Dagestani (Mountain Jewish, Tat) congregant talks about the Tat language and Jewish life in Makhachkala and Israel. There is also talk about a Yiddish theater coming to town, an Israeli relative, and comparative forms in Yiddish and Russian. Kerler mentions a book by the poet Avrom Gontar (?) and says the team is going on to Chernivtsi to record living people. Parts are in poorly recognised Russian.
4:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Fishman about Yiddish songs and Jewish weddings, which he does not remember in detail. Fishman says his father was a Communist, and that religion was persecuted but old Jews gathered in a house. He says they marked Passover and that his father secretly sent food. Kerler asks how the prayer shawl was called.
24:34
From the machine transcript
In Zhytomyr, Geller speaks Yiddish with the interviewers. They discuss the religious community today and whether children speak Yiddish, and the lack of Yiddish and Hebrew teaching. They also discuss the Yiddish press, newspapers and journals that still appear, and the Soviet-era publication Sovetish Heymland (?).
47:48
From the machine transcript
A brief, fragmentary exchange mixing talk of someone's daughter with Kerler's remark about the songs being Burshtein's own, recalled by memory. A place near the war front (name unclear) is mentioned as somewhere Yiddish is still spoken but declining.
49:04
From the machine transcript
The team looks at Burshtein's songbook, and Kerler asks about photocopying it. Burshtein says some songs date from childhood. A young man named Chaim Dovid joins, and there are remarks about a visitor from America. The talk turns to Litvak and Chabad Jews and the Sabbath guardians, then to Yiddish periodicals that still appear and how to obtain them. Geller's turns include jokes about marital matters and a computer in his family's home.
27:28
From the machine transcript
Lys says he heads the local Jewish community and gathers Jews in its office for Sabbath and holidays, since no one in town can lead prayer. He recalls his mother's candle blessing, and baking matzo at home with boards and a Russian oven. He begins on Samarkand, where his mother arranged Yiddish lessons from yeshiva students.
16:09
From the machine transcript
Geller describes Kuzmin as a large Jewish shtetl where most Jews were rope-twisters and only two families were well off. He explains the word for a trader who collected old rags and scraps, then begins a story about a business trip in his police work, remarking that he has no one to speak Yiddish with.
17:53
From the machine transcript
Geller tells how, on a trip to a village with a Russian investigator and a police chief, he told a joke in Yiddish, and says he picked up Yiddish on his own. He says that throughout the war he never concealed being a Jew. He then tells how in 1940 his father was away visiting his mother's relatives in Moldova.
52:15
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Hanukkah and Purim foods and customs. Geller recalls Hanukkah money for children and potato latkes, poppy-seed pastries and Purim gifts (shlekhmones), and Passover matzo, noting the use of matzo meal in baking at a memorial meal.
4:30
From the machine transcript
Geller says each person observes as he wishes, and recounts the visit the day before with his wife to the village of Klymbovka, where her parents and a sister are buried. He tells, mostly in Russian, of a church caretaker and a priest, and of his own challenge to belief in God. He recalls a local female healer. Kerler asks about spells against the evil eye, wishes for the dead, the custom of visiting graves and leaving food, and the words for 'field' and a holy place. They discuss visiting graves before the New Year and saying Kaddish.
34:37
From the machine transcript
Geller talks about police work and about thieves, with no Jews among them. Asked about his mother's songs, he says he was too young to remember. He tells how he later led the automobile and motorcycle society for years, describes his car and his pension, and his Yiddish learned from his parents in the Yiddish-speaking town of Kuz'myn. His first wife Feyge died in 1991; her parents were killed in the war. He remarried after meeting a woman by chance, they registered and have been together some fifteen years. He mentions his son in Moscow, his garden, and the Colorado beetle.
53:37
From the machine transcript
Geller says he does not remember whether his mother cooked mamaliga and answers questions on food terms such as mamaliga and papshoy. He says he met no antisemitism at work. Kerler and Lemster find Kuz'myn on a map near Staro-Konstantinov, and Kerler judges the speech to be Podolian Yiddish.
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
The passage begins with Later's postwar work as director of a large wholesale warehouse and chairman of a cooperative; he mentions a Yiddish journalist. He then tells his life story at Kerler's request: he went into the army in 1940, served at the front, and was twice wounded. He lists his many orders and medals, and mentions the extra pension he receives from the Ukrainian state. He names the places he passed through at the war's end, among them Warsaw, Germany, Vienna and Prague, and says he came on a camp soon after its liberation. He also says he came back to his home town on a short leave and found his mother, brother and other relatives had been killed. A Ukrainian friend of his had told him how this happened. He moved to Kam'yanets'-Podil's'kyy in 1955 and worked there until his eighties. From about 14:00 Kerler turns to a questionnaire on foods and words, and on how Yiddish was spoken in Later's home area. Items asked include gefilte fish and sweet or sour dishes, potato pancakes, words for devil, golem, thanks, please, mouse, house, wife and husband, and numbers. They also cover bodily words, colours and emotions, plurals, 'flowers', 'store', 'attic', 'beam', 'rich man', 'enemy', and the phrase 'to come back'. Later gives local forms and says which ones his own family used.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gelman gives his Yiddish name and birth date in 1921 and says he lived in Kam''yanets' until the war. He describes his parents and grandparents, including a maternal grandfather who traded in Kitaygorod (Ketaret), and names his three siblings. He then recalls his childhood: leaving a Jewish school after four grades during the 1933 hunger, selling coal he gathered at the station, and his father's hospitalisation. He tells at length of his Red Army service, from the first bombing in 1941 through hospitals, a long march and tank-unit service, to the advance on Berlin in 1945, and mentions a decoration, work in Germany afterwards, and his later work buying cattle. Kerler's questions then turn to prewar Sabbath and holiday life in a poor household: meat versus challah, the mother's blessings, driving for others on Sabbath, the town's trades, the Jewish street, ritual slaughter, Passover preparation, Jewish and non-Jewish friends and neighbours, Hanukkah foods and the bathhouse and mikveh. These parts include terminology for shops, trades and foods.
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.
17:52
From the machine transcript
The formal interview begins with Gaiviker, aged 95, saying that he speaks Yiddish, Russian and Ukrainian. He lists battles he took part in from the first day of the war, among them Stalingrad, Kursk and Kharkiv, and says he was demobilized from Königsberg. He describes service with aviation ground crews and bombings, and the death of many comrades; Kerler insists the interview be in Yiddish.
21:34
From the machine transcript
Gaiviker says his father was a barber and that he himself worked for more than sixty years as one, mostly in a central barbershop, and has been home for twenty-odd years. He mentions his wife of sixty-two years, a good cheder education including Rashi, a daughter and grandchildren in Israel. Sonya adds that a daughter lives in Russia. Kerler explains the project's aim of interviewing older Yiddish speakers about prewar history, and asks about the town's earlier name.
26:46
From the machine transcript
Asked about the word dybbuk, Gaiviker says it means a bad person. He recalls being born into a poor home, his stepmother, the war and bombing, Hanukkah gifts and games, and latkes made from potatoes. The questions about shalakhmones and tatshikelekh are interleaved.
38:04
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks whether Gaiviker knows the word golem; he and Sonya say they never heard it. Gaiviker then describes games he played in his youth, with card games 21 and 52, a pot fire in the park, checkers and hide-and-seek, and how he got money from his stepmother. Lemster asks about songs about hairdressers and tailors.
17:31
From the machine transcript
Yarmolnik says that in evacuation in Uzbekistan she spoke Yiddish with her mother, while her father and brother were in the army. She gives her brother's name as Misha and her father's name, and Lemster mentions acquaintances named Gravits in Bessarabia.
25:10
From the machine transcript
Yarmolnik says she lived on a Jewish street before the war, with some non-Jewish neighbors, and Kerler asks what terms for non-Jews she uses. Lemster prompts her for songs, and she recites fragments of "Itsik hot shoyn khasene gehat" and "Lomir zikh iberbetn". She says people feared speaking Yiddish earlier and now can do so freely but no one remains who knows it.
53:44
From the machine transcript
Asked about people who could foretell the future, Kaviner says he did not know them in detail, though he had heard of such "trefers". Kerler also asks about visiting preachers in Derazhnya, and Lemster begins asking about the golem.
1:31
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he read Hebrew (loshn-koydesh) literature, naming Shimon Frug, Bialik and Ravnitski. In exchange with Kerler about Bialik's Yiddish poems, he says Bialik did not write in Yiddish and that Ravnitski translated him, and that the two men emigrated together.
4:32
From the machine transcript
Kaviner has trouble finding the Yiddish term for his profession and says it in Russian; with the interviewers' help it emerges that he made wooden articles, furniture and similar items. He worked at this after the war, from 1948 until 1982. He then comments on reading and writing Yiddish and on needing his glasses.
40:58
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says he has few Yiddish books, only some journals, and the interviewers offer to send him some. Kerler explains that AHEYM values dialect speakers who cannot read Yiddish. Talk turns to dialect and word usage: the word for bread, the term litvak for a Belarusian, and the expression tseynem kop for a learned person in Drazhnya. Lemster asks about a joke with a litvak.
5:55
From the machine transcript
Warm greetings at Kaviner's home. Kerler gives him Yiddish books, and Kaviner says he has read the book by Yoysef Kerler several times and wept over it, commenting on the writer's fate under the party. He asks after earlier interviewees; Kerler and Kaviner discuss how few people in the region still speak Yiddish. Kaviner says many Jews do not want to know they are Jews and stresses the importance of keeping Jewish identity.
19:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler, Lemster and Kaviner talk about the places the team has visited and the Jews found there, including Bershad', Odesa, Balta and Nikolaev. They discuss who still speaks Yiddish and mention Chabad and yeshivas. A woman in Khmel'nyts'kyy is described who read Yiddish and whose daughter speaks it.
28:01
From the machine transcript
Kaviner and the interviewers discuss the three Yiddish classic writers, Mendele, Peretz and Sholem Aleichem, and the earlier history of Hebrew and Yiddish writing. Kaviner notes that Hebrew words filled their works. He says he read Eliezer Steinberg before the war but cannot recall it, and begins a story about a neighbour's library.
37:38
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says that no writer can be compared to Bialik and mentions Bialik's translation of the Bible into Yiddish with Ravnitsky and his commentary on the Torah. Kerler asks about Bialik's poems; Kaviner finds them hard to read. They discuss Bialik's Yiddish poems, his Hebrew writing and his study at the yeshiva in Volozhin.
41:26
From the machine transcript
Kaviner tells several Hershele Ostropolyer stories, including one where he tricks a peasant woman over Passover honey, one about a night at an inn with varenikes, and one about a peasant selling chaff at the mikveh. He says he read these in books and that such stories were told everywhere, even in synagogue during services. Kerler and Lemster also ask about the idiom "to lead someone into a bud" and about Chelm stories.
56:05
From the machine transcript
Kaviner says every Jew had a nickname and gives examples, such as his great-grandfather called Tarlivke and a clever man called Khayl Mat. He discusses the word "mat" (clever, sharp) with Kerler, who asks about its origin. Lemster then asks about the town madman.
18:54
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks how Derazhnya Jews spoke of an engagement party and the wedding gift ceremony. Kaviner says he was too young to attend one but knows it preceded the betrothal contract, and names the gift custom. Kerler also asks about a song sung at the bride's seating.
27:26
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai sings a few more songs, including 'Itsik hot shoyn khasene gehat' and one about a bride. Kerler asks where old Jews remain with whom one can speak Yiddish, and Vaisblai says there are none in nearby towns such as Lyubar, only one non-Jewish woman who knows it. He mentions grandchildren in Israel and America.
31:20
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai recalls his 1996 trip to Israel, travelling widely with his son, finding few Yiddish speakers and meeting a Jew from Germany. He tells of a woman from Zhytomyr who regretted her move after her husband's suicide. The interviewers introduce themselves as coming from Israel, America, Poland and Belarus. They talk about Yiddish as an international language and ask if he knows Romanian from Chernivtsi.
37:52
From the machine transcript
At the community center, Kramer gives his name and birthplace Berezdov, discussed with Kerler as a Yiddish place-name. He states his full name, his father Zelman, and his birth year and current address in Khmel'nyts'kyy. Kramer recalls living in Berezdov until the war, evacuation to Kazakhstan, return in 1944 to Slavuta, and the family's flight on foot with others. He names his siblings: two sisters and two brothers.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kramer describes his parents' home: his father was a religious man who had gone to kheyder and was otherwise self-taught, good at mathematics and able to write Russian and speak Polish. Yiddish was spoken at home. He recalls Passover matzo baking and Passover dishes made with matzo meal, and how his father rose early to pray with tefillin. His mother also prayed and had studied for four years at the Russian gymnasium in Berezdov (name as heard), which raised the problem of Saturday attendance. Kerler then turns to Russian, and Lemster announces he will ask some Russian words.
22:32
From the machine transcript
Bivson describes the peaceful, Yiddish-speaking home she grew up in, with a good mother and a father who worked and handed over his earnings, and says this is why she is as she is. She recalls her mother's lighting of Sabbath candles and her own custom of lighting candles for a year after her mother's death. Lemster asks about prayers and songs she knew, and she says she does not remember them. She hopes that Lemster's students will be good people and will know Yiddish, and Lemster thanks her.
1:35
From the machine transcript
Kaviner and Kerler chat about local Yiddish writers from the area, including writers from Starokostyantyniv, Polonne and Medzhibozh. Kaviner then speaks at length about Mendele Moykher Sforim's life and wanderings, how he learned Russian and German, and his language and descriptive art, and ranks Peretz and Sholem Aleichem after him. Kerler states the date and place and turns to Kaviner's military service.
38:16
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai describes the pious villagers who took him in, and Kerler asks about the sect. Kerler asks for clarification of what the term for them means. A village official sends him on to Chertkiv, and he arrives at a settlement near Demkovtsy where there are Jews in hiding. He mentions a non-Jew punished for hiding Jews, and says that when other Jews were caught he decided it was safer to leave them and go on alone, speaking Yiddish only with difficulty.
51:58
From the machine transcript
Asked about the best years of his life, Vaisblai says they are the present. He recalls always having been afraid, and reflects on wealth and inheritance. Kerler thanks him for the interview and praises his Yiddish.
1:31
From the machine transcript
The interview begins. Kerler and Kaviner settle how the name Proskurov is said in Yiddish and that the town is now called Khmel'nyts'kyy, and Kaviner talks about the postwar renaming and the state's memorial observances for the victims. He also speaks of his broken leg, its operation and its costs, and of present-day Ukrainian politics and hardship.
10:26
From the machine transcript
Snook talks about her limited religious education: a few years in a cheder-like setting for girls, so that she can read and pray a little but cannot write Yiddish. Asked by Kerler, she describes the Passover seder, gefilte fish and a ritual of pouring out coals to cure the evil eye, and a practice with an egg to make hens lay more. She recalls her grandmother Sarah and grandfather, who had sons in America and Vienna and who died at ninety, and the children asking him for coins.
18:04
From the machine transcript
Snook describes the small prayer room in the village, with three Torah scrolls, and the dwindling Jewish community in Khust today. She tells of her siblings (six children, her father in the First World War), who led the seder, and her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, with five grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Israel who speak Yiddish and Russian. Kerler asks about Sukkot, Shavuot and Simchat Torah, and she tells how betrothals were arranged at Simchat Torah. She also exchanges words with Katz about his age and home in America, and she mentions knowing Hungarian and Russian, though only Yiddish was spoken at home.
38:12
From the machine transcript
Snook sings a long Yiddish Hasidic song in which a speaker pleads to be a good Hasid, and answers Kerler's questions about where she knew it from. She says she learned it long ago, perhaps from her father. Kerler explains the recording will help young learners of Yiddish, and she comments on young people who want to learn it.
35:40
From the machine transcript
Katz says he attended an ordinary Russian school, since Czech schools existed only in the cities, and mentions the languages he understood (some Czech, some Hungarian). He remarks on how Hungarians, Gypsies and Czechs viewed Jews. He then talks about working as a driver in a large garage with hundreds of employees, claiming that non-Jewish bosses treated him far better than Jewish ones, and recounts a dispute over delivery documents at a bottling factory. Kerler ends by asking about the synagogue after the war.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Zinger says he never smoked or drank. He answers Katz's questions about prewar antisemitism: Jews were blamed for things, but he says nothing very terrible happened. Kerler asks about blood libel and about Yiddish words for non-Jews (goyim, orelim). Zinger then speaks of Swiss visitors who bring food aid and help Jews emigrate to Israel, and mentions a visit to his son there.
11:22
From the machine transcript
Zinger is asked what he remembers of prayer; he gives a few opening words of the Sabbath service and recites part of kaddish, which he said for a year for his wife. He then answers Kerler's questions about Purim, saying everyone including the rabbi is drunk nowadays. He recalls children going from house to house with a Purim play and gives a fragment of its rhyme. The passage ends with a short exchange on how "a bissl" was said and a question about Hasidim.
7:32
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler ask Snook to recite more from the siddur; she sings a Sabbath song and then speaks of a Russian woman who knows Yiddish and prays half in Yiddish. They go through Lekhah Dodi and Shalom Aleichem, with Katz asking how Kiddush was said. She recalls local characters, Hungarian-speaking Jews at the minyan and the Hungarian period, and Kerler asks about words such as 'oyfhapn' and 'shtramer mentsh', which she explains. The talk turns to the interviewers' work as teachers, and Katz raises Kaddish.
41:36
From the machine transcript
Snook talks about the synagogue in Khust, which the authorities wished to close; some women protested, and people contributed money. Kerler asks about Purim plays and she recalls children going around in disguise for money. She tells about the Ukrainian winter holiday and Easter, and a word for the holiday. She also talks about her woman helper, the guests' travel plans, and a word 'tsekrishet' (?), meaning tired.
51:29
From the machine transcript
At Kerler's request Snook sings a comic Yiddish song about a gluttonous wife, and explains a word from it. Katz asks about wedding songs. She talks about her health and her son's care, and wishes the interviewers good health, asking about their parents.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Snook sings a Yiddish song about a lover's letter to America, then a song partly in Hungarian and Yiddish about a wife's refusal to work. She also sings a Zionist song about breaking down the wall of exile and building a Jewish land. Kerler asks about Zionists in her village, and she recalls the pre-war party and the many Jews who left for Israel. She says the community is now small and elderly and that Sunday classes in Yiddish exist, and she talks about her grandchildren's Yiddish and wishes Kerler well.
9:32
From the machine transcript
Snook talks about Jews in Israel and America, saying they are decent and speak Yiddish, and she also mentions less observant Jews. Kerler asks what she makes of a word for such people (the transcript is unclear). She expresses thanks and good wishes to the team and speaks of her own health, her late husband and the hard years after the war. Katz and Kerler ask for another song, and the formal interview ends with talk of Yiddish books and her husband's prayer book.
23:54
From the machine transcript
Kerler and a second speaker describe the former Jewish neighborhood as the group walks to the synagogue. Once rich, with factories, it emptied after the war because the Jews left for America and Israel. Part of the talk, partly in Russian, concerns the market and shops nearby, followed by a conversation about Yiddish and a Jewish identity with a man who says he was brought up with Yiddish in the home.
29:18
From the machine transcript
Smelanskii says many non-Jews in Smila spoke Yiddish. He tells of a Ukrainian priest near the monastery who knew the Jewish children, greeted Jews respectfully and had them pick apples in his orchard. Katz then asks about his earliest memories.
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.
32:03
From the machine transcript
Shapiro and Katz discuss getting help to continue the interview, with Kerzhner of Kyiv suggested. Kerler asks about Jewish weddings in Vinnytsya, and Shapiro says his wife's sister told him about them. He recalls holding the wedding canopy poles as a child. He recounts that in his time two Jewish schools, Krupitsky's and Faynshteyn's, opened in Vinnytsya, and that in these schools many Jewish pupils were taught in Russian. One of them had a large hall where weddings were held. Kerler asks about the klezmer groups.
34:07
From the machine transcript
Braverman talks about her Yiddish articles. She wrote a column and a piece about Shapiro's booklet, and mentions an article for a Kyiv newspaper on the state of Yiddish after the Soviet period and its anniversaries. She also speaks about a Yiddish periodical and a Yiddish lecture course, and about a writer from Odessa (Tishchenko?) who emigrated.
0:35
From the machine transcript
Kerler explains the video-archive project and the team's plan to travel to Shatmar(?) the next day. Braverman and Semyon introduce themselves. She comes from Solkhov, about 25 km from Berdychiv, was named Faigele, and was born in 1923 (Kerler makes a special exception to the post-1920 birth rule). Semyon is from Zhmerynka, his father from Hryntsiv (?) and his mother from Derazhnia; he finished Ukrainian school as the war began, was taken into the army, and did not hear Yiddish for fifty years.
30:57
From the machine transcript
Braverman describes her Yiddish school, which she attended for four years, starting before she was six, and her early reading of Yiddish, Russian and Ukrainian books. She recalls books left by her uncle's gymnasium (physics, archaeology, geography) and the novel Stempenyu that she read at about ten. She says she learned Hebrew only later. She names her teacher Litinetsky (Israel Borisovich), who she says taught Perets Markish, and recalls a difficult arithmetic problem and what her mother taught her.
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'.
24:59
From the machine transcript
Braverman recalls the closing of the Yiddish school in the mid-1930s, with a Ukrainian school taking over after four classes. She speaks of her talks in Moscow and of Yiddish used with a professor. Kerler then asks about Jewish–non-Jewish relations.
26:41
From the machine transcript
Braverman recalls relations with Ukrainian neighbours and a bandit, a maid, her friends and playing in the village, a local shopkeeper, and the river. Kerler asks the Yiddish and Ukrainian names for the river and the figures for Solkhov: about a thousand Jews among four thousand or more inhabitants. She also mentions the secondary school.
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 (?).
4:56
From the machine transcript
Braverman describes making gefilte fish, including the stuffed head and the sugar her mother added, and her own borscht with a little sugar. She mentions her first husband, a non-Jew, whose father was of gentry background and who had a Jewish-sounding name. She then answers Kerler's questions about non-Jews who spoke some Yiddish, including a villager called Kuzma, and about terms for gentiles. A story follows about an unbaptized Russian girl. Semyon adds that non-Jews in Zhmerynka spoke Yiddish at the market.
27:35
From the machine transcript
Faina Braverman shows her tsene-rene, which belonged to an aunt (name uncertain) with inscriptions in Russian. She tells how she first learned Torah as a small child, starting with Leviticus, and Kerler examines a Bible translation she also owns. Semyon's father's calendar leaf and copies of the newspaper Eynikeyt are brought out. Katz and Kerler work out a date from Hebrew letters.
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.
17:27
From the machine transcript
Kerler thanks Melamed and introduces the project, which is recording audio and video with elderly Yiddish speakers, whom he calls the last speakers in Ukraine. He says the team has only two weeks in the region. He asks Melamed to speak about Jewish and Yiddish cultural life in Zhytomyr and the area, and about how he came to his own work and what his plans are.
18:55
From the machine transcript
Melamed says he has no special knowledge of Yiddish, only a passive childhood knowledge, and that he attended a Russian school. He describes his earlier work as a literary scholar, including books on George Kennan and Korolenko and articles on Jewish themes. He describes finding unknown material in provincial archives, such as the rabbinical school's files, and reconstructing about 70 members of Bialik's family. He also describes his work with Project Judaica and his archival guide to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
12:44
From the machine transcript
Kipnis shows Kerler her father's published books and volumes and explains family photographs. She identifies her older sister, her brother Leonid, her father's brother Herschel, a nephew and nieces. Kerler says that he comes from Podolia and talks about how Yiddish is spoken. Kipnis also mentions the 1996 Yiddish celebration in America. Some Russian is mixed in.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Torchinsky discusses the anti-religious school play about a spoiled Passover, staged for pupils at the Skvyra Yiddish school in the mid-1930s (year not clear). His family disliked it, and his grandfather wanted to take him out of school; he was a pioneer and did not ask the questions at the family seder. He describes Seder food his mother prepared (borscht, chicken soup, matzo-meal dishes) and answers questions on terms for gefilte fish and its pepper flavouring. Kerler tells an anecdote about his own father, and Torchinsky begins to announce a poem about Ukraine.
9:57
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts questions on food terms (sour, sweet-sour dishes, tsimes and why it is made, latkes, chopped versus stuffed fish) and on the word 'Galitsianer'. Torchinsky then tells how the Sunday Yiddish school in Kyiv was founded, and shows the camera a newspaper clipping about it. Its president Levitas asked him to teach there, and Torchinsky was hesitant because of his limited schooling and decades without using Yiddish. A friend, the poet Yosl Bukhbinder, encouraged him. He later wrote a reader and poems, some printed in Birobidzhaner Shtern and Sovetish Heymland.
51:06
From the machine transcript
Torchinsky reads three of his poems. The first is on Passover (dated 1992), retelling the Exodus from the baby Moses to the crossing of the sea and the seder. The second is devoted to Sholem Aleichem and his museum in Pereyaslav (the transcript does not give the year). The third, to Yiddish-learning children, is dated 1990. Kerler brings him back after the first poem to the seder at his grandfather's, and S2 and the Russian asides note the recording and technical details.
14:57
From the machine transcript
Khandros describes the school library he ran as a splendid cultural centre where young people met and discussed. His father's Yiddish school was famous in the area and was the last Yiddish school in Ukraine, closed in 1945. Until he was eight he knew no Russian, only his mother tongue and the many Yiddish folk songs his father knew.
21:53
From the machine transcript
Khandros relates how his grandfather, from a family of melamdim in Chernobyl, was orphaned in an epidemic, was taken as a child by cantonist recruiters and served in the army for many years. Afterwards he studied in Zhytomyr, and Khandros tells why he came to Ozarinets: as a boy he had been a friend of a tsadik's grandson of the Twersky dynasty, who later became the tsadik of Ozarinets. Khandros discusses the tsadik's grand wedding and says he will tell more in the third part of his book. Kerler also asks whether the Russian term for the Pale of Settlement existed in Yiddish.
28:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the Ukrainian word for a unit of weight (pud) and Khandros says Ukrainian uses the same word; they also discuss a word for a dove. Khandros then begins on the origin of the name Ozarinets, mentioning his father's older friend, a brilliant teacher named Krevitsky.
20:36
From the machine transcript
Khandros talks about a poem he read in Rote Fahne, a Moscow newspaper for children in German, which became a key to his later life. He mentions Heine. He talks about his decade of work on a Soviet council for aesthetic education and his teaching in an evening school. He speaks about Yiddish writers' descendants who cannot read Yiddish, including a grandchild of Sholem Aleichem whom he visited in New York. Kerler asks about Yiddish terms and then redirects the interview toward Khandros's memories.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Khandros says the Yiddish school opened his eyes to the world. He describes meeting Bratslav Hasidic pilgrims in Uman (?), who understand Yiddish. One of them sat with him for hours and wrote down the songs his father sang. These Hasidim read no Sholem Aleichem or other Yiddish literature. Kerler comments on the writing-down of the songs and asks which kind of Hasid he was, and the answer is Bratslav. The Hasid gave Khandros his address and invited him to Jerusalem.
22:47
From the machine transcript
Khandros tells how he and other Jewish war veterans were bused to Babi Yar when the American president and his wife visited Kyiv in 1991. Afterwards he met in the Jewish library a man who had survived five camps and learned Yiddish in them. He wrote an article about him, and in the mid-1990s took it and his film about his town to Israel, where a Sokhnut official recorded him. Kerler then says it is late and proposes another meeting. Khandros ends with a story of a New York foundation director who did not answer about the film.
35:58
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker recalls childhood in Berdychiv. He describes Kachanivska Street, the Carmelite monastery fortress with a museum that had rooms for Shevchenko, Sholem Aleichem and Balzac, and the church where Balzac married. At about four he was carried in his father's tallis to cheder, where he studied only a few years, as the cheders were closed in 1927. That year he entered a Yiddish school. He says he now speaks Russian most of the time and has hardly anyone to speak Yiddish with.
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.
54:39
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker continues about his teachers: a gravestone of the mathematics teacher Lemberg, which he found in Kyiv, and the director of the fifth school, a Jew from Poland named Yarman who taught Yiddish language and literature. Yarman once read the class Peretz's "Three Gifts". He says he now teaches at a Sunday school, where he recently recited this story from memory to students. He then begins to retell it.
57:29
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker retells Peretz's story "Three Gifts" in Yiddish from memory. The soul of a dead Jew is weighed in the heavenly scales, with an angel in white holding his mitzvot and an angel in black holding his sins. The scales stand level, so the soul may enter neither paradise nor Gehenna and is condemned to fly between heaven and earth, until the tale reaches the soul's long flight. The retelling breaks off as the soul sees a light below.
12:47
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker recalls Yiddish school textbooks translated from Russian for physics, arithmetic, algebra and geometry, many printed in Berdychiv. He mentions a history textbook and says he tutored others from it. He says he still does arithmetic in Yiddish, and introduces the literary circle at the Berdychiv city library.
15:23
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker remembers a brother of Sholem Aleichem visiting the Berdychiv library literary circle when he was about fifteen, and the circle's leader. He talks about teaching Yiddish at an institute and a colleague who learned it. Kerler asks what Yiddish literature was taught in school, and he says Soviet-era Yiddish literature. He mentions a poem he wrote and where it was printed.
30:53
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker describes the Berdychiv city library's many Yiddish books and the world literature he first read in Yiddish translation. He recalls seeing Mikhoels in Berdychiv in 1935 and later in Leningrad on tour. S2 asks about the performance, and he talks about a Mendele character and a mixed-up language joke.
35:51
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker talks about Mendele and Sholem Aleichem in school and at home. He describes how his father kept a collection of Yiddish periodicals from 1912 and later newspapers, and mentions his own articles and another Yiddish teacher. He then recites two of his own poems, one about the cow and the rope, answering Kerler's questions about his father's reading.
57:57
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker answers Kerler's questions about cinemas in prewar Berdychiv, naming a summer and a winter cinema and one in the fortress monastery. He recalls a silent film with Yiddish inter-titles in which Mikhoels acted.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia explains that she has two first names, Rakhil (Rokhl) and Raisa. At work, among non-Jewish colleagues and clients, she was called Raisa, while her passport says Rakhil. She says her parents called her Rakhilke or Rakhele, gives her patronymic and surname, and states that she was born in Chornobyl'.
19:21
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia says she finished four classes of the Yiddish school in Chornobyl', which was then closed, probably in 1936–37. The pupils were transferred to a Ukrainian school, where they studied until the war. She says her older sister finished seven classes in the Yiddish school. She can still read, write and speak Yiddish, and reads Yiddish booklets from her library. Kerler then asks about the Chornobyl' rebbe, about whom she remembers little.
27:05
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia talks about her childhood friends from the street, whose names she gives. They spoke Russian when small, and in kindergarten there was no Yiddish. In the Yiddish school they spoke Yiddish. She describes the club, where schoolchildren recited, told stories and sang in Yiddish. She cannot recall poems from school.
28:50
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler which Yiddish writers were studied, Rusakovskaia remembers Sholem Aleichem and Peretz and agrees about Markish but recalls no others. She says Yiddish actors came from Kyiv to perform at the club. Her friends were taught in the Russian school, so after the transfer the children spoke Russian, which was hard at first.
55:12
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia says relations between Jews and non-Jews were normal and friendly, though her close friends were all Jewish, from her street. At school pupils from the Yiddish and Russian schools mixed. After the war there were fewer Jews. She worked in a bank as the only Jewish employee and used the name Raisa, and later as a bookkeeper in a collective with a Jewish director and mostly Jewish staff, where Yiddish was sometimes spoken.
59:12
From the machine transcript
Asked about folk remedies, Rusakovskaia says medicine was in hospitals and polyclinics. She then describes Jewish old women healers in Chornobyl'. She recalls a healer curing an erysipelas of her leg after the war with black berries, which doctors had failed to cure. Kerler and others then ask the meaning of the words dybbuk and golem, and whether she knows stories about them.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about customs for remembering the dead: yahrzeit, charity given in memory of a parent, and set wishes such as that the deceased be a good advocate (beter) in heaven. Rusakovskaia answers which of these she knows and says she gives money at the synagogue. He then asks where she was during the war.
13:25
From the machine transcript
Asked about Jewish weddings in Chornobyl', Rusakovskaia recalls a Jewish wedding after the war, where her father brought in a few Jewish boys to say a prayer. She also remembers a childhood wedding where the children were kept in another room, with games and a guitar and fiddle for music. Kerler then asks for congratulation formulas and for the word 'thanks'.
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.
15:12
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker describes how he runs the Sunday school. It lasts eight months, and the students read and review grammar. He wanted to translate a Yiddish grammar into Russian but found a published book. He mentions reading material from the Forverts and Paris Yiddish journals, and articles on Warsaw Ghetto and Sobibor commemoration, including a Sutzkever interview. He explains the Yiddish letters used as numerals (the number 36). He ends with his own cheder schooling until age seven.
22:22
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker recalls his cheder and the Yiddish school he attended afterwards. He writes memoirs for a journal about Jewish education in the Soviet Union between the wars, and mentions an old teacher whose grave he found in Kyiv. He names other Yiddish teachers and acquaintances in Kyiv, among them a teacher called Shaykin who is ill in hospital, and notes that the Sunday school is almost the only Yiddish teaching in the city. He also talks about his contact with another man who may be from Berdychiv, and his own Berdychiv ties.
32:46
From the machine transcript
The interviewers and Derbaremdiker exchange contact information, including his brother's address in Brooklyn and phone numbers. He says no university in Kyiv teaches Yiddish at present. He says he will turn 85 in July (?) and mentions that he has a copy of his Jewish birth record. They talk about visiting Rabbi Bleich briefly.
40:05
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler chat with a man, probably Yokhanan Reyzn (?), about Jewish life in Ukraine today. Katz mentions working with Jewish food products and that his young son spoke Yiddish. They say they are building an archive of interviews and will soon travel to Podolia. Russian and Ukrainian exchanges with a photograph seller follow, and the Yiddish there is mostly garbled.
12:59
From the machine transcript
Vider explains the children's nut game played in a hole during Passover and Sukkot, including the eight-nut rule for the stakes. Asked about Shavuot, he says only dairy dishes were eaten, among them blintzes, which in Hîrlau were called plitnikes (the word is repeated and checked). He gives a detailed recipe: batter of flour and milk with salt and oil, poured thinly in the pan and turned like a pancake, and filled with cheese.
32:20
From the machine transcript
The informant speaks of a David, formerly the prayer leader of the Kolomyya synagogue, and of the blessings said when a deceased person is mentioned. He discusses the two other possible Yiddish speakers in town, how visitors from Israel and America speak Yiddish, and sings a Romanian song from his youth. He gives his views on Jews in America and Israel, on past enemies of the Jews, and on how life under the post-Soviet regime compares with Soviet times, with remarks on the freedom to attend synagogue. He also mentions a niece in Brooklyn and whether Kerler could write to him in Yiddish.
53:44
From the machine transcript
Grayf says that he can still read Yiddish prayers and holiday texts learned in kheyder but remembers little at age eighty and lost his spoken Yiddish in the army. He worked on the railway just before the war and was moved to Voronezh. He was then drafted into the army in 1941 and sent to Khabarovsk, near Birobidzhan, and in 1942 to the Stalingrad front. After light and later heavier wounds near Leningrad he was discharged and worked in a district elsewhere, returning to Kolomyya in 1945.
58:25
From the machine transcript
Grayf says he returned to Kolomyya in the summer of 1945, retrained, and worked in a dental laboratory as an X-ray technician until pension. He then returns to his childhood, saying he attended a Polish school and a Yiddish kheyder, and discusses how the older generation pronounced the word 'kheyder'. He says that the Sabbath was kept only at home, not in the synagogue, that his father prayed there every morning, and that daily minyans no longer exist. He recalls a synagogue or prayer house on nearly every street and a great synagogue, now gone.
10:44
From the machine transcript
Vider recalls his earliest childhood memory, of train tunnels, and says he was born in 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei and left at age three for Hîrlau. He did not attend kheyder because his father taught him at home, and he became bar mitzvah in Iași and helped his father as cantor. Answering Kerler's questions, he describes the Jewish school in Hîrlau, where Romanian and Hebrew were taught, including the hours, the subjects and the teachers, and says he spoke Yiddish at home.
11:19
From the machine transcript
Vider recalls finding a Yiddish book in a Soviet bookshop or library on a trip from Chervonohrad to Kolomyya, and how people were astonished at a Jew reading it. Kerler asks about his reading in Romanian, history lessons and romances. He mentions Romanian historical songs.
15:13
From the machine transcript
Vider speaks of a friend from Iași, Shloyme (Krotsh), who also speaks Romanian and in Soviet times got fruit from sellers from Moldova by speaking Romanian and quoting a poem on the beauty of the language. He then sings a Romanian love song, naming the singer Tamara Ceaban (?), after Kerler asks for a favourite.
18:53
From the machine transcript
Kiddush lunch with the congregation. Kerler, Katz and others talk in Yiddish and Russian, and the congregants make the kiddush. A woman from Soroca and a man who lived in America speak of their origins. Kerler asks for Yiddish songs, including lullabies, and several people sing. The transcript is partly garbled and mixed with Russian.
43:54
From the machine transcript
Krotsh recalls his cheder years and school studies in Stefanesti. He was the best pupil in the four-class school and remembers what he learned. He talks of his teachers and of studying Mishnah and Gemara. Kerler and Katz ask about the Yiddish word for 'grass' and an expression about writing, and a second man tells an anecdote about writing.
53:05
From the machine transcript
Krotsh sings a song he knows from Moldova, after which Kerler continues the questionnaire with Russian prompts: words such as pot, gray, healthy as a house, kissel, ear, deaf, then comparatives (earlier, colder, higher, faster, nearer), 'he knows everything', 'listen to me', roof, ill and sentences about liking and not liking. Krotsh gives the Yiddish forms and comments on Moldavian and Ukrainian loanwords.
15:48
From the machine transcript
Biter says he was born in Popel'nyky, where there were eighteen Jewish families, in what was then Poland, and that he finished a Polish gymnasium after cheder. He explains the change of his name from Shafir to Biter, which was required by lawyers and the diploma, and mentions his father Kolmen, who served as a corporal in the Austro-Hungarian army in Italy. His grandfather was a tavern lessee and his maternal grandfather a lawyer in Snyatyn. Kerler also asks distances to Kolomyya, Zabolotiv and Snyatyn and the interview date.
53:30
From the machine transcript
Vider says his catalogue does not list the Yiddish items he has on records, and a song about a Jewish peddler selling cheap cigarettes is heard. He and Kerler discuss a theater and ensemble from Ivano-Frankivsk that perform Yiddish songs, Ukrainian artists who learned Yiddish, and a similar group in Chernivtsi. Kerler then asks for pictures of Vider's parents, and Vider and a woman look for photographs, partly in Russian.
5:12
From the machine transcript
Krotsh sings a Zionist marching song twice, saying it was sung shortly before the war, when Jews sensed a coming catastrophe. Lemster asks about songs mixing Yiddish with Romanian words. Krotsh recalls only a few words of a song about a tallis and tefillin bag, and of an orphan's lament at the cemetery. He points out that Romanian Jews said "land" differently from Jews in Ştefăneşti and Bessarabia.
58:27
From the machine transcript
Asked by Lemster about Jewish life in postwar Kolomyya, Krotsh says Jews gathered cautiously, for example on Yom Kippur, and the authorities knew. He worked at a military auction. He says he was nearly the only one to eat matzo on Passover. Kerler asks whether Jews still spoke Yiddish, and Krotsh says that many did, in the street and when playing games. Lemster ends by asking about Romanian songs, and Krotsh names a few.
30:25
From the machine transcript
Krotsh describes how Jews inserted Hebrew words in Yiddish so that non-Jews would not understand. He discusses a word for money, and a song about a Iaşi newspaper man that a young man from Iaşi taught him in the army. Kerler and Lemster ask about Mihai Eminescu (?) and the old Moldova. He also mentions that Bialik was known from the school.
24:24
From the machine transcript
Kerler plays Vider his recording of a Hebrew Purim item, and Vider says he remembers it. Vider recalls the Romanian songs he learned at school and sings several, and Lemster, who speaks Romanian, asks who wrote one; the poet's name is unclear in the transcript. Vider also recalls Moldovan wine-grape sellers who came to the market before the war. Lemster asks whether there were Romanian songs about Jews.
6:21
From the machine transcript
Krotsh says he studied at the yeshiva in Ştefăneşti until 1940. Kerler asks about a word for studying, and Krotsh recalls being chosen to show off the students' learning to visitors. He talks about learning Romanian more poorly than Yiddish and remembers tractates of Talmud he studied. He says boys from nearby towns came to the yeshiva, then mentions an uncle's family who were killed.
16:02
From the machine transcript
Krotsh says he spoke only Yiddish with friends and at home, and knew some Romanian. He describes the town's many synagogues and the rebbe's large court, which drew visitors from abroad. He retells a story from his master tailor about a Jew drafted in the First World War whom the rebbe said would not be taken. Two Romanian generals then picked other men to take him as an orderly, and he was sent home.
23:03
From the machine transcript
Krotsh recites a Hebrew poem or school text he learned at school and describes its content. He explains how Purim singers visited householders and received money, and discusses the word for money used in these songs.
26:52
From the machine transcript
Krotsh talks about his tailor master, who worked for wealthy Romanian clients such as lawyers and a prefect. Krotsh went along and interpreted for the master, who knew Romanian but did not want to speak it.
31:35
From the machine transcript
Krotsh discusses reading Sholem Aleichem and the story of the little knife (?) in Yiddish. He tells a long story of a village blacksmith whose son was apprenticed to a tailor, and the boy's mother, who came to the shop. A visitor interrupts in Russian for a stretch. Kerler asks about a dialect word for beating.
48:17
From the machine transcript
Krotsh recites a Romanian song and explains its words with Kerler. He then gives a short Purim-shpiel scene about a couple who come home late and find that the Megillah has already been read. They discuss when such pieces were sung.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Krotsh begins by performing a song in Romanian, saying he does not remember it in full. Kerler then talks with him about fieldwork in Romanian Moldavia and Bukovina. They discuss the few Yiddish speakers found there, the town's Jewish committee head, the synagogue in Rădăuţi (?), and an older woman who would not give her age.
14:55
From the machine transcript
Krotsh says that no one is left with whom to speak Yiddish. He tells of an acquaintance who has died and others who emigrated to Israel, and says he now talks to himself at home. Kerler jokes about this and asks whether he read Yiddish booklets in Ştefăneşti.
39:21
From the machine transcript
Krotsh describes going back to Ştefăneşti, where the town has been largely wiped away except for the school and the area by the rebbe's house, and explains the term for the surrounding quarter (a Turkish-derived word). Kerler asks about a Turkish-origin word in Yiddish, and they mention an English-language ethnographic booklet and a Yiddish book on Ştefăneşti's Jewish history, which a relative in Israel has.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Chat in front of the community center. The team introduces itself and the project to Belous and others, and asks about elderly Yiddish speakers in Polesskoye. Belous mentions his father-in-law's aunt, and says in Russian that there are no very old Yiddish speakers. Belous says he learned Yiddish from lessons in Sovetish Heymland.
16:10
From the machine transcript
Belous talks about the yeshiva where he teaches Yiddish and its lack of teaching materials. He asks whether Yiddish textbooks can be sent, and Kerler offers to send some. They discuss addresses and e-mail access.
28:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about anecdotes of a Jewish wit, and Belous recalls something about a man killed in the war who gave three lashes. They also discuss who still speaks Yiddish. Belous says his second wife speaks and understands Yiddish but cannot read or write it.
39:53
From the machine transcript
The team gets a list from the community office and meets Sonia, an elderly woman, in the administrative office. They discuss old books and go through a list. Kerler asks how Korosten' was named in Yiddish, Sonia says her birth year and street address, and they begin the interview.
45:24
From the machine transcript
Sonia describes her evacuation to Chelyabinsk with her grandmother, father, aunt and cousin. Her grandmother cut wood and got milk from villagers, and her grandfather died in evacuation. She speaks about her family and her father's craft as a furrier. Her grandfather Benyamin's family came from Bykhi, and her grandmother came from Chopovychi. Relatives were lost in the war or emigrated to America. Kerler also elicits Yiddish words such as the verb peseyren, klirn (to think) and zun.
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.
46:10
From the machine transcript
Ocheretianyi talks about Shavuot, when dairy-based baked foods and dumplings were eaten, and about Yom Kippur. His parents fasted, and after the war his father prayed with a friend at home. Kerler asks about the pre-fast meal and about food terms.
MDV 544Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi; Samuil (Shmiel) Borisovich BelobrovKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
0:00
From the machine transcript
Ocheretianyi answers questions about a kolkhoz office, drinking and the Yiddish word for vodka, then about the prewar synagogues, of which there were two, and a women's one. He describes childhood games with nuts and hide-and-seek, and his honest father, who collected money for the poor. He recalls how a house was bought for a prayer house after the war and how his father, a soldier, lost part of an ear and was imprisoned. A teacher named Yankl Meir taught Jewish boys, and Ocheretianyi says he cannot recall prayers. The passage closes with a Yiddish word elicitation and Kerler's remarks about an old house.
11:32
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about a typical day at the Yiddish school. Kislinskaia says the Yiddish school building is now a Russian school, and that the youngest pupils received a warm meal. They discuss the word for synagogue, and she speaks of an observant postwar man and his family who kept the Sabbath. Kerler asks about the word for cemetery (the Jewish one) and the building by it where her grandfather washed the dead, and then asks about dybbuk and golem, which she did not know.
MDV 548Tsili Davidovna Kislinskaia; Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich GroysmanKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
20:15
From the machine transcript
Groysman talks about his war service. He was drafted into the army about a month after the war began and was twice wounded, near Rostov and elsewhere. After being wounded he crawled many kilometers back to the Soviet side. He says that as a pioneer and Komsomol member he did not believe in God, but began to believe after the injury and a tank attack. He then comments on his Yiddish and his Russian, and says he spent over a year in hospital.
33:31
From the machine transcript
Groysman talks about school: seven classes at a Yiddish school, then a Ukrainian school. He describes teachers of mathematics and literature (Babych (?)). He recalls the night his parents left in the evacuation while he stayed, the farewell on being drafted, and the later reunion with his parents in Alma-Ata, where he arrived on crutches. He ends by thanking God for his health.
38:50
From the machine transcript
Groysman answers Kerler's questions about the Yiddish school in Tarashcha: teachers, subjects taught, and writers read, such as Sholem Aleichem and Peretz, and Yiddish poets. He talks about his parents' religious practice: his father prayed, his mother read a lot, and as a pioneer he stopped going to synagogue. He tells a story about a man and dogs. Kerler asks whether he remembers songs.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Groysman answers Kerler's questions about learning his father's watchmaking trade and gives Yiddish terms for watch parts and mechanisms. Kerler asks about the dialect of Lithuanian Jews and about the ethnic groups Groysman worked with. Groysman then lists the artisans of Tarashcha before the war (shoemakers, tailors, harness makers and others) and says which books he loved to read.
52:04
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Groysman for childhood memories of Tarashcha and a song. Groysman recalls children's habits such as going barefoot in the rain and says he went to a Ukrainian school and learned Yiddish from his parents. His wife (probably) speaks of his devotion to his mother and to her, and the interview closes.
12:11
From the machine transcript
Angelova says she attended a Ukrainian school and that there were no Jewish schools. She mentions that her family farmed. Lemster asks about a sukkah. She explains that she and her parents read and wrote Yiddish, and says she visited Israel. Lemster compliments her Yiddish.
14:45
From the machine transcript
Angelova says she stopped speaking Yiddish after the war. Lemster asks about Jewish weddings, and she describes an open-air huppah and a custom of gifts called makes. Kerler and Lemster then ask for dialect words, such as the word for a holy place, a cemetery, and a Jewish field. She asks about the ages of the others present and mentions her operations.
30:26
From the machine transcript
Angelova closes the interview. She says that she spoke Yiddish with her grandmother until age twenty, and that her mother did not sing. Kerler and Lemster ask for the Yiddish term for vineyard or wine garden. Kerler thanks her.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The interviewers greet the couple and settle names and place names, including the Yiddish and Russian forms of the name of Birzula/Kotovs'k, and the distance to Pishchanka. Leiderman says she worked 37 years in a bank as bookkeeper and was born in 1928. She lived in Pishchanka until about six or seven, then the family moved to Rudnytsya. Obodovskii worked in construction, and the couple were evacuated to Siberia (Altai region, near Barnaul), though the transcript is unclear about the places.
3:56
From the machine transcript
Formal interview begins with Kerler's questions on place names and on the Yiddish dictionary Obodovskii owns and the Yiddish alphabet he learned. He gives his mother's name as Sore. The couple give their surnames: Leiderman, and Obodovskii, which he says is Polish and derives from Obodovka. His mother came from the village of Korytne near Balta, and his father's origin is the subject of further questions.
11:27
From the machine transcript
Obodovskii recalls his schooling: he first attended a Ukrainian school in Kotovs'k with only Yiddish and was laughed at, then a Russian school in Siberia, and after the war a Russian school in Kotovs'k, which he completed after nine years. Leiderman says that until about seven she knew only Yiddish and nothing of Russian or Ukrainian. Lemster asks whether a synagogue existed in Kotovs'k.
48:58
From the machine transcript
Obodovskii says that few Jews lived in Kotovs'k, that at home only Yiddish was spoken, and that he knows several languages. He mentions a small synagogue opened after the Germans left in 1944. They say there are no old Jews who gather now. They recall a kosher butcher after the war and an uncertainty about the rabbi. Obodovskii returns to his work as a builder, his pension and the house improvements he made himself.
11:42
From the machine transcript
Asked about the town before the war, Gershtein says many Jews lived in Holoby alongside Poles and Ukrainians. Until about 1936 people lived in peace and he did not know antisemitism. He mentions a non-Jewish man living nearby who speaks Yiddish and works as a journalist.
35:02
From the machine transcript
Gershtein reads or sings aloud prayer texts at Kerler's request, and Kerler comments on the Hebrew and Yiddish pronunciation. He then mentions the rabbi in Lutsk.
40:22
From the machine transcript
Gershtein's non-Jewish friend arrives and is introduced to Kerler, and they talk in Yiddish and Russian. He is a correspondent for the Kovel' city paper, and he says he speaks Yiddish only a little. He speaks about a journalist for a news agency who came looking for a relative.
43:31
From the machine transcript
Gershtein tells a joke about two Jewish women in which a Yiddish word for onion (tsibele) is mistaken for the Russian word for button.
44:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the friend about his home village of Rozhyshche, and he gives his name as Ignat Petrovich, surname spelled Olchowicz (?). He speaks about the town's Jewish population before the war, saying it was large and many were shot, and the Yiddish name of the town is discussed. Kerler asks how many synagogues there were, and the answer is one. The friend mentions a family named Pen and explains to the team that they are researchers recording interviews.
48:50
From the machine transcript
Gershtein tells a childhood anecdote, apparently about a Lithuanian Jew who said "sukke" instead of "sekke". Kerler asks what kind of Yiddish was spoken, and Gershtein compares the words for succah, bread and merchant as said by Jews and non-Jewish neighbours.
2:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether non-Jews converted to Judaism before the war, and the informant says there were such cases. They also discuss Jews who converted away from Judaism. Kerler then asks for the Four Questions of the Seder to be read, and they talk about Yiddish and Hebrew wording of some of the phrases.
28:55
From the machine transcript
The informant recalls an old woman who healed by 'exorcising' the evil eye by spitting and similar acts. Kerler asks for more terms: an obstinate person, a dybbuk, a golem and a fool.
30:28
From the machine transcript
Informal chat with Kerler about a Hebrew song from Betar days and about Yiddish dictionaries, universities and academic degrees. Kerler talks about his own position as a professor. The talk moves to cheder and Tarbut schools, the melamed in Sholem Aleichem, and the Rothschilds. It ends with a toast of vodka, tea and a remark about someone who stayed home on Victory Day.
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.
42:05
From the machine transcript
Pensatii answers questions about Purim, Hanukkah and Passover in Odesa. He says Purim was eaten with hamantashen and that he and his friends used a particular form of the holiday's name, and recalls Hanukkah. He explains the use of special Passover dishes and the removal of chametz. He says he cannot recall Passover songs but remembers asking the Four Questions at the family seder.
52:02
From the machine transcript
Asked about the Yiddish press in Odesa, Pensatii says he read a Yiddish newspaper published in Moscow, and a German-language paper. In Russian he describes using German as a Soviet officer in postwar Germany, where he hunted war criminals responsible for killing Jews and sat on a military tribunal. He retells an interrogation of a former Gestapo chief from Zaporizhzhia who explained Hitler's rise, and Kerler tries to bring him back to the interview questions.
34:11
From the machine transcript
Nisman's interview begins. She talks about her weak Yiddish at home, says Dorfman asks her to check his articles about people she knows, and Kerler explains the AHEYM project and asks about her childhood. They chat about the age of a young man who speaks Yiddish and about Kerler's beard, and she mentions a Lubavitcher rebbe's stories.
21:37
From the machine transcript
Nisman estimates Jewish numbers in Chernivtsi and L'viv today. She describes her parents' poor but strictly religious home and her father's work as a forest caretaker. Kerler asks about words for an honest man and a pious man, and she explains terms for a trusted forest steward and for an honest and a believing person. Her mother complained about hunger.
58:29
From the machine transcript
Nisman describes Shavuot food in prewar Rezina: cheese dumplings and varenikes with sour cream, and a mix of cheese and green onions. Kerler asks for the Yiddish words for onion greens and tassel, and the house was decorated with greenery at Shavuot.
17:51
From the machine transcript
Nisman closes the interview because she must prepare for the 9 May celebration, which she calls a great holiday. She speaks about her family: grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with a younger daughter and grandchildren in Israel. A son was recently born to a grandson in Israel, and a brit was held. She then answers questions on terminology (the word for glasses, the word for pills). Her photographs are shown on camera. Russian conversation with another person is interspersed.
50:17
From the machine transcript
Leibel recalls going to Jewish gymnasium Purim and Hanukkah evenings even though he attended a Polish gymnasium, and mentions a doctor's family whose daughter died in the war. He describes his cheder years from about age three or four to seven, the Friday blessing and kiddush, the Polish primary school of seven classes and then the gymnasium, and a private Yiddish teacher named Mandelboym who came in the evening. He also recalls Polish-language religion lessons, and teachers including Balaban (?).
46:00
From the machine transcript
Leibel speaks about his Polish school education and answers whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish, which he does not recall. He tells of a Jewish lawyer who converted and a quarrel with his son over a ball, and names wealthy local Jews. He says the poor never converted while some rich did, naming a doctor family.
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.
34:12
From the machine transcript
Khonigsman speaks about Yiddish writers and scholars whom he met in L'viv after the war, when they visited the Jewish library, among them Dovid Hofshteyn and Fefer. He describes the linguist Spivak in detail: his short stature, his beard and his fine Yiddish.
MDV 565Professor Iakov Samoilovich Khonigsman; Isaak (Itche, Itskhok-Avigdor) Moseevich MelerL'viv, 2003
20:09
From the machine transcript
Khonigsman talks about his friend, the Soviet writer Alexander Lizen. Lizen was a bookkeeper in the army, learned Yiddish from a dictionary and mixed Russian into his speech. He had a Ukrainian wife, and in 1949 he urged Khonigsman to write a letter offering help to Israel, which Khonigsman declined. He then recalls a later Israeli publication and compares his own Yiddish with Lizen's. He ends with remarks on Lizen's character.
43:52
From the machine transcript
Meler describes how he himself prepares gefilte fish and gives the recipe. He answers questions about floden, vodka and drinking customs.
49:43
From the machine transcript
Meler answers questions about the meanings of a dybbuk and a golem, and the plural of a fool. He then addresses prewar Jewish weddings in the town, with drink and musicians: he does not recall klezmers, who might have come from L'viv.
48:01
From the machine transcript
Brandler recalls seven years at a Polish school and his father's work packing eggs for export to Germany from the Mostiska egg factory. He wanted to be a baker, was steered to cobbling, which he could not do because of a shaking hand, and trained as a tinsmith. Under the Soviets he trained as a tractor driver in the village of Pokhortsi (?) in the Sambir district and stayed on as instructor until June 1941. He also speaks of Ukrainian neighbors and good relations with them.
51:55
From the machine transcript
Brandler answers Kerler's questions about his cheder teachers: one taught the alphabet, the second taught Yiddish writing and Humash, and a third taught Gemara. They discuss his dialect and the Litvak teacher's origins. He describes his father as a devout Jew, but not a Hasid, who never visited a rebbe, and his mother Hanna Rachel (?), who sold milk to customers for a living. He says he was called Khaim, with Nakhum added for the Torah reading.
41:11
From the machine transcript
Brandler answers questions about the meanings of the words dybbuk and golem, calling the first a bad person and the second a legend of a robot made in Prague. He gives terms for a non-Jewish and a Jewish cemetery. He then explains that after demobilization he found gravestones used as paving stones in Mostiska, and notes how few remain.
3:38
From the machine transcript
Leibel sings the Passover song "Echad Mi Yodea" and then the end of the Seder song about the kid (Chad Gadya), at Kerler's request. Kerler asks about the sense of a word in the song and about Yiddish words for prison, and Leibel answers. He then recalls singing zemirot on Friday night.
12:24
From the machine transcript
Leibel describes his early education: cheder with Reb Nisl, whose wife was Breydl, then Polish school. In the evenings a Jewish tutor named Mandelbaum came to teach him at home. Kerler asks about the language of his reading, and Leibel recalls Hebrew texts, a Talmud story about Kamtsa and Bar Kamtsa, and writing letters in Yiddish.
19:29
From the machine transcript
Leibel talks about Purim and holiday celebrations at the Jewish gymnasium, which taught in Polish, with choir, young people and outings to the woods. He describes a library, apparently the "Matsha Shkolna" (?), where he borrowed books daily. He says his father examined him on Sabbath on what he had to recite. Kerler then asks how people spoke Yiddish in Kremenets as against Rivne.
29:06
From the machine transcript
Leibel explains what an honest, good Jew means in his Yiddish, while Kerler adds comments on the Temple and the messiah. He recalls his grandmother Rivke and says his grandfather Avrom died earlier. He then describes Yiddish theater and films in Rivne, including a performance of The Dybbuk, two cinemas, and a film Jews boycotted, and then answers about cheder until age seven.
7:34
From the machine transcript
Diner recalls how his mother, already ill, died when he was about six, and that he had an older brother and sister, both killed in the war. He then lived in a Jewish orphanage, perhaps in Skalat (he and Kerler are confused about the place), until about twelve. He went to a Polish school, where Yiddish was also taught, and the children spoke Polish among themselves. He describes the unhappy life of the orphanage.
42:59
From the machine transcript
Kerler chats with a community member about whether his parents spoke Yiddish, and S2 says he has studied Yiddish for three years. S2 then continues the tour, phones a colleague, and shows the social commission room and a book of registered Jews, in the community centre. A commemorative stone is mentioned.
36:00
From the machine transcript
Shvartzbroit speaks about her grandfather, who was a cantor and a Hasid, and about few Lithuanian Jews in the town and their way of speaking Yiddish. They discuss which Yiddish is nicer. Kerler tells of his parents' origins in Volhynia and Podolia, and the two compare the years of their lives, his emigration, and a friend she supported in the war.
1:22
From the machine transcript
She says she speaks Yiddish to herself at night, and Kerler explains the project: recording the real spoken Yiddish of the shtetl, prewar life and the war, and the decline of Yiddish. He records the name of her town, Sofiyivka in Polish and Trokhenbrod in Yiddish, and she says she had a private teacher at home since there was no Jewish school. They discuss the district around Luts'k, with Kerler looking at a map, and she gives her married and maiden names and her father's name.
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.
34:48
From the machine transcript
She talks about the youth movements of her youth, with Zionists and Communists, and says she was in Betar, whose members met in the evenings to learn Hebrew. She says she remembers a little Hebrew but cannot speak it. She also recalls songs of the movement in Yiddish and dancing.
37:16
From the machine transcript
She answers questions about the holiday cycle, including Purim with baking, gifts and costumes, Hanukkah with money, candles and latkes, and Sukkot, the sukkah and her birth on Sukkot. She also discusses the fast, the meal before Yom Kippur and chicken soup, and Kerler asks Yiddish and Polish month names. The questions mix customs with terminology.
46:04
From the machine transcript
She tells of non-Jews, mostly Poles, who spoke Yiddish and Hebrew, including a postmaster's son, and says they lived on good terms. She recalls a Jewish–gentile intermarriage and a case of conversion, which the town condemned. She lists trades and professions: tailors, builders, shoemakers, teachers, pharmacists, a barber, and doctors in Luts'k. She says her father dealt in lumber and travelled to Luts'k by horse and wagon. She mentions folk healing by her grandmother and a midwife.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Talks with Kerler about prewar cultural life in her shtetl. She comments on differences of speech between streets and on a proverb, and on the term for an older grandmother. She names Warsaw Yiddish periodicals (Moment, Der Shtern) that were read, and recalls klezmer and singers coming from Luts'k to perform. She also remembers the first car in the street, a Jewish teacher who taught singing, a strongman, and touring actors, though she was a small child then.
5:20
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about prewar religious life: whether there were Hasidim, and yeshivas (young men studied in Rivne rather than locally). She is asked what rov, rebbe, rabiner and a 'good Jew' mean, and the term 'gut ort' for a cemetery. Her answers are brief and in places uncertain.
10:05
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions on Jewish weddings before the war: the khupe and rabbi, the matchmaker who brought the couple together, and the written engagement terms (tnoim). She is asked about the mitsve-tants, the broyges-tants, in which the two mothers mime a quarrel and make peace, and the badkhn. She knew these customs by name but did not see them herself.
12:54
From the machine transcript
Food and drink terminology with Kerler: how her mother made gefilte fish and whether it was called chopped fish, with the seasoning and the onions and a little sugar. She names fruits that grew locally, and is asked the Yiddish for vodka, tomatoes, grapes and raisins. Kerler explains that he is looking for speakers from near Kovel. She gives him the whereabouts of a Luts'k-born friend living in Lviv, whose wife is from her shtetl.
18:53
From the machine transcript
Talks about folk and other remedies: blessings for health, the question of children's games with several local names for an item, and her grandmother's cures. She recalls a Jewish doctor from Luts'k who treated her family, and a brother's facial growths treated on his advice, which included eating raw calf's lung. Kerler also asks about spoken charms against evil, and she mentions wiping off with the tongue and wiping the forehead.
23:19
From the machine transcript
Terminology and beliefs around death: the dybbuk and the golem, the angel of death, Jewish funerals (the bier carried by several men, and crying), and Yiddish words for a cemetery. They discuss this world and the next, and the word for hospital (balnitse versus the older, Polish-derived shpitol). She is also asked formulas used when mentioning the dead, such as a wish that the dead person plead for the living and a wish for a bright paradise.
6:45
From the machine transcript
Asked about her early years, she describes Trokhinbrod as a Jewish town of tailors, shoemakers and other craftsmen. She compares Polish Jews with Bessarabian Jews and their Yiddish. She says she was taught Yiddish reading and writing by a private teacher at home, not in cheder, and read Sholem Aleichem. Youth organizations (halutzim, Communists, Betar) had a library, and Betar members spoke Hebrew. She later visited Israel and met people from Trokhinbrod.
11:40
From the machine transcript
She says she studied in a Polish school and that her father wanted her to go to gymnasium, but the Soviets arrived and she learned some Russian. Lemster asks about friends, and she names a surviving friend in Israel. She says she has no one to speak Yiddish with, her husband was Russian and her children became Russian speakers, while her son and grandchildren are in Israel.
21:24
From the machine transcript
She speaks about Jewish names and a visiting rabbi, and says the whole town spoke Yiddish, while the youth spoke Polish and, in Betar, Hebrew learned from lectures. Meetings on Sabbath and outings to the forest are mentioned. Kerler asks about the distance of the town from Luts'k and the Yiddish word for 'other people'. She then recites Polish verse (Mickiewicz) with another voice and says she has forgotten much.
58:14
From the machine transcript
She says all non-Jews in Trokhinbrod understood Yiddish, since Jews outnumbered others, and tells of a Polish man's son who learned Hebrew. She lists Jewish occupations: shoemaker, tailor, miller, tanner, teacher, bakers (the Bas family), butchers. She describes the bathhouse and mikveh as separate buildings, going on Friday before Sabbath, the shoykhet, a Polish policeman and the post office as the only non-Jewish offices, and also mentions balagulas.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shvardovskaia discusses who among her acquaintances spoke Yiddish, including a friend in Lviv, and says the family did not always speak Yiddish with visitors. She says she married in 1944 (?) after the war, with a matchmaker mentioned, and answers Kerler's question about the best time of her life. She names her army service as that time and recalls the end of the fighting and the question of where to go afterwards. A woman invited her to travel home to Kharkiv, and she mentions her husband.
43:18
From the machine transcript
Khaiut shows rose jam she makes for baking, then recalls folk cures and charms from village healers (babkes). She tells how she turned down one suitor and then met her husband Khayem, who left for Moscow with a residence permit, and shows photographs of him. Kerler asks about the Yiddish newspapers and library she used before the war, and then puts a long run of vocabulary items for her to render into Yiddish: words for ghost and golem, thanks, greetings, colors, house, courtyard, deaf, ear, later/higher/faster/nearer, and breathing.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kaplan answers Katz's questions about the meaning of words (dibbuk, golem). He speaks briefly about postwar hardship and the poor food of the 1940s, including cornmeal dishes. He explains the difference between a rav and a rebbe, and the Jewish burial place and mass grave. He mentions a man who died the same day, and recalls the prewar amateur Yiddish theater and Chabad Hasidim. He gives the town's Jewish population today as 360 (formerly fourteen thousand), with sixty-six children, and says emigration has stopped and a few people returned from America and Israel. From about 12:00 he is asked, with Russian prompts from a second speaker and questions from Katz and Lemster, for Yiddish equivalents. These cover greetings, thanks, luck, household and food words, body parts, adjectives, converts and Christians, peasants, directions and everyday sentences, with discussion of what is said in Mohyliv.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Vaisburd tells how she escaped from Pechera at night with her mother and about twenty other people, running for two hours and bribing two policemen who threatened to return them to the camp. She lost her parents in the woods, was found by a local woman, and then by a cousin who had led them out. The family then stayed two or three weeks in Sharhorod with a woman named Khane, where her mother baked bread and pea pastries; Vaisburd explains how the pastries are made and baked. She then recalls the return to Mohyliv, where her father was drafted at Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), and the Romanian police stopped them, where her mother passed as a Christian by crossing herself and praying, and the earlier roundup, ransom and deportation by train. Kerler and Lemster ask about local place names, the shoykhet and local Jewish figures, and her Russian studies. From about 13:00 the passage becomes mainly the dialectological questionnaire, partly in Russian, covering words for dawn, apostate, Christian and peasant, greetings and thanks, household and food terms, adverbs, body words, verbs, adjectives, and sentences to translate.
12:01
From the machine transcript
Fiksler's son Yakov arrives and speaks Yiddish with Kerler and Katz, who say they want to learn the proper local Yiddish. He mentions his birthplace (garbled in the transcript), his mother's teaching of Yiddish to the children, and his young daughter who speaks Yiddish well. He recalls a trip to Crimea. He compares credit and investment conditions in America and Ukraine and says life is hard for business. They discuss a roadside Jewish memorial seen on the way and plan a further visit, with Munkács as a destination.
30:10
From the machine transcript
Vider and Kerler look at photographs of Fruma's wedding and of the rebbe, and Vider recalls the wedding in the courtyard, with dancing and Yiddish and Hungarian songs. He sings a song and sits with S3 singing along. He mentions his own wedding canopy and a circumcision he knows of, and says circumcisions are performed in Mukacheve today. He shows a book on the Holocaust in Transcarpathia and other volumes, and is asked about a Yiddish term for a non-Jewish church. After a discussion of food words, including challah and berches, he shows a video of a relative who is a musician.
56:35
From the machine transcript
Vider speaks about his wartime years, saying he spent six and a half years in the Vorkuta gulag, accused of spying (for the English); there he learned Russian. His brothers' fates: one hid in Budapest, and Moyshe served in the Czechoslovak army in France and Africa and later married in England. He then returns to his own family, saying his daughter lives in Hungary and does not speak Yiddish and his son does, and he names his children after relatives. Kerler closes by asking about Purim customs.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Vider describes how Purim was celebrated before the war: the megillah in the study house, a festive meal at home, singing, dancing and masks. He recalls scraps of purim-shpil lines and tells an anecdote about a Munkács rebbe's greetings. He also tells a story of a rabbi-physician during the Spanish Inquisition who identified a worm by a Torah law. He then talks about his reading (history, geography) and the languages he read in, Hungarian and Czech.
14:41
From the machine transcript
Vider explains greeting customs, such as a Latin-derived word for greeting and handshaking, and the Hungarian influence on them. He says his Yiddish is weak and that he mostly watches Hungarian television. He talks about Jews in Hungary and Budapest today (a Jewish hospital, a choir, the old Jewish street and ghetto, and a children's summer camp). He answers a few terminology questions, then mentions that Nayman survived the Gulag with him and was born in Rakhiv.
23:37
From the machine transcript
Nayman talks about his father's work with cattle, making cheese and carrying dairy goods weekly to his grandfather. He gives his own name and the added name Khayim given when he was ill, and answers Kerler's questions about folk customs such as extinguishing coals in water against the evil eye and spitting. He then speaks about learning to read Yiddish and Hebrew in cheder at about thirteen, the books he used, his Czech school, and some Hungarian, and recites prayers.
24:38
From the machine transcript
Vider tells of his return from Vorkuta. He was at first refused entry to Mukacheve and sent to Nadvirna, where he had earlier been in prison. On reaching home he found no parents or relatives and stayed with an acquaintance who had fought in Spain. He took various jobs and worked for twenty-three years at the mineral water factory, but could not become director without a party card. He mentions marrying in 1949 and his late wife. Kerler then asks about words for Romanians and Gypsies.
6:43
From the machine transcript
Asked about early childhood, Pasik says she remembers little before the evacuation, when she was seven. She describes the colony as Jewish, with Ukrainians and Germans living there too and two kolkhozy, where her maternal uncle held a leading post. Her mother said there had once been three synagogues and only one remained; Yiddish was the language spoken, and there was a Yiddish school.
16:28
From the machine transcript
Pasik recalls the return home in 1944 after evacuation. She says the kolkhoz men and vehicles were mobilized and evacuated, while the women who stayed in the village were killed. She then talks about present-day life, with the hardships and the transport problems of the village. Kerler and Lemster then ask her about a Yiddish phrase about the evil eye, which she does not know.
19:55
From the machine transcript
Pasik talks about her childhood after the war: she did not attend school but worked in the kolkhoz with her mother, while her brother and sister studied. The kolkhoz became Russian after the war. She describes her work and her mother's pension, her siblings Henekh and Beba, her health, and her family today. She says she spoke Yiddish before the war, only with her mother afterwards, and her friends were Russian.
27:41
From the machine transcript
Pasik talks about prewar cinema and theater visiting the village from Mykolayiv. She then speaks of her mother's brother Zuska (Hroisman family), who was a driver, married in the 1930s, had a daughter, and was killed in the war. She mentions other relatives who were killed or died, and who still speaks Yiddish in Mykolayiv, and Kerler notes the name and telephone number of a man there.
49:42
From the machine transcript
Pasik answers Kerler's questions on terminology, mainly foods and bread: a Yiddish word he asks about that she does not know, festival pancakes, small dough pieces, and bread and baked goods. Kerler also asks about burial and the cemetery, and a blessing wish.
10:45
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein talks about his family: his grandfather Zise is buried in Bolgrad, and after demobilization in 1945 he found his grandmother there; she died soon after. He says there are almost no Jews in Bolgrad and few Yiddish speakers in Mykolayiv. His mother Menukha died in 1978; she was a nurse; his father Yakov worked in a bank.
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.
41:56
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein describes how non-Jewish classmates sat in synagogue with Jewish pupils, and that few Bulgarians spoke Yiddish. He lists Jewish trades such as knife makers, tailors and shoemakers, and says Jews spoke only Yiddish at home. He explains the Talmud Torah and Romanian gymnasium education, and recalls fragments of Romanian and Yiddish songs.
55:59
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein describes his mother's Sabbath food (chicken soup with noodles, challah, chopped liver, peppered gefilte fish with horseradish) and fasting on Yom Kippur. He is asked about Kaddish pronunciation and the synagogue in Mykolayiv. Lemster asks where he was born and discusses Bolgrad's status, the writer Batashansky (?), and then asks about the war.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein speaks about Romanians sending Jews from Odessa, Bessarabia and Moldova, and about relatives left in Bolgrad. He returned in 1945 and tells of memorials to people shot in Mykolayiv and at another place. He says Kaddish is recited there. Kerler asks how the word Kaddish was pronounced at home; there is a brief exchange about a book on Bolgrad, and the question moves to Purim.
10:34
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein talks about Jewish life in Mykolayiv today. He says young Jews marry Russians, that few attend the synagogue or events such as Victory Day, and that there is no one to speak Yiddish with. He mentions a Jewish school with about 180 children, many of whom have only one Jewish parent, and refers to Israel and Chabad. Lemster asks about Jews who went to Argentina from Bolgrad, and the question then turns to his army service.
21:32
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein says that after the war he found his mother in Dnipropetrovsk, his father having died, and no one left in Bolgrad. He studied at an institute in Moscow, finished around 1950 (?), and worked at a bank as cashier and controller. He was sent as bank manager to Voznesensk and worked in banking for 64 years, as he says. He says he had no one to speak Yiddish with.
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.
39:19
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein says he came to Mykolayiv in 1989 (?) because he was ill and his children worked at a factory there. He has two daughters, one in Israel and one in Mykolayiv. Lemster asks about remaining Yiddish speakers there; he mentions a veteran in his 90s who speaks Yiddish, and talks about the veterans' council and a telephone number for him.
43:12
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein is asked about Yiddish theater visiting Bolgrad before the war: troupes came from Galați and Chernivtsi, and non-Jews also attended. He was a child and recalls little. Kerler asks about stories of Hershele Ostropolyer and dream interpreters, which he does not recall. The conversation closes with asking about Jews near Mykolayiv and the lack of Yiddish speakers.
4:10
From the machine transcript
Tzentziper says his mother and brother ended up in Kazakhstan. Lemster asks about his father, named Hersh, who worked at a grain elevator receiving grain. S2 helps with the Russian and Yiddish terms and gives the father's birth year as 1898 (given in Russian). His mother's name is given as Khasya, and she was also from Dobroye. Kerler explains that they record such details for history, and Tzentziper says everyone at home spoke and sang in Yiddish.
25:49
From the machine transcript
Tzentziper recalls Yiddish school: everything was taught in Yiddish, with songs and dances and exams in every class. Kerler and Lemster ask which Yiddish writers he read, and he does not remember, though he recalls Sholem Aleichem and mentions Itsik Fefer. Kerler asks about Gorky, and says he read that in Russian. His teachers, a woman and a director, are mentioned only vaguely, and he does not remember much. Lemster asks whether a Yiddish theater visited the village.
11:54
From the machine transcript
Tzentziper talks about his friends and leisure in Mykolayiv before and after the war. He says the Jewish school in town taught in Yiddish and Russian and closed around 1950 (the year is uncertain). He is evasive about whether Communists attended synagogue. He then sings his own recent song about the Jewish fate: he will set a ladder to heaven and ask God why the Jews have no place, and he asks Him to let them live well and to cast their haters into a pit. Kerler and Lemster discuss its folk models.
17:29
From the machine transcript
Kenin says he attended cheder until about the age of seven, with a melamed named Simen Ash, and spoke Hebrew well then but later forgot it. He remembers his father reciting the evening Shema and singing Sabbath songs. He is asked about Rosh Hashanah, which he does not recall, and about Sukkot and his grandfather's sukkah. Kenin and a man present ask what the recordings are for, and Kerler explains the project and mentions how the team found him via the Hesed in Chernihiv.
22:16
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks how the town's name was said in Yiddish, and about Hasidim and who is buried in the cemetery. Kenin says the Lubavitch rebbe and two other rabbis are buried there. He then describes the Yiddish school he attended for seven years, where all subjects were taught in Yiddish and Russian and Ukrainian were taught a little. He names teachers, including Malkin (mathematics), Simen (biology and chemistry), the director Dulchin and Kurachka (literature). He took part in plays and sang in the school choir.
39:08
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the meaning of a few words, such as dybbuk and golem, and Kenin and a man present give their sense. Kenin then speaks of Rabbi Nakhum Schneersohn, who kept a synagogue and fed poor Jews and was shot around 1937. He describes the synagogue as a study house for old Jews and says Schneersohn was a friend of the Lubavitch rebbe, not a Lubavitcher himself. Kerler ends by announcing a series of Russian-prompt questions.
18:01
From the machine transcript
Introductions among those present, with talk about the Yiddish names of towns: Snovsk (now Shchors), where one man was born, Konotop and Chernihiv. The interviewers ask how these were said in Yiddish and whether Masovich spoke Yiddish at home. He answers that his parents did.
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.
29:33
From the machine transcript
Trachtenberg recalls children's games and plays in childhood and what children did on Purim. He mentions visits of a Yiddish theater from Chernivtsi and says Yiddish was the language of the home, while after the war people spoke Russian and Romanian. His children speak Russian but understand Yiddish.
38:07
From the machine transcript
Informal chat about Kerler's daughter, smoking and drinking, then talk about rabbis in prewar Novoseltsy. Trachtenberg says there were many rabbis before the war and none after, and recalls learning tefillin and his bar mitzvah, held in Novoseltsy in the 1940s. Kerler asks about the pronunciation of 'bar mitsve'.
40:27
From the machine transcript
Answers questions on Yiddish terms such as dybbuk, golem and 'a yidish feld' (?), after a phone call and a remark about a Jewish neighbor. He mentions rabbis in Chernivtsi and a Jewish center in a restaurant. He recalls Jewish weddings after the war with a huppah and klezmer musicians, says about a thousand Jews lived in Novoseltsy afterward and that they emigrated, and that prayer was held at home.
45:27
From the machine transcript
Answers questions about food customs in his childhood: Hanukkah and Purim, fried treats, challah baked on Sabbath (called 'boym bilke'), fish on Sabbath, and terms such as flodn and broth. He also describes salads, bread and raisins. He recalls the small amounts of money, in Romanian lei, that children got on Purim.
11:11
From the machine transcript
Dubinskaia says she still remembers the Yiddish letters from her school, though many years have passed and there was a four-year war. The passage then trails off into talk between the participants about where Kerler lives, and she appears tired.
12:09
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Dubinskaia remembers old women who warded off the evil eye, and about extinguishing coals as a cure; she does not remember either. She then talks about good years of married life while her husband was healthy and his death. She tells of a man who invited her to a café and her polite reply. Kerler ends by asking her to sign something.
23:51
From the machine transcript
Bakmayev lists the names of surviving siblings and of relatives killed, including maternal uncles. The other children of the 23 died, mostly when young. He also says his father spoke Russian and understood Yiddish, while his mother spoke it and taught him.
10:12
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about her parents and about her Yiddish. She says they spoke it, and describes the courtyard as full of Jews with a few Christian neighbours. Her father came from Voznesensk and her mother from Lyakhova (?). They were orphans who married in the early 1920s and settled in the city, and an older sister served in the war. She was born in 1932 and says she was in evacuation. She says few people still speak Yiddish and offers to introduce two or three Jewish acquaintances. Walking through the quarter, she shows a tuberculosis institute and children's sanatorium, streets and an artists' building. She describes a school with mostly Jewish teachers, where her sister studied, and a Yiddish school that existed until the 1930s. She also tells how a sister called her a Zionist. Her uncles Misha and Rafe, tailors, met Dzerzhinsky in 1920 and were later arrested; she mentions Yezhov and Beria in this connection.
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.
21:55
From the machine transcript
The host, speaking Russian, presents the weekly Sabbath programme and the recent concert for the sixtieth anniversary of Israel. She introduces the visiting group from Indiana University, including Veidlinger, Kerler, Lemster and Katz's earlier expeditions, and describes the Yiddish circle and its Forward subscription. A volunteer reads a humorous Odesa story about a water meter, and a singer is introduced. The Yiddish songs follow, ending with a livelier humorous song.
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.
33:13
From the machine transcript
Cherner says that at home they spoke Yiddish and Russian, Russian when children were in Russian school and Yiddish with parents as they grew older. He recalls that the klezmers used a special jargon with a word for money. He describes the order of a Jewish wedding as his grandfather, the bandleader, greeted the guests with music and paid dances were taken. The greeting was spoken in Russian and he cannot recall it in Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opening talk about addresses and phone numbers, and Medved's hearing and Yiddish speaking. She explains her Yiddish and says she was born in Miskivka (name unclear) in the Kryzhopil district, in 1927. Her father was named Borukh and her mother Lea, and her father was killed in the war; she describes his journey by rail and the bombing of a train. She also talks about her son, daughter-in-law and Yiddish today.
25:43
From the machine transcript
Medved recalls childhood in Bershad: a neighbor's dog, and her father's wish for respect from neighbors. She says that non-Jews also spoke Yiddish in the shtetl and talks about languages in school and at home. She attended Ukrainian schools in Bershad and Odesa; Kerler asks about life in Odesa in the 1930s.
30:16
From the machine transcript
Medved gives her mother's birth year (1895) and recalls her mother's sayings in Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian; she explains one Yiddish saying. Kerler mentions his travels to Israel and England, and asks about further proverbs, including one about many governments and few blessings.
37:15
From the machine transcript
Medved talks about neighbors and friends of different nationalities and holidays in Bershad, and about friends in Odesa, one of them now in Israel. She describes her Tatar girlfriend from the evacuation, with whom she spoke Yiddish and Tatar, and recites Tatar sayings and a Tatar anecdote about kisel.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Medved speaks about her time in the east, with the many Dagestani peoples and their languages and Russian as the common language. She mentions learning some Kazakh and Tatar, and a teacher's remark when she entered the seventh grade. Kerler then asks about a performer's visit to Odesa after the war, and the passage ends with a remark about her husband understanding Yiddish through his grandmother.
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.
15:00
From the machine transcript
Vainbrand says he read Yiddish books, among them Sholem Aleichem, and recalls the journal Der shtern (?). Kerler asks about Yiddish spoken after the war, and about his wife, who was also from Valedniki; he gives her family name, his own name and patronymic as in the passport, and his Yiddish name. He then tells of a non-Jewish boy who studied at the Yiddish school and, during the war, worked with the Germans as a translator.
47:50
From the machine transcript
Vainbrand says there was apparently no ghetto in Valedniki because the Germans feared the holy place and did not go to the rebbe's grave. Most older Jews were evacuated to Uzbekistan and elsewhere, or died. Lemster asks about Jewish life in Odesa after Vainbrand arrived, and he answers that he had no one to speak Yiddish with there. He says it is a Jewish city because many Jews live there, and he is asked about Natan Lurie, Drucker and Shloyme Mikhoels, with little recollection. Lemster asks about his daughter in the United States.
9:51
From the machine transcript
Brodsky gives his surname and patronymic, and the interviewers ask the names of the couple. He says his grandparents spoke Yiddish, while his parents did not speak it to the children. He was born in Odesa, and his parents and grandparents were from Odesa too, three generations. Some of the answers are in Russian.
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.
27:12
From the machine transcript
Brodsky mentions evacuation to Tashkent with his mother, via Novorossiysk. Before the war he studied and then worked as a locksmith's apprentice. Asked about Yiddish schools, he and the others recall that Odesa had many, including a vocational school and technical college (Evramol, "Yevramol"), where trades such as locksmith and fitter were taught. Brodskaia says she attended a Yiddish school, and finished ten grades.
43:40
From the machine transcript
Brodsky and his wife say Yiddish was spoken on the street in Odesa before the war, mostly privately, but not afterwards, as many Jews had left. They discuss the Odesa Yiddish theater, with the actor Mikhoels coming to Odesa and Clara Young mentioned, and a Yiddish technical school. They recall the occupations of Odesa Jews: shoemakers, tailors, and a few who kept cattle or drovers' wagons while non-Jews brought produce from the villages. Brodsky mentions his taxi work after the war.
55:46
From the machine transcript
Brodsky remembers Budapest and Hungary at the end of the war and a landlady there who spoke of a Jew. He answers questions about words (dybbuk, golem), and says there were many Jews in the Red Army and no antisemitism there. Postwar antisemitism and Jews in Odesa during the war are discussed: evacuation was not total, and there were ghettos and camps. He says a non-Jewish friend (Yanya Manevich or Maniovich, now in Israel) was among those who rescued Jews, and mentions a memorial with trees.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The team arrives and greets Lerner, with some talk about finding the house and settling in. Lerner explains that he was born in Ostroh (Yiddish Ostrog), then in Poland, and lives there with his wife. They discuss his name: he is called Moyshe, his father was Avrom, and his documents give Mikhail Yakovlevich. He says he was born in 1936. He says very few Jews are left in town and that he understands Yiddish but speaks mostly Russian. He spoke Yiddish with his mother at home.
13:44
From the machine transcript
Lerner speaks about his schooling and work: he and his wife are both teachers, he of Russian language and literature, she in the lower grades. Relatives who were teachers are in America and Canada. Kerler and Lemster then discuss his Yiddish, which Kerler identifies as Volhynian rather than Polish; Lerner counts from one to eight as an example. Kerler asks about words he cannot recall.
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.
57:23
From the machine transcript
Kipervaser speaks about her husband's family, whose three sisters and other children were killed; she says that she and her husband mark their yahrzeit every year. After the war they did not return to Berezdiv, as no Jews were left there, and came to Slavuta in 1944. She says the Yiddish name of the town is Slovite (?). She talks about Yiddish at home, a child named Itsik who died, and the Jews who came back from evacuation. Her daughter completed an institute. Lemster asks whether a Yiddish theater came to Berezdiv.
41:39
From the machine transcript
Dorfman describes religious life today in Ovruch. Two young men from Israel, sent from Zhytomyr by Shlomo Vilgenets(?), come for the major holidays and help organize them. They speak Hebrew, not Yiddish.
42:48
From the machine transcript
Dorfman says non-Jews in Slovechno spoke Yiddish, citing a school friend, a non-Jewish boy raised among Jews. Some non-Jews in Ovruch understand it today, and a few old Jews still speak it. There were no conversions either way.
51:33
From the machine transcript
Katz and Dorfman briefly discuss how to say a house number in Yiddish (twenty-two), then Katz moves on to further questions.
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.
3:49
From the machine transcript
Feldman says he studied in cheder in Volednyk and Slavechna(?) and in the Belarusian town of Lyel'chytsy, travelling by horse and wagon in summer and sleigh in winter. A sister lived in Lyel'chytsy. Katz asks whether the Yiddish there differed from his own, and Feldman answers with the local form of the word for "where".
15:18
From the machine transcript
Feldman names his home village, Yanova Rudnya, which had only six houses, and discusses how its name was said in Yiddish and the origin of "rudnya" (ore). After his father's death he lived in a town and worked in a shop. He describes the water mill his father leased, the fish in the river, and being taught at home by a hired teacher together with four sisters. He begins to mention the holiday songs he sang with the minyan.
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.
9:07
From the machine transcript
Feldman says that until about ten years ago he led the minyan at the Ovruch synagogue, until too few people were left. He describes what happened to the Torah scrolls of the old minyan: one went to the Korosten synagogue and one to Israel. Katz then asks for the Aleinu prayer and passages of the Torah (the opening of Genesis, with the Yiddish for earth, waste and darkness), the haftarah blessings and Simchat Torah. Feldman says he cannot recite the beginning of Genesis without a book.
23:44
From the machine transcript
Feldman discusses the Yiddish and Russian names of Korosten and what kind of town it was, and speaks of the Jews who settled there from the surrounding villages. Katz and Kerler ask for Yiddish forms of local places: Slovechno, Lehin (Luhyny), Veledniki, Narodychi and Norinsk. Feldman says his wife is from Narodychi, where her father was a lumber dealer. Kerler ends by asking about antisemitism before 1917.
28:02
From the machine transcript
Feldman says there was no antisemitism before 1917 and that Petliura's forces killed Jews around 1919–20. He explains that Ovruch was a district town, that Korosten grew to three times its size, and that it was a railway junction. They return to the Yiddish form of the town's name.
32:37
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Feldman knows a word for a husband leaving his wife and about an abandoned wife (agune). Feldman says he does not know the word and that husbands only used to divorce in his time. Katz then asks about interesting people in the town in his youth.
3:45
From the machine transcript
Stotland talks about the only Yiddish school in Ovruch, closed a year before the war, and about his childhood in the orphanage. Twelve Jewish children lived there and spoke Yiddish among themselves, switching to Russian or Ukrainian when a teacher came. He names teachers and says subjects were taught in Yiddish. They read Sholem Aleichem and Itzik Pfeffer.
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.
24:02
From the machine transcript
Informal conversation with women at the Jewish community center in Ovruch. Katz mentions living in Vilnius and Kerler explains that the team records ethnography and language. They ask where the women learned Yiddish, and the women say it was from grandparents but that for years they did not speak it. The women mention relatives in Israel and some Hebrew learning.
27:24
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks who remembers prewar Jewish life. One woman says she was still a child before the war and went to Russian School No. 2, and her parents knew Yiddish.
30:07
From the machine transcript
Informal talk about the decline of Yiddish and the lack of people to speak it with. The women say they are now learning Hebrew. Katz suggests sending Yiddish newspapers from America and asks who might receive one.
38:31
From the machine transcript
Talk about life today and Yiddish among younger people. A woman says her parents were teachers, and children who emigrated to Israel quickly lose Russian. Kerler remarks on his friends and their languages. The passage is partly in Russian.
46:51
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia talks about the Yiddish school in Veledniki, which she attended for four grades. She recalls the subjects, all taught in Yiddish. The school was closed in about 1935 or 1936, and she moved to a Ukrainian school and finished ten grades. She mentions that visitors still come to the tsadik's grave from Moscow, Leningrad and Siberia.
4:53
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia retells stories her father told about the Volednicker rebbe, who helped people who came to him. One is about a mother whose son was to be conscripted into the army, one about a baby lost in the winter and found alive after a wolf, and one about a Jew who stayed with a robber one Sabbath. The longest is about a woman with several daughters to marry off who sells bagels and loses her money to a lodger, with the rebbe's help. Kerler and Katz ask about Russian and Yiddish words, such as the verb for abandoning a wife. They also discuss photocopying her father's handwritten notebook of the stories.
33:11
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia recites blessings, including the candle-lighting blessing for Sabbath and the festivals. She says her father had her write down how many blessings are said on each holiday. She says the mourner's kaddish for relatives, lights memorial candles and sends memorial notes to Opshtshina (?). Katz tests her on Hebrew month names. She asks about the eleven months of kaddish and the leap year, since her husband died on 14 July.
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.
41:24
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia says a dybbuk story is among her father's written tales. Katz and Kerler ask what the word means, and she describes something entering a person or animal. They discuss related Yiddish words such as 'apir' (?) and 'efremye' (?). She then mentions Yiddish records: after the war her father brought a record player and they bought records. She says she lived in Siberia until the 1980s.
3:50
From the machine transcript
Asked whether she read anything in Yiddish after the war, Turovskaia says there were no newspapers and there was no time, because she worked, studied and had a household to run. She speaks of hard years and of finally having a home of her own with children. Kerler then asks about a phrase for a good place.
4:46
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Katz ask about the term for a holy place. Turovskaia speaks of the graves of her grandparents and relatives in Velednik, and of the tzaddik buried there, with Katz and Kerler asking about Hasidic groups (Breslov, Chernobyl, Chabad) behind the restoration of the tomb at Uman(?). She names a rebbe from Kotelnitsh(?). Kerler then asks about visitors who spoke a different kind of Yiddish.
29:38
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about a term for a man leaving his wife, and Turovskaia explains that he abandoned her, and that a convert was involved. She says no get was given. He went to Siberia, traded and later came back, and the tzaddik told her what to do.
56:26
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia says she blesses candles and recites the blessings and holiday-candle prayers. Kerler asks about morning prayers and a Yiddish prayer after Sabbath. She says she prays in Yiddish, and that at home Yiddish was spoken, while her father knew Hebrew well. She married in 1949 (?).
10:35
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia answers Lemster's and Kerler's detailed questions about food: meat with onions and vinegar, stuffed derma and intestines, cutlets, and a layered dish she made in Siberia. She also covers Hanukkah latkes made of buckwheat flour and potato pancakes for Passover, with discussion of the Ukrainian word for them and Yiddish terms.
21:55
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia answers questions about Volednik: nicknames and sayings about neighboring Jews, a Christian classmate in her Yiddish school, and whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish. She comments on antisemitism today and reports a news story about a Jewish student killed in St. Petersburg, then Kerler asks when she returned to the area.
31:16
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia talks about her prewar friends in Volednik, including Reyzl and Manya, and says they spoke Yiddish with Jewish friends and Russian or Ukrainian with Christian classmates. She describes her grandfather's family working a plot of land and how non-Jewish neighbors covered the hay when rain came on the Sabbath. Lemster then asks how she knows of her father's three encounters with bandits.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Zak describes how she founded and worked in a library after the war, collecting books from around the town, and getting a small room in a school. She says she spoke Yiddish before the war and afterwards spoke only Russian and Ukrainian at work.
13:10
From the machine transcript
Zak recalls her poor, hungry childhood, going to school barefoot and ragged, without bread for years, and the famine in the early 1930s. Her sisters and brother went to work, and her brother served in the army. She says that two sisters now live abroad, in Israel and America. She names a childhood friend, Rachel, and says that she spoke Yiddish with the Jewish neighbour. She tells how the town centre was Jewish and the non-Jews lived on the other streets.
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.
46:43
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts questionnaire items about food: gefilte fish versus chopped fish, with Zak describing how she prepares gefilte fish, kugel and babka, and the meaning of a term for fat or broth (?). He asks the Yiddish words for sausage, tomato, plum, cherry, apple and grapes, raisins, and a song is mentioned.
16:20
From the machine transcript
Zak says she has been interviewed twice, once in Polonne and once with photographs, by a woman from Moscow, in Russian rather than Yiddish. Kerler remarks that Russian is a fine language but that they are interested in Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Bentsianov explains Markish's career in Moscow and his standing in Jewish literature. He lists his books, plays and translations into several languages, including Hebrew, English and Chuvash. He tells how he collected materials from many countries and how the Soviet-era ban on Markish's books affected Polonne. He describes the 1965 jubilee and the renaming of a street after Markish, with letters from writers, and shows the porcelain-factory items made for the museum. Kerler and Bentsianov discuss the postwar memorial to Jews killed in the war and the Polonne ghetto, and Bentsianov proposes to play a recording.
36:47
From the machine transcript
Bentsianov and Kerler talk about the day's plan: the underground fighters' monument, Markish Street, the cemetery and the mass grave of ghetto victims, and a woman who might be interviewed. Kerler explains that the team needs Yiddish speakers and cannot afford to cover everything. A woman who attended the Jewish school is also mentioned.
14:13
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether there is anyone in Rivne who can lead prayers and whether the term for a prayer leader was used; Fish does not recall it. Kerler then begins to ask about friendships in his youth.
18:01
From the machine transcript
Asked about children's street games, Fish recalls playing football with a ball made of rags in a sack, volleyball, handball and checkers. Kerler asks for the Yiddish word for ball and about a game called kaldovane (?), which Fish does not know.
23:07
From the machine transcript
Fish continues the rhymed Yiddish–Hebrew word list, naming pairs such as dove, fire, water and meat, and ends with a toast. He says he learned it from his mother, who died in the war, and that Soviet life made people forget much of what they knew. He adds that he did not feel badly under the Soviets, being a chief bookkeeper.
14:39
From the machine transcript
Fish explains the word for an honest or pious person (erlekher) as meaning someone who prays daily and keeps the laws, and says that in Rivne it was treated as the same as a religious one. Kerler and S2 ask about other terms, which he does not know. Fish then reflects on assimilation, the Jewish population in America and Israel, and mixed marriages.
29:01
From the machine transcript
Fish compares prewar Jewish weddings with Soviet-era and later ones. Before the war a big wedding had hired klezmorim and cooks, someone to greet the guests, and a proper chuppah, whereas after the war weddings were held in restaurants, often in Russian. He mentions his brother's and sisters' marriages but cannot recall the title of the greeter.
36:14
From the machine transcript
Fish answers questions about Purim and Shavuot. He says a Purim play might have been held in the Jewish gymnasium but he did not see one. He says Shavuot food was dairy, with cheese and blintzes (terms discussed).
3:20
From the machine transcript
Kurliandchik is introduced as a man from Novohrad-Volyns'kyy. Kerler asks about the old name of the town, which Kurliandchik gives as Zviagel and the Yiddish Zvil, and about its location and former province (Volhynia). Kerler states the date and place of the recording. Kurliandchik gives his name, patronymic and official name, says his family came from Courland, and gives his address in Rivne, postal index and telephone number. Kerler ends by asking his birth year.
55:30
From the machine transcript
Kurliandchik briefly describes the holidays at home in his youth, including Sukkot and the sukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Simchat Torah. Kerler asks how Sukkot was pronounced. Passover was kept, and the family baked its own matzah, with people gathering for it. After the war older people still came together, and a shul in Novohrad-Volyns'kyy was closed.
20:32
From the machine transcript
Litvak gives her father's name, Shilek, and her grandfather's, Yerikhem, both born in Zvil. She recounts a family tradition of coming from Lithuania, with ancestors expelled from Spain, and says the local rabbi and his wife tell her she speaks like a Litvak. Her father also told stories of the Civil War years.
53:02
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Litvak says she remembers little Yiddish literature from school. She names Peretz and the story of the pious cat, and Mendele, whose Hebrew words she found hard. She adds that school favored Russian writers and poets and that Yiddish literature and language came only twice a week. She says she reads Yiddish books and the Lekhayim paper. She mentions a visit to Chisinau and an acquaintance with Berman, and cannot recall the Yiddish term for exercises.
4:41
From the machine transcript
Litvak says she spent four years in Germany with her husband, in the early 1960s. She got by with a little German, and Yiddish helped. She worked in the cultural department of the Soviet embassy after an interpreter judged her German adequate.
10:30
From the machine transcript
Litvak recalls the mass arrests of 1937 (?), when she saw columns of arrested people, mostly Jews, led through the street to the station. Her father warned her not to say anything against the authorities. Kerler then asks whether she knew of non-Jews speaking Yiddish, and she says she could recognise Jews by their faces.
48:39
From the machine transcript
Litvak recalls a recent communal Passover meal in a restaurant, where she was served meat with rice, which she objects to as an Ashkenazi. Asked about Purim plays, she says there were none before the war, and mentions the phrase for a wicked person from her mother's sayings. Kerler asks about expressions such as 'a good Jew'.
5:20
From the machine transcript
Litvak recites a version of the rhymed charm about three women sitting on a stone. She then tries to explain how a skin rash (a rose) was treated, with a red cloth, a candle or cotton wool and walking it around, but says she has forgotten the words. Kerler comments that such things are disappearing and then asks about singing.
45:42
From the machine transcript
Shteingart sings fragments of a lullaby and of Yidl mitn fidl, learned at home from his sister Liza. He lists the languages he and she knew: Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew and some Russian. Kerler also asks about debate evenings.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler discusses how Kovel' was pronounced in Yiddish and asks Shteingart to recite kiddush as it was said in the past. Shteingart recites a short fragment. Kerler asks whether he sang at the table before kiddush and whether he remembers the tune. Kerler then asks about the old holidays at his parents' home.
27:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler formally begins the interview with Shvartzbroit. She gives her name as Etele Shnayder, now Shvartzbroit, patronymic Kalmanovna, and says her grandfather was a rabbi. They note her Yiddish is that of Mohyliv-Podilskyi. She names a man, Avraham Finkelshteyn (?), connected with her family or her coming to the interview. Kerler states the date as 8 May 2003.
52:43
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Shvartzbroit clarify who the visitors are, a professor of Jewish history and a Yiddish professor. She tells a religious parable about a rich man who wanted paradise and about Solomon asking for wisdom. She says she attended Jewish school no. 3 for four grades and that all subjects were taught in Yiddish. She names the director (Terk? the transcript is unclear), says she now reads Russian but can only sign her name in Yiddish, and says she has forgotten the old songs.
20:43
From the machine transcript
Fish says Rivne had two Jewish theaters and a cinema, and that he attended performances in Yiddish. He recalls seeing the film Yidl mitn fidl, owned by a German proprietor. He also says he knew Polish after gymnasium but had no Russian when the Soviets arrived.
59:18
From the machine transcript
Fish says his mother had five children and was a housewife; he compares the roles of girls before and after the war. At Lemster's request he sings a rhyming Yiddish-Hebrew word song and the song Papirosn, which his mother taught him.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Fish recalls going to synagogue with his father and his mother lighting Sabbath candles on Friday evenings, and that challah was baked at home for Sabbath and holidays. He describes the street where the family lived, with its streets and its mostly Jewish residents, and answers Lemster's question about Yiddish stories. He ends on the point that under Soviet rule Yiddish could hardly be used.
14:45
From the machine transcript
Fish says only a few Jews remain in the surrounding small towns, such as Zdolbuniv (?) and Kostopil (?), and that they do not speak Yiddish. Kerler and Fish discuss the head of the local Hesed and a former colonel. Fish says that the veterans have non-Jewish wives, and that of his sons only the eldest married a Jewish woman, while the youngest's first wife was Ukrainian, and he reflects on Jews marrying non-Jews.
18:44
From the machine transcript
Fish shows the interviewers old issues of the Forverts and Hebrew papers, passed to him by relatives of a Rivne man who has since died. He says he can read Yiddish with difficulty but little Hebrew. Lemster and Kerler ask whether Jews born in Rivne remain, then about the evil-eye custom and a word for ritual blessing (?); Fish answers vaguely. Kerler then asks what should be remembered about Jewish Rivne, and Fish begins to answer that Jewish schools matter most.
24:28
From the machine transcript
Pressed by Kerler to say what should be remembered rather than done, Fish says Jewish schools and the teaching of children to be Jews matter most. He adds that the millions of murdered Jews, including children, must be remembered. He recalls that under Polish rule Jews lived as Jews and spoke Yiddish from childhood, and worries about children of mixed families. The interview closes with thanks.
24:23
From the machine transcript
Kleiner describes the Jewish school: first lessons in a borrowed room, then the community built a floor and later a second one. The director was Jacobson, and she names teachers including Reizman, Gershman, Milshteyn, Brenner and Fok, and a German-language teacher. She lists the subjects and the language of instruction, the Yiddish literature taught, anti-religious teaching, Pioneer activities, school meals and the neighbour teacher Brenner, who taught her to read Yiddish at four.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kleiner describes Passover preparations in Shepetivka: making the dishes kosher, burning the chametz, and cooking Passover dishes such as potato and matzo-meal pancakes and kugels. She explains the term 'kuzlekh'(?) for berry-based kugels and says dairy was avoided on Passover. She says a special Passover cloth was put on the table and tells how the seder was held and who asked the questions. She and Kerler then move to Shavuot food (blintzes, green borscht) and a discussion of the sorrel/sour-dock plant.
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.
19:01
From the machine transcript
Kleiner explains how gefilte fish was prepared and which fish was used, with questions about sweetness and pepper. She discusses latkes made from buckwheat flour for Hanukkah or from potatoes for Passover, her father's work as a sausage maker making kosher goose sausage, the removal of veins (trebern) and plum terms. She describes a baked dough dish with nuts, whether Jews drank brandy or beer, and homemade kvas.
46:29
From the machine transcript
The second voice says that they have a son in Chernivtsi and a daughter in Shepetivka. They discuss Jewish life today in Shepetivka and Khmel'nyts'kyi. There is a Hesed, but few Jews and few speak Yiddish. People are emigrating, factories are closed and pensions are small. After the war Yiddish was not taught. Kleiner has no one to speak Yiddish with; his daughter understands but does not speak it.
9:51
From the machine transcript
Informal talk with Krasner about health and her knowledge of Yiddish; she says she has little opportunity to speak it. The team says it is from Lithuania, and a team member comes from Vilnius.
13:36
From the machine transcript
Krasner and the team discuss Canada and America, and a team member asks in which year she was born, to which she answers 1936. She says she knows Yiddish from home and speaks Ukrainian since school, which was the Shpykiv secondary school. The group mentions a meal at a restaurant in Sharhorod.
15:54
From the machine transcript
Chat about a cat and kittens, with Katz asking how to say cat in Yiddish. A neighbor is called Rafael, and conversation turns to the names Ben Khaim and Ben Yosef, and a team member's Lithuanian Yiddish, whose father came from a town near Donetsk.
28:00
From the machine transcript
Informal chat in Russian and Yiddish about visiting the cemetery by minibus, cats, and gifts; Katz asks Krasner repeatedly to speak Yiddish because the team is studying how it is spoken. They discuss the meaning of a mitzvah and the microphone and batteries.
5:43
From the machine transcript
Informal talk while the team prepares to go out for a walk: Kerler repeatedly asks Krasner to speak Yiddish rather than Russian. They discuss homemade liquor and a story of someone taken to the forest, and Kerler asks for children's rhymes and counting rhymes. She recalls playing with a doll as a girl, and tells how she led her blind uncle to the bread shop, where they were told not to speak Yiddish. Some words are asked, such as the Yiddish for cherry. The passage ends with a Russian-language exchange on rings and a Jewish singer.
13:29
From the machine transcript
Krasner and the interviewers talk about dialect differences, with an example of the verb for falling and a Lithuanian-born woman in a mixed marriage. She describes her mother as a mimic and storyteller who made fun of people, a trait she says passed to herself. Her father, a bookbinder before the war, and her brother are mentioned. The passage ends with Kerler asking who the local tzaddik was.
32:24
From the machine transcript
Krasner tells of a hungry Romanian-Jewish youth, Maksik, who begged for bread at Pechera, and of a missing toilet in the corridor. Kerler asks how a word is said in Yiddish; the matter of a Yiddish word for a board or worker is asked, though the transcript is garbled. In Russian a woman is told to put money away safely and to prepare food for the guests.
34:51
From the machine transcript
Krasner and Kerler discuss the Yiddish words for kitchen and a board. She describes how gefilte fish was prepared: cleaning the fish, the onions, eggs, pepper and matzo flour, and the pot. She then talks about the evil eye (nare) and an incident of three women. Finally she recalls Passover at home before the war: preparing the house, searching for and burning leavened bread, baking matzo with a stamp, and koshering with hot stones.
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.
27:23
From the machine transcript
The tape changes to a kitchen in Haysyn with Murovanaia. She and Kerler talk about making vareniki, and she tells how she makes the dough and filling by hand. The talk is interrupted by Russian talk about calling the head of the community.
31:01
From the machine transcript
While making vareniki, Murovanaia talks about people she knows in America and Cleveland, and about the Kerler family, who were neighbors in Haysyn. Kerler says he lives in Bloomington, Indiana. She mentions a daughter in Nuremberg and a grandson in Moscow. They discuss the similarity of Yiddish and German and its place in the world as an international language.
2:29
From the machine transcript
Shvartsburg talks about the remaining Jews of Skvyra who still speak Yiddish: a few very old people, among them a woman of eighty-eight who barely leaves her house. He also mentions a woman who survived the war with a non-Jewish family and no longer speaks Yiddish. Kerler and he discuss who the best Yiddish speaker in town would be.
29:35
From the machine transcript
Shvartsburg speaks about religious life in Skvyra under the Soviets, when circumcisions and weddings were held quietly. He says most Jews do not speak Yiddish today, and that his own children and wife do not. Asked by a member of the team, he also discusses the town's shoykhet before the war.
43:02
From the machine transcript
Liberzon explains she studied history at Odesa but could not work in the field since she was not in the Communist Party and did not know Ukrainian. She taught in one school for many years, 45 by one account. She is interested in Yiddish and is asked to translate letters from relatives in America who do not know Russian. A second voice speaks briefly, apparently about teaching, with mention of the Rokeach.
9:34
From the machine transcript
Informal talk with the team, partly in Russian, about drinks and tea, and about a visiting Polish photographer who publishes albums on Jewish sites. A microphone test follows. Liberzon remarks that Yiddish today is mixed with Russian words and that Yiddish speakers are rare.
12:58
From the machine transcript
Liberzon says she read Soviet Yiddish magazines and spoke Yiddish at home. Kerler steers her toward memories of the Soviet school. She then speaks of her father's love of music and singing, and of a gift she bought him while he was ill.
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.
46:26
From the machine transcript
Liberzon recalls a Polish count whose estate and factories gave work to Jews and who helped the Jewish poor at Passover and the synagogue. A street in Slavuta bears his name. She says Poles and Gentiles who worked with Jews spoke Yiddish, and she mentions Jews working in the surrounding forests.
56:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish words for a good place, a holy place and the cemetery, and Liberzon says she knows beis-oylem and beis-khaim. Talk about the Polish cemetery and church in Slavuta follows, with some Russian.
4:23
From the machine transcript
Kerler remarks that few traces of Hasidism are found among the old Jews. Liberzon answers that the Jews of Slavuta were, as she understands it, Misnagdim in later years, though earlier there were Hasidim; she says people in the last period no longer went to a rebbe. She also reflects on her half-Soviet Yiddish.
38:13
From the machine transcript
Liberzon says she spoke only Yiddish at home and attended a Hebrew school; her father knew little Russian. She mentions making blintzes and describes holiday food: kreplekh with soup before Yom Kippur, and dairy dishes with blintzes on Shavuot. She notes that no beef was slaughtered in Slavuta then. Kerler ends by asking about the public library.
40:07
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether the public library in Slavuta had Yiddish books. Liberzon says libraries held many Yiddish books before the war but not after. She says Yiddish is still spoken in nearby towns and talks about what she can contribute on language and history.
44:09
From the machine transcript
Kerler talks about his own writing in English, then asks how Litvaks and Galicians were referred to; Liberzon discusses Litvak speech, Belarusians, Lubavitch and Brestlov Hasidim and an unclear conflict between them. She describes a Jewish religious school in which Yiddish and Jewishness are taught with sponsors from America.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A brief exchange about school and teachers. The interviewer asks who taught the subjects in Yiddish, and she recalls Yiddish teachers, including a director and his wife who were not local. She cannot now remember the director's name.
0:57
From the machine transcript
She speaks about school discipline and the Sabbath, and recalls a non-Jewish woman who did work for the family on the Sabbath. She says her mother wrote letters in Yiddish to a brother and sister in America. The interviewers then ask about the words dybbuk, golem, kisl and others, and about words for a dove or pigeon.
6:30
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of Yiddish words: build, hill (?), cross, kasha, 'higher', nudnik, room. She mentions her brother's children in Brooklyn. She complains that she has no one left to speak Yiddish with.
9:06
From the machine transcript
Questionnaire items continue: the word for a shed or barn, window glass, mouse, thanks, the greetings for morning and evening, breathing, and being ill. She says she grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home, and Lemster praises her Yiddish and memory.
13:49
From the machine transcript
Questions about the words for 'ill' and 'sleepy' and the difference between them. She says that prompting is not allowed in school. The passage is partly in Russian.
14:45
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of vocabulary and short sentences: 'he likes it', 'where he goes', 'he ran away from the Germans', and words for honest, pious and religious. Also words for ladder and for a Jew who converts, where she says she is unsure. Much of it is interleaved with Russian.
18:05
From the machine transcript
Continued questionnaire work on words for a bad person or apostate, a non-Jew and a Christian, headache, church or monastery and peasant. Talk of a kolkhoz with Jewish members and pronunciation variants such as boymele, followed by sentences on dates, 'you are right', paying for a night's lodging, crying, and the word for grandmother. It ends with a question about charms or spells against illness in her town.
25:58
From the machine transcript
A short answer to a question about charms. She says she knows one that she was taught, and Kerler and Lemster ask how people used to say such incantations.
26:32
From the machine transcript
She recites or tells a short humorous story about three women sitting on one stone. Questions follow on words and usage about heating irons with coals, the word for 'tasty', and the idiom 'it doesn't go into my head'.
29:37
From the machine transcript
Sentences to translate: 'I walk on the street', 'I live on the street', and the word for a street. She mentions that only Jews lived on the street. Lemster and Kerler joke about someone from Brooklyn and America.
30:58
From the machine transcript
Elicitation on sentences about poor eyesight and sleep, then the words for a well, a potato (kartoshke, bulbe, kartofl) and a shop. Pronoun forms ('you', 'your') are also asked.
33:51
From the machine transcript
Further sentences: the phrase 'a year on my enemies', the word for 'enemy', and the difference between 'everyone' and 'each one'. The informant gives a number-of-people example.
36:18
From the machine transcript
Questions on 'one and a half', 'another story' and sentences about sitting at the table with her father. Much of the passage is in Russian, including a remark about being photographed.
38:54
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of words about Hanukkah and the dreydl, 'rich men' (gvirim), the plural 'tables', and pronunciation of 'then', 'on the road' and 'wagons'. Questions about 'whose child' follow, with some Russian asides. No narrative about Ostroh is evident.
42:31
From the machine transcript
Questions on plurals and forms ('we will go together'), the word 'mistama', and words for ceiling, floor, bridge, boards, fence and face. Also verb forms such as 'to overlook'.
46:11
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of 'a lot of', 'to come back' (tsurik versus kerik), 'came back from the war', 'perhaps' and 'suddenly', with questions about how her mother would have said them.
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.
17:17
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim recalls Sabbath observance at home: his mother gave no food unless he had prayed, and she blessed the candles on Friday night. He contrasts observant Sabbaths and festivals then with today. Kerler then starts a dialectological question about what was thrown into people's beards on Tisha b'Av and a phrase for a headache.
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.
6:18
From the machine transcript
Kaviner and Kerler look at a book with Hebrew and Polish text, apparently a prayer book of 1929. Kerler comments that Jews who translated prayers into Polish were assimilating, as prayer in Hebrew was dying out. Kaviner then returns to how Jews obtained higher education under the Soviets.
8:15
From the machine transcript
Kaviner and Lemster discuss quotas for Jews in Soviet higher education, in the 1960s–70s especially in Moscow, versus easier admission elsewhere. Lemster asks if anyone in Starokostyantyniv can speak Yiddish. Kaviner mentions a man who survived the ghetto but would know little of Jewish tradition. They also touch on the songs Shalom Aleichem and Friday evening singing, and on his war service.
34:16
From the machine transcript
Klein and Kerler speak about Yiddish after the war: older people spoke it but children were raised in Russian. Kerler explains where he is from. Klein worries about how her words will be used, and Kerler says they are for learning about the town. She says there were two Yiddish schools, a seven-year and a ten-year one.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Klein about terms: a street named after Sholem Aleichem, the expressions for a cemetery, and the meaning of the phrase 'a good Jew'. Klein says she only partly knows these, and comments on how they were children before the war and had not thought about what was coming.
3:04
From the machine transcript
Klein describes how she prepares gefilte fish, which she learned from watching her mother, and says she adds no sugar. Other dishes come up, including borscht (with Russian explanation), pickled cucumbers and tomatoes, and noodle dough for Passover. Kerler also asks for the Yiddish word for tomato; Klein says it was not used and gives Russian/Ukrainian forms.
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.
9:16
From the machine transcript
Bivson talks about childhood friends and about languages: she played in both Yiddish and Ukrainian, and Polonne was a Jewish town. She mentions the holidays kept there, children's games and customs, and non-Jews who knew Yiddish. She says there is now little opportunity to speak Yiddish.
26:38
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks various items about customs and terms: the occupation of a maker of rolled cookies, how gefilte fish was made, going to the rebbe for a blessing, and quenching coals against the evil eye. Bivson knows little of charms, and the passage ends with her mentioning her son, a teacher and physicist, who has died.
34:39
From the machine transcript
Terminology questions: how a Yiddish word for a cemetery is said (?), Hanukkah foods and customs (latkes, dreidels, Hanukkah money) and Purim masquerading and singing. Bivson mentions her granddaughter and daughter and says the holidays were celebrated well after the war.
43:01
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the meaning of Yiddish terms and sayings (such as dybbuk, golem and expressions about the dead). Bivson explains and says she speaks to her late father in Yiddish at the grave. She says the best time of her life was when her son was healthy, and speaks of his death at about fifty, shortly before his jubilee.
47:12
From the machine transcript
Terminology questions: the words for potato, baked goods, cookies and tsimmes-type dishes, foods for Yom Kippur and gefilte fish. Kerler asks about the weddings, what litvak means, and wedding roles including the tomada (?) and the mother-in-law leading the bride to the chuppah. She says she saw a chuppah in Starokostyantyniv after the war. At the end Kerler talks of finding her son's picture on the Internet.
12:29
From the machine transcript
Klein names her grandfathers (Berl and David) and a grandmother (Mirl), most of whom she did not know. She describes her mother's family, with its educated sons. Kerler asks about prewar Starokostyantyniv, and she says Yiddish was spoken on the street and her mother also spoke Ukrainian. She begins to say where the family was evacuated and when they returned.
18:28
From the machine transcript
Klein says she makes gefilte fish without sugar and discusses holiday foods, including dairy and meat dishes for Passover, in a Jewish home. She says the town was Jewish before the war and that Yiddish was still spoken afterward. She mentions the Russian school and the languages taught there.
19:40
From the machine transcript
Klein and Kerler discuss school languages: Russian, Ukrainian and German were taught, and other subjects were taught in Yiddish. She mentions reading Mendele and Sholem Aleichem in school, with some unclear remarks about Yiddish teachers.
43:34
From the machine transcript
Klein says her father led the seder, and that after the war Passover was kept less fully. Kerler asks who asked the four questions (the boys), then whether the school taught religion. She says math, algebra and physics were taught in Yiddish until the shift to Russian, and names several teachers and professors.
7:01
From the machine transcript
Tartinets, answering questions in Russian/Ukrainian, tells how Jews in her village were taken away on carts and how she ran barefoot after the cart with her friends. She names the family of a Jewish ironmonger (Haskl, ?) and friends such as Rivka and Hana. She recalls playing with Jewish children, lighting the stove for them on Sabbath, and praying with them; she speaks of her injuries and how she was a worker at a poultry plant after the war. Kerler asks whether the Jewish children spoke Yiddish with her.
24:25
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the Yiddish term for vodka and Tartinets answers questions on Sabbath food: fish, kugel, cholent. She says she herself ate matzo from Jewish neighbours at Passover while the Jewish children were not allowed to share Christian bread. Kerler asks again whether she recalls a Yiddish song, without result.
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.
22:25
From the machine transcript
Burshtein speaks about life today and the couple's pension, and Kerler thanks him and wishes him well. Burshtein says in Russian that he regrets losing Yiddish and never learned to read it; he read Sholem Aleichem and others in Russian. He recalls amateur Yiddish theater in Sobolivka and a visiting actress after the war, and Kerler mentions the visiting singer Horovits (?).
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.
11:56
From the machine transcript
Yakuta recalls how electric light first came to Teplyk in the 1930s, from an old tractor set by the river that gave one lamp per house. After the war a captured tank supplied more light, and radio arrived. S3 and Kerler briefly discuss the Ukrainian word for radio.
13:38
From the machine transcript
Yakuta lists the subjects taught in Yiddish at her school, including dictation and letter writing, and mentions Russian as a subject. She describes her father's secret Sabbath and religious practice during Soviet times and his trips to Uman and Bratslav with a pooled cart, as a Bratslaver hasid. Kerler asks her about the terms "good Jew" and "honest Jew", and the tsadik. She then begins to tell how the Germans selected craftsmen from among the Jews, including her father.
17:37
From the machine transcript
Yakuta says her father refused to stay as a selected artisan when his wife and children were taken, and that he was killed with them. The other specialists were killed later. Kerler asks for the Yiddish for "later".
18:41
From the machine transcript
Yakuta describes prewar Sabbath at home, with her mother blessing the candles and her father requiring the children to sit and listen to his Sabbath order. He told stories about Teplyk people who went to America, and about Uman. Her mother prayed from a Yiddish prayer book, which Kerler discusses with her, and retold biblical tales such as the binding of Isaac. A side discussion with Kerler concerns Yiddish words and a blessing phrase.
30:05
From the machine transcript
Yakuta talks about the local wise woman and folk healing, including the cure for the evil eye by spoken charm. She tells how her mother, when her husband had malaria, cooked porridge with bread and salt and threw the pot into the river with an incantation to the seven spirits. Kerler and S2 discuss the Ukrainian and Yiddish words for the "grain of salt". Kerler then asks about the time when religious practice had to be hidden.
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.
18:09
From the machine transcript
The team talks with Veliye, born in Sharhorod, who lives in Israel and is visiting her son in Teplyk. She talks about her pension, her husband, her children and grandchildren, and the Jewish relatives and acquaintances she knows in Israel. She tells of visiting the grave of a revered figure at Uman and of the climate and the sea in Israel. She also describes Hasidic families who travel there, and recent news of killings. Kerler says that he is recording how Yiddish speakers talk.
30:04
From the machine transcript
Veliye answers a few terminology questions, including the word for a priest and for one who converted. She says her sister, father and grandmother were baptized to avoid being caught. She then speaks about the war years in Sharhorod, where the occupiers were Germans, and about relatives who were shot there. She also tells of the fate of her mother in the ghetto. The details are hard to follow in the transcript.
32:32
From the machine transcript
The team greets another woman, perhaps Marinina, who joins the conversation with Veliye. Veliye's group says goodbye with promises to meet in Israel. The people present talk about who speaks Yiddish in their families and in Israel and Canada. Kerler explains that he speaks only Yiddish and tells where he is from, and the scene ends with further farewells in Yiddish and Russian.
19:17
From the machine transcript
Marinina says she worked for two years in a village of ethnic Germans, until 1941, while studying part-time at the Simferopol' pedagogical institute. She recalls the war years in camps, including beatings and forced road building at Raygorod, Bratslav and near Bershad' by Jews, guarded by Germans and local police. Her father, a butcher for the Germans, brought her back to Teplyk. She also tells of a former kolkhoz acquaintance who spoke Yiddish and kept her secret.
31:20
From the machine transcript
Marinina names the kolkhoz station and local geography near Simferopol', and Kerler asks about a Crimean song. She recalls reading Yiddish writers such as Itsik Fefer and Peretz Markish. She says the school taught in Russian, and her father, though not religious, was a cultured man who taught her to read Yiddish and a few Hebrew words. She recites a verse about a mother-in-law (a song fragment). She describes her mother's strict Passover preparations and her own Passover cooking, the latkes for Passover and Hanukkah, and her mother's baking and gefilte fish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the interviewee about Tisha b'Av and the children's custom of throwing burs at the beards of adults, which she does not recall. He then asks a few vocabulary items, such as words for face and for "a lot". She describes her life today: illness, a heart operation in Vinnytsia that she could hardly pay for, her pension compared with German payments, and her great-grandson and grandson. She also mentions having been in a camp as a child and sharing a camp background with another woman. Short exchanges with other visitors follow, with Russian speech and some Hebrew.
18:56
From the machine transcript
The team drives around Teplyk with a Russian-speaking guide, probably the community director, who points out a cellar where more than a thousand people were shot on 27 May 1942 and where captives were held afterwards. He shows the sites of former synagogues, now a bathhouse and a dry cleaner, and the Jewish school of 1928. He discusses the old Jewish cemetery with its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century graves, the history of Jews in Teplyk, the Potocki castle, and a former Jewish mill. From about 35:30 a woman begins an interview in Yiddish and Ukrainian, with a dialect question about "hayssn" versus "gayssn" and the Tisha b'Av bur-throwing custom.
25:08
From the machine transcript
Gliazer recalls cheder, whose teacher was called Moshe. He began at six or seven, with eighteen boys, learning the alphabet and then Chumash. At Katz's questions he recites the letters and describes the final-form letters. He also describes the synagogue where the cheder met, which had a women's section behind a small window.
59:01
From the machine transcript
Gliazer answers questions about life today in Ternopil' and the region, noting few Jews remain and that a community exists in Chortkiv. He thanks the visitors, while other voices speak in Russian about few Yiddish speakers left among the young.
18:52
From the machine transcript
In the car, the guide talks about local Jews who spoke Yiddish at home and about a woman who wrote a short history of the Jews of Kremenets' in Ukrainian, and a manuscript the group gave to a Ternopil community figure (Feinstein). She describes the difficulty of finding sponsors for publication, and the hope of obtaining copies of old books from Tel Aviv and a book from Buenos Aires. She also discusses searching for a family (Tut) through the diaspora. The party passes a gate on the Dubno road, and she points out a synagogue building by the bus station.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gliazer lists the trades and professions in the prewar shtetl: porter, shoemaker, tailor, doctor, lawyer, engineer, and four or five Jewish doctors. Kerler asks about the water-carrier and his yoke, buckets and barrels, and about Polish-influenced words for the vessels. Gliazer does not remember the term for the water-carrier.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The interviewees identify people in old photographs, including grandmothers and a father, and Kerler asks how things are said in the local Yiddish. Petrunenko answers questions on terms such as street, well, buckwheat porridge, potatoes, shop and flowers, and sentence translations. They discuss Passover potato fritters, Hanukkah food and the miracle of the oil. Kerler asks about the evil eye and spoken charms; one woman declines to share most of them but explains that rolling an egg relieves fright, which is partly shown. The passage ends with thanks and farewells.
20:01
From the machine transcript
Kerler is led to the home of the Zhivokritskiis and interviews them. Alexandra, born in Tomashpol' and named Sure, says she was in the ghetto at Zgivka with her uncle, a tailor, while her father was in the army. She recalls her marriage in 1950, buying the house, her two sons (one now in Israel), her parents Grisha and Libe, and Passover at Uncle Yankl's. Her husband grew up as the only Jew in a village. They describe Sabbath fish, the difference between gefilte and chopped fish, grated-potato dishes, and life today. The rest is a long word-list questionnaire: household words, adverbs, kinship, the evil eye, Hasidic terms and sentences to translate.
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).
0:00
From the machine transcript
Questionnaire session with Tkach. She is asked for Yiddish equivalents of Russian and Ukrainian words and sentences: verbs, adjectives, synonyms for 'sick', words for honest and religious people, a convert, a midwife, family terms, house and household words, the dreidel, and sentences to translate. She says she has not spoken Yiddish for some fifty years. Katz and Kerler then ask about earlier songs, pious Jews and a poor 'tsadik' in Kleyn Chernevits (Mala Chernivtsi?), tsadikim's graves, the abandoned houses there and Yiddish writers she has read.
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.
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.
15:08
From the machine transcript
Gingold is greeted at her door, and Kerler explains the university project. She says she is alone, her parents and brother having died, with two cousins in Israel. She gives her names, birth year, and her father's and mother's names and occupations. She also names her grandparents. She attended three years of Yiddish school before moving to a Russian one, and says she never worked and has a small pension. She recalls Sabbath, Passover, Shavuot and Purim customs, and the Tomashpol' ghetto. The interviewers then put questionnaire items: greetings, kosher salting, foods, and Russian words rendered into Yiddish such as 'spasibo', 'mouse' and 'poceluj'.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Miaskovskij mentions a sister in Israel and answers Lemster's and Kerler's questions about prewar Jewish weddings in Tomashpol' and his father's house. The house is about a hundred years old and has a mezuzah on the door but not on the window frame; he explains what a mezuzah is for. He recalls his pious grandmother and speaks about the languages he used and his Ukrainian school. He says his mother died before the war and that his father hid during the occupation, with a ghetto mentioned. Kerler asks to see the father's books in the attic, but Miaskovskij says he cannot climb up.
9:09
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster talk with Vasili Mukha (b. 1933) about his Yiddish. He spoke it with Jewish friends as a child, has forgotten much of it, and is asked for songs and sayings. He says his father's brother was a Jewish shoemaker. In the war Jews slept in his family's house, with the transcript suggesting they were hidden. He is asked whether there were beautiful Jewish girls, about life after the war, the town's Jewish trades and streets, and his own work.
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.
31:23
From the machine transcript
Informal meeting with Mukha. Kerler explains that the team has been looking for his house, and says they were pleased to find him after coming to Tomashpil' several times. Kerler says Mukha wants to learn Yiddish, asks how to say thank you in Yiddish, and the group notes that a woman, Galya, is ill. Mukha and a second voice remark that Yiddish has been lost in the town. At the end Kerler asks him to tell what he remembers of Jewish weddings.
44:27
From the machine transcript
Concluding the interview. Kerler thanks the interviewee and a woman present, a Lyudmila (?) Petrovna (name unclear), and says he hopes to meet again in a year. The informant says three years. Kerler urges him to learn and remember Yiddish. A small gift is mentioned, and Kerler closes with a parting wish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shveibish gives the size of the local Jewish community and says it is small. She says that only one man in Tul'chyn can write Yiddish, a man of seventy-four from Bershad who was in the ghetto there. Many people can speak Yiddish because they were in the camps, where only Yiddish was spoken. Kerler states the date and place of the interview, and Shveibish gives her married name and her maiden name, Vaynblat. Café talk about food and drink and a phone number is mixed in.
7:02
From the machine transcript
Kogan tells an episode of his time in Berlin. He then answers Kerler on why one should say peasants rather than a word for a non-Jew, and on the Russian word for a Jew. He talks about antisemitism, and an anecdote set in Tashkent.
14:48
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Kogan wrote songs after the war. Kogan says he spent seven years in the army and stopped writing. He then discusses his Yiddish schooling in Bershad, six years of Yiddish before Ukrainian, Russian and German in the seventh. He names two teachers, one of them Soprun (?), recalls Soviet-era Yiddish literature and grammar, and lists Mendele, Sholem Aleichem and others, with translations from Ukrainian authors.
59:31
From the machine transcript
Golfeld speaks about his mother's piety, which the police also respected. She gathered Jews at home for prayer on holidays and had copied out a prayer book in Hebrew. He gives his mother's name as Eydye and her father's as Mordkhe, and starts to speak of other family.
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.
7:37
From the machine transcript
Presler recalls helping her mother and going to night school, then working 37 years in a shoe factory. She tells of her husband's death at the factory just before his pension, and of her own injuries and years in hospital. Her son and daughter-in-law also worked there, and she describes a sister jailed for taking bread from a bakery. Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for the Soviet system.
17:30
From the machine transcript
Presler describes how her mother cooked in wartime without gas, using bundles of straw bought at the old market, and before the war in pots set in the oven. Kerler asks about Yiddish names for items such as bundles of straw (kalat(?)), and for pots and bowls. Presler describes the stove, wood and coals, and offers to show her oven.
23:23
From the machine transcript
Presler describes how her mother fired the oven before holidays and baked poppy-seed cakes for Sabbath. Kerler asks about cholent, and she explains that the oven was closed with a metal lid and kept hot over the whole Sabbath, with the cholent pot left inside. She mentions a neighbor who brought tea and that hardly any meat was available.
27:24
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what was eaten on Shavuot, Hanukkah and Passover, and Presler answers with dairy dishes: rice-filled pancakes, milk soup, sour-milk latkes and buckwheat porridge. For Hanukkah she mentions doughnuts and sweet latkes, noting that Jews did not eat draniki. She also describes Passover potato latkes and noodles made from matzo meal.
31:56
From the machine transcript
Presler explains how to make Passover potato kugel from grated, squeezed potatoes and describes making matzo-meal pancakes, noodles and kugel, including how to use potato starch. Kerler asks about the words tatsh(?) and babke(?), and she explains that babka is the non-Jewish word for kugel. Kerler closes by asking for recipes for malai, mamaliga and gefilte fish.
41:47
From the machine transcript
Presler gives her gefilte fish recipe: cleaning the carp, chopping the flesh with onions and oil, binding it with matzo meal and eggs, and boiling it for two hours in broth with onions and carrots. She also explains how the skin is stuffed and the fish served whole. Kerler asks about cooking terms such as for beating eggs and for pushing out.
25:18
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij says his wedding was modest, held among poor people. He had three children: an eldest son in Pittsburgh (?), another son in America and a daughter in Tul'chyn. Kerler asks about Yiddish at home, and Yurkovetskij says they spoke Yiddish with neighbours but did not attend a Yiddish school. Kerler then asks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
47:41
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about a golem, a dybbuk and Purim customs before the war, which Yurkovetskij does not recall. He remembers Passover because his grandmother would buy him a new pair of shoes, and describes the potato dishes eaten then. Kerler also asks about Hanukkah and a Russian-heard term, which he says he did not know.
50:42
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij says that about forty Jews live in Tul'chyn today, and that they speak Yiddish or Russian among themselves. He says only a few came back from Pechera (a few hundred of thousands, with the guide giving other figures). Lemster asks whether camp songs existed, and he answers about the ghetto, where he was also held in Bershad, and the lice-ridden conditions.
56:12
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij says he lived in Tul'chyn and went to Bratslav only to have his son circumcised. He describes building his present house in 1947, its cellar, and winemaking. Lemster and Kerler ask about Jewish dishes such as gefilte fish and kugel, and about the term for grated potato pancakes. They also discuss Bershad under the Romanians.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Questions on prewar Tul'chyn: whether the family cooked itself, and how kosher meat was obtained, with shoykhets (a Moyshe shoykhet is named) and a few matchmakers. Kerler presses on the Yiddish way of saying numbers of shoykhets and matchmakers.
9:37
From the machine transcript
Shveibish talks about the synagogue gabbai and about the Tul'chyn community's relations with Zhytomyr and with Vinnytsia. She discusses what the larger communities send, such as help at Purim and Passover, and the money collected for the Tul'chyn community. Lemster then asks who the Yiddish speakers in the area are, and she begins to name some.
13:11
From the machine transcript
Shveibish gives biographical details about local Yiddish speakers, including a woman who was in the camp at Bratslav and then at Pechera and lost her family there. Kerler asks about researchers who wrote about Pechera and about the Petersburg group's Yiddish programme. She notes how few Jews remain compared with the thousands before.
24:01
From the machine transcript
Shveibish speaks about the early years after the war, including a neighbour who came in, and about showing visitors around and her work for the community. Kerler discusses the word makhes (and makke) with her. They then compare how thanks and amen were said in Tul'chyn.
22:14
From the machine transcript
Kiselman talks about his army service in the Baltic area, on an island not far from Kaliningrad (Königsberg). He served as an interpreter in a military commandant's office, and his Yiddish helped him learn German. The women add that the army treated him well. He then returned with nowhere to go and met an aunt from the camp.
17:02
From the machine transcript
Shveibish says Yiddish was the only language in Pechera and that some non-Jews still speak Yiddish. She discusses the dwindling Jewish population and the antisemitic remarks heard at the market. She tells of rescuers' children who need help, of local Jews and of Jewish returnees from Israel, and she and Kerler speak about the holidays and the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Shavuot. The interview ends with talk of arranging further visits.
34:13
From the machine transcript
Kogan talks about relations with non-Jews, mass killings by the Romanians in Bershad', and a woman's fate in the ghetto (the transcript does not make clear whether it is his wife's). He mentions Jews from Bukovina and his love of Yiddish, and says he wrote in Yiddish and finished seven grades in a Jewish school.
36:15
From the machine transcript
Kogan talks about his Yiddish school in Bershad' before the war: subjects such as Yiddish, Ukrainian, Russian and German, arithmetic and grammar taught in Yiddish. He names teachers and the school director and says the schools were later closed.
19:03
From the machine transcript
Asked why he did not return to Bershad', Kogan talks about his life after the war, work in a trade and his move to Tul'chyn around 1960 (?). He says he met his wife in Obodivka, where she worked, and Kerler asks about speaking Yiddish after the war.
21:08
From the machine transcript
Kogan says he met four or five Jewish soldiers in the army but they spoke Russian, and recalls Marshal Rokossovsky's awards. After demobilization he spoke Yiddish at home with his mother and brother, and Russian at work. He recalls a fire at his mother's house that burned his notebooks, says he met his wife in Obodivka, where he worked on registering meat and milk, and mentions his move to Tul'chyn.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Katsman gives personal information: her name in Yiddish and Russian, her maiden name Chechelniker, her birth date and the fact that she has always lived in Tul'chyn. She talks about her family, which includes her father, a brush maker, her mother Perl, and a brother who froze to death in the camp. Her father was taken into the army and died after the war, and the family spoke Yiddish at home. She says the family's house was lost when they were driven into the ghetto. She recounts being driven to the Pechera camp, with disinfection in a bath, a night on the floor among about fifty people, beatings by police and help from some local non-Jews. She also mentions the return home after the war and attempts to claim compensation. Her half-brother in New York, her son in Israel and her second husband come up, along with her work as a tailor for 39 years. She answers Kerler's questions on relations with non-Jews before and after the war, on non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, on the shoykhet Moshe, on Sabbath, Passover, Purim and Hanukkah food and recipes (gefilte fish, cholent, latkes, varenikes, cakes), on children's games at school and by the river, and on hardship in the postwar years. She also describes annual trips to the Pechera memorial, some arranged by an organizing group; the discussion then shifts to a neighbor Pesia, Kerler's explanation of the archive, and a closing exchange about the mezuzah.
MDV 728Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
46:30
From the machine transcript
Lev and Pesia speak about prewar Tul'chyn: Yiddish was heard on the streets, there were Yiddish theatre and schools. Pesia says she completed five classes at a Yiddish school, though her parents wanted it. Kerler asks until when Yiddish was heard on the streets.
51:07
From the machine transcript
Lev surveys Jewish history (Solomon, David), and Kerler asks how Solomon is said in Yiddish. Yenta says that after the war her father, a baker, always went to pray in his tallis. Tomashpil is named as the birthplace of a mother, whose is not clear.
MDV 729Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
13:51
From the machine transcript
Yenta Kolodenker's father's names (Usher, Khayim and Pinkhes) are discussed, followed by Pesia on naming a child after a deceased relative and for protection. The talk turns to Israel and America: the Yiddish spoken in Israel, Pesia's years there, prices and the families' children abroad.
53:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Purim terms (shalakhmones), the Purim play and singing; the answers are brief. Others recall matchmaking and local girls. The passage ends with talk about the project, addresses and where Kerler lives in America, and about the size of Tul'chyn.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the speaker to explain once more what a 'proyal' is. The speaker explains it as an old gold coin of the tsarist period, and Kerler repeats the explanation. Kerler then praises and offers a Jewish fladen, as made in Tul'chyn.
10:53
From the machine transcript
Kerler and others speak in Hebrew and Yiddish with a woman, probably Gvinter's daughter (?), who lives in Israel and works there. There is talk of San Francisco, Jerusalem and health; at the end Gvinter calls for someone to come over and asks about a name.
14:26
From the machine transcript
Gvinter is asked to repeat a sentence in Yiddish about how Jews lived on the streets before the war, and speaks of Jews living close together. She tells of reading books by Sholem Aleichem and Mendele and of giving her books away when she left for Israel. She also says the ghetto was very large and lists places from which Jews were brought, including Chernivtsi, Mohyliv and Sharhorod, and recalls Jews being bound in chains.
28:47
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks how Yiddish speakers say the name of the town; the second speaker says Uman and tells a story about why it is called that: a tavern keeper's Jewish wife Manya, hence a form like Umania, used by Jews in earlier times. Kerler asks whether Jews or non-Jews say it, and begins the interview proper.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Efim recalls boyhood in Buki, when he studied four years in a Yiddish school before the communists closed it. He then moved to a Ukrainian school and finished ten classes, and was drafted into the army in the year he finished. He says he can still read and write Yiddish and mentions a small book printed in Hebrew and Yiddish.
11:24
From the machine transcript
Efim says he did not attend cheder but a Yiddish school that was soon closed after four years. He learned reading and writing there and recalls the Yiddish textbooks. Kerler asks whether he remembers a poem or song.
24:06
From the machine transcript
Motl, with Efim, explains how gefilte fish was made, from skinning and chopping the fish to stuffing the skin and cooking it with sauce, and discusses whether it was sweet or peppery. They also describe fish cooked in layers with beets, and also sweet meat dishes made with jam or sour salt. Kerler asks for Yiddish names for potato latkes, rugelach-like pastries with raisins and nuts, honey cake and kamishl, and for the braided breads kuletsh and challah baked for Sabbath. Some Russian and Ukrainian terms are named.
4:17
From the machine transcript
Inside the community center, the guide and Kerler discuss who still speaks good old-style Yiddish in Uman'. The best speakers have left or died, including a man of about eighty-five and another near a hundred who died half a year ago. The remaining Yiddish-speaking Jews are mostly Romanian Jews, and Kerler asks whether people came from elsewhere.
6:15
From the machine transcript
Conversation in the community office about Teplitskaia and other possible interviewees. A woman called Manya Faynkold (?) is described in Russian as the one person in town who still speaks Yiddish perfectly; she went through the ghetto. They also discuss pilgrims coming to Rebbe Nachman's grave, the lack of a year-round rabbi, and Uman' before the war, when about 32,000 Jews lived there and about 25,000 were killed by the Germans.
6:15
From the machine transcript
The team and guide set out on foot toward Teplitskaia, who is already waiting for them. On the way they talk about a woman said to be the last good Yiddish speaker in the city, about Bratslav pilgrims and the lack of a resident rabbi. In Russian they speak of the old Jewish places, and a speaker gives the prewar Jewish population of Uman' as about 32,000, of whom 25,000 were killed.
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.
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.
54:18
From the machine transcript
Waldman names her mother Khayke and her mother's siblings, including Yankl, her mother's youngest brother, who studied at a Yiddish university in Odessa. She recalls Yiddish songs, freylekhs dancing, and readings and theater of Sholem Aleichem. She talks about the writer Polyanker, who has a street named after him in Uman', and says she wants a museum in his house in Rakovka. She also mentions a museum in the city.
58:21
From the machine transcript
Waldman recalls that before the war Uman' had three Yiddish schools, and her mother's youngest brother was a school director. After the war Jews gathered in private homes because there was no synagogue, and Yiddish theater and drama circles existed. She tells of a woman who recalled a Yiddish play, apparently Goldfaden's Kolduniye, and of Sabbath eve as it was in her own home. She also mentions a Jewish cultural center that brought together Yiddish and Hebrew literature.
MDV 741Nukhim Moiseevich (Moshkovich) Gvinter; unidentified informant (Bershad'); Efim VigodnerUman', Bershad', 2008
26:33
From the machine transcript
Gvinter greets the team in Yiddish and Russian and gives his name as Nukhim. He talks about his three children, two sons and a daughter, four grandchildren, and nine visits to Israel. He tells how his older brother Yosef and his wife, who lived in Bershad', died in Israel, and about another brother who went to the front. He mentions his late wife. Kerler asks him about speaking Yiddish, and there is talk about going into the synagogue with a key.
29:26
From the machine transcript
The group meets two local men on the street; one is a former yeshiva student. They talk in Yiddish about Hungarian versus Yiddish at home and the yeshiva. Naybauer then talks about his working life: he learned tailoring with his uncle, later made suits for the intelligentsia including professors from Moscow and Budapest, and worked forty-five years. He also talks about his late wife, his children and grandchildren, a kidney operation by Professor Polansky (?) in Kyiv, and the economic hardship of pensions and rent today. He says he was in a concentration camp at the age of twenty. He ends by pointing out the site of a former Jewish mill.
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.
25:28
From the machine transcript
Questions turn to drinking and wine, which Jews did not make themselves. Grigorii and Liudmila then describe the town: the poverty, the inn yard owned by their grandfather Hershl with its shops, and the smiths, tailors, shoemakers and leather workers. Several Jews were repressed in 1928, others fled, and those who remained lost their voting rights. Kerler and the couple also discuss occupational terms such as tailor, patch-tailor and leather cutter.
37:08
From the machine transcript
Liudmila says that today they speak mostly Russian with each other, because her husband served in the army after the war and the children do not speak Yiddish. She says their two children live in Israel and Germany, and Kerler wishes them good health.
4:27
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish chastushkas, and the Shors say there were few. Liudmila sings a short rhyme about Yosl, said to be from Odessa, and says that its author is unknown.
32:56
From the machine transcript
Liudmila sings the Hanukkah song 'Oy Hanuke'. Kerler then asks terminology questions about words for a cross, 'litvak', the difference between rov and rebbe, hasidim and the silent prayer. The Shors say there were no hasidim in the shtetl but that people travelled to the good Jews of Bratslav and Uman, and that her husband's father was consulted by people as a rabbi (?). The passage ends with the start of a coachman's song.
MDV 753Bella Simkhovna Chirkova; Vinnytsya Yiddish women's choir; Nesya Shulimovna KatzVinnytsya, 2002
0:00
From the machine transcript
The choir women discuss what Yiddish songs to sing, partly in Russian, while the team waits and waits for the director. Chirkova comes up to the interviewers and says she can talk Yiddish. Her father was a rabbi and her grandfather a cantor, and she complains that she is not allowed to speak Yiddish or keep the holidays freely. She lingers over her religious upbringing, her parents' deaths and her old age. Kerler arranges to visit her at home. The choir women then sing together, and a second woman, probably Nesye Katz, says she was an orphan raised by an aunt and describes how the group meets and sings Yiddish songs.
5:16
From the machine transcript
Chirkova recalls being sent to the front as a nurse and working in a hospital in Uzbekistan, with an episode involving a transport of canned goods and an accusation to be cleared before a tribunal. She describes Uzbek customs she saw, such as eating on the ground and men having three wives. She ends by saying she wants to speak, joke and sing in Yiddish.
11:13
From the machine transcript
Chirkova states her Jewish identity and says Jews should observe holidays such as Shavuot and Passover, including kashrut and cleaning of the dishes and spoons. Kerler asks how Yiddish says 'cross' and about wearing a Star of David. She talks about the professor who served with her, and asks the interviewers to write to her, mentioning a letter from New York in Yiddish.
4:24
From the machine transcript
Chirkova talks about folk healing and says she knows how to help people with spells and remedies. She describes remedies she recommends, including a plant remedy for a cough and flu, one involving urine, and a plant that Kerler asks her to explain again. Kerler and Katz ask for the details and for the Yiddish terms. She then turns to an acquaintance who learned Yiddish songs from Jews and whom she criticises, apparently in connection with the war and the ghetto.
23:52
From the machine transcript
Chirkova talks about working on the kolkhoz, being recognised by the head of the kolkhoz in Krasne, and growing old and losing strength. She says she was used to speaking and singing in Yiddish and was kept from it. She begins to explain a song about not quarrelling at a wedding, then starts to sing it.
26:27
From the machine transcript
Chirkova sings "Lomir zikh iberbetn", with verses that exchange gifts and objects. She then says people at meetings did not let her speak Yiddish, and she tells of confrontations with others, including antisemites, who tried to stop her speaking and singing it. She stresses that she wants to be loved and respected and that others only imitate Jews.
32:05
From the machine transcript
Katz asks for another Yiddish song. Chirkova says she has forgotten it, but she insists she sings only in Yiddish and says she was not allowed to speak. She says one must tell the truth about being Jewish. Katz then asks what one does for someone sick with a fever.
2:28
From the machine transcript
Furer says he studied at a Jewish school for four years, after which Jewish children were put into Russian schools. He describes a Jewish youth club with dancing and games, held mostly in Yiddish. He says his childhood friends were all Jewish, names several of them, and tells how many of the friends who went into the army did not survive the war.
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.
10:58
From the machine transcript
Vainer-Shpak remembers the rabbi of Vinnytsya as an important man with a fine head and beard. She answers Kerler's questions about the terms 'a good Jew' and 'tsadik'. She recalls no Hasidim beyond her father's Bratslav and calls Bratslav a very Jewish town. Kerler then begins asking about Sabbath bread.
13:22
From the machine transcript
She describes her mother's Sabbath baking and her gefilte fish recipe: the fish was chopped by hand and mixed with pepper, salt and egg, with no sugar added. Kerler then asks whether tatsh (a potato dish) or vodka were known and what Jews called vodka. She explains that Jews drank brandy but not to get drunk. Kerler closes the passage by asking about a spell against the evil eye.
16:42
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about spells against the evil eye, the dybbuk, the golem and terms for a cemetery. Vainer-Shpak answers, though the transcript is garbled in places. She says Jewish fields no longer exist, and a name for a large field is discussed. Kerler asks about how her father invoked a dead person, and she says she once prayed for her ill relatives at the cemetery.
29:44
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn answers Kerler's question about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Old gentiles in Sharhorod spoke it better than she does, from friendships with Jews and from attending the same school.
30:26
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn says that she read Yiddish books and that her school, with Jewish teachers and a Jewish director, taught everything in Yiddish. Kerler asks about a typical school day and poems, and she says she knows many Yiddish songs and offers to sing one.
37:52
From the machine transcript
Kerler remarks that Yiddish was spoken in Sharhorod almost until the 1990s. Barshteyn says she spoke Yiddish with her parents, but now speaks Russian with her children and everyone else.
42:25
From the machine transcript
Asked about songs her mother sang, Barshteyn sings several Yiddish songs, including Tumbalalayka and a Zionist-style song, and a humorous song about a rabbi who rules on a kosher question. She also sings a song about a teacher teaching the alphabet to small children. Kerler asks about the origin of the songs and about other songs, and she says she has no memory of some he names.
0:00
From the machine transcript
After a few lines of chatter among the interviewers, Vaisman says he was born in Berdychiv and that his father, Yosl, died in 1928, so his mother raised him. Lemster and Kerler discuss the Yiddish word for 'raising' a child. Vaisman says his mother worked at a factory and that there were two children. He studied in a Yiddish school until 1938, then in a Russian school, and fled in 1941 with his mother and sister to Central Asia.
7:02
From the machine transcript
Asked about the 1932–33 famine, Vaisman says only that they were always hungry and ate cornmeal porridge (?). He did not know his grandfather, who died in 1927. His mother spoke Yiddish at home but could not pay a melamed, so he had no cheder. He recalls evacuation with his mother until 1943, after which she stayed with his sister in Central Asia while he was taken into the army and was in Romania. The passage ends with Katz asking about songs.
32:08
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn points out a former militia building and shop, and the walk continues. Lemster asks whether Jews under Romanian occupation used coded words in Yiddish so that others would not understand. She replies that Jews spoke Yiddish at home, and that in the ghetto they were allowed to walk on one street only until six o'clock.
33:24
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn describes the war years in Sharhorod. The Germans were there for two weeks and took what they wanted. Romanian authorities followed, and Jews deported from Romania came into the shtetl. She says Jews could not speak Yiddish freely in public but did at home. She was twelve (?), her sister eight and there was a baby, and her mother was left alone without work. Lemster asks whether her mother sang; she says she sang only at home, in the ghetto.
56:50
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn says she spoke Yiddish with her parents, that elderly Jewish women in Vinnytsya often do not understand Yiddish, and that her son (about 52) finished school locally and went to Vinnytsya. She says Hebrew was known only to those who went to a yeshiva, and that Hebrew is now taught. She names her father's seven siblings and their trades, including trading, tailoring and shoemaking, and her mother's early orphaned family. Lemster asks whether the cousins met.
1:00:19
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn says she studied in a Yiddish school with Yiddish teachers, a director and teachers of Ukrainian and Russian. Pupils were told to speak the language of each teacher. She says there was no singing in Yiddish at school. Lemster begins to ask how pupils addressed their teachers, and the tape ends.
22:22
From the machine transcript
At the interviewers' request, the man recites Yiddish rhymes and a song about a mother arranging a marriage, set in the attic, with the refrain that there is no money and no good looks. Kerler and Lemster explain that they are recording for a university and studying Yiddish, and they ask him to repeat it several times. They also ask in Russian about payment and about other songs.
31:05
From the machine transcript
The man says in Russian that friends call him though he has no phone. He tells how he slaughtered chickens, lambs and calves for Jews and says he kept five hens and a rooster. He describes Jews bringing him matzo and recalls Yiddish names of meats, and he repeats a Yiddish saying about a Jew with a Jewish soul. Lemster and Kerler keep asking for a song and for Yiddish words; a recogniser loop mars part of the passage.
37:28
From the machine transcript
Mostly in Russian, the man tells how in Kazakhstan around 1955 he worked on a construction site, and a Jewish foreman asked in Yiddish whether he was a Jew. He answered that he was a Ukrainian who had grown up among Jews, and the Yiddish helped him. He tells a joke about Khaim at customs. Lemster and Kerler praise his Yiddish and ask for a proverb, a curse or an anecdote; he offers curses such as going into the ground and a black year.
45:00
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks the man whether he cooks Jewish dishes. He says he can make roast and fish, describing how gefilte fish is stuffed and what goes into the filling. He also names potato pancakes, with Lemster and Kerler supplying the Yiddish terms. The interviewers thank him and say farewell with good wishes.
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.
25:20
From the machine transcript
Sobol answers questions about childhood games and schooling. She went to a Yiddish school for only a short time, from 1922 (?), until her mother died and she took over the household, and then carried on studying. When asked which Yiddish writer she remembers, she names Sholem Aleichem, whom she read in Russian.
28:38
From the machine transcript
Sobol speaks about her children and a son who caused her trouble, and about her husband, who spoke a different Yiddish and no Russian. In answer to Kerler she names Chernivtsi and nearby places in Bukovina as his birthplace, and says a book records it. She mentions the tsadik (a "good Jew") of that shtetl, and Lemster then asks about Yiddish theatre.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Fishman gives his birth in Odesa in 1931 and speaks about his parents. His father Yankl, son of Mordkhe, was born in Stara Ushytsia and worked as a photographer in Odesa. His mother Malke, daughter of Itsik Hershl Eyzik, worked in a Yiddish kindergarten on the Moldavanka and later as a kindergarten head. At home the family spoke Russian, and he learned a little Yiddish from his parents and from a grandmother in evacuation. He says his mother was born in Medzhibozh and that his grandfather's family was shot there. He tells how his mother, as a young Komsomol member, joined a May Day demonstration and her father chased after her, and how she later went to Odesa and studied at a pedagogical technikum.
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.
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.
44:40
From the machine transcript
Khazin says there were more than ten synagogues in prewar Vinnytsya, some buildings still standing. Yiddish was spoken in the street and public places, and Jews were perhaps up to fifteen percent of the 64,000 inhabitants. He says he remembers Yiddish songs, mostly humorous ones, which his father and mother sang. He mentions that the rabbi at the synagogue asks him to sing.
49:57
From the machine transcript
Lemster and Kerler introduce themselves and explain that they collect Yiddish language and folklore, including variant song texts. Khazin recalls an earlier research group that asked about surnames, and they discuss surnames such as Kerler, Zukerman, Lemster and Feikin. He tells of his work in supply organizations and sings 'Vyo, vyo, ferdelekh', mentioning a woman in Germany who knows more. He speaks of his mother, born in 1903 (?), youngest in her Nemyriv family, who attended the girls' gymnasium free through the princess and trained as a pharmacist. Her older siblings, including brother Naum, a Communist, are mentioned.
23:48
From the machine transcript
Yatskova says her parents spoke Yiddish and Russian at home and that her father read Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish to the children, including Wandering Stars and Yosele Solovey. She says her grandfather was an educated pharmacist, that he and his relatives were in Odessa and that the Germans killed them all. She has one brother, Hershele Kremer, two years younger, who lives in Israel and does not write to her. The talk turns to phone numbers.
37:06
From the machine transcript
Yatskova says her father, mother and brother were with her in the ghetto. After the war her father was director of a Ukrainian school, since there was no Yiddish school, and her mother worked as a librarian. Yiddish was spoken at home. Her parents studied at the Russian gymnasium in Zhmerynka. Her father also had a Hebrew and yeshiva education, and few in the Vinnytsia region knew Hebrew. Lemster asks about food at home.
38:34
From the machine transcript
Asked about food at home, Yatskova names chicken broth, potatoes and other ordinary Jewish dishes, and for the Sabbath stuffed fish. She says she cannot translate the terms into Yiddish. Kerler suggests she come back with a translator, and she asks the visitors where they are from.
42:46
From the machine transcript
Yatskova says her grandparents were all shot during the occupation. One grandfather was in Odessa and the other in Murafa, where he died long before, and he was a pharmacist. She remembers him as very religious and praying. Kerler checks whether she knows the Yiddish word for 'pious', and she recognizes it after a moment. Which grandfather is called Yankl is unclear in the transcript.
44:00
From the machine transcript
Yatskova talks about her grandfather the pharmacist in Murafa, later a dock porter in Odessa, whom local non-Jews remembered, and about a non-Jewish woman who spoke Yiddish better than she did. She explains that she read Sholem Aleichem in Russian and that her family spoke Russian with the children. Asked about Kopayhorod, she says she knows nothing of its history or of Malkele at the cemetery, and she complains that visitors from Israel throw away her flowers. She says neighbours treat her well, that her father was respected and taught many locals, and that she regrets not leaving after the war. She recalls friends the Grinmans, Misha playing the accordion while she directed stage shows, and her visits to the Odessa Jewish theater and its actors. She finishes by thanking the visitors, and Lemster offers her Yiddish books. The transcript ends before the catalogued passage ends.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A guide speaks Russian about the building where the shoykhet worked, the bloodletting arrangements and the slaughter procedure. He says the quarter was Jewish before the war, with a yeshiva, rabbinate, shops, lawyers and doctors. Kerler and the guide discuss how ordinary Jews read Yiddish from cheder without always understanding it, and the speaker thanks the team.
54:19
From the machine transcript
Nayman answers questions about Simchat Torah and Hoshanah customs, the sukkah, and pre–Yom Kippur food, and names the Christian holidays. She says relations with non-Jewish neighbours were good. She describes Studenyy in the Mizhhirya district, where she lived for thirty years after the war and where there were eighty Jewish families and three synagogues before the war. She tells how her husband was in camps and in Poland from 1941 to 1945 and how he escaped.
17:10
From the machine transcript
Questionnaire work with Kerler and Katz on Yiddish vocabulary, including a word for a handsome man, words for lying and deceiving, thanks, memory, and counting families by prayer shawls. They also ask about words for non-Jews and for a blind-night term for the eve of a holiday. The talk then turns to making a video copy for Nayman's family and to the interview she gave on Soviet television about the war, ending with mentions of her daughter in America and grandchildren.
27:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about beliefs and terms: casting spells, a dybbuk and a golem. Nayman then reads aloud and explains passages from a Yiddish religious text, which she identifies as the women's Bible (the catalogue says the third chapter), on conduct, Torah study and divine judgment. The recogniser garbles much of the reading, and Kerler occasionally asks her to explain individual words.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opening conversation, partly with a second woman, about Carpathian Yiddish versus Polish Yiddish and about the interviewers' family backgrounds, languages and birthplaces. Nayman says her granddaughter knows Yiddish and can read Hebrew prayers but not speak Hebrew. Nayman then tells of Hungarian rule, when gendarmes questioned a girl about her name and Hungarian and accused the Jews of not liking them. Kerler closes by saying he will ask some questions.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opens briefly on holiday customs, with Kerler asking about Tisha b'Av. Poberevskii then talks about poor but gifted classmates, many of whom were killed in the war, and about her own studies in Kalinin. She says her father the rabbi did not take her or her mother to shul, and describes her brothers, one of whom studied Talmud and became a lawyer. She also answers questions about the meaning of 'a good Jew' and about her mother's brother. The rest is largely a dialectological questionnaire put by Kerler, with Katz commenting. Items include words for the cross and for converting or baptising (the difference between 'geshmad' and baptising a child), candle-blessing and Friday preparations, 'evening' and 'ear', and 'attic' and 'potatoes'. Further items cover latkes, foods for Shavuot and Hanukkah, Hanukkah games such as the dreidel, and household words. She also answers on kinship terms such as 'mekhutn', on rabbi/rebbe/rov terms and on 'almost' and 'exactly'. She says she hardly speaks Yiddish any more and describes seven years of Yiddish schooling. She speaks of severe poverty in her childhood home: her mother had eleven children and sold yeast at the market, with no pension even though three sons were in the army, and the house was cold in winter. She also says there is no rabbi or functioning synagogue in Zhmerynka now and that about 300 Jews live there.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Poberevskii answers Kerler's dialectological questions on a few words and phrases for a naive person, falling into a pit or cellar, and a woman's name. She then speaks warmly of her life today: a good flat, a pension, and help from the Jewish community in Vinnytsya, with holiday celebrations, food, medicine and doctors. She mentions her brothers, one in Israel and one deceased, and that she is the only one left of her family. The segment ends with the team in her garden, where she describes her exercise routine and morning and evening habits, partly in Russian.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts a series of dialectological questions to Goikhman, often prompting with Russian words. The items include words for ear, attic, potato, blue, luck, broth, groats, deaf, and cross, and Goikhman's memory of Litvak speech. Further questions concern Hanukkah and Purim customs, the word for 'mekhutn' (in-law) and similar family words. Goikhman then recites or sings in-law verses and the tailor song 'Bin ikh mir a shnayderl', and Kerler thanks him.
8:15
From the machine transcript
Lebvol and others converse largely in Polish about trips to Poland, Wrocław, Kraków and relatives, and the train station that resembles the one in L'viv. Kerler then asks about her languages, English and German, and she tells of a flight to Moscow where she spoke Yiddish with a German.
10:08
From the machine transcript
Lebvol continues about a German-speaking fellow traveler and where she learned German, in school. Kerler returns to Shavuot and asks whether blintzes were eaten, and the talk turns to a woman from the team and the planned trip to Drohobych and Boryslav, where there are Jewish organizations.
30:46
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Lebvol about the term 'good Jew' for a rebbe, charms and remedies, the evil eye, and a pilgrimage site, then about Litvak, gefilte fish (sugar, pepper, onion and matzo), vodka, dybbuk, golem and sentences for the prayers for the dead. Lebvol answers each of these, with some Polish loanwords. In the last seconds S2 asks about the war years.
31:30
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Katz introduce the project to men at the synagogue and ask where they are from and who speaks the best Yiddish. An elderly man says he was born in Zhytomyr. The other man from New York, with a father from near Vilna and a mother born in America, is the interviewer Dovid Katz, not an informant. The interviewers explain that they are looking for speakers of Zhytomyr Yiddish to record, and that participants are paid.
35:27
From the machine transcript
Katz chats briefly with a man, apparently Landsman, who gives his name as Shmilik ben Lipe and says he is a kohen. They discuss Yiddish versus Yiddishkayt and whether Jewish life still has young people. The man's family name is asked, and Leyzer is then called on to sing a Yiddish song.
31:12
From the machine transcript
Shpitz recalls the street where he lived as a child, a street inhabited only by Jews, among them several doctors, and says his father was a cobbler. Kerler adds a couple of questionnaire items, including the word for an honest person.
5:19
From the machine transcript
Informal chat among the people present, with Geller and a second man. They discuss life today, women, accents, Yiddish speakers, Lithuanian Jews and Hasidim, and a man named Naftali. It ends with arrangements about who is coming in the evening and Geller's name and birthplace, and Kerler turns to the interview.
17:50
From the machine transcript
Geller says where the shtetl lies near Berdychiv and Chudniv, and Kerler asks how its name is pronounced. During the famine his father went to Dnipropetrovsk to earn money. His grandfather in Zhytomyr, a carpenter, took the family there in 1936 as orphans after his father's death.
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opens with talk of a Jewish newspaper from Israel and a Yiddish paper in America, and of sending letters abroad. Geller says his mother taught him a little Yiddish reading and writing while he went to a Ukrainian school. Kerler asks about his mother and puts a few word questions. Geller also mentions the Sabbath kiddush and havdalah and the rabbis in town.
5:05
From the machine transcript
Geller discusses the Joint's aid and how people get help, and compares it with the war years. He says Polish Jews fled to the Soviet Union, and mentions his invalid's pension. Kerler asks about an idiom and some Russian-influenced words. Geller then begins an anecdote about a prosecutor and a tailor.
34:42
From the machine transcript
Geller recalls going to the bathhouse with his grandfather on Friday before the Sabbath, the Uman bathhouse, and going afterward to the synagogue and making kiddush. He also mentions the women's mikveh. Kerler asks where the word for the bathhouse comes from and how people say "thank you".
17:45
From the machine transcript
Burshtein talks about the languages spoken in Goworowo: Yiddish at home and in the street, Polish with Poles. He comments on life in Poland under Piłsudski and on being frightened as a child. Kerler asks about words for Polish Yiddish, and Burshtein mentions fear of going out at night and the custom of sleeping with the head covered.
33:40
From the machine transcript
Burshtein describes arriving in Zhytomyr at fifteen and seeking work and training, and getting registered and food products from a director. He remarks on the ruined city, where the largest houses had three storeys. He says he did not know Ukrainian and learned it gradually, and that he writes and reads Russian and Yiddish well but finds Hebrew difficult. Kerler's question leads him to speak of prayer.
26:47
From the machine transcript
The second man sings a children's song about learning the Hebrew letters. He then chats with Kerler about sayings and Kerler puts terminology questions to him. Kerler asks about the wedding entertainer (badkhn) and the master of ceremonies; the man mentions the rabbi, the engagement contract and a term for the one who leads the wedding. He also reflects on history and storytelling.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Katz work with the informant on what the Yiddish word for 'state' or 'government' is and on how it relates to the similar word for 'trade' or 'craft'. They also discuss a phrase for a craftsman or owner and a reference to King David. The catalogue's 'comparison of education' does not appear in the transcript.
2:33
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of Yiddish equivalents for Russian words: ways of saying 'look' or 'take a look', 'catch one's breath', and a word the informant considers neither Yiddish nor Russian. Katz states in English that the aim is old local words rather than Soviet-era ones. Synagogues are not clearly discussed in the transcript.
6:13
From the machine transcript
Continued elicitation of vocabulary: more on catching one's breath, spectacles (a Berdychiv rabbi's wife is quoted on the word), sleepy or sick, 'very handsome', 'ran away from the Germans', 'each', and words for an honest person and for someone who knows everything. The informant comments on what is and is not Yiddish, as against Ukrainian or Russian.
9:36
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of words and constructions: 'my head hurts', 'where from', a word for walking, and the prepositions in 'at a wedding' and 'on the street'. Kerler also asks for words for grandmother and for a midwife. The informant answers and comments on usage in his home speech.
14:10
From the machine transcript
A brief stretch of questions about phrases for 'you are right' and 'you are young', and about a word for cooking butter or melted butter. It is questionnaire work rather than a discussion of religious life today.
14:58
From the machine transcript
Elicitation of everyday vocabulary: a small tree, 'thousand' and the rouble slang for it, vodka, 'I talk with my mother', bed, and a well or spring and the names used for it. It continues with a tail, a word meaning 'block' with an insult built on the word for oak, a shop, and the rag collectors who exchanged old rags for small goods in the villages. The informant often notes whether a word is Yiddish, Ukrainian or Belarusian.
6:34
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler interview Goluvinskaia, who is said to have turned a hundred, with a helper explaining a Hesed video. She was born in Zhytomyr. Her father worked at a factory and died when she was a child, leaving five children, and she names her mother and some siblings. She worked in a cinema before the war and was evacuated in 1941, the place being unclear. She recalls praying, going to cheder alone, Sabbath candles and holidays, which she mostly no longer remembers. She says her grandfather was a rebbe who held gatherings at his table, and she mentions a Russian school. She then answers Russian-prompted questionnaire items (breathe, ear, attic, sky colour, mouse, deaf, pigeon), with some of her answers uncertain.
1:36
From the machine transcript
Antsis says she does not know where her parents were born. Kerler asks her to speak Yiddish, and she says she knows Russian well. She recalls Lyubar and a girlfriend from school who was very poor, with whom she shared her bread and butter; the friend once reproached her for eating the second piece. They spoke Yiddish at school.
7:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Antsis to describe the town of Lyubar. She names trades such as shoemakers, cobblers, tailors and smiths, and the Yiddish and Ukrainian words for them. She also talks about two wealthy men, one named Katz, who left when the war began, and about the local doctor Refild (?). She remembers the cinema in town and a film about going to Birobidzhan, and the conversation turns to the Yiddish words involved.
24:05
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the Yiddish name of a plant, and Antsis says there is none and gives the Russian one. Kerler says he was born in Moscow and that the team is making an archive of films of elderly people who remember Yiddish. She says her own children do not speak Yiddish, but her niece does. She also complains that her pension is small, speaking of the difficulty of life and fate, and then starts recalling Lyubar with its rain and big puddles.
31:32
From the machine transcript
The interview with Shor opens. The people present compare their origins (parents from Rogachov in Belarus, a Litvak's Yiddish, a team member born in New York), and Kerler states the date and place. Shor gives his name (Yosl/Yosef) and his father's name (Hershl), and the family name Shor (Hebrew for ox). He was born in 1926 in Orhei (Urive in Yiddish, Moldova), and his mother Feyge came from Telenesht. His only sister Rive died at nine, and the family spent about three war years at Stalingrad. His father was a trader, with the item (eggs or hay) unclear.
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.
25:48
From the machine transcript
Geller, in the Zhytomyr synagogue, says he comes from Pyatka, a small town between Berdychiv and Chudniv. He talks about the Zhytomyr rabbi and his Russian, about Jews living in Zhytomyr as if in exile, and about the lack of proper Jewish burial for a 93-year-old man. He also describes young visitors who know no Yiddish, a dictionary he gave one, and who in Zhytomyr still speaks Yiddish. The rabbi's trip to Polonne, where a wall for a tsadik was built from gravestones, leads to a note on a Pyatka word for a small wall.
35:12
From the machine transcript
Geller says he left Pyatka in 1936 and that his father worked in the fields. He recalls the Yiddish heard in Vinnytsia region and Zhytomyr, then tells a folk tale about a matchmaker, three daughters and a suitor made to chop wood, which he performs in a rhyming refrain. He did not attend cheder. The Yiddish school became a Ukrainian one with the same director, Frenkl, and he learned a little from his older brother. He also mentions grandfathers killed in earlier violence (details unclear).
39:27
From the machine transcript
Geller speaks about family names, including how a relative received the nickname Tatele. He remembers writing home from the front and hospital in Russian with Yiddish letters to get past the military censor. Today he and Leyzer speak Yiddish every morning, which he says keeps Yiddishkayt alive as it dies out.
46:02
From the machine transcript
Geller describes childhood games in Pyatka, mainly the spinning top (tsurke) marked with letters and scored by the steps taken, and rolling a hoop. He also recalls a cyclist from Petersburg in 1929 whom the children chased. He compares this with today's children and telephones and television. Kerler asks for local Yiddish words for the games.
56:18
From the machine transcript
Geller recalls Sabbath in Pyatka. He discusses terms for tidying up and for taking the candles off the table, and a child's memory of carrying his grandfather's tallit and a neighbour's request on Shabbat. He also tells an anecdote about forgetfulness after a wedding held in a restaurant. Kerler asks about local words for these things.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A story of forgetfulness (misplaced items) told in the first person, then a comparison of how words for 'brain' and 'hand' were said in Pyatka and in Zhytomyr. The speaker's identity is unclear in the transcript.
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'.
41:42
From the machine transcript
Discussion of plans for a children's home and a Jewish 'town', which needs a name and about three million dollars. A second woman from Zvil, now Novohrad-Volyns'kyi, is then introduced. Her parents spoke Yiddish at home, and the interviewer explains that the team is collecting material on Yiddish.
50:14
From the machine transcript
Brief remarks about the word for 'ladder', then Geller (probably) gives the history of his hometown's names. It was first Kotozov or Kutuzov, was later named Volodarsk-Volynskyi after a Jewish Bolshevik killed soon after the revolution, and stood next to the former Jewish shtetl Pulin.
2:44
From the machine transcript
Shraibman, born in 1930, was due to start school in 1937. There was a Yiddish school in the town, but it was closed, so he attended a state (Russian) school. His father, a gymnasium graduate, began to teach him, but the war ended his studies.
6:58
From the machine transcript
Shraibman describes his army career: ten grades, the army college, a lieutenant's rank in 1952 and discharge as a major after 26 years. He spoke Yiddish with non-Jews and met few Jews in the army. He describes the value of mame-loshn and recalls an Argentine girl who spoke Yiddish. He also served at a site where an atomic bomb was tested on living people, and he mentions being behind the German lines for about a week and a half.
14:02
From the machine transcript
Burshtein sings a refugee song about a homeless wanderer, learned from German Jewish refugees who walked the streets singing in the 1930s, and a second song about life as a game. He explains that the children followed them and the songs were printed. He and Kerler then touch on the towns near the German border and on the refugees' languages.
56:44
From the machine transcript
Burshtein sings two Yiddish songs: a love song about a young man marrying a girl he met in a park and finding her ugly, and a song about childhood and the loss of his mother. Between them he is asked about the word shlemazl. Katz and Kerler also ask about a song from Russia, which he says he knows.
16:14
From the machine transcript
Groisburg recalls attending an army school in Berdychiv and later working as a teacher. She tells of teaching Russian to poor Jewish children in a poor street. A Yiddish teacher came to the home at her father's wish, and she reads Yiddish only with difficulty.
26:13
From the machine transcript
She describes Zionist, Communist, Social-Democratic and Bund parties in Berdychiv and recalls an educated young man. The educated Jews spoke Russian, not Yiddish. There was also a Zionist school teaching in Hebrew.
35:09
From the machine transcript
Groisburg describes Zhytomyr before the war as a large provincial city with many Jews and a Yiddish school. She studied in Ukrainian because her work required it, as her father had died and the family was large.
38:32
From the machine transcript
She talks about life today: two young Jewish women and the local synagogue help her, and she mentions its rabbi. She says Jewish doctors and many others emigrated to Berlin, Israel and America and did not return. Kerler explains the recording's purpose.
46:00
From the machine transcript
Groisburg says she learned German and French and that her father wanted her to study English. Kerler asks about Purim and about celebrations before the First World War, but she answers mostly about Passover matzo and holidays at home.
8:41
From the machine transcript
Geller and Lemster compare how the town's name is said in Yiddish and in Ukrainian, and he places Pyatka about twenty kilometres from Berdychiv. He describes returning from flight to the plundered house, where nothing was left and the family was destitute. Lemster then steers toward Jewish life and the synagogue.
9:43
From the machine transcript
Geller talks about his schooling. There was a Jewish school, but its lower classes were closed as pupils dwindled; his elder brother finished seven classes there in 1933, and he was moved to a Ukrainian school. He says non-Jewish neighbours spoke Yiddish, and mentions the killing of the town's Jews in 1941 and a list of the victims.
48:09
From the machine transcript
Burshtein chats in Polish, with Lemster and others speaking Polish too. He says he is pleased to speak Polish and left school after four classes, before 1939. He names his birthplace Goworowo and nearby towns, and says he now has no one to speak Polish with. He mentions a letter from someone in Bobruisk and another Polish speaker in Zhytomyr, then recites rhymed Polish verse.
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.
13:48
From the machine transcript
Shpitz says he went to Yiddish theater and liked Yiddish plays, but he cannot recall which ones or the songs sung there. Lemster asks about differences between kinds of Yiddish. Shpitz says American Yiddish differs from his own and that Litvak Yiddish is different, but he speaks as he always has.
18:01
From the machine transcript
Shpitz says he loves Yiddish but is one of two Jews in the village where he lives. One child lives in Berdyansk (?) and one with him, and he has three grandchildren, one relative in Israel. Lemster asks about words for 'sick' or 'asleep'. He says his wife was born in Zhytomyr, her father was a carpenter and her mother a bookkeeper. Lemster then asks his name, closing the interview.
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.
4:39
From the machine transcript
Sandler says he does not remember how many Jews lived in Starokostyantyniv. He discusses speaking Yiddish in the streets and the term for people who say "tate, mame". He recalls going to cheder, where the rebbe hit the boys, and then attending a Yiddish school for four grades until it was closed and replaced by a Russian one, probably in 1934 (?). His parents were displeased because they wanted him to speak Yiddish. He says non-Jews in town spoke only a little Yiddish and mimicked it.
18:58
From the machine transcript
Sandler talks about postwar life in Zhytomyr, where he says few Jews remained and not all spoke Yiddish. He spoke Yiddish with his mother and sisters before the sisters left for Germany, and his brother went to Jerusalem. He returns to his father's death from cholera in Uzbekistan and the mass grave where the dead were thrown. Kerler steers him back to prewar Oltkonstantin and notes that he was fifteen when the war began.
2:23
From the machine transcript
Lemster describes a wedding custom of bringing a cake to the in-laws, who dance with it and pay money. Geller talks about weddings and about the advertising value of serving good food, giving a strudel recipe from his mother and a story about gefilte fish and taste. Lemster and Kerler ask about words heard elsewhere for the cake and about the "queen's bread" (challah) and Sabbath as a queen.
11:57
From the machine transcript
Geller says his family left Pyatka in 1936 and he lived mostly in Zhytomyr, where he worked in a factory. Yiddish was spoken at work, but now no one is left to speak it with. He describes his daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, some at a Jewish school, and a granddaughter's concert. His wife was evacuated near Kazan, where his son lives, and he recounts visiting that place with a grandson. His younger brother died in San Francisco. Some stretches are in Russian.
59:26
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy clarifies the phrase "Avrom Malke" for his grandfather's Sabbath gathering. It lasted eighteen years until Soviet power, and the guests set out on Friday morning to arrive on Sabbath. Kerler asks about the wording and about Jewish-Russian ("shulish") Yiddish. Nibulskiy then begins a story about two wagon drivers, one refined and one coarse.
4:08
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy speaks about his observant father, his own cheder attendance, his wife's Jewish schooling and his self-taught Yiddish reading. He tells how the Makarover rebbe visited his great-grandmother in a nearby town, where she recovered after a fire. He describes his great-grandfather Shimunke, a farmer and crop adviser. He also tells of a Jewish lessee in Burakivka troubled by a German over hops, who went to the Makarover rebbe for help. Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for a village.
33:32
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy recites the protective oath formula taught by his father Yankl, adjuring all creatures not to harm a named person, while Kerler asks him to repeat it for transcription. They discuss the wording and its Hebrew parts and the use of the mother's name. Kerler asks where he knows it from, and he says it came from his father and grandfather, a tailor.
58:25
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Nibulskiy discuss the proverb that is linked with the cloth story, repeating it and exploring its meaning, including a second sense about children and buying things under hardship. Kerler then asks about songs his parents sang.
10:39
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about weddings. Nibulskiy says certain older wedding customs belonged to his parents' time, and that he remembers cookies dipped in wine at a wedding. Under Soviet rule Jewish weddings were not allowed. He recalls how matzo was baked at Passover and Kerler asks how Passover is said in his dialect.
12:21
From the machine transcript
Kerler thanks Nibulskiy and ends the interview. The two briefly discuss how words are pronounced and written in Yiddish and in the local speech, including a form heard in a nearby town. Nibulskiy mentions a relative who visited his grandfather and a grandchild living in a kibbutz in Israel. Kerler takes a portrait photograph.
11:37
From the machine transcript
Answers questions about the Yiddish school: the subjects, the director, and the Yiddish writers read, among them Sholem Aleichem and Mendele. She says she has forgotten much, including the songs learned there.
17:19
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia recalls the holidays at home, with her father leading the Passover seder, and the food her mother cooked, including a sour-sweet meat dish, borscht, and Passover kugel and latkes of matzo meal. She mentions Purim without masks, since it was a Soviet land. She also recalls a good teacher at the Yiddish school who played the fiddle, and says her children do not speak Yiddish.
20:41
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia talks about Jewish life in Korosten. There were many Jews and a large Yiddish school with parallel classes, and a few Jews remain today. She describes being a pioneer and Komsomol member, and says everything at school was in Yiddish, though no Hebrew was taught.
25:14
From the machine transcript
Answers questions about the Yiddish library at her school and about Yiddish reading. As a child she read Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish; after the war she read only Russian and read no Yiddish press or books. She does not remember the prewar journals (the periodical Shtern is suggested), and she says the teachers at the Yiddish school in Novozlatopil' were good and Yiddish faculties existed after the revolution.
33:19
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether the rabbi's children speak Yiddish; the two older ones study in a yeshiva in Moscow. The speakers joke about sharing money for the interview, and Kerler arranges to talk more. They end with a short question about the words for 'sick' and 'sleep' in Yiddish and German.
35:13
From the machine transcript
A second man joins; his grandparents came from Stanislav, he learned Yiddish from them, and he attended cheder in Belz. He talks about an American man of Pyotke origin (Averbukh (?)) whom he has visited, who travelled to Pyotke to see his family's house. The passage is partly garbled.
44:06
From the machine transcript
The second man describes his family: grandparents on his mother's side, a Hungarian family named Brikhte (?), lived in Newark. A great-grandmother was born in a small town near Lviv (?), possibly near Belz. They go on to discuss a pronunciation of Yiddish and how stories grow with the retelling.
58:57
From the machine transcript
Kerler says they will return for more stories and puts questions, asking Nibulskiy about the dybbuk. Nibulskiy answers with a story of a nobleman and a sorcerer, which he will tell later. Kerler then asks for an account of the war years.
39:41
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shraibman about the military academy years, and Shraibman replies that the army was simply the army. He says there were other Jewish cadets. He is glad he knows Yiddish, unlike many older Jews, and recounts telling someone he learned it in the Russian army. He says Yiddish was spoken at home and in the family, and that relatives born after the war and living in America still know it.
41:10
From the machine transcript
Shraibman says he loves Yiddish as his mother tongue. At work in cold stores he spoke Yiddish to Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues, most of the Jews not knowing it. Kerler asks whether Yiddish could be heard on the streets of Zhytomyr in the 1970s, and Shraibman begins a story about a friend who served in the army near Zhytomyr.
42:42
From the machine transcript
Shraibman finishes the story of a friend (Lyova Lerman (?)) and his wife, who objected to Yiddish being spoken on the street in his officer's uniform. He describes how rare it was to speak Yiddish in the army. He tells of hearing Yiddish on a ship from Yakutsk and meeting Moldovan Jews who shipped wine barrels there. Kerler asks how he and Rabbi Shlomo understand each other across Yiddish dialects, and Shraibman says Jews understand one another through the soul rather than the language.
55:20
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler what it means to be a Jew, Shraibman answers that it means believing in God and keeping Yiddishkayt, though the first part is not binding for him. He calls his whole life the best time. He talks about his wife Mere, a school friend whose mother died before the war and whose father was killed in it. They met again after eleven years apart and married when he was about 30 and she 29. The passage ends with remarks on Jews coming from small towns and a garbled closing.
7:03
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what the word Dybbuk means. Shraibman says it is the play and cannot be translated into Russian or Yiddish. He recalls the Yiddish theater before the war, including The Dybbuk and Sholem Aleichem plays, and notes that the theater after the war was Russian. He adds that young Jews took part.
10:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what the word golem means. Shraibman links it to Sholem Aleichem and gives a phrase about a "lamternem shisser" (?). They discuss Sholem Aleichem in Russian.
11:07
From the machine transcript
Shraibman and Kerler talk about Sholem Aleichem, who wrote mostly in Yiddish and was translated into Russian. Shraibman says he reads Russian but it enters his head in Yiddish. He quotes Motl the orphan as a favorite.
12:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what the Jews called a cemetery. Shraibman gives a Jewish term, "heylik ort" (holy place), and they discuss the Christian cemetery and the word tsvinter (?). Kerler notes that the different names and places are being recorded.
14:40
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what share of the town's population was Jewish before the war. Shraibman estimates about fifty percent. He says some non-Jews still speak Yiddish and that one woman still speaks it, in the town now called Volodarsk-Volynskyi. He tries to find her name and a phone number.
18:51
From the machine transcript
Shraibman goes on about the woman who still speaks Yiddish. She has no one to talk to, and they try to work out her age. He says she is from a non-Jewish family. Kerler thanks him.
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.
29:59
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts questions about cultural terminology and Bluvshtein and the others answer. They discuss words for a wicked person, a good person, a snob or arrogant person, a townsman, and a golem.
4:30
From the machine transcript
Sandler sings the song about Itsik who got married. Kerler then asks which pronunciation of Yiddish sounds nicer to him, and whether he spoke Yiddish after the war, which he says he did less. Asked about his father, who died in Bukhara (?), Kerler turns to what the father worked at.
10:51
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Jews still live in Oltkonstantin and who there still speaks Yiddish. The answer is two women, one from Polonne and one named Roza Klein, and greetings are passed on. A second speaker then brings up Taykhman.
12:40
From the machine transcript
A speaker tells a story about a man called Taykhman, who in a town (Uzhhorod, per the catalogue) was lost in the dark and asked in Yiddish where the synagogue was. He did not know Russian and later learned it with someone interpreting. Kerler then asks Sandler to tell about Oltkonstantin before the war, in school and kheyder, and what children played.
14:53
From the machine transcript
Sandler talks about food and home life. His mother was a capable housewife with eight children, and meat was affordable only once a week, for the Sabbath. He lists breakfast foods such as kasha, rice, tea and rolls. Kerler asks whether he spoke Yiddish after the war.
17:57
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what several Yiddish words and expressions mean: a dibek, a golem, a goy, and a "poylner goy" (?). Sandler gives his understanding of each, and Kerler asks about the languages spoken in Oltkonstantin.
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).
30:48
From the machine transcript
Margolis speaks about language and religion at home. Russian was spoken mostly, with some Yiddish words, and religion was suppressed under Soviet law. He recalls Passover matzo baking, and bringing flour to the synagogue. He then talks about his work, which ended when he became disabled in 1983 (?).
53:16
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy mentions the small Jewish population of his shtetl, about 300 families, a minority of whom did not keep kosher. He then sings a song about shtetl life in Pulen (as heard), with shoemakers, tailors, wagon drivers and the hope for the Messiah. Kerler asks about the tune, which letters the text was written in, and how a word like 'khaver' is pronounced. Nibulskiy sings a song about vanished childhood years and a house now replaced by a chimney. Kerler also asks whether the song was popular, and Ida reads about it in a newspaper.
1:07:13
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy sings a Yiddish song about lost childhood years, home and family. Kerler asks whether the word for the chimney is the Pulen form, and Nibulskiy says he reconstructed the song from memory. He says it was sung by a man named Khanine Shlepak (?) from Pulen, who was evacuated to Kazakhstan and became a dentist. Kerler asks whether anyone in Korosten still speaks Yiddish. The talk turns to a relative in Israel who is writing a book about Korosten's Jews and was a military commandant after the war.
1:07:13
From the machine transcript
After the song about childhood, Kerler and the couple discuss Chaim Segel, now in Israel. Ida says he is her sister's child. He is writing a book about Korosten, and was a commandant there after the war. They then discuss a professor son-in-law and how many sons-in-law they have. Kerler pursues Yiddish forms, such as the Pulen word for 'bee' or hornet versus the Ukrainian form, the expression for an idea getting into one's head, and neighbor forms and plurals. Nibulskiy says what his grandchild was called and that he hopes to reach ninety.
7:11
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about prewar food. Nibulskiy recalls poppy-seed rolls that his grandmother baked for the Sabbath and ate with milk, and a plum tsimes sprinkled with sugar. He explains that 'tsimes' was also a compliment for a nice, clever girl or woman.
8:59
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about a word for floor and the wooden sidewalks on which people strolled on the Sabbath after cholent. Nibulskiy recalls non-Jewish neighbors who greeted Jews in Yiddish, including a woman, Marye Tchaikovsky, who always spoke Yiddish. Russian talk in the room ends the passage.
17:19
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy finishes his story of how a visiting businessman asked for a charm and gave him a hundred. Kerler asks about extinguishing coals against the evil eye, and Nibulskiy explains the term for warding off the evil eye. Nibulskaia says she does not know the custom.
20:57
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia recalls going as a child to an uncle on Hanukkah to collect Hanukkah money. Kerler asks about the uncle's son, who speaks Yiddish at home but cannot write it, and then asks for a name.