Recording Content:
The tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Efim Grigoryevich Skobilitskii. (Part 2 of 3. See MDV 346 and Accession # 09-010.60-F MDV 793) He discusses his education and work, as well as Jewish cultural life before World War II. After he completed his education, he wrote exhibition labels in Yiddish and Russian for museum collections. He also worked in photography before the war. He remembers how anti-Jewish plays were staged at his school. The conversation then turns to contemporary Jewish religious life in Berdychiv. He participated in rebuilding the religious site of the Tzadik (spiritual master) Levi Yitskhak. He remembers a few Christians who converted to Judaism before the war. He then discusses Jewish cultural life after the war, when artists from Kyiv and Moscow came to perform in Berdychiv. Then the interviewing team drives through Berdychiv while Skobilitskii points out buildings of interest to the Jewish community and talks about their history. The team then arrives at a restaurant where they chat informally with Skobilitskii. He talks about his experiences in the Red Army during the war and at the liberation of Berlin in 1945. They discuss recipes of traditional Jewish dishes. After that, the camera moves to the streets of Berdychiv where Skobilitskii talks about the former Jewish neighborhood. The tape concludes with another tour of Berdychiv in the van, where Skobilitskii shows the Jewish Berdychiv of today.
00:03:29
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Work and education before the war |
00:05:46
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Anti-religious activities and Jewish cultural life |
00:10:54
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Hasidism in Berdychiv before the war |
00:13:19
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Jewish secular school and dialectology |
00:23:31
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Jewish religious life in Berdychiv today |
00:24:00
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Dialectology and prewar Jewish life |
00:46:45
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Town footage and chat at a restaurant |
00:49:22
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Jewish wedding in Hungarian town Pápa in 1948. Red Army service |
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