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Recording Content:
This recording is a formal interview with Shaiia Davidovich Kleiman, who was born 1931 in Vadraskhov, Moldova. (Part 1 of 2. See MDV 412)
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00:00:00
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Kleiman introduces the Shushana Hesed of Chernivtsi and talks about the contemporary Jewish community. He then briefly talks about prewar Jewish life. |
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00:06:08
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Kleiman provides personal information. Kleiman explains that his last name was changed from Kleinman to Kleiman during the war period. |
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00:09:25
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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). |
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00:15:50
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Kleiman talks about his life during the war. He explains how fourteen of his relatives from Vadrashkov were forced to stay in the ghetto. Only he and his parents returned home after the war. They moved to Chernivtsi in 1946. Kleiman states that forty distant relatives, including his sister, were killed during the war. |
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00:17:10
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Kleiman talks about his family and describes the old Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi, including well-known figures. |
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00:20:41
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Kleiman talks about his life after the war. He studied mathematics at the Chernivtsi University. He taught at various schools for forty-five years in Ukraine and Moldova. He then talks about Jewish life in postwar Chernivtsi. Kleiman states that the Soviet government permitted one active synagogue. |
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00:26:45
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Kleiman talks about his family. He tells the story about how his paternal grandfather married his grandmother, who was his niece. His mother’s maiden name was Utshitel. Her mother’s brother immigrated to Palestine in the 1930s. His father was a shopkeeper before and worked in a shop after the war. |
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00:34:52
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Kleiman talks about his father’s religiosity and discusses prewar holiday celebrations at home, in particular Passover and Purim. He recalls that he joined his father to go to the rebbe during holidays. Kleiman discusses prewar Jewish life in Vadrashkov, including Yiddish culture and political organizations. He then talks prewar weddings. |
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00:50:46
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Kleiman answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. |
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