Tag #133633 - Interview #100685 (Jozsef Farkas)

According to the current conditions, my family can be considered as half religious. In a word, they didn’t wear beards or payes, but they weren’t atheists. The women from the family didn’t wear short hair. They covered their heads with a muslin shawl only when they went to the synagogue, because that was the ritual in the prayer house. But they didn’t wear a shawl at home or on the street. In our home, especially while my father was still alive, candle lighting on Friday evening was a rule, and so were the Friday and Saturday suppers. They strictly observed the Sabbath as far as baking challah and cooking chulent was concerned, i.e. both in terms of food and candle lighting.For Saturday my mother always cooked meat-soup and as a second dish we ate the meat which was boiled in the soup, and used to eat chulent, as well.At first there was someone who lit the fire on Saturdays in our house, but later my parents did it.My father always went to the synagogue on Saturdays and holidays, and we, the boys, went with him.He had his own seat in the synagogue, it was earned by bidding, and each year one had to buy their seat.My mother had a kosher household until the war, but bit by bit she gave it up.My father died, and then the rituals and kosher household stopped. There wasn’t even a shochet after the war in Torda.