Oosher Roizen with the Jewish school

These are the pupils and teachers of the Jewish school in Ozarintsy. My brother Oosher is the first on the left in the second row wearing a white shirt and a pioneer necktie. The photo was taken in Ozarintsy in 1936. Oosher was born in 1927. My mother named him Oosher after Grandmother Gitl's father. There was a Jewish elementary school in Ozarintsy. When my brother started to go to school I went with him. The teacher sent me home telling me that I was too young to go to school. I went to Uncle Mordkhe. He didn't have any children and was always happy to see me. Mordkhe had a good education. He knew Hebrew very well, so he began to teach me Hebrew. My mother got rather scared when she heard about it because the Soviet authorities persecuted such activities [during their struggle against religion]. My mother forbade me to study Hebrew. I wish she hadn't. I learned to read and write in Yiddish instead. My parents spoke Yiddish in the family. We communicated in Yiddish with Jewish children and in Ukrainian with our Ukrainian neighbors' children. My brother became a pioneer at school in 1936 and he was proud to wear his red necktie. My brother studied well and after classes he taught me to count and read and write in Yiddish. There was no Jewish school in Ozarintsy after the war. My brother and I went to the Ukrainian school. In 1946 my brother finished school and went to Chernovtsy to enter the Construction College.