Moscu Mizrahy and his friends at Purim

The photograph was taken in 1913 in Bucharest. The first on the right in the front row, is my father, Moscu Mizrahy, in his school uniform, together with his friends, celebrating the Purim holiday.

My father was born on 12th April 1897 in Bucharest. He was what they call a 'self-made man'. He went to the Evangelic School, then to the Commerce Academy in Bucharest. Right after he graduated from the former, he started to provide for himself by doing bookkeeping for various employers; he did this all the way through college. In 1924 he was hired as a clerk by a company owned by a very rich family, Marcus Pincas & Co. In just a few years, through hard work and competence, he made it to proxy. Over the years, his career developed further: authorized accountant, expert accountant, and PhD in economics. 

My father observed the main holidays of the Hebrew calendar, fasted once a year, for Yom Kippur, didn't eat bread during the eight days of Pesach, and, if he came back from work in time to catch the Friday night service, he went to the temple and read from the prayer book alongside the others. He wasn't devout, but had had a religious education. I have his old prayer books, where he thoroughly marked over the years the time of the Kol Nidrei prayer, the time of the shofar, and the time when the service ended. I carry on this tradition and I mark the times when the services begin and end.

Photos from this interviewee