An excursion of the children from the Jewish school in Ruse

This is a photo of an excursion of the children from our Jewish school in Ruse. The photo was taken in 1933 or 1934 in Kazanlak.

At that time we, the Jews from our school, went on excursions to the Elena Balkan Mountain or to Shipka Mount, or to Sredna Gora Mountain. One of our teachers is sitting on the right in the front row of the photo. He was a Bulgarian; I don't remember his name. I'm the boy smiling in the front row. Behind me is Regina, to the very left is Beti Moskona and others. We are not in a Jewish youth camp, but on a school excursion here.

I was born in 1925 in Kazanlak. I spent my childhood playing near my mother. I didn't go to a kindergarten. I graduated from the technical school in Ruse. We studied various technical disciplines. Mine were related to ship construction in the town of Ruse. Before that I studied in the Jewish school in Kazanlak. Our teacher in Ivrit there was Eshua Baruh, who lived in Kazanlak. My favorite subjects were maths and natural sciences: physics and chemistry. There were no subjects I hated though. My hobby was woodcarving. I made my most beautiful sculpture in junior high school - I made most of them at that time. It was a small house made of wood. My elder brother Leon motivated me to that; he was very good at it. He even had an exhibition of wood-carved art in Kazanlak.

I was a member only of the abstinence association 'Trezvei' ['Sober'], after I started studying in the technical school in Ruse. My motives were related to the progressive attitudes at that time, that is the communist youth had to fight smoking, alcoholism and other vices that corrupt society. I was a member of Hashomer Hatzair in Ruse, but for a short time only. Leon, my first cousin, the son of Uncle David, took me there. I remember that we, the children in Ruse, liked to play in the gym of Maccabi built in 1937. There were horizontal bars, beams and other gymnastics equipment there. We played volleyball in the yard. By the way, the yard of my present-day home in Ruse is in the former yard of Maccabi and the former gym is now a car repair workshop.