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Recording Content:
This recording is a formal interview with Shprintsa (Shprintse) Khaimovna Yaruskaya, nee Kigel, born 1925 in Hâncești.
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00:00:00
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Yaruskaya provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father, who was born in Chișinău, worked as painter and her mother was also born in Hâncești. Yaruskaya grew up with one sister. She raised two sons, one of whom lives in America. |
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00:05:44
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Yaruskaya speaks about her life and childhood home before the war. She recalls poverty and describes her grandparent's observance. Yaruskaya then talks about prewar Jewish life and recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. |
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00:07:36
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Yaruskaya talks about prewar holiday celebration, including Passover seder, at home. |
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00:11:45
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Yaruskaya addresses prewar Purim celebrations in town. She describes a carnival and people wearing costumes. Yaruskaya also recalls a Purim shpiel. |
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00:14:40
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Yaruskaya addresses prewar holiday celebrations, including Simchat Torah and Sabbath. She remembers attending synagogue services with her mother and grandmother. According to Yaruskaya, there were two synagogues in Hâncești. She then describes Sabbath food customs at home and shares her recipe for gefilte fish. |
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00:18:21
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Yaruskaya discusses Yiddish songs from her childhood. She then talks about traditional weddings before the war, before briefly returning to food customs. |
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00:20:44
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Yaruskaya speaks about her travels to Lithuania. She then speaks about her family and holiday celebration. |
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00:22:03
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Yaruskaya sings a Yiddish song about the tailor's work. She then addresses her encounter with Polish Jews, before talking about her return to Hâncești after World War II. She describes how returnees buried the corpses and mentions that non-Jewish locals pointed out the mass graves. |
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00:26:10
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Yaruskaya talks about her life and education before the war. She attended a Romanian school for six years. Yaruskaya also speaks about her famil y and mentions her father's communist activities. |
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00:27:51
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Yaruskaya speaks about her life during World War II. She remembers the beginnings of Soviet occupation and the war. Yaruskaya describes her evacuation. She maintains that her family evacuated on foot to Rostov, Russia, via Dubăsari and Ukraine. Yaruskaya explains how locals helped out her family with food and water in Ukraine. She continues that her family evacuated further by train from Rostov to Makhachkala, Russia; and then on a steamship to Türkmenbaşy (formerly: Krasnovodsk) Turkmenistan. Yaruskaya describes this journey, before addressing her family's life in Türkmenbaşy and then in the nearby town Ufra. |
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00:34:34
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Yaruskaya speaks about her life after the war. Her family moved to Türkmenbaşy, where they worked at a factory. She left the city in 1949 and moved to Chișinău. |
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00:36:22
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Yaruskaya recalls Yiddish proverbs and songs. She then addresses her childhood memories of prewar Jewish Hâncești. Yaruskaya also talks about her family. She raised three sons. They live in Israel and America. |
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00:43:12
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Yaruskaya answers questions about cultural terminology. She then addresses folk and healing customs. Yaruskaya recalls her mother practicing them and explains how older Jewish women poured lead to get rid of a scare. She then speaks about prewar traditional weddings, including food customs. |
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00:48:30
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Yaruskaya talks about contemporary religious life, before discussing different periods of her life. She then talks about her family. |
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00:49:55
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Yaruskaya speaks about her life after the war. She was trained as motor-mechanic, but worked as conductor and dispatcher in a bus terminal for thirty-six years. She then talks about her family and contemporary religious customs. |
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00:52:59
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Yaruskaya talks about her life today and visits to America, as well as Israel. She then recalls prewar holiday celebration, including Sukkot Purim and Yom Kippur, at home. Yaruskaya remembers how her father played an instrument on Purim. |
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00:58:44
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The concludes the formal part of the interview with Yaruskaya. She returns to prewar Jewish life in Hâncești and describes how she and her siblings brought food to poor families. |
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