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We celebrated Sabbath. Our mother cooked food for two days. It wasn't allowed to even warm up food on Saturday and she left pots with cholent in the oven of our Russian stove to keep it warm until the next day. We always had gefilte fish and challah on Sabbath. The family always got together on Friday. My mother lit the candles and said a prayer over them. Then we all said a prayer and my father blessed the food and we all sat down for dinner. My father didn't work on Saturday. He went to the prayer house and when he came back home he read the weekly portion of the Torah to us and told us stories about the history of the Jews.
We started preparations for Pesach long before the holiday. One Jewish family in Pasika made matzah for all the Jewish families. The other families gave this family orders in advance and they knew the quantities they had to make. My mother also stored one to two hundred eggs for Pesach. Many eggs were used throughout the eight days of the holiday: they were used for cooking and baking pudding or cookies. The chickens and geese were taken to a shochet. My mother melted goose fat to do all cooking on Pesach. She made geese stew and boiled chicken. Every day we had chicken broth with matzah and boiled chicken for lunch. We didn't eat any bread. My mother also baked strudels with jam and nuts and cookies. On the eve of Pesach we took the fancy crockery from the attic where it was kept in a box. My father conducted the first and the second seder. My older brother and I knew Hebrew and we posed the traditional questions [the mah nishtanah] to him. The adults were to drink four glasses of wine at seder. There was one extra glass for Elijah the Prophet [8]. The door was left open during the seder for him to enter the house.
On Rosh Hashanah everyone went to the prayer house. My mother made a festive meal and always put a saucer with honey and slices of apples on the table. We dipped the apple slices into honey and ate them to have a sweet and happy year to come. On Yom Kippur the adults fasted for 24 hours. [Editor's note: According to tradition, Jews have to fast 25 hours on Yom Kippur.] Small children fasted after coming of age, boys at the age of thirteen and girls at the age of twelve. At Chanukkah mother lit one candle more each day. The shammash was lit on the first day of Chanukkah to keep burning throughout the holiday. All guests gave children some money. As for Purim and Sukkot, I don't remember how they were celebrated.
We started preparations for Pesach long before the holiday. One Jewish family in Pasika made matzah for all the Jewish families. The other families gave this family orders in advance and they knew the quantities they had to make. My mother also stored one to two hundred eggs for Pesach. Many eggs were used throughout the eight days of the holiday: they were used for cooking and baking pudding or cookies. The chickens and geese were taken to a shochet. My mother melted goose fat to do all cooking on Pesach. She made geese stew and boiled chicken. Every day we had chicken broth with matzah and boiled chicken for lunch. We didn't eat any bread. My mother also baked strudels with jam and nuts and cookies. On the eve of Pesach we took the fancy crockery from the attic where it was kept in a box. My father conducted the first and the second seder. My older brother and I knew Hebrew and we posed the traditional questions [the mah nishtanah] to him. The adults were to drink four glasses of wine at seder. There was one extra glass for Elijah the Prophet [8]. The door was left open during the seder for him to enter the house.
On Rosh Hashanah everyone went to the prayer house. My mother made a festive meal and always put a saucer with honey and slices of apples on the table. We dipped the apple slices into honey and ate them to have a sweet and happy year to come. On Yom Kippur the adults fasted for 24 hours. [Editor's note: According to tradition, Jews have to fast 25 hours on Yom Kippur.] Small children fasted after coming of age, boys at the age of thirteen and girls at the age of twelve. At Chanukkah mother lit one candle more each day. The shammash was lit on the first day of Chanukkah to keep burning throughout the holiday. All guests gave children some money. As for Purim and Sukkot, I don't remember how they were celebrated.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
zoltan shtern