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I started school after we moved to Sofia. I attended a school on Tsar Simeon Str., which was near the central open market of the city. It was called ‘Simcha’. It was a secondary school. When I finished it I moved to the high school called ‘Antim I’. A year before graduation we were interned and I couldn’t graduate. I didn’t study at a Jewish school, because we didn’t live in the Jewish quarter. This school was a far cry from home and no one was able to take me there and then see me back home. It was entirely my mother’s decision not to attend the Jewish school.
On holidays we used to get together with my mother’s uncles, Aron and Vitali Bali. They were brothers of my maternal grandmother Simha Danon. We visited them quite often. They belonged to the Bali family and they were all epicures. They would always serve many dishes at a richly decorated table; this was particularly true on holidays.
We always celebrated Pesach at home with my grandfather. Mom would always prepare ‘boyos’- special unleavened bread without salt. The table was arranged with white, neatly ironed tissues where the pieces of boyos were put. When we were kids, they used to tie these tissues to our necks as if we were on a long journey to Jerusalem. Another typical dish was fried leek balls and chicken soup. If the family is a big one, for example six people or more it should be prepared from a big hen. The whole hen should be boiled and after that it should be rationed to all the members of the family. There should be no vermicelli in the soup, but only chopped matzah. It has to be mixed with raw eggs. My mother used to buy a live hen from the market and then she took it to the shochet at the synagogue to have it killed. There was a special place in the yard of the central synagogue for this kind of things. We never ate pork at home.
My mother used to boil in water all the pottery in the house before Pesach. There were Jewish families, which had special dishware for this holyday and they used it only once a year on Pesach. We didn’t have it so my mother used to clean all the pottery until it was all shiny.
On holidays we used to get together with my mother’s uncles, Aron and Vitali Bali. They were brothers of my maternal grandmother Simha Danon. We visited them quite often. They belonged to the Bali family and they were all epicures. They would always serve many dishes at a richly decorated table; this was particularly true on holidays.
We always celebrated Pesach at home with my grandfather. Mom would always prepare ‘boyos’- special unleavened bread without salt. The table was arranged with white, neatly ironed tissues where the pieces of boyos were put. When we were kids, they used to tie these tissues to our necks as if we were on a long journey to Jerusalem. Another typical dish was fried leek balls and chicken soup. If the family is a big one, for example six people or more it should be prepared from a big hen. The whole hen should be boiled and after that it should be rationed to all the members of the family. There should be no vermicelli in the soup, but only chopped matzah. It has to be mixed with raw eggs. My mother used to buy a live hen from the market and then she took it to the shochet at the synagogue to have it killed. There was a special place in the yard of the central synagogue for this kind of things. We never ate pork at home.
My mother used to boil in water all the pottery in the house before Pesach. There were Jewish families, which had special dishware for this holyday and they used it only once a year on Pesach. We didn’t have it so my mother used to clean all the pottery until it was all shiny.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Matilda Ninyo