Tag #137960 - Interview #78790 (Alexander Bachnar)

As far as Judaism and Jewish traditions that I remember from my childhood are concerned, I've already spoken about them. I've also mentioned the holidays we observed and talked about the Jewish elementary school that I attended and where I studied the Torah in the afternoons. I didn't undergo any higher Jewish education. My bar mitzvah is worth a mention. I had it in Topolcany. It was sometime at the beginning of August. The bar mitzvah consisted of me being summoned to the synagogue, and that I had to read one chapter of the Torah. That was all. All the grandsons of my grandfather [Abraham Steckauer] got a gold ducat as a gift for their bar mitzvah. I was the only one to not get one, because I had gone swimming on Saturday.

When I was still a child, Chanukkah and Purim were among my favorite holidays. And they were my favorite because we for one had the opportunity to play, as they were holidays of happiness. We had the opportunity to play, and the opportunity to get something. Usually for Chanukkah we got some clothing. And for Purim we got sweets. The way it was back then, was that one family would send another sweets. We unfortunately couldn't afford to bake any sweets. So when we got some sweets wrapped up on a plate, we then took what we had gotten and sent it on. This was so we would also give someone a gift; it was part of the holiday. So much for religious life during my childhood and youth.