The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Mariia Moshkovna Groisburg. (Part 2 of 2. See Accession # 09-010.60-F MDV 798) The team continues to ask a number dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.

The camera then cuts to outside footage of a wedding in Zhytomyr.

The camera then collects town footage of Zhytomyr, on the way to the next interview in Ovruch with Boris Abramovich Dorfman, born in Slovechno 1928. Then the team arrives at Dorfman’s house in order to conduct a formal interview. (Part 1 of 2. See MDV 623) After World War I, Dorfman’s family moved to Ovruch. After the team introduces itself, they begin the formal interview. After Dorfman shares personal information, he talks about his family. His father was also born in Slovechno and worked as a cobbler before the war and then owned a shop after the war. His grandfather was very religious.

He then discusses his education and work. After the war, he worked as a bookkeeper for eighteen years, and he was in charge of maintenance for more than a decade. The conversation then moves to early childhood memories of Jewish Slovechno and education at a Yiddish school, which Dorfman attended for three grades, before switching to a Ukrainian school. He then talks about the Volednicker Rebbe in 1939. A Jewish man came to his house and told them about his mother’s request. The young man was supposed to visit the Volednicker Tzaddik after the outbreak of World War II in Poland. His friends agreed to take him on a motorcycle to Volednick (Novyye Veledniki), twelve kilometers from Slovechno. Dorfman then briefly talks about the peaceful evacuation, when the Germans entered Slovechno.

They return to discussing education at the Yiddish school. Dorfman then remembers Shabes (Sabbath) celebrations and food customs before the war. The conversation returns to the Volednicker Rebbe, where Dorfman tells anecdotes about him from his childhood. After the war, the town leadership fixed up the house in order to sell kerosene there. They refused to return the building to the Jewish community. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the house was given back to the community and Dorfman immediately went, in order to do repairs. Two years ago, people from Uman came for proper repairs. He then discusses prewar Passover celebrations at home.

The conversation turns to religious life after the war with brief references to prewar religious life. After he discusses religious life today, he talks about non-Jews speaking Yiddish, until today. They then discuss Jewish professions and Yiddish cultural life in prewar Slovechno, as well as weddings. Dorfman again talks about prewar religious life. Dorfman then provides information about a potential interviewee. The tape concludes with a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.