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I only became interested in [Jewish] trades and professions when I started writing my memoirs, my book Okruchy [Remnants]. I often used to wonder why they used to call Jews ‘chandeles’ [a facetious Yiddish-style Polonization of the Yiddish word for ‘merchant,’ ‘tradesman’].
Jews are basically tradesmen, aren’t they? But I think to myself: well, Cyna wasn’t a tradesman, Cyna was a tinsmith. My wife’s father was a tailor – so he had a shop where his customers came to be measured up for the clothes he made – so what? He made the clothes, his brothers were tailors too, my father was a photographer, and as such a craftsman by trade.
Take a brass smith. In every Jewish home there was a candelabra, wasn’t there? Larger or smaller, but there was one. Well, a brass smith was a man who cast candelabras in brass, and probably cast other things too. There were Jewish goldsmiths, watchmakers. Carriers, who transported goods, for instance a water carrier transported water; there were hackney cab drivers, there were porters. Patchers were cobblers who patched up shoes. Some of those professions were not very honorable. My family, for instance, were not very well disposed towards my wife-to-be, or at least that’s what my wife claimed to the end of her days, because her father was a tailor. There were furriers.
There were artisans, traders and merchants. Grand merchants like Szejnfeld, who had a wine shop, that was a better class. A patcher cobbler was one of the lowest categories of Jewish craftsmen. And there was this one patcher who lived in the house that my wife’s father, Baum, owned or co-owned. And that Jew was in this cubbyhole under the stairs, with his large family – it’s unbelievable that a family could have fitted in there.
Jews are basically tradesmen, aren’t they? But I think to myself: well, Cyna wasn’t a tradesman, Cyna was a tinsmith. My wife’s father was a tailor – so he had a shop where his customers came to be measured up for the clothes he made – so what? He made the clothes, his brothers were tailors too, my father was a photographer, and as such a craftsman by trade.
Take a brass smith. In every Jewish home there was a candelabra, wasn’t there? Larger or smaller, but there was one. Well, a brass smith was a man who cast candelabras in brass, and probably cast other things too. There were Jewish goldsmiths, watchmakers. Carriers, who transported goods, for instance a water carrier transported water; there were hackney cab drivers, there were porters. Patchers were cobblers who patched up shoes. Some of those professions were not very honorable. My family, for instance, were not very well disposed towards my wife-to-be, or at least that’s what my wife claimed to the end of her days, because her father was a tailor. There were furriers.
There were artisans, traders and merchants. Grand merchants like Szejnfeld, who had a wine shop, that was a better class. A patcher cobbler was one of the lowest categories of Jewish craftsmen. And there was this one patcher who lived in the house that my wife’s father, Baum, owned or co-owned. And that Jew was in this cubbyhole under the stairs, with his large family – it’s unbelievable that a family could have fitted in there.
Period
Interview
Julian Gringras