She always wore a kerchief.
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Displaying 48991 - 49020 of 50057 results
Sholom Rondin Biography
My grandmother kept her utensils for dairy and meat products at various cupboards and the rest of the family had to follow this rule strictly. Everything had to be kosher.
My grandparents were renting the house. I remember their Russian landlord that came to pick up the rental pay once in two or three months. He talked with my grandmother very respectfully. There was a big kitchen garden near the house where my grandmother grew corns, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, peas and beans. They also kept a cow in the cowshed in the yard. My grandmother milked it on all days but Saturday. On Saturday her Russian neighbor came to milk the cow. When my grandmother was ill my grandfather milked it and later they taught me to do it. They were not a wealthy family, but they led a decent life. Even at the hardest time they didn’t make an impression of a poor family.
They celebrated all Jewish holidays in accordance with traditions. On Friday the house was shining of cleanliness. My grandmother lit candles in silver candle stands. She put a hala baked on a previous day on a silver dish covering it with a snow-white napkin. They went to the synagogue to say the prayers that were required on each holidays.
They also made traditional food. At Chanukah they made “latkes” – potato pancakes and at Purim – Gomentashen – little pies with poppy seeds.
At Pesach all dishes were cooked from matsah. There were few synagogues in Gomel. Matsah was made at the bakery every year and we bought matsah rather than making it. My grandmother had special dishes and tablecloths for Pesach. After they returned from the synagogue they all sat at the table and my grandfather conducted the first seder and the family got down to a festive dinner.
Motl, born in 1902, also became a shoemaker. He finished cheder. He wasn’t very educated, but he was a good shoemaker and a very nice man. He worked at home, provided for his family and supported us. If it hadn’t been for him we wouldn’t have survived at trying times. When my grandfather grew old and couldn’t go on working Motl went to work in his shop near the market. When he bought two loaves of bread at the market he left one for us on his way home, and when he had one loaf of bread he left a half for us.
My uncle Motl went to the army in 1941. He perished during the Great patriotic War.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
My father’s younger brother Neeh (Naum) was born in 1910. He finished a Jewish school and then finished a rabfak (2).
In the late 1920-early 1930s industrial enterprises were constructed in Gomel. Neeh became an equipment mechanic at a big shoe factory.
During the Great patriotic War he was evacuated to Kazakhstan with the factory. During the Great patriotic War this factory made officer boots for the front.
After the war he returned to Gomel and in 1950s he and his wife moved to Simferopol. From there they moved to Israel.
He was very religious even as child. He was constantly praying. He finished a yeshyva and knew Talmud and other religious books. He was an older son and had to go to work to help his parents to raise younger children. Perhaps that was why he didn’t become a rabbi.
My father was also very talented in making clothes. He was an apprentice and very soon became a professional tailor.
My mother’s father Kalman Levenchuk, born in 1865, was also a shoemaker. My mother’s family lived in the outskirts of the town and their customers were mainly villagers and poor families from the outskirts of the town. My mother’s family was poor. I visited them several times. I remember a big stove and reeky walls. It even seems to me now that there was only one big kitchen and no rooms in their house. My grandfather worked on a stool beside the stove wearing a black apron and a cap.
My grandfather made a break for lunch. At that time the house became very quiet. My grandfather washed his hands and prayed. Then he sat at the table and my grandmother poured a ceramic bowl of soup for him. He ate the second course that was usually potatoes with goose fat from this same bowl. I found it different from how they ate at my father parents’ home. They always laid a white tablecloth on the table and put beautiful plates for the first and second courses and always ate a second course with a knife and a fork.
My grandfather spoke Yiddish. I don’t know what language he spoke to his customers – I didn’t have a chance to hear.
My stepsisters on my mother’s side came to say “good bye” to us prior to their departure back in 1991. They live in Israel and they are very happy.
Six years ago my wife and I went to visit them in Israel. We liked it there. It’s a beautiful country. We undoubtedly would like to live there, but we don’t have much time left. We should have moved there 10 years before. Our relatives have a good life there. They receive a good pension and their children are well settled. Yes, we should have gone there. I would have been better there.
Here I lost all my saving to the money reform. I saved my whole life for our old age and for our grandchildren. I had sufficient savings to lead a good life here, but we lost them all during the downfall of the USSR. When my sisters were leaving they took their savings with them and we here were robbed, but there is nobody to complain to.
Jewish organizations invite us to various events, lectures. We watch movies and listen to music at Hesed. Hesed provides us wit medications and food packages. It is a big support – we wouldn’t manage without their help.
I am a pensioner now. I worked as a painter 44 years. I did my work well. Now nobody needs my skills. People wallpaper their apartments. Nobody wants to learn my profession. They will come to it –only it will be too late.
Life was better during the Soviet power. I believed in this power and liked it. The Soviet power wouldn’t have allowed impoverishment of old people – veterans.
I didn’t join the party – I didn’t care about it, especially that they had meetings of all kinds and other activities. I am not a public person.
But I was respectable and didn’t face any anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. I don’t see any anti-Semitism now. I believe if one is a decent person nobody would dare to hurt one’s dignity.
Ladislav Roth Biography
There was one Jewish employee there and they could employ me. I worked in a big hall. One of newly appointed officials, a fascist, often came for dinner there and he always demanded to be waited on by a non-Jew sending me away. There was another hall for Jews in the Korona restaurant. It used to be a banquet hall, but when persecution of Jews began they made it a hall for Jewish visitors to avoid conflicts. There was one Jew working there. His name was Borukh Leibush and when there were too many visitors, it was difficult to wait on all of them. There were complaints. I had hard feeling after each visit of this official and asked senior waiter to let me work with Borukh in the hall for Jewish visitors. This hall was 4-5 times smaller than the others, but it brought ten times more income.
Jews had a feeling that there was nothing good for them to expect and spent their money lavishly. The Jewish hall was always full, they ordered expensive dishes and gave big tips. It turned out that it was very profitable to work in the Jewish hall.
Jews had a feeling that there was nothing good for them to expect and spent their money lavishly. The Jewish hall was always full, they ordered expensive dishes and gave big tips. It turned out that it was very profitable to work in the Jewish hall.
My younger brother and sister couldn’t continue their studies after finishing school. When Hungarians came to power in 1939, Jews were not to be admitted to higher educational institutions. My sister became an apprentice of a hairdresser. She began to work a year after she started her training. My brother became an apprentice in a women’s clothes shop. The owner of the shop was a Jewish man whose surname was Hertzog and his wife was a Christian. Hertzog officially transferred his saloon to his wife and continued to manage it as he did before.
We never came to borrowing money to buy something. My mother only cooked kosher food at home and watched it that we didn’t bring home non-kosher products. My brother, sister and I didn’t follow kashrut outside of our home. We worked nearby. At lunch I went to a small store in the shopping center where they sold ham and delicious homemade sausage where I bought some for myself, my brother and sister that I took to their work. My mother would not probably be happy about this kind of meal, but we never mentioned it to her.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
We never came to borrowing money to buy something. My mother only cooked kosher food at home and watched it that we didn’t bring home non-kosher products. My brother, sister and I didn’t follow kashrut outside of our home. We worked nearby. At lunch I went to a small store in the shopping center where they sold ham and delicious homemade sausage where I bought some for myself, my brother and sister that I took to their work. My mother would not probably be happy about this kind of meal, but we never mentioned it to her.
In the first year of Hungarian rule there were no persecutions of Jews or attacks on synagogues, but in 1940 Jews began to fear going to synagogues. Young men with sticks waited for them in front of synagogues to beat them. Thank God, there were no bombs, but they beat Jews with sticks until they started bleeding. Then Jewish young men began to unite in groups. Before a sermon in the synagogue they also stood there with sticks and didn’t allow hooligans to come near. There were also attacks on passers by with typical Semitic looks. They were particularly mad seeing a Jewish man with a Christian woman, but I continued to see Maria. I didn’t look like a Jew, I was more like a Slavic type of man and we didn’t get in any incidents.