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My parents were introduced to one another by a shadkhan. It was a traditional way of arranging marriages in Jewish families. Matchmakers showed my father pictures of my mother and her parents and he came to her village to meet her in person.
My father and mother liked each other and got married in 1922. They had a traditional Jewish wedding with a chuppah in Pisarevka. The rabbi conducted an official ceremony. After the wedding my mother moved to my father in Poyana. My father owned a small house that formerly belonged to his parents. My mother’s father, Haim Kupershtock, died shortly after my parents’ wedding. My grandmother died two years after my grandfather passed away – in 1924.
My older sister Haya, born in 1924, was named after our grandfather Haim. I was born on 5th August 1926 and was named after my grandfather on my father’s side. Berl in Hebrew means ‘bear.’ During the Soviet regime I was mostly called Boris. My younger sister Sheiva was born in 1932.
My father and mother liked each other and got married in 1922. They had a traditional Jewish wedding with a chuppah in Pisarevka. The rabbi conducted an official ceremony. After the wedding my mother moved to my father in Poyana. My father owned a small house that formerly belonged to his parents. My mother’s father, Haim Kupershtock, died shortly after my parents’ wedding. My grandmother died two years after my grandfather passed away – in 1924.
My older sister Haya, born in 1924, was named after our grandfather Haim. I was born on 5th August 1926 and was named after my grandfather on my father’s side. Berl in Hebrew means ‘bear.’ During the Soviet regime I was mostly called Boris. My younger sister Sheiva was born in 1932.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Boris Slobodianskiy