Audio clip from an oral history interview with Derek Kyiet: Chevra Kadisha, Cardiff 28 October 2018

Disgrifiad

This is an audio clip from an oral history interview with Derek Kyiet in which Derek describes the Chevra Kadisha process, i.e. the preparation of men for burial.

In his interview, Derek Kyiet talks about growing up in an Orthodox household in Stamford Hill, North London. Every Sabbath Derek spent Friday night, Saturday and Sunday afternoon at the local synagogue. Derek went to a Jewish grammar school and spent four afternoons a week and Sunday mornings learning Hebrew. When Derek was 11 his father, a tailor in the East End of London, died. Derek left school at 15 and after a brief stint as a hairdresser and working in a menswear shop became a market stall trader. In 1962 he moved to Cardiff. Derek worked the markets around South and West Wales until 1982, when his voice gave out. Derek's recollections of life as a market stall holder are peppered with humorous anecdotes. Derek then went into the life assurance industry and took up public speaking as a hobby. He retired in 2006. Derek married Maggie in 1971 and has two daughters. Derek attends the Reform synagogue in Cardiff and is an active member of the congregation: he's a warden, lay reader and since 1986 has headed the Chevra Kadisha.

Depository: The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.