Salvo Ers’ bar-mitzvah

This picture was taken on April 9th, 1968 in a room in the Site sinemasi(movie theater). My son Salvo's bar-mitzvah took place there. It was a crowded event. Beforehand, we went to the synagogue during the week, of course the tefilim was placed, afterward in the weekend, we celebrated in this ballroom on Saturday night. My older son Salvator Yeshua (we call him Salvo for short) was born in Istanbul in 1955 along with his twin. When Salvo was born, he was 1.7 kg., the other one was 2.8 kg. Salvo's twin lived for 4 months. One day I put both in their stroller and took them to Tozkoparan to get some fresh air and to feed them their formula. He died suddenly until we reached home. We called a doctor, he said "teila amen", there was no cause, he was fine. Some said it was because of evil eye. The fat one died, the thin one lived. Because Salvo was very thin, he couldn't be circumcised after either 1 month or 3 months, only 6 months later was it possible. His weight was not sufficient, we had a lot of difficulty. His weight was checked every month. When he was up to his normal kg., then he had his circumcision. We celebrated Salvo's bar-mitzvah in a ballroom that was under Site sinemasi(movie-theater). There were no hotels and such then. He studied in the 11th elementary school in Shishane. He went to B'nai Brith for junior high. Then he went to night school for English. We sent my older son to Nesim Behar to learn religion. But Nesim Behar put a lot of pressure. He was a child then, religiously children should not be pressured. On Saturdays you will not touch money, you will not walk, you will not turn on the radio, you will not play ball, you will not go out, and so on and so on. In the end the child rebelled, now he has nothing to do with religion.