Grandson’s religious ceremony

This picture was taken on March 14th, 1990 in the house of my younger son Izzet at the pidyon of my grandson Igal. In the picture, my son Izzet is with the baby in his lap, next to him is the rabbi and the one with the back turned is my daughter-in-law Perla Ers. That day the rabbi came, he was given the silver, and he asked "A baby arrived. I will take the baby, I will give you the silver, what do you say, do you want the silver or the child?". We said "we want our son". At this point the rabbi said: "look, the silver is more valuable, I suggest that you take the silver". We said "we want our baby"and we took the baby, left the silver with the rabbi. Naturally we followed our traditions. Of course later the silver is returned but this is what is done for tradition. Izzet was born in Istanbul in 1961, he had a normal circumcision. There was Istanbul hastanesi(hospital), I gave birth there. We had his circumcision 8 days later. We had a nice b'rit mila with neighbors, friends and our Turkish friends. izzet studied in Kurtulus Kuvayi Milliye ilkokulu(elementary school) the first year, then finished in Sisli 19 Mayis ilkokulu. He went to junior high there too. Izzet did not want a bar-mitzvah outside. Spend the money you would have spent on me, he said, and we got him a new bedroom set and had a reception at home for about 30-40 people. Of course he wore tefilim in the synagogue. It was summer then, the month of June. The tefilin ceremony was in the synagogue in Büyükada. Then we waited for the end of the summer season. On our return to Istanbul we had the reception at home. Izzet went to the military when he reached 20. When he came back from the military he met Perla Benveniste, they dated for a while. Then the families met, talked, the decision was made and we hade the engagement. They were engaged for about 2 years, then got married. At first they rented a house in Bomonti and lived there, then they moved to Sisli. They had one child, Igal Ers, his circumcision was in Divan. When they become one month old, kucharas de plata(silver spoons) are given, we had the pidyon. 3 years ago the bar-mitzvah of Igal was done in Neve Shalom synagogue. It was a snowy day. First a very nice ceremony was done in the synagogue, then the celebration happened downstairs and food was served. It was quite crowded and it went well. Now he studies in Koç lisesi, he is a very successful student.