I visited them in Canada around 1982. For I was visiting some cousins of my mother’s who were living in New York – I stayed in New York for 2 months –, and I went to visit them for a month in Canada.
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Displaying 47521 - 47550 of 50826 results
Ietti Leibovici
Lotti’s husband’s name was Sandu Schwartz; they have a daughter, Ada.
Initially, they left for Israel with their daughter around 1960-1961, but they didn’t stay there for long. Their daughter met a young man from Canada who was visiting Israel on a trip. They met, they liked each other, she married him and they left to Canada.
Being their only child, her parents followed her there. That’s how they arrived in Toronto, Canada, around 1965-1966.
Initially, they left for Israel with their daughter around 1960-1961, but they didn’t stay there for long. Their daughter met a young man from Canada who was visiting Israel on a trip. They met, they liked each other, she married him and they left to Canada.
Being their only child, her parents followed her there. That’s how they arrived in Toronto, Canada, around 1965-1966.
My uncle died in Botosani around 1961, I believe, and she emigrated to Israel with Anuta. The 2 boys emigrated before they did.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
Buium Davidsohn was a butcher. He lived in Botosani.
Romania
They were religious people, my grandmother kept kosher very strictly, they used to observe all holidays very closely, they used to go to the synagogue. My grandfather used to go to the synagogue on Friday evenings, on Saturdays, holidays, but also when there were no special occasions, during the week – there were many Jews in Botosani and religious service was performed during the week as well, and he used to attend it.
My grandfather was a butcher. And, as it happened in those days, he often bought cattle and slaughtered them himself. He slaughtered them at the animal slaughterhouse, and then he used to take the meat to the meat market in Botosani, where every butcher had a stall of his own, and the meat was put out for sale there.
Both my grandmother and my grandfather had several brothers and sisters, but they were living in America.
They left to America in the 1900’s or during World War I, and they corresponded with my grandparents. But I no longer know anything about them. They may have grandchildren or great-grandchildren still living there [in America], but I don’t know them.
They left to America in the 1900’s or during World War I, and they corresponded with my grandparents. But I no longer know anything about them. They may have grandchildren or great-grandchildren still living there [in America], but I don’t know them.
My father would regularly go to the synagogue on Friday evenings, on Saturdays, on holidays, without fail. But he used to attend the service on regular days as well, during the week. I remember he used to go to the synagogue whenever the prayer for the dead was recited, when he had to bring something, have a ceremony performed –, or, as was the case, if he was summoned there for a special purpose.
But, come what may, he wouldn’t miss the religious service on holidays and on Saturdays and Fridays. I used to go with them myself. But I used to stay close to my mother.
But, come what may, he wouldn’t miss the religious service on holidays and on Saturdays and Fridays. I used to go with them myself. But I used to stay close to my mother.
The synagogue in Vatra Dornei was very beautiful. And there were stairs inside the synagogue, and there was a box up there, a balcony where the women were seated. There was no curtain, one could see and hear the entire religious service unobstructed.
A rabbi would perform the religious service. It was beautiful. But there were 2 synagogues in Vatra Dornei: the large one, where my parents and grandparents always used to go, and there was another one on Main street, near the railroad, a little passed the train station, in the corner. I believe both of them were Orthodox.
A rabbi would perform the religious service. It was beautiful. But there were 2 synagogues in Vatra Dornei: the large one, where my parents and grandparents always used to go, and there was another one on Main street, near the railroad, a little passed the train station, in the corner. I believe both of them were Orthodox.
Silo Oberman
The community was large before World War I, when 11,000 Jews lived here. Now there are barely 60 souls living here, and they are generally around 60-70 years old. The demographic evolution of the Community’s Jewish population is on a decreasing trajectory, it can’t be helped, it’s the aging process, for one couldn’t be talking about births, as there is no Jewish youth anymore.
Romania
Nowadays, I go to the Community relatively often. I receive support, packages, for I donated my house and drew up my last will and testament. These packages aren’t exactly useful to me. We receive oil, flour, sugar, rice, macaroni on a monthly basis, but the rest are things that aren’t fit for our diet at our age. We also received compensation money.
At present, the secretary of the Community, Mr. David, wants to make the members of the Community get actively involved, but everything is artificial as very many of those who make themselves available come from mixed marriages, which is to say they are people who come there somewhat interested to receive a package now and then. There is a mixed choir which is made up of persons who are Christians rather than Jewish, 90 percent of them. It is a rather interesting adaptation, it isn’t something genuine, it isn’t the Jewish life as it is laid down by the book. It is a sort of a Purim game. There is the “Piram spiel” on Purim, which is to say a game people play on Purim when everybody wears masks. In the case in question, a Jewish mask s worn on a body that isn’t quite Jewish.
I couldn’t say that my life changed for the better after the Revolution, I would be telling a lie. Retirement pensions are what they are, and that’s the long and short of it.
With regard to my Jewish identity, my life hasn’t changed in any way.
With regard to my Jewish identity, my life hasn’t changed in any way.
Jewish origin didn’t matter for me when it came to the choosing of my friends. I had more Christian friends than Jewish. I didn’t talk about Judaism with my friends.
Romania
I liked the holidays as I ate sweets, for there was Purim when they organized a masked ball. On Purim, there was a game involving masks: Haman’s, Ahasuerus’. There was a house on Frumoasa St. where one could rent Purim costumes. People masked themselves and dressed as officers, domino, and you couldn’t recognize them. I took part in Purim balls myself, and I wore a domino mask and I was mistaken for a friend of mine. It was a sort of merry-making. Women wore masks as well. There were some traditional holidays that were organized at the Communal Theatre. They recruited a poet who wrote humoristic pieces, which were in fashion in those days, his name was Ion Pribeagu, and there were very interesting rhymed chronicles. [Editor’s note: Ion Pribeagu (b. 1887, in Sulita, Botosani county – d. 1971, Tel Aviv) was the literary pseudonym of Isac Lazarovici, Romanian-born Jewish poet and humorist. http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Pribeagu]. People liked these poems very much, they were rhymed chronicles that were published in the newspapers ‘Dimineata’ (the Morning) and ‘Adevarul’ (the Truth). (These were the newspapers published in Braila: ‘Curierul’ [the Courier], ‘Evenimentul’ [the Event], ‘Timpul’ [the Time], ‘Romania,’ and many other newspapers, for the press in Braila had a very busy life. There was Leon Feraru, who subsequently left to America; there was Cora Bergovici who also left to America; there was Valeriu Popovici).
I had a bar mitzvah, too. I studied with a teacher but I didn’t attend anymore. There had to be a lecture, but I didn’t like these events. On the occasion of a child’s coming of age, they place on the child’s breast, near the heart, on the left hand and on the forehead, the so-called tefillin. There is a book written by Bruckmayer which records all the data regarding Jewish customs and traditions, including the bar mitzvah and the tefillin. The bat mitzvah is performed for women, but my sisters didn’t have it, either.
There were children who were raised in the spirit of the Hebrew religion, with traditions, but we, children, didn’t receive a typical Jewish education. My mother has been educated more strictly in the Jewish spirit in her family, but she was assimilated after she got married, some of this faith waned. There were somehow arguments in this respect, but there was a certain assimilation.
We observed the autumn holidays, meaning Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. On holidays, we went to the Main Synagogue, and we inherited that from the grandfather from my mother’s side. Grandfather was the main efor there and I also went there and sat in the pulpit. My mother went, too, she sat in the balcony. The men were seated on the ground floor, and the women in the balcony. As long as mother was alive, she went to the synagogue with my father on holidays, and they also took us, children.
They occasionally received matzah on Passover, unleavened bread, for there was a Factory here, in the courtyard of the Temple, and they didn’t bring it from abroad. It was rudimentary, but they prepared it here.
My parents were Community members, they paid membership fees. They weren’t involved in any cultural activities.
Romania
My mother had separate dishes. My mother wanted everything to be kosher and we always tinned all the trays before Passover. Gypsies used to come to tin pans. My mother always had special dishes for the Pesach holiday. We celebrated the holidays at home. The Seder was also celebrated at the Community, but that time [during the war] was a period of racial restrictions and the Pesach wasn’t celebrated at the Community anymore.
Romania
An assimilation took place after my parents got married, which is to say people didn’t consider us to be very religious, but we were secular.
My parents didn’t go on holidays for the material situation didn’t allow them to do so. They visited their relatives in Husi, and they also took us, children. We didn’t go to any restaurant with our parents, nor on holidays, as we couldn’t afford it. We cooked and ate at home.
My parents were on good terms with their neighbors. They also had non-Jews among their friends. My father had Christian friends, he worked mostly in the countryside, as he was sent by cereal companies to collect cereals from various locations. There were mainly Christians living in the countryside, and so he didn’t have a Jewish work environment: at Cazanesti, at Stancuta, at Valea Canepii.
In our family, which is to say in my parents’ home, only Yiddish was spoken. But after a while they stopped talking in Yiddish, the custom was lost over time. Romanian had become the language we spoke in the family.
Romania
My parents didn’t dress in any special way, they dressed according to the fashion of those days, not to show off, without any pomp. My father wore a moustache, as was fashionable in those days, that particular moustache model was called “fork.” Most men wore this kind of moustache, for that was the fashion back then.
My mother’s financial situation was very precarious. Even if we owned the house and we had many tenants, our situation was a modest one. The only income was my father’s, who worked for a cereal company and our life was hard. My mother was a housewife, but we also had a woman who helped my mother.
We also raised livestock, poultry and pigs. Had the grandfather from my mother’s side lived, he would have been very upset that my father raised pigs. Our religion doesn’t allow the raising of pigs. The pigs we raised were kosher. Yet my father didn’t care for these things, and he raised and slaughtered the pigs himself. You couldn’t find such pork products in the whole of Braila, that’s how good they were.
The house has three wings. I live in wing A, but there is also wing B and C. They no longer exist anymore. The house didn’t have a bathroom and we lived in the 3rd wing [wing C], which was pretty modest, despite the fact that we were the owners. There were 2 rooms, a hallway, and a kitchen. The furniture was old, of Viennese make, with spring mattresses, meaning it had beds with carved frames. We also had a sideboard built in the old style. It was a large sideboard, with a marble top, it had a mirror, a sofa with velvet, flowery upholstery, which also showcased a large mirror. It was old furniture, but that’s how it was done in those days.
During my grandfather’s lifetime, the illumination was done using gas lamps, and then it evolved and electricity was installed. During my parents’ lifetime, illumination was done both with gas lamps and with electricity as well. [Editor’s note: Coal gas was first produced at the end of the 18th century from coal. Later lighting gas was produced of oil, too, instead of coal. The gas spread light burning in so-called gas mantles. Gas lighting started to be replaced by electric lighting at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly in the cities, of course.] For instance, during my lifetime, we had both electric lighting, but we also had gas lamps on the walls, which we lit. We drew water from the courtyard, where there was a water pump.
We also had a garden, with fruit-bearing trees. We had some very handsome apricot trees, unique in the city of Braila. We also had sour cherry trees, ungrafted apricot trees, peach trees, for the courtyard is large, with a large area. We also raised livestock, poultry and pigs.
During my grandfather’s lifetime, the illumination was done using gas lamps, and then it evolved and electricity was installed. During my parents’ lifetime, illumination was done both with gas lamps and with electricity as well. [Editor’s note: Coal gas was first produced at the end of the 18th century from coal. Later lighting gas was produced of oil, too, instead of coal. The gas spread light burning in so-called gas mantles. Gas lighting started to be replaced by electric lighting at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly in the cities, of course.] For instance, during my lifetime, we had both electric lighting, but we also had gas lamps on the walls, which we lit. We drew water from the courtyard, where there was a water pump.
We also had a garden, with fruit-bearing trees. We had some very handsome apricot trees, unique in the city of Braila. We also had sour cherry trees, ungrafted apricot trees, peach trees, for the courtyard is large, with a large area. We also raised livestock, poultry and pigs.
It was taken by the N.C.R., National Center for Romanianization, for all Jewish properties were taken away. [Editor’s note: A “Decree law was issued in 1940, for the Romanianization of factories’ personnel – to be enforced after December 31, 1941. As a corollary, the ‘National Center for Romanianization’ (N.C.R.) was constituted, “the legal entity with regard to public law, whose purpose was to help integrate the property which entered state patrimony and aid the Romanianization of economic life.” http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi1997/current10/mi47.htm]. The house was given back to him in 1944. I have the restitution document issued by the N.C.R.