Tag #125112 - Interview #97653 (Rebeka Evgin)

Meanwhile the years passed.  They had left Samsun and had started working in Tahtakale [A neighborhood in Istanbul where the heart of commerce lies.  All kinds of things are sold in this neighborhood.  A business market, especially ready-made clothing is sold in Tahtakale.  In addition, especially young men, when they finish their education, start working with a boss they call the master in Tahtakale.  Later on, they establish their own business.  They call the young who have not been educated much, graduates of Tahtakale University.  Boys would work as apprentices during the summer months to learn a trade.  But not with their father, it was more appropriate to go with a relative.  In this way, it was thought that they would adapt better to business].  On a day when they come to visit our house, Yakup Murat sees and likes my older sister.  At that time, neither my older sister nor I have any dowry [the money given when girls marry].  The Murat family is a wealthy family.

My older sister accepted her fate and married in the Sisli synagogue [5].  I had an outfit made from pink moire.  My older sister rented a wedding gown from Eliya Pardo [A place in Kuledibi where women rented wedding and engagement gowns, and men tuxes].  My older sister Sara and my brother-in-law Yakup rented a house in Sisane and started living there.  My older sister became the means for my marriage, too.  Because I married Yakup Murat’s brother Mordehay Murat.  Sisters became sisters-in-law. Sara and Yakup Murat had two sons named Yosi and Hertzel. Yosi, after finishing St. Michel French Highschool [French Catholic school] went to Belgium and attended university there.  He works in the university as a researcher and academic employee.  Hertzel on the other hand finished St. Benoit French Highschool [French Catholic school], he continues his father’s business in Istanbul.