Tag #146257 - Interview #100173 (Rosa Linger)

I did not deny my Jewry even in soviet times. I have been a member of the Jewish community of Riga since 1946. It was very hard to observe Jewish traditions in postwar times. There was a deficit of standard products in the store, nothing to speak of kosher ones. The only thing I could do was not to mix meat and milk and not to buy pork. I lit candles in the house only on holidays, because it was even problematic to buy candles. On holidays my husband and I always went to the synagogue no matter that Naum was a party member. Of course, soviet regime struggled against religion in all possible ways [33], but we believed that we were entitled to mark our holidays, keep our traditions. We purchased the seat in the synagogue for mother and we annually paid for it. I kept that seat for myself mother’s death. We tried to make contributions to the synagogue the way we could. Husband was never against it as he was raised in a religious Jewish family.