Selected text
My father and his brothers studied at cheder. I don’t know whether they had any other education, but my father was a very intelligent man. He always helped my sister and me with our homework on mathematics. All brothers in the family learned a profession. Yukl became a shoemaker. He had a wife and three children. Yukl died of some disease in 1940. He was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Starokonstantinov in accordance with the Jewish traditions. My parents supported Yukl’s widow.
The family lived in the Novoye Stroyeniye neighborhood in Starokonstantinov located across the bridge on the Ikopeth River. Their hut with ground floors was on the bank of the river. They were extremely poor. My father told me that they always had matzah at Pesach that they got from richer Jewish family that believed it to be their duty to give matzah to poor families before holiday. My father knew that richer Jews ate matzah with chicken or goose fat – matzah with shmolt (Editor’s note: goose fat - on Yiddish) and he dreamed of trying it. His mother dipped pieces of matzah into hot water, sprinkled with salt and gave it to her children. My father believed it to be matzah with shmolt. My grandmother was a very religious woman. She went to synagogue on Saturday and on holidays and lit candles at Shabbat. They only ate kosher food. They spoke Yiddish in their family and Ukrainian – with their neighbors.
My father and his brothers studied at cheder. I don’t know whether they had any other education, but my father was a very intelligent man. He always helped my sister and me with our homework on mathematics.
The family lived in the Novoye Stroyeniye neighborhood in Starokonstantinov located across the bridge on the Ikopeth River. Their hut with ground floors was on the bank of the river. They were extremely poor. My father told me that they always had matzah at Pesach that they got from richer Jewish family that believed it to be their duty to give matzah to poor families before holiday. My father knew that richer Jews ate matzah with chicken or goose fat – matzah with shmolt (Editor’s note: goose fat - on Yiddish) and he dreamed of trying it. His mother dipped pieces of matzah into hot water, sprinkled with salt and gave it to her children. My father believed it to be matzah with shmolt. My grandmother was a very religious woman. She went to synagogue on Saturday and on holidays and lit candles at Shabbat. They only ate kosher food. They spoke Yiddish in their family and Ukrainian – with their neighbors.
My father and his brothers studied at cheder. I don’t know whether they had any other education, but my father was a very intelligent man. He always helped my sister and me with our homework on mathematics.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Faina Volper Biography