Tag #124100 - Interview #98839 (Aron Nissim Alkalai)

We did not have any problems observing the Jewish holidays at home before or after 9th September 1944. We always celebrated Pesach at home. We had a festive dinner with matzah and boyos. On Pesach we always slaughtered a hen. That was a tradition especially when my parents were still alive. Now we also observe Pesach. My wife prepares traditional Jewish meals such as pastel, masapan, burmolikos [27] [typical dishes in the Sephardi cuisine] and leaks balls. In the past we prepared the matzah at home. It was also sold at a Jewish bakery. A Bulgarian worked in that bakery whose name was Eftim. Later, after 1944 we received matzah from Sofia.


My wife Ida and I always fasted on [Yom] Kippur. Traditions should be observed so that a people would be preserved through the times. The fact that we preserved ourselves as a people for 2 000 years is due mainly to our faith and traditions. My father had a book from which he read the Haggadah. Uncle Mois came to our place. First kaddish was said. Then some celery or something sour was put in a small cup – it symbolized the bitterness that Jews experienced in the desert.


My children were raised in the spirit of the Jewish traditions thanks to the holidays. We did not place special attention on our origin. But from an early age they knew about Pesach, Purim and the other higher holidays. We did not distance ourselves from the Bulgarians and neither did they. Our Bulgarian friends were not interested in details about our origin and did not pay attention to that. I was told once that during the Jewish labor camps local villagers came out to see what Jews were like because they did not know what we looked like and they had not heard about us. Now there are not many Jews in Dupnitsa and our friends are mostly Bulgarians. I meet people from the neighborhood when I go for a walk and we discuss the news in our town.