Selected text
My mother died in 1938 of a heart attack. My sisters were high school students then. We were all devastated. She was a very loving mother and in order to provide for the family, apart from sustaining the household, she also used to work in the tobacco warehouses. My sisters and I also worked in these warehouses while we were students. My father remarried a woman from Sofia. Her name was Rashel. I didn’t get along with her. She was quite reserved, and she was also jealous of my sisters and me. She made me to repay her the money she had spent on shopping. We had an agreement that I had to do the shopping and she would tell me what she needed. However, she didn’t keep her word and she bought whatever she liked. Meanwhile, my father, sisters and I worked in the tobacco warehouse. It was a seasonal job and we were trying to make some money out of it.
My stepmother didn’t work. She was religious. She didn’t eat pork. My father, sisters and I ate and sometimes I used to lie to her that I had bought veal, so that she would cook and eat it. She wouldn’t touch anything on Sabbath either. My father rarely visited the synagogue, only on the high holidays. He had a tallit, which he used to put on when he went to the synagogue. He always wore a hat. In the synagogue women sat on the balcony, while men sat downstairs. The synagogue was very solid. Its walls were very thick. It was built in 1599 following the plan of an Italian engineer.
In Dupnitsa there was a Jewish school with a yeshivah. I started studying there. The school was until fourth grade. After that we continued in the Bulgarian secondary school. At the Jewish school poorer kids received breakfast with milk or tea. We were one class per grade. The pupils’ number varied from 25 to 30 children. Our teacher in Ivrit was Monsieur Revakh, who had married in Dupnitsa. He probably had come from Edirne [today Turkey]. We had an Ivrit class every day. We didn’t have school-organized visits to the synagogue. Monsieur Revakh taught us some songs in Ivrit. We sang them without actually understanding their meanings. We didn’t have any classes in Jewish history and literature at the Jewish school. We only studied the alphabet and some words in Ivrit.
After the Jewish school I finished the Bulgarian secondary school. At that time we used to live in a Bulgarian neighborhood. Upon graduation I was to learn a trade. Already as a schoolboy my father used to send me to some friends of his as a shoemaker apprentice.
I often went on excursions to the Rila Mountain as a young boy. I know every bit of it. My uncles were great tourists and I became enthusiastic about mountaineering because of them. There was a tourist association in Dupnitsa. It was comprised of local citizens, both Jews and Bulgarians, and was called ‘The Seven Lakes of Rila Mountain’. As far as I know it still exists. We paid a membership fee and we had a discount for accommodation in huts.
My stepmother didn’t work. She was religious. She didn’t eat pork. My father, sisters and I ate and sometimes I used to lie to her that I had bought veal, so that she would cook and eat it. She wouldn’t touch anything on Sabbath either. My father rarely visited the synagogue, only on the high holidays. He had a tallit, which he used to put on when he went to the synagogue. He always wore a hat. In the synagogue women sat on the balcony, while men sat downstairs. The synagogue was very solid. Its walls were very thick. It was built in 1599 following the plan of an Italian engineer.
In Dupnitsa there was a Jewish school with a yeshivah. I started studying there. The school was until fourth grade. After that we continued in the Bulgarian secondary school. At the Jewish school poorer kids received breakfast with milk or tea. We were one class per grade. The pupils’ number varied from 25 to 30 children. Our teacher in Ivrit was Monsieur Revakh, who had married in Dupnitsa. He probably had come from Edirne [today Turkey]. We had an Ivrit class every day. We didn’t have school-organized visits to the synagogue. Monsieur Revakh taught us some songs in Ivrit. We sang them without actually understanding their meanings. We didn’t have any classes in Jewish history and literature at the Jewish school. We only studied the alphabet and some words in Ivrit.
After the Jewish school I finished the Bulgarian secondary school. At that time we used to live in a Bulgarian neighborhood. Upon graduation I was to learn a trade. Already as a schoolboy my father used to send me to some friends of his as a shoemaker apprentice.
I often went on excursions to the Rila Mountain as a young boy. I know every bit of it. My uncles were great tourists and I became enthusiastic about mountaineering because of them. There was a tourist association in Dupnitsa. It was comprised of local citizens, both Jews and Bulgarians, and was called ‘The Seven Lakes of Rila Mountain’. As far as I know it still exists. We paid a membership fee and we had a discount for accommodation in huts.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Sabat Pilosof