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All the Jewish traditions that are practiced now were applied in our home during my childhood, I can even say that they were carried out more strictly. For example, on a Passover evening when Alahmanya(Hebrew prayer) started, it would be read in Hebrew, and then repeated in Spanish.
I went to the synagogue every Saturday until I turned 13. After 13 years of age, because of the obvious incident, I did not go to the synagogue except for weddings or funerals until I turned 33. At the age of 33, when my mother and father died within 49 days of each other, obviously going to the synagogue is a must. My mother was a cardiac patient, she died from heart failure, 49 days later, my father has bleeding in his stomach even though he is a healthy man, he had hardening in his arteries genetically. Due to the hardening in the arteries, he experienced blockage. He was healthy as a horse, however. For example he would wrestle with us, 4 siblings on the upper floor in Edirne. My mother would yell from downstairs: “ya mestaj yikteyando la kaza”(you are bringing down the house). My father would say, don’t worry, enjoy yourselves. He liked wrestling with us, having conversations with us. My father would connect with us even though he was his own man.
The holiday I enjoy the most is Kippur. Normally, if I don’t have breakfast in the morning, I get a headache, feel bad, I don’t know why. On a kippur day even though we start fasting starting at 6 in the evening, the next day, I neither have a headache nor feel bad. I don’t know if it is psychological or not. I go to the temple in the morning and I leave when kippur ends.
I went to the synagogue every Saturday until I turned 13. After 13 years of age, because of the obvious incident, I did not go to the synagogue except for weddings or funerals until I turned 33. At the age of 33, when my mother and father died within 49 days of each other, obviously going to the synagogue is a must. My mother was a cardiac patient, she died from heart failure, 49 days later, my father has bleeding in his stomach even though he is a healthy man, he had hardening in his arteries genetically. Due to the hardening in the arteries, he experienced blockage. He was healthy as a horse, however. For example he would wrestle with us, 4 siblings on the upper floor in Edirne. My mother would yell from downstairs: “ya mestaj yikteyando la kaza”(you are bringing down the house). My father would say, don’t worry, enjoy yourselves. He liked wrestling with us, having conversations with us. My father would connect with us even though he was his own man.
The holiday I enjoy the most is Kippur. Normally, if I don’t have breakfast in the morning, I get a headache, feel bad, I don’t know why. On a kippur day even though we start fasting starting at 6 in the evening, the next day, I neither have a headache nor feel bad. I don’t know if it is psychological or not. I go to the temple in the morning and I leave when kippur ends.
Location
/Edirne
Türkiye
Interview
Albert Ozlevi