Yossi Valdman: Israel, Jaffa, Jews, Customs,

Yossi.jpg

Title

Yossi Valdman: Israel, Jaffa, Jews, Customs,

Subject

Life History; Israel; Jaffa; Cork;

Description

Yossi talks about Israel and his Jewish heritage, and describes coming to Cork and how he experienced life in the city.
Yossi’s father lived in Israel and then moved to Jaffa where he opened a shop. Yossi lived in Jaffa and Israel and then travelled and met his wife, Margaret, who is an Irish woman. He came to Ireland in 1991, and to Cork in 2001. He talks about his impressions of Cork and Ireland. He recounts cultural differences he encountered, and comments on drink culture. He talks about the historic nature of the city’s Jewish community.
Note; This interview was conducted as part of the Cork 2005 Project

Date

23 November 2004

Identifier

CFP_SR00350_valdman_2004

Coverage

Cork; Ireland; Israel; Jaffa; 1960s - 2000s;

Source

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Language

English

Type

Sound

Format

1.wav File

Interviewee

Interviewer

Duration

30m 25s

Location

Summer Hill North, Cork City, Ireland

Original Format

MiniDisc

Bit Rate/Frequency

16bit / 44.1kHz

Transcription

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com

J.M.: Very good, Ok. So do you have any stories about misunderstandings that might have occurred because of the difference in language or because people do things differently here, when you arrived first?

Y.V.: I used to have when I came… when I came to Ireland; you know my English was eh… quite bad (laughs), and em… I could speak English like, quite flatly, but I mean, it was expressions, that eh… expression, Irish expression that eh…I kind of didn’t know. Em… yeah, it used to be barrier of culture barriers, but eh, when I came here I was very, eh, if you like, very open, very, do you know, em…. I was very fast in many things. People didn’t like it, or people were afraid of it, em… em, I used to call to peoples’ houses and kind of, do you know, where in Israel people have to call to peoples’ houses. Eh, there is a lot of things where, em, like if we had a packet of cigarettes here on the table, you know, I’ll take a cigarette because knowing that you are my friend and eh, there is no problem. Do you know, a lot of things like in the bars, for instance, where in Israel, bars open all night until the last customers leave really. Eh, and there is things, eh… like they are in the bar like the cigarettes, tapas, tapas which is peanuts and stuff like that to put in bar and eh… for people just to pick up. People do that without questioning or anything, em… Lot of specially we talking about the bar, eh, we ordering our drinks and we pay as we leave. You know in Ireland I found it very em, do you know pay now you know. And eh…you know, most of things like that em… do you know, I find it quite, you know, eh… it used to make me angry, but eh, do you know like the Irish people kind of advanced me that’s the way we live, and you know ‘there is nothing we can do about that now’ (laughs).

Collection

Citation

Cork Folklore Project, “Yossi Valdman: Israel, Jaffa, Jews, Customs,,” accessed March 28, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/37.