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Preparations to Pesach began in advance. Our mother and the brothers’ wives baked matzah. All utensils required for baking matzah were kept on the attic. Women made and rolled dough and made little holes with a wheel roller. There was enough matzah made for 4 families to last through 8 days of the holiday. It was stored in linen bags and kept near the stove to be dry. Utensils and crockery for Pesach were taken down from a big box in the attic. Our mother cooked traditional food. I took poultry to a shochet. Mother made chicken broth with small pieces of matzah. She made gefilte fish and matzah and potato puddings. She also baked strudels, cookies and honey cakes from matzah. Our father There was plenty of food made for this holiday. Our father didn’t work through 7 days of Pesach. Jewish barbers switched shifts with non-Jewish employees to stay off work through religious holidays, they succeed all the time. They was religious and always observed traditions. Although Soviet authorities persecuted religion common people respected each other’s faith. On the first day of Pesach our father and mother went to the synagogue. In the evening father conducted the first seder. Our mother covered the table with a white tablecloth with embroidered lions and quotations from the Torah. She put a saucer with salty water, hard-boiled eggs and bitter greeneries on the table. There was also other food cooked for Pesach on the table. Our father wore white clothes and a kippah. My brother and I also had white shirts and kippahs on. Our mother wore her only fancy gown and a silk kerchief. Everybody had a silver glass of wine to drink. We were supposed to drink 4 glasses of wine each during seder. There was an extra glass for Elijah the Prophet [13]. The back door was open for him to enter the house. I posed my father traditional questions in Hebrew. I didn’t know Hebrew, but I learned them by heart. Then we recited prayers and sang traditional songs. On other days of Pesach we visited relatives and had guests at home.
Period
Interview
Arkadi Yurkovetski