Tag #142750 - Interview #97016 (Efim Finkel)

Jew Moshe Perelman, a tinsmith, lived not far from my grandparents’ home. He was a big, tall and strong man. He owned a forge and his two sons were helping him with his work. He always had 2 or 3 apprentices. My father said that he admired his strength and skillfulness and wanted to be like Moshe. My father asked his parents to let him study this profession. My father was an apprentice for two years. His father didn’t pay for his studies, but my father didn’t receive any payment for his work either. He was provided with meals, though. The blacksmith’s wife cooked for all of them and apprentices had meals with Moshe’s family. On Saturday the forge was closed. Upon finishing his training my father stayed in the forge as an assistant. Only in four years’ time my father began to work independently, they worked parallel. Though he stayed at Moshe’s forge since his parents didn’t have enough money to open a forge for my father – Moshe paid him for his work. My father worked at Perelman’s forge his whole life. He was a skillful blacksmith and had many clients. At that time a blacksmith had to do many things: horseshoe or fix a broken axle in a cart and make all kinds of household things like a door catch or a plough or harrow.