Tag #134099 - Interview #78148 (Clara Foldes)

I think that my parents talked about me to the Jewish community in Arad, saying that I would like to move to Arad. When one of the teachers retired, I was brought here. I taught at the Jewish school in Arad for seven years, from 1942-1948. I taught the Aleph-Bet at the Jewish school because I had learned a little Hebrew in Alba Iulia. The Aleph-Bet was a very good book, with pictures; it was easy for children to learn from it. There were many children in one class at the Jewish school in Arad, some 30 to 35 pupils, most of them Orthodox Jews.

I was the youngest teacher there. I enjoyed organizing festivities. We had one of the celebrations at the State Theater. I remember the first ballet dancer - she was thin and wore a red dress. Her name was Ecaterina Blum and she was a friend of mine, who was in charge of gymnastics and ballet classes at the school. During the war, the Germans needed the building of the school and we had to move into the building where the community had its office. The Jewish School was closed by the Nationalization Law [see Nationalization in Romania] [6] in 1948 - all schools of the minorities were turned into state schools. I was moved to a state school in Arad, the Ghiba Birta School, where I worked for 30 years, until I retired in 1978.