Tag #126013 - Interview #98790 (Nesim Levi)

I did not have a bar-mitzvah celebration at the age of 13.  Meaning, there was no such thing like giving a speech like they do today, or sending invitations.  Renting a room was the work of rich people. Yet, one day my father told me, next week is your bar-mitzvah, you will don the tefillin, you will say the prayers in the synagogue, and you will take your first steps toward manhood.

I mean, I knew what a bar-mitzvah was.  I had worked with the rabbi Yako Nasi, who was the rabbi there, a couple of months before my bar-mitzvah, and had memorized all the prayers.  And we performed the prayers that are associated with a bar-mitzvah that religion dictates in what we called Apolon, in place of today’s Neve Shalom Synagogue.  That place became the sports center of Yildirimspor later on.  Apolon was in Sisane, one street before where the synagogue is situated today.

I was very excited the day of the bar-mitzvah.  My father held my hand.  After the ceremony in the synagogue, we went to Aunt Viktoria’s house.  We visited the other relatives too.  We took candy to all of them.  I visited them, kissed their hands; and they gave me presents for my bar-mitzvah.  It was a very happy day.  We did whatever was needed.  My father had carried out the religious traditions.