Selected text
Religious holidays were celebrated at our place. There came the relatives, brothers and sisters of my parents with their families. There were many children. I remember quite well how we prepared for the Hanukkah holiday with Grandfather.
According to family tradition the candles were made from potatoes. You would cut out a cavity in a potato, fill it with vegetable oil, and insert a wick there. On Hanukkah these self-made candles were lit and put on a window sill facing the court yard.
All that happened in 1930-s, when all religious ceremonies were subject to accusations, laughed at and persecuted, that's why placing "Hanuka Candle" on a window sill facing the street was unthinkable.
As a small boy, I liked to get into grandfather's bed early in the morning, where I would ask him to tell me a fairy tale. He would relate to me separate episodes from the Torah and I perceived them as fairy tales. Iwas a very impressionable boy and afterwards narrated stories about Philistines and other episodes from the Jewish history to my friends in the kindergarten. Naturally, there were not only Jewish children in the kindergarten, but also Russian, Ukranian and Polish.
And once Mum was invited to the kindergarten for a conversation.
" - Do you know what stories your son is telling?! "
That was the time of fighting with Zionists in the Soviet Union. Study of the Jewish history and observance of the Jewish traditions could have very serious consequences. My parents had a word with Grandfather, and my
studying of the Jewish history was interrupted. In connection with my grandfather Yankel I recollect the following episode.
According to family tradition the candles were made from potatoes. You would cut out a cavity in a potato, fill it with vegetable oil, and insert a wick there. On Hanukkah these self-made candles were lit and put on a window sill facing the court yard.
All that happened in 1930-s, when all religious ceremonies were subject to accusations, laughed at and persecuted, that's why placing "Hanuka Candle" on a window sill facing the street was unthinkable.
As a small boy, I liked to get into grandfather's bed early in the morning, where I would ask him to tell me a fairy tale. He would relate to me separate episodes from the Torah and I perceived them as fairy tales. Iwas a very impressionable boy and afterwards narrated stories about Philistines and other episodes from the Jewish history to my friends in the kindergarten. Naturally, there were not only Jewish children in the kindergarten, but also Russian, Ukranian and Polish.
And once Mum was invited to the kindergarten for a conversation.
" - Do you know what stories your son is telling?! "
That was the time of fighting with Zionists in the Soviet Union. Study of the Jewish history and observance of the Jewish traditions could have very serious consequences. My parents had a word with Grandfather, and my
studying of the Jewish history was interrupted. In connection with my grandfather Yankel I recollect the following episode.
Location
Russia
Interview
Boris Rubinstein