Tag #129392 - Interview #78777 (masha zakh)

y paternal grandfather and grandmother came from Tallinn. My grandfather's name was Meishe Stumer and my grandmother was Hane-Rokhe. I don't know when they were born. I don't know what my grandfather did for a living. My grandmother was a housewife like all married Jewish women at the time. They had three children. My father, Solomon Stuper, was the oldest. He was born in 1905. My father's brother Zemakh was born in 1907, and his sister Bertha was born in 1909. As far as I know from what my mother told me, my father's parents were quite wealthy. My father studied in a general education Jewish school. His brother Zemakh and his sister Bertha studied in a Jewish gymnasium in Tallinn [2].

My father's family spoke Yiddish at home. All of them could speak fluent Estonian and Russian. Estonia belonged to the Russian Empire at the time. Russian was the official language, but all residents in Estonia spoke Estonian in everyday life. Russian was common in the areas near the Russian border. In Tallinn most residents spoke Estonian and German.

My father's parents were religious. They observed all Jewish traditions celebrating Sabbath and Jewish holidays at home. They went to the synagogue on holidays and celebrated Sabbath at home. My grandmother followed the kashrut. It goes without saying that she had special Pesach crockery. She kept it in a specific cupboard, and the family used it once a year on Pesach. As for everyday use, we had two sets of crockery: for meat and dairy products each. There were kosher stores and a shochet, a kosher slaughterer, in Tallinn. There was also a large choral synagogue [3]. Doctor Aba Gomer [4] was the rabbi. Daddy told me he was an intelligent, kind and educated man. Gurevich was a chazzan in the synagogue. People arrived from remote areas to listen to his singing.