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My parents weren’t deeply religious, but they always celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays according to all rules. They strictly followed the kashrut at home. On Saturday and on holidays my mother went to the synagogue in Rashkov – she walked seven kilometers to get there. My father stayed in Poyana and went to the community house to pray.
On Friday our mother made challah for Sabbath, chicken broth and gefilte fish. Besides dinner our mother made food for the next day. She stewed potatoes with beans. She left the pot with the stew in the stove to keep the food warm for the next day. Our mother also made potato pancakes and rolls.
We got together on Friday evening and my mother said, ‘Tsaritsa Subbota’ – she always said it in Russian – ‘Enter our house.’ We pronounced a traditional greeting, ‘Shalom Sabbath!’ and started dinner.
Nobody worked on Saturday. We were not even supposed to light a lamp or start a fire in the stove. We asked our Moldovan neighbors to come and start the fire in the stove. Our father read out the weekly paragraph for Saturday from the Torah.
On Friday our mother made challah for Sabbath, chicken broth and gefilte fish. Besides dinner our mother made food for the next day. She stewed potatoes with beans. She left the pot with the stew in the stove to keep the food warm for the next day. Our mother also made potato pancakes and rolls.
We got together on Friday evening and my mother said, ‘Tsaritsa Subbota’ – she always said it in Russian – ‘Enter our house.’ We pronounced a traditional greeting, ‘Shalom Sabbath!’ and started dinner.
Nobody worked on Saturday. We were not even supposed to light a lamp or start a fire in the stove. We asked our Moldovan neighbors to come and start the fire in the stove. Our father read out the weekly paragraph for Saturday from the Torah.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Boris Slobodianskiy