Tag #151014 - Interview #78412 (Frieda Portnaya)

My brother Mikhail went to a Jewish school. Later, all Jewish schools were closed and he went to a Russian school. I went to a Jewish kindergarten, whose teachers were Jewish. They spoke Yiddish to us, but we kids communicated in Russian. They celebrated Jewish holidays in this kindergarten, too. This didn’t last long, though. By the time I had to start elementary school they had closed the Jewish schools and the kindergarten, so I went to a Russian school. There were children of various nationalities in our class. We never felt any difference in attitude towards the Jewish children. We all got along very well. There were other Jewish children in our courtyard, and the few Russian children there also spoke Yiddish. We all understood each other well.