Tag #141025 - Interview #78075 (Leonid Krais)

On Saturday no work was done at home. My mother did the cooking on Friday. She made meat stew and chicken broth that she left in the stove in ceramic pots to keep the food warm. A Moldavian neighbor came to us on Saturday night to light the lamps. A single Jewish woman living in our neighborhood had a big stove stoked with wood. A big boiler was built in it. She kept the stove and boiler very clean. On Saturday a local came to her to fill the boiler with water and start fire in the stove. Neighbors' children came to her to get boiling water into their kettles. This farmer filled their kettles himself. We always had hot water for tea on Saturday. She didn't charge people for boiling water at Shabbat. During a week people paid her for this service. She made her living in this way. On holidays we often visited my grandmother Khone. She liked to have the whole family get together at the table. My father's brother Yankel and his sister Rivka also lived in Lipkany. They came with their families. Yankel had two sons, and Rivka had a son and a daughter. My grandmother loved her grandchildren. She cooked something special for us and gave us gifts. At Chanukkah our grandmother always gave us Chanukkah gelt. My grandmother didn't have a kitchen maid. She made all the food herself. I can still remember my grandmother's strudels with nuts, raisins and jam. Once a year we visited my grandmother in Khotin and I enjoyed these trips. I liked visiting her. I don't remember any other holidays at home.

In 1939 my grandmother Khone died. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Lipkany, according to Jewish tradition. Her grave is beside my grandfather Leizer's grave.

I went to cheder when I was 6. I enjoyed studying. I already knew the prayers before I went to cheder. My mother had taught me. At cheder I learned to read and write in Yiddish and Hebrew. I was fond of mathematicmathematics and history.