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Dad sometimes was very joyful, sometimes – extremely strict. Strict mainly with my mother and my half-brother whom he didn’t want. He thought of my half-brother’s ailment as a stain and he would always tell him off. However, as a whole, he was a just man and he didn’t have any problems in his communication with people. In certain cases, he loved singing – in Russian or in Yiddish. His favourite song was ‘Ei, uhnem!’ [Russian: Come on, altogether!]. I remember him also singing religious songs in Ivrit (I cannot reconstruct them in my memory now), because my father was very religious in contrast to my mother. For example, my mother used to prepare matzah for Pesach; but secretly from my father she also ate bread. He used to observe all the traditions and often went to the synagogue. He used to wear his tallit. And he filled us, his children, with strong respect.
I remember the following event. Once my younger brother Shraga [Shraga was his nick-name, used by his friends. His official name was Faivel.] and I went to school (we attended one and the same school). 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. Now I remember that my father was very fond of going to the synagogue on Pesach. Before that, however, he would buy a hen and send my mother and me to the shochet who would cut its throat in our presence. Then my mother would cook it deliciously. Of course, all this was possible before the Law for Protection of the Nation [3].
My father had come to Bulgaria from Russia, coming to Sofia most probably through Vidin. In Sofia he met my mother Blanche Israel Baruh, who then worked as a clerk at a good position (but unfortunately I have no information where). After her second marriage (to my father) my mother stopped working. She was a housewife. But I know nothing about how my mother and my father had met. I know only that my mother was divorced then and had one kid. I can’t say anything for certain about her first husband, Yosif Levi. Once I saw him from the back in a street. He seemed to me dirty.
I remember the following event. Once my younger brother Shraga [Shraga was his nick-name, used by his friends. His official name was Faivel.] and I went to school (we attended one and the same school). 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. Now I remember that my father was very fond of going to the synagogue on Pesach. Before that, however, he would buy a hen and send my mother and me to the shochet who would cut its throat in our presence. Then my mother would cook it deliciously. Of course, all this was possible before the Law for Protection of the Nation [3].
My father had come to Bulgaria from Russia, coming to Sofia most probably through Vidin. In Sofia he met my mother Blanche Israel Baruh, who then worked as a clerk at a good position (but unfortunately I have no information where). After her second marriage (to my father) my mother stopped working. She was a housewife. But I know nothing about how my mother and my father had met. I know only that my mother was divorced then and had one kid. I can’t say anything for certain about her first husband, Yosif Levi. Once I saw him from the back in a street. He seemed to me dirty.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Juliet Saltiel