Tag #110340 - Interview #79258 (Leopold Sokolowski)

When still in Nowy Targ and before I went to elementary school, I started attending cheder. I must have been four or five. We began by memorizing the alphabet, then we started putting syllables together. I remember that for disciplinary purposes students were taken onto the lap and spanked. I can't remember having been spanked, but I'm sure I must have gotten my hands slapped more than once. The melamed held one's hand and hit it with a reed. And we studied. I studied ‘chymys' [Yiddish for Chametz - Pentateuch, Torah], every year ‘apyats s natchala' [Russian for all over again]. We also did one or two chapters of Rashi [2]. The teacher - if one may call that a Rabbi - was a bearded Jew, who spoke in Yiddish and we translated into Hebrew. It took a long time.

I went to cheder until I was thirteen, at least until my bar mitzvah.