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A lot of Jews lived in Dupnitsa’s center too. We had a nice and big synagogue. The Jews went to the synagogue mostly on Friday evening and on Saturday. There was a chazzan, who was from Dupnitsa and his name was Haim Mesholam. We had a shochet, who was in a separate building at another place. The synagogue was next to the neighborhood, and the shochet was right next to the Jewish community house, close to the Jewish houses. I don’t know exactly how many Jews lived in the town, but they were more than 2,000. Many of them used to work in the tobacco warehouse. A fellow-townsman of ours was Zhak Aseоv, a big tobacco merchant, who had several warehouses in Dupnitsa. A lot of Jews worked for him. [Editor’s note: Zhak Aseov was a large scale merchant, owner of tobacco warehouses and the ‘Balkantabak’ company. Most of his warehouses were in the region of Dupnitsa and Kyustendil. Zhak Aseov left the country after the promulgation of the Law for the Protection of the Nation (1941) and settled in the USA.]
My grandfather didn’t like to go to the cinema or theater. He also disliked having his picture taken. He had only one picture with some of his children. My uncles made every possible effort to persuade him to go to the photo studio. They said they even gave him money, so that he would go there. My grandpa was very impressed by a Russian movie, showing how people went ritually to bathe before their wedding in some Asian countries. He, remembering those rituals, which are also present in the Jewish tradition, wondered where they had been filmed. According to our customs, on the Friday before the wedding, the bride went with her friends to bathe, while the groom went on Saturday, also with friends. After that we gathered somewhere for a drink. In Dupnitsa there was a Turkish bath. This was a bath in which there was no pool, only separate stone troughs in which there was hot water running.
On Pesach all the families used to gather at my grandpa’s. Matzah and boyos [small flat loaves] were prepared. From all his siblings, only my grandfather had an oven in the yard. On Pesach there was a special schedule for the whole family to use the oven for baking. All his brothers used to go to bake there.
My grandfather didn’t like to go to the cinema or theater. He also disliked having his picture taken. He had only one picture with some of his children. My uncles made every possible effort to persuade him to go to the photo studio. They said they even gave him money, so that he would go there. My grandpa was very impressed by a Russian movie, showing how people went ritually to bathe before their wedding in some Asian countries. He, remembering those rituals, which are also present in the Jewish tradition, wondered where they had been filmed. According to our customs, on the Friday before the wedding, the bride went with her friends to bathe, while the groom went on Saturday, also with friends. After that we gathered somewhere for a drink. In Dupnitsa there was a Turkish bath. This was a bath in which there was no pool, only separate stone troughs in which there was hot water running.
On Pesach all the families used to gather at my grandpa’s. Matzah and boyos [small flat loaves] were prepared. From all his siblings, only my grandfather had an oven in the yard. On Pesach there was a special schedule for the whole family to use the oven for baking. All his brothers used to go to bake there.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Sabat Pilosof