Tag #127366 - Interview #98039 (Izak Sarhon)

I started school when I was 6-7.  Before that, we used to go to the rabbi’s home in Ortakoy.  There were a few of us, and the rabbi would teach us how to read and write in Hebrew and also religious things.  He gave us a religious education.  Then I went to the Alliance [Israelite Universelle] [6] school in Ortakoy.  I studied in French.  After studying there for a few years, I continued my studies at the new Alliance school in Galata.  At that time the classes went from 6 to 1, 1 being the highest class.  I studied until grade 1, then went to St. Jean Baptiste school.  This was a Catholic school run by monks.  I went to that school because first of all it was free, or very cheap, and secondly, my cousins also went to that school and we knew it was a good school.  Plus the language of instruction was in French and I had studied in French until that time.  There were 2-3 Jews in my class, and when it was time for the Christian students to have their religious classes, called “catechism”, we used to leave and go home.

There were only Jews in the first school I went to.  They also used to teach us about Judaism, religion and Hebrew in the Alliance schools.

I studied in French.  I also went to the Berlitz school [a private school that offered German language courses] to learn German.  I studied German for a while, but learned little.  Near my workplace there was a button factory called “Korozo”.  Their engineer was German.  I practised with him a little.  Then, when I went to Israel, all my friends were Ashkenazim,  and they all spoke German.  I practised with them a lot.