These are my parents at the canteen of the Jewish Community in Botosani. It must have been on a Purim holiday celebration, as I see there are warmer clothes hanging in the back. The one on the left is my father, Mochiu Rotaru, and next to him is my mother, Leia Rotaru. The photo was taken in the 1960s.
We lived in Saveni until 1961 and afterwards we all moved here, to Botosani. During our stay in Botosani, my father was employed by the Community as administrator of the ritual restaurant, the Jewish Community canteen in Botosani, for a few years, until his death. He died of a heart attack in 1975. My mother lived with me as well, she died in 1999, she was 90 years old.
Esther - Megillat Ester is the name of this story. [Editor's note: Megillat Ester literally means 'The Book of Esther.'] And on Purim we had that thing for making noise - in Yiddish they called it a greggar - made out of wood. We didn't have one at home, usually there was one at the synagogue. It was used for making noise on reading Haman's name in the synagogue. They use it in football stadiums as well. You spin it, it has a certain type of spring that touches against a mechanism and makes a racket and imitates noises.
People baked many cakes and families would bring one another cakes. [Mr. Rotariu is referring to shelakhmones food gifts for friends.] We gave our neighbors cakes, received cakes in return from them, from our relatives. And in the evening, every household made merry: there was wine, there was food on the table…
