Semyon Krotsh was born in 1922 in Ştefăneşti into a poor family with many children. Krotsh was educated in a "kheyder" (traditional religious boys' school), a Romanian-Modern Hebrew Jewish school, and a yeshiva, where he studied Talmud and other traditional texts. Although Krotsh was an excellent student, he also studied to be a tailor. During the war years, Krotsh went to the Soviet Union and was evacuated from the town of Rîbnita to the Caucasus region of Russia, where he worked in a kolkhoz (collective farm). From there, he was evacuated further into Azerbaijan, and then drafted into the Red Army from 1942 to 1947. Krotsh went to Kolomyya after the war in 1949 with the intention to move to Romania. However, by the time he got there, the border was closed and Krotsh settled in the town, got married, and had three sons.
Other Interviews:
Ekhod mi yoydeo (Who knows one)Zits ikh mir in kretshme (I’m sitting in the Tavern)
Kolomyya, Ukraine
Semyon Krotsh in Kolomyia sang Zits ikh mir in kretshme for AHEYM in 2007. He did not remember all of the verses, but the ones he did sing seemed quite a bit more lighthearted than the lyrics of Der Furman. He mentioned that he learned the song before the war, in Shtefanesht (Ştefăneşti), Romania, where he was born in 1922.
A different version of this song appears on the Vernadsky archive compilation Treasure Of Jewish Culture In Ukraine from 1997. The piece is sung by Arn Shmuel Kahan and was recorded in Proskuriv, Podolia Region, in 1913. Both the mood and the lyrics in this version differ quite a bit from Krotsh's rendering: the melody is more melancholy than upbeat, and in the last verse, the drunken narrator beats his wife with a chair.
I sit in the tavern with no troubles or worries.
The tavern keeper is drunk, he puts it on the tab.
I can drink whiskey, I can drink wine.
I'll drink everything, but I won't get drunk.
As soon as I walk out the door,
The streets are drunk, they spin around me.
I go left, I go right, I don’t recognize my house.
The streets are drunk, I can see that.
Oh, moon, you shine up on high.
If you are drunk, how can that be appropriate?
During the war years, Krotsh escaped to the Soviet Union and was evacuated from the town of Rîbnita (Moldova) to the Caucasus region of Russia, where he worked on a kolkhoz (collective farm). From there, he was evacuated further into Azerbaijan and then drafted into the Red Army from 1942 to 1947. After the war, in 1949, Krotsh went to Kolomyya at the suggestion of a friend from the army, since it was near Romania. However, by the time he got there, the border was closed, and so he stayed in the town. AHEYM interviewed him there in 2005.