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This photograsph was taken at the wedding of a cousin, together with my wife. To go along with the custom of those days, we had a picture taken for keepsake. I, Albert Arditi was born in 1923, in Kad˛köy Yelde∂irmen'i. The name of the school I attended was ''Ecole Communale''i. I wanted to go to St Jozef after elementary school. I graduated from St. Jozef with Prix d'honneur (degree of honors). … Every student also had to take what was called the university exams after graduation in order to be able to attend a university. Students who failed this exam had to enlist in the military. I wanted to attend ITU [Istanbul Technical University- it is the best engineering school in the country]. ITU accepted its students after only one test, but only the elite or really successful students, who came first, second or third in their class, generally made the cut. I took that test and graduated asan architectural engineer.
My wife, Nina Silton, was born in Beyoglu in 1932. She graduated from the St. Benoit Lycee. I met my wife at a restaurant in Yesilkoy [a county close to the Ataturk Airport. It is a luxury neighborhood known for its greenery and one-story houses] through one of my cousins. My cousin had seen my wife making home-made tomato sauce. He said it was very good tomato sauce [Back then, during the summer, people used to make lots of tomato sauce in preparation for the winter. Tomatoes were scarce during wintertime. One was considered to be a very good house-wife if she knew how to cook tomato sauce, because this was a very rough task, and one had to know the ropes if she were to prepare it well]. My cousin believed that my wife could be a very good house-wife, and so he wanted to arrange a proposition meeting between me and her.[proposition stands for the arranging of a meeting between a woman and a man by a third party for the sole purpose of marriage. Back then, women and men, who had met by proposition, generally ended up marrying each other shortly after]. We were married in Hemdat Israel synagogue in Yelde∂irmeni.
