Ernest Halpert was born in 1923 in Mukacheve, which was then under Czechoslovak rule. His father was a shopkeeper and Halpert grew up with two sisters. Halpert attended a private religious school until his bar mitzvah and then worked at a factory until the outbreak of World War II. When Mukacheve was occupied by the Germans in 1944, he was deported to Austria, where he was imprisoned in several camps as forced laborer. In March 1945, Halpert was drafted into the Red Army. During the postwar Soviet era, Halpert worked as engineer at a factory and raised two children.
Other Interviews:
Minkatch: a Jewish TownThe Hard Years
The Prayer House
The Jewish Soul
Uzhhorod, Ukraine
The clip, also concerning postwar Soviet religious life, shows Halpert's deep-seated longing and desire to express Yiddishkayt or Jewishness throughout the Soviet period. After 1991, it was possible to establish religious institutions in independent Ukraine and therefore provided Halpert with an official environment to express his identity.