Tag #146555 - Interview #78019 (Rita Kazhdan)

When we visited Leningrad with my father on his business trips, I met my paternal grandpa Semyon - or as we called him Shimon - Fridman and I remember him very well. I recall us arriving in the morning, because the train from Minsk used to arrive in Leningrad in the morning, and I remember him praying. He was always sitting with his face turned to the East, wearing his tallit. I don't know exactly the names for all these gadgets, which one could put on his head and hands - bricks, as I called them - and he prayed. [Editor's note: The interviewee is referring to the tefillin.] There was one more detail: grandpa prayed for a long time, not noticing anyone, and stayed in the corner, but he allowed us to look at him. At that time I sometimes messed about, but all this seemed very interesting to me. Grandpa didn't teach me to pray at that time, I was quite small. Nobody approached him until he stopped praying. The only person acquainted with all the traditions was his younger son Grigory, who lived with grandpa and granny.