Tag #138806 - Interview #99363 (Judita Schvalbova)

During my childhood Zilina had maybe 18,000 people. As a child it didn’t overly interest me, but for sure it didn’t have more than 20,000 [according to the 1921 census, Zilina had 12,255 inhabitants]. Just recently I read that in the pre-war period there might have been about 3,600 Jews living in the town [in 1942 there were around 3,500 Jews living in Zilina]. From my childhood I don’t remember a mikveh, yeshivah and similar Jewish institutions, because as a six-year-old it didn’t interest me very much and my parents absolutely didn’t practice this. Now that I’m retired, I read that there really was a mikveh here. There were two communities in Zilina. There was a Neolog community. Its members built one large, modern synagogue which stands to this day, but now is used for cultural purposes. And then there was another, smaller group of Orthodox [5] Jews, who had a tiny little synagogue. Even after the war there were services held in the Orthodox synagogue, up until the time of the two waves of emigration to Israel. Up until then it was relatively full. I don’t remember the names of the rabbis that were in Zilina in the pre-war period. During the war religious life didn’t exist, I was very small at that time. After the war, cantor Halpert served there for a time, he later left for Ireland. Mr. Halpert married us, so that’s why I remember him.

We used to attend the large Neolog synagogue. I don’t remember the details of what the interior looked like. A faint memory of Purim from the year 1941 has remained with me. I remember walking in a procession, and people up in the gallery showering us with candies. I know that the Purim celebration was held for us children. As a small girl I sang very well, so I performed there. I had on a pink knitted dress that was embroidered with small flowers.