This recording is a continuation of a formal interview with Bella Issakovna Kipnis about her father Itsik Kipnis, a well-known Yiddish fiction writer. (Part 2 of 2. See MDV 501) She continues talking about her father’s life and struggles after the war. Among other things, she talks about her father’s three different libraries, in particular about his love for Chagall, and his friendship with other writers. Her father kept diaries. The team then interviews Bella Kipnis about her own life. She was born in Slovechno (Yiddish: Sloveshne) in 1921. Her mother Simke passed away five days after her birth. She was raised by her grandmother Libe and her grandfather Nokhem. She lived with them in Sloveshne until the age of six, before her father took her to Kyiv.

The conversation then turns to her education. Kipnis studied at the Yiddish School 33 in Kyiv, when she was seven years old. She then transferred to Yiddish School 60 in 1934. Kipnis finished ten grades. More than ten Yiddish schools existed in Kyiv before the war. She remembers various Yiddish cultural events and teachers. The Yiddish school was turned into a Russian school in 1940. The conversation then turns to her earliest childhood memories about her grandparents in Sloveshne. Her grandfather asked her to carry his tallith every Sabbath. The conversation moves to her visit to celebrate her father’s 100th birthday in American cultural institutions. They return to discussing her grandparents. Nokhem worked in the pelt business, acquiring material for pelts. The interview concludes with a discussion about food customs and Kipnis answering a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.