Tag #129054 - Interview #99893 (Maria Sorkina )

My father wanted to get married. My mother told me that somebody introduced my father to her, but I don’t know whether these were matchmakers or their acquaintances. My mother was a beautiful girl, and my father liked her at once. My mother’s parents approved of her choice, and they got married soon. They had a traditional Jewish wedding. There was a rabbi and a chuppah. Everything was according to the rules. The wedding party was arranged in the town where my mother’s parents lived. My mother was the oldest daughter. Everybody loved her so much. My grandfather did his best to organize a beautiful wedding party for my mother. She showed me her wedding photographs when I was a child, and I remember the beautiful wedding gown she had worn. There were flounces, and there was a long tail which two girls carried.

After the wedding my parents settled down in Aluksne, Latvia. Latvia belonged to Russia then. There was a Jewish Pale of Settlement [3], according to which Jews were required to obtain special permits to live in bigger towns. Aluksne was beyond the Pale of Settlement. My parents rented an apartment. The tsarist laws didn’t allow Jewish residents to build or own houses or any real estate property. Wealthier Jews evaded the law, though. They built houses and made their Russian or Latvian acquaintances their official owners. Initially my father was thinking of building a house for his family, but later he changed his mind. If he couldn’t be its official owner, then it wasn’t worth it, particularly if something went wrong. If he died, for example, then his family might become homeless since nobody would pay them the cost of the house. Anyway, our family was doing well, and we could afford to rent four or five-room apartments.