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Recording Content:
This video begins in the middle of a formal interview with Abram Davidovich Kaplan. (Part 3 of 3. See MDV 581 and Accession # 09-010.20-F MDV 463) He briefly explains what he sees as discrimination against women in Jewish religious tradition.
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Tsilia Borisovna Khaiut, who was born in 1917 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. (Part 1 of 3. See MDV 583 and Accession # 09-010.52-F MDV 694)
Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ashdod, Beer-Sheva.
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00:00:00
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This video begins in the middle of a formal interview with Abram Davidovich Kaplan. He briefly explains what he sees as discrimination against women in Jewish religious tradition. Kaplan remembers his aunt Khone’s wedding from before the war. Jewish weddings before the war were celebrations complete with a chuppah, rabbi, badkhn (wedding jester) and the breaking of plates. Purim before the war was characterized by noisemakers, children going door-to-door to ask for money, and the sending of sholekh-munes (care packages of fruits and other foods to neighbors and friends). Recalling Passover, Kaplan remembers how matzos were baked in the home and how special holiday dishes were kept in the attic. Kaplan also briefly discusses traditions associated with Yom Kippur and shabes (the Sabbath). |
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00:09:43
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The camera then cuts to a close-up of a war memorial and different exhibits in the town’s Holocaust museum/Jewish community center. |
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00:12:42
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Driving from the community center to the Jewish cemetery, Kaplan indicates different points of interest around town, such as where another potential interviewee lives. |
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00:16:44
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Kaplan leads Professor Kerler on a tour of the Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy Jewish cemetery, pointing out different matseyves (gravestones) and the meyloyl [the building used by the burial society to ritually clean the dead]. |
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00:20:06
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While driving through the newer section of the Jewish cemetery, Kaplan explains how the community’s landslayt (former residents) come from all over the world to visit their relatives’ graves and how they help the local community financially. |
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00:21:56
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Kaplan shows Professor Kerler the oldest stones in the cemetery, some of which are over 400 years old. |
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00:25:22
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While on the road back into town from the cemetery, Kaplan again points out different sites. |
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00:27:31
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Kaplan answers a few brief linguistic questions and he and Professor Kerler say their goodbyes in front of Kaplan’s home. |
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00:28:35
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The camera cuts to a formal interview with Tsilia Borisovna Khaiut, who was born in 1917 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Her father, a shoemaker known as Berl Adeser, was also born in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Khaiut’s mother Rukhl was born in Bessarabia, a fact which causes her to remark about the dialect difference between her Yiddish and that of Bessarabia, as well as the killing of Bessarabian Jews in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy during the war. Khaiut’s maternal grandparents and their family immigrated to the United States during the Tsarist era and she remembers how her mother used to receive dollars from them, with which they paid rent. When Soviets took power, Khaiut remarks, however, the official exchange rate made these remittances worthless and contact between these familial branches ceased. Khaiut had two sisters, Ester & Ronya, and a brother, Khoskl (who moved to Israel) all of whom have died. Khaiut also talks about her education in Soviet Yiddish schools and the traditionally religious life at home during her youth. Before beginning her formal education at ~4-5 years old, Khaiut studied with a melamed (private religious teacher) named Mendl. The melomdim were the very poorest people in the shtetl, and she tells a joke/anecdote about their poverty. Her first son (b. 1938, d. at age of 42) also learned with a rabbi. Khaiut has another son who still lives in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, as well as four grandchildren in Ashdod, Beer-Sheva and elsewhere. Khaiut shares her views of child-rearing and the difference between children today and in her youth. In her home as a child everything was done “Jewishly”. Khaiut discusses her marriage and family life, including the custom of taking off a bit of dough from the khale (challah) and burning it. She speaks about the curriculum of Soviet Yiddish schools, recalling for instance "Vi bisti geveyn ven dus gelt iz geveyn" (Where were you when there was money) as one of the songs they learned. In school she studied writers, such as Sholem Aleichem and Itsik Fefer, as well as sciences and mathematics, algebra and chemistry all in Yiddish. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. During the war, Khaiut lived in the ghetto in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and was transferred to a camp in Transnistria. She relates how she would dress as a Ukrainian woman and buy goods in the bazaar, taking off the yellow star that identified her as a Jew, but was nevertheless hit by a German on one of these outings. At this time, her husband was serving on the front with the Red Army. Khaiut also recalls a number of recipes of Shabes (Sabbath) foods, including: yukh (chicken soup), tsimes fasolyes (bean stew), kigel (casserole), and different kinds of fish. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ashdod, Beer-Sheva. |
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