Sister Polia, born in 1905, had the same teachers and had learned the same languages at home before the revolution, but afterward she attended a secondary school for several years.
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Displaying 49051 - 49080 of 50382 results
Sarra Nikiforenko
Polia married Boris, a Jewish man, cinema operator and a very nice man. All Jewish young people knew each other and got married based on their affections and preferences.
In 1932 they moved to Baku following other relatives.
Boris perished at the front during the Great Patriotic War 7. My sister was a widow, - she didn’t remarry, but she had support of the family in Baku.
He studied at a Soviet Jewish school. There were national schools opened in town during the Soviet period: Ukrainian and Jewish schools. There was the same curriculum at those schools where children studied geography, mathematic, history and other basic subjects and the only difference was the language of teaching: Ukrainian in Ukrainian schools and Yiddish – in the Jewish school. All teachers were Jews in the Jewish school. All schools were Soviet-orieneted. We were taught to love the Soviet power an be atheists. Then he finished Food Industry College. He worked at sugar factories.
Boris perished at the front during the Great Patriotic War.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
We had a big house that my father had built in Smela. There were four bedrooms: Polia and I shared one bedroom, and a big dining room. We had beautiful furniture that my father made: a huge table with heavy carved legs, chairs with high straight backs and a big black ornamented wardrobe. There was also a strikingly beautiful cupboard, the most beautiful cupboard I had ever seen. There was beautiful carving on it.
My father had a shop in the house with an entrance from the backyard. There was also a kitchen with a big Russian stove 8 where my mother cooked for our big family.
My father had a shop in the house with an entrance from the backyard. There was also a kitchen with a big Russian stove 8 where my mother cooked for our big family.
She made kosher food following all rules of Jewish traditions. She made chicken and Gefilte fish. She made boiled eggs stuffed with chicken fat. There was special cooking on Friday. I remember preparations for Sabbath. My mother baked bread and my older sister kneaded dough, made Gefilte fish and helped mother. When I grew older I also helped my mother.My mother did all cooking for Saturday and put it in the oven to keep the food warm until Saturday. We didn’t do anything on Saturday and we didn’t have help in the house as was customary in other families. My mother and sisters did everything by themselves.
We celebrated Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and other holidays. The family fasted at Yom Kippur – only younger children were allowed to have a bite of something in the kitchen. My mother spent a whole day in the synagogue. I ran to see her there; she lifted me to see the men praying downstairs. There was a big and beautiful synagogue near our house. My mother had an honorable seat at the synagogue that my father paid for. My father went to synagogue on holidays and every morning. I also remember him praying at home standing by the wall and swinging.
We sang many Jewish songs. I had a wonderful voice and my father enjoyed singing with me. There were special songs for each holiday. Here is a song for Sukkot:
[sings in Yiddish, it sounds like she doesn’t remember the words]
‘Sukkot holiday is when Jews make a hut from planks that they cover with dry sticks (sunflower) and there is a Jewish man sitting inside and singing. Then he says that it is such a decrepit hut that it can be blown down by wind, but since he is a Jew he will keep sitting there and singing’.
By the way, we didn’t have a special sukkah made in the yard. We used a special fore room with lifting roof where we had meals on this holiday. There was also a special table where we had meals only on this holiday.
There was another song that we sang:
[sings in Yiddish]
‘It rains, but then it stops raining, but there is water flowing from roofs; I’ve made a boat and let it sail. All of a sudden the wind carried it away. My little boat, where did you fly? To warm countries where birds sing and flowers bloom. Little boat, take me with you, please! Please take me with you!’
Those were joyful holidays when many people came to the house: all children and their friends. They sang and danced. It was a lot of joy to have a big family at that time. All children were treated with love. We celebrated all nights through Pesach singing songs and drinking wine. At midnight my mother opened the door and every newcomer got some wine. This was a custom.
My father composed a song at Purim. He came from the synagogue, greeted my mother with the holiday and sang:
‘Agit jontov faj man dir mider megile ih vur dijunsef agite pecire. Non shtende droufon bin der flash. Ejn gibt far bar na Gymentash’
‘You shall not get off like this: put a bottle of vodka on the table and give me hamentashen for a snack’.
[sings in Yiddish, it sounds like she doesn’t remember the words]
‘Sukkot holiday is when Jews make a hut from planks that they cover with dry sticks (sunflower) and there is a Jewish man sitting inside and singing. Then he says that it is such a decrepit hut that it can be blown down by wind, but since he is a Jew he will keep sitting there and singing’.
By the way, we didn’t have a special sukkah made in the yard. We used a special fore room with lifting roof where we had meals on this holiday. There was also a special table where we had meals only on this holiday.
There was another song that we sang:
[sings in Yiddish]
‘It rains, but then it stops raining, but there is water flowing from roofs; I’ve made a boat and let it sail. All of a sudden the wind carried it away. My little boat, where did you fly? To warm countries where birds sing and flowers bloom. Little boat, take me with you, please! Please take me with you!’
Those were joyful holidays when many people came to the house: all children and their friends. They sang and danced. It was a lot of joy to have a big family at that time. All children were treated with love. We celebrated all nights through Pesach singing songs and drinking wine. At midnight my mother opened the door and every newcomer got some wine. This was a custom.
My father composed a song at Purim. He came from the synagogue, greeted my mother with the holiday and sang:
‘Agit jontov faj man dir mider megile ih vur dijunsef agite pecire. Non shtende droufon bin der flash. Ejn gibt far bar na Gymentash’
‘You shall not get off like this: put a bottle of vodka on the table and give me hamentashen for a snack’.
We spoke only Yiddish in the family, although my father spoke fluent Russian. There were many books at home in a bookcase: they were both religious books in Yiddish and Hebrew since my parents prayed at home. My father said a prayer before each meal and also in the morning and in the evening. My father wasn’t fanatically religious.
Our family was well respected by the Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian population. When my father walked in the town men took off their hats to greet him and when my mother came to the market people addressed her as ‘Madam Zelyonaya’ and sold products on trust to her.
My father was recruited to the tsarist army twice: once it happened during the WWI and another time in Lvov – only I don’t remember in what year.
My father’s family came from Smela town. This town is located in Cherkassy region. It’s a small picturesque Ukrainian town in 200 km from Kiev. The town is located on the bank of the Tiasmin River. I don’t know the origin of our family name – Zelyonyie, but most Jews in our town had Russian or Ukrainian sounding names. There was Ukrainian, Russian and Jewish population in the town. Poorer people lived in the outskirts and Jews resided in Jewish neighborhoods.
There was a grammar school for boys of all nationalities. The pupils at this school were children from wealthier families and it was a prestigious place to study. There was a municipal hospital and pharmacies in the town. Water was fetched from wells in the streets – one well for few blocks. The central part of the town was nice and cozy. At the time that I remember wealthy and educated people lived in the central part of the town.
Our family lived in a Jewish neighborhood closer to the center of the town.
There was a grammar school for boys of all nationalities. The pupils at this school were children from wealthier families and it was a prestigious place to study. There was a municipal hospital and pharmacies in the town. Water was fetched from wells in the streets – one well for few blocks. The central part of the town was nice and cozy. At the time that I remember wealthy and educated people lived in the central part of the town.
Our family lived in a Jewish neighborhood closer to the center of the town.
I don’t know what my grandfather Zalma Zelyony did for a living. He died in 1900 when he was about 80 years old. I remember his big house with several rooms. There were ground clay floors. There were wooden floors only in the wealthiest homes in the center of the town. I also remember a special stove for baking matzah and big tables for rolling dough for matzah.
Grandmother died in 1920 when I was 6. I didn’t quite understand what happened and why father was sitting on the floor for a whole day and why his clothing was slightly cut. Only when I grew older I found out that this was the way to mourn for close relatives.
My father had few brothers and sisters, but I only remember uncle Isaac (he was a bit younger than my father and was born in 1864). He lived not far from where we lived and owned a pharmacy. Most of pharmacists in the town of Smela were Jewish. An old Jewish man was my uncle’s assistant. I enjoyed watching the pharmacist weighing powders on a small scale and wrapping them in small pieces of paper. To see this I had to stand on tiptoes. There were little bottles with recipes tied to their necks on the shelves. I remember how we ran there to buy tablets relieving coughing and lump sugar, if my memory doesn’t fail me.
Uncle Isaac had a daughter whose name was Basia. She married my older brother that was her cousin. Such marriages were customary in Jewish families.
Uncle Isaac was religious. He went to synagogue and prayed at home. A Jewish woman came on Friday to make a meal for celebration of Sabbath. She was specifically invited to cook for Sabbath. Isaac’s wife didn’t live long and he was a widower for many years. Uncle Isaac died in 1928.
Uncle Isaac died in 1928. This was the period of NEP 1 and he owned his pharmacy until the end of his days. After uncle Isaac died in 1928 the pharmacy was nationalized [nationalization] 2 and became a state property.
My grandfather Zalman gave his children a decent education: both Jewish religious and secular. They had fluent Russian and could read and write very well.
My father, Shaya Zelyony was born in 1861. He prayed in his room every evening with his face to the East. He was not to be disturbed at this moment. He went to synagogue every morning, on Saturday and Jewish holidays and undeviatingly observed all Jewish traditions and celebrated holidays.
My grandfather died in 1905 long before I was born and all I know about him was what my mother told me. He was a decent, God fearing man. He went to synagogue on Saturday and on all Jewish holidays and prayed at home in the morning and in the evening. He raised his children religious.
Their older son Idl, born in 1860, also owned a store in Kamenka the same kind as his father.
There was younger Isroel, born in 1870. He left for Palestine in 1900s. Once he visited us. I was small, but I remember a man of substance and he was introduced to me as ‘Here is your uncle from Israel’. We, children, were happy about his visit. He brought us sweets and cookies. This was the last time we saw him. We had no more information about him.
My mother’s father Shymon Platkov came from petty bourgeoisie: this was the name for craftsmen, retail traders and house owners. My grandfather was born in 1830s. He owned a store where he sold food products and other inexpensive commodities: dishes, tableware, buckets, bowls, etc.
Her older brother that studied at cheder taught her to read and write in Yiddish whenever he felt like teaching her.
My mother Enta Platkova was born in Kamenka town near Smela [30 km] in 1865. Kamenka is a picturesque town on the bank of the Tiasmin River where the river forms a curve and flows through rocks making dams. The majority of the population was Jewish. Ukrainians lived in surrounding villages. They were farmers for the most part. Jews were storeowners, craftsmen and balagulas [coachmen]. There was a synagogue and cheder in Kamenka. There was no Jewish hospital there and I don’t know whether there was a Jewish community there. There was a big estate in Kamenka that occupied a big territory in the town and spread to a big park on the bank of the Tiasmin River. The owner of the estate was a Russian nobleman. My mother told me that the landlord’s family were nice people. They didn’t oppress Jews and allowed them to trespass their estate. If they hadn’t been allowed to cross the estate they would have had to walk quite a distance to detour the area. They also used services of joiners, shoemakers and tailors provided by Jews and paid well for work. Only when their relative that was a musician was on a visit they didn’t allow Jews to even approach their estate. People said he was a terrible anti-Semite. Long afterward I read in the memoirs about Tchaikovsky 3 by his contemporaries that the great composer Tchaikovsky, visited Kamenka .
In 1955 we celebrated our silver wedding - 25 years together. There were many guests: high officials. I made traditional Jewish food, as usual: Gefilte fish and other traditional dishes. My husband was very proud of me. He was never ashamed of my Jewish name. I was a member of parents’ committee at the school where my girls studied: they were never ashamed of having a Jewish mother. Since they were not ashamed it never occurred to any one to hurt them.
My husband was a very ill man and in all those years the family adjusted to his schedule of life. He had to go to hospitals and recreation centers and I always accompanied him. Due to his illness we never traveled or went to theaters. We only communicated with our neighbors and my husband’s former colleagues. We celebrated Soviet holidays at home. My husband’s condition didn’t allow us to have guests. At leisure time my husband and I read Soviet magazines.