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Recording Content:
This recording consists of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). (Part 2 of 3. See MDV 520 and Accession # 09-010.13-F MDV 426)
Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Kolomyya, Iași, Sighetu Marmatiei, Ternopil’, Chernivtsi, Chervonograd, Hîrlau, Ivano-Frankivs’k.
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00:00:00
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This tape consists of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). He recites a “pirimshpil” (rhyming Purim play) about a chimney-sweep and a woman that he and his brother performed in his youth. Vider also speaks about his early childhood in Sighetu Marmatiei and Iași. Speaking about his family life in general, Vider mentions that his father was a “shoykhet” (kosher butcher), but pitied the animals too much and so worked as a “khazn” (cantor). |
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00:05:16
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The interview moves into the interior of the Kolomyya synagogue. There, Vider shares the details of his career as a miner and refrigerator mechanic, explaining how he moved to the Soviet Union in 1940 at the age of 17. |
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00:10:44
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Vider shares his earliest childhood memories, noting that although he did not attend kheyder (religious boys’ school) his father taught him privately at home. Vider also recalls helping his father with his cantorial duties, and describes his later education in a Yeshiva as well as in a Jewish school where Romanian and Modern Hebrew were taught. |
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00:17:20
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Vider talks about his many siblings and about their fates both during and after the war. He also describes the curriculum of his Jewish school and states that he remembers so many Jewish songs and traditions because he would sing to himself on long fishing trips. |
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00:21:47
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Vider recites various parts of the traditional liturgy including the “shir hayoym” (Song of the Day) for Sunday and “kadish” (memorial prayer). |
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00:25:14
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Vider briefly discusses the day-to-day operations of Kolomyya’s current synagogue, including its system of donations and the kinds of people who come. He also states that he learned traditional Jewish cooking from his sister. |
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00:29:26
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Vider recites “el mole rachamim” and “kadish” (two funereal prayers), as well as parts of what he identifies as the “halel” (Praise) service. |
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00:33:39
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Vider sings a loshn-koydesh (the Hebrew-Aramaic language of traditional Jewish texts) song that starts as a holiday version of “adoyn oylom” (Eternal Lord). He then sings the shabes (Sabbath) song “lekhu doydi” (Come My Beloved) and provides a full description of how “sholem-aleykhem” (Peace Be Upon You) was sung and shabes was celebrated in his childhood home. He then makes “kidish” (the shabes blessing over wine). |
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00:40:19
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Vider recites the “fir kashes” (Four Questions of Passover) and sings “A gemakhtn got hobn zey” (They Have a Man-made God), a song based on a part of halel; then another “pirimshpil” called “dray simunim,” (Three Signs) and a Purim song in Modern Hebrew that he learned in his Jewish school in Hîrlau. |
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00:49:22
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Vider recalls prewar Simkhes-toyre (Simchat Torah) and Sikes (Succoth) observances. He then details the contemporary phenomenon of non-Jewish pilgrims who come to him and, giving a small donation, ask the congregation to pray for the resolution of health, business or personal problems. He tells one specific story about one woman who, after having received Vider’s blessing, got married and had a child. Vider says he thinks about these people when he prays, asking that G-d should help them as He helps him. |
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