Regina Grinberg with her classmates

These are my classmates from the 4th grade of the Jewish elementary school. I am standing in the center with the pleated skirt. I cannot remember the names of the classmates around me. The photo was taken in Shumen in the ?Kyoshkovete? park in the 1930s. The year is somewhere between 1932 and 1934. On the back of the photo there is an inscription in ink: 'A memory from the 4th grade on the occasion of the departure of our teacher.' There is no seal indicating a photo studio. The photo was taken in honor of our Ivrit teacher, who had decided to leave for Palestine. Although I had grandmothers and it was not a problem to have maids at home, my mother sent me to the Jewish kindergarten because she thought that I must not lose time and must learn to organize my life. I remember that we sang songs in Bulgarian and Ivrit. I have vague memories of the elementary classes of the Jewish school, which I also attended. The Jewish school initially had junior high school grades as well, but when the number of Jews decreased they were removed. The Jewish school was private, supported by the Jewish municipality. We did not study on Saturday because of the Jewish holiday or on Sunday because of the Bulgarian one. We were ten students in a class. We studied mostly three languages ? Ivrit, Bulgarian and French. Our teachers in Bulgarian class prepared us very well, and I did not have difficulties when I went to junior high school. My Bulgarian teacher was called Katya. Jewish women, whose names I cannot recall, taught us Ivrit. Later they left for Palestine. Our teacher in French was Adon [?Mr.? in Ivrit] Behar, who was paid not by the Jewish municipality, but by the Alliance Francaise.