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Ours, the Neolog synagogue was on Fish Square. It is the only eastern style building in the city of Bratislava, built in the style of the Moors. The temple was very-very pretty. Around the major holidays, the New Year, the Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur], it was naturally fully packed. In fact, that’s why they sold tickets for seats, good for the whole year. The temple had to be kept up financially.
There was always a guard in front of the temple on the high holidays. His job was to check the tickets. I always had to show my number – the tickets didn’t have names, just numbers. I’ll allow myself to tell you a joke, which was a big thing then. During the Long Day [Yom Kippur] there’s a 25-hour fast, and they pray all day.
Of course, there are breaks, and they used these breaks in the Orthodox temple, like we did in the Neolog temple, for the community to visit each other. Now, a male guest came from the Orthodox temple and wanted to get in. The guard said, ‘Show me your ticket.’ ‘But I haven’t got a ticket, I’m just here for a visit, because my aunt is sitting inside.’ The guard said, ‘You watch yourself! It looks like you came to pray, not to visit.’
We had a fantastic rabbi, he was a modern rabbi. His name was Dr. Funk. He spoke exquisitely, so that whether a person wanted or not, his devotion really got you. We, young girls, were in temple almost all day long, because he spoke very nicely. The rabbi spoke in German, though the greater part of the participants’ general form of speech was Hungarian.
There was an organ in the temple here. Our cantor was a fantastic tenor, in addition to him was the chorus, so really a person didn’t go to temple because they had to, but because we had a good time here. The eastern songs were truly very pretty, the chorus and the cantor also sang beautifully.
There was always a guard in front of the temple on the high holidays. His job was to check the tickets. I always had to show my number – the tickets didn’t have names, just numbers. I’ll allow myself to tell you a joke, which was a big thing then. During the Long Day [Yom Kippur] there’s a 25-hour fast, and they pray all day.
Of course, there are breaks, and they used these breaks in the Orthodox temple, like we did in the Neolog temple, for the community to visit each other. Now, a male guest came from the Orthodox temple and wanted to get in. The guard said, ‘Show me your ticket.’ ‘But I haven’t got a ticket, I’m just here for a visit, because my aunt is sitting inside.’ The guard said, ‘You watch yourself! It looks like you came to pray, not to visit.’
We had a fantastic rabbi, he was a modern rabbi. His name was Dr. Funk. He spoke exquisitely, so that whether a person wanted or not, his devotion really got you. We, young girls, were in temple almost all day long, because he spoke very nicely. The rabbi spoke in German, though the greater part of the participants’ general form of speech was Hungarian.
There was an organ in the temple here. Our cantor was a fantastic tenor, in addition to him was the chorus, so really a person didn’t go to temple because they had to, but because we had a good time here. The eastern songs were truly very pretty, the chorus and the cantor also sang beautifully.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Katarina Löfflerova