Faivel Fridman as a soldier

Faivel Fridman as a soldier

Faivel whose nickname was Shraga emigrated illegally in Israel [then Palestine] yet in 1945. After that he became a soldier there. This is a picture from these days.

My younger brother Faivel (like our paternal grandfather, Faivel Fridman) was born in the village of Karamanovo, Svishtov region, in 1928. He also emigrated to Israel with his family. He is a constructor. They have three children with his wife Shoshana: Pnina, Hanita and David. Their children also live in Israel. Before she retired, Shoshana worked as a host at the Bulgarian old people's home in Rishon Lezion, while she was living in Yagur with her family, near my mother.

I remember the following event. Once my yonger brother Faivel and I went to school (we attended one and the same school in Sofia). I was then in the forth grade while he was in the first. These days we were allotted snacks in the breaks at school and I still think it's a good thing to do in the school breaks. All right, but it was Yom Kippur then. Faivel went to take his snack and I shouted at him 'You mustn't. How can you eat on Kippur?' and I threw his breakfast away. Now I think what I did was very cruel to the small Faivel.

After 9th September 1944 [the day of the communist takeover in Bulgaria] my family came back to Sofia convinced that we all must emigrate to Israel [then Palestine] after two years - in 1946. But my brother Faivel, however, emigrated ahead of all yet in 1945 together with some friends of his.

Our parents are Yosif and Blanche Fridman, they both moved to Israel and are no longer alive. They were relatively religious, which means that they observed the Jewish traditions, but not every single detail of them. My father was of Ashkenazi origin, that is a Russian Jew, and my mother Blanche Israel is of the Sephardic Jews in Bulgaria. After they left for Israel, they lived in the town of Yagur.

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