Paul Tinichigiu

This is my son Paul Tinichigiu when he was around two years old. We took this picture near my wife Borbala's parents? house, which was up the hill. He is standing near a triptych: there was one right at the foot of the hill. I married my wife, Borbala [nee Szakacs], who is not Jewish but Hungarian, in 1978, but not in a church or a synagogue, and we had a child, Paul, in 1979. At first we lived with my wife's parents - until 1986, when we got our own house: I was sick and I was not allowed to make efforts, and their house was on a hill. We had a quiet family life, and we weren?t especially religious. My wife was the one who pushed me back to Judaism: she secretly subscribed to the Jewish newspaper in my name. After that, I started going to the synagogue on Saturdays. Paul did a lot of sports, especially skiing, from the age of three and until he was 13. He won several medals in national and European skiing championships. I never raised him to be a Jew, but he strongly identifies himself as one: he studies Hebrew and goes to the synagogue every Saturday. He also knows Hungarian from my wife. He came in contact with the Jewish community in Brasov when he was in high school: they needed someone who was good with computers to help them fix their computer lab, and they knew my son studied that in school. Since then, he has been involved in the choir activities and others as well, especially concerning young Jews. He went to the Information Technology College of the University of Science here, in Brasov, and graduated last year, in 2002. Now he works as an IT instructor.