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We had his bar-mitzvah while he was in junior high.
We stopped by the grand-rabbinate for his bar-mitzvah. The grand-rabbinate said, o.k., we give you permission but first you will pay the kizba [10]. I responded, look, I give my kizba every year in september or october, what do you mean. If you don’t pay up now, we will not do the bar-mitzvah, they said. I paid every year whatever they asked, regardless if my financial situation permitted it or not. Why do you ask for this money now, I always give it in October every year, I scolded. I argued quite a bit with the people there. I said, I will definitely not pay it, don’t do the bar-mitzvah. Get me Hayati Zakuto on the phone, I said. Hayati Zakuto was the person who determined my kizba, knew commerce well, and someone I loved like a brother. He was in charge of kizba coordination. They connected me to Hayati Zakuto. If I may be excused, I swore a little and told him what they were doing, that they were asking for this money from me. When he saw how upset I was, he said “Albert, please, be quiet, get me one of the people there on the phone now”. After this talk, they said, sir, you can leave. I left muttering and complaining. This was like catching the sick man in his bed. I was paying my kizba every year, this rubbed me the wrong way. Such an event happened to me then.
Of course the ceremony, the bar-mitzvah took place on Saturday morning in the Sisli synagogue. There was the usher Niyego then. There was one other bar-mitzvah there that day, my son’s best friend’s bar-mitzvah. At the time you bought 3 of what we called mitzvahs at a bar-mitzvah. We bought these. My older brother had just gone through stomach surgery. They gave two of them to us, but they did not want to give the third. There were three mitzvahs, opening of the arc, adama and I cannot remember the name, opening and closing. These services cost this much. In reality, there should be one bar-mitzvah in the synagogue at the time. That week there were 2 bar-mitzvahs, this should not have happened, I exploded. Years passed, I still do not greet Niyego, because he did not act ethically. There should have been one single bar-mitzvah. Actually, these are the things that alienate the Jews in Turkey from religion and the community. We invited our guests to Macka oteli(hotel) in the evening. It was a pleasant event, there was music, we had a lot of fun.
We stopped by the grand-rabbinate for his bar-mitzvah. The grand-rabbinate said, o.k., we give you permission but first you will pay the kizba [10]. I responded, look, I give my kizba every year in september or october, what do you mean. If you don’t pay up now, we will not do the bar-mitzvah, they said. I paid every year whatever they asked, regardless if my financial situation permitted it or not. Why do you ask for this money now, I always give it in October every year, I scolded. I argued quite a bit with the people there. I said, I will definitely not pay it, don’t do the bar-mitzvah. Get me Hayati Zakuto on the phone, I said. Hayati Zakuto was the person who determined my kizba, knew commerce well, and someone I loved like a brother. He was in charge of kizba coordination. They connected me to Hayati Zakuto. If I may be excused, I swore a little and told him what they were doing, that they were asking for this money from me. When he saw how upset I was, he said “Albert, please, be quiet, get me one of the people there on the phone now”. After this talk, they said, sir, you can leave. I left muttering and complaining. This was like catching the sick man in his bed. I was paying my kizba every year, this rubbed me the wrong way. Such an event happened to me then.
Of course the ceremony, the bar-mitzvah took place on Saturday morning in the Sisli synagogue. There was the usher Niyego then. There was one other bar-mitzvah there that day, my son’s best friend’s bar-mitzvah. At the time you bought 3 of what we called mitzvahs at a bar-mitzvah. We bought these. My older brother had just gone through stomach surgery. They gave two of them to us, but they did not want to give the third. There were three mitzvahs, opening of the arc, adama and I cannot remember the name, opening and closing. These services cost this much. In reality, there should be one bar-mitzvah in the synagogue at the time. That week there were 2 bar-mitzvahs, this should not have happened, I exploded. Years passed, I still do not greet Niyego, because he did not act ethically. There should have been one single bar-mitzvah. Actually, these are the things that alienate the Jews in Turkey from religion and the community. We invited our guests to Macka oteli(hotel) in the evening. It was a pleasant event, there was music, we had a lot of fun.
Period
Year
1979
Location
Şişli/İstanbul
Türkiye
Interview
Albert Ozlevi