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In 1933 the family moved to Sofia with the help of my uncle, my mother’s brother, who assisted us in finding a place to stay. In Sofia my father wasn’t a chief rabbi but he served in small prayer houses which were spread all over the city. It was done because according to our customs Saturday is forbidden for traveling, using a car or any vehicle. People insisted on having a prayer house near their homes so that when the prayer was over they could easily get back home. So, my father served in one of those houses.
When we moved from Vratsa to Sofia I had already finished the first grade. There were no Jewish schools in Vratsa, so when we moved to Sofia my father decided to send me to a Jewish school. But the children here first had cheder and then there came the first grade. I was about to start the second grade, so they enrolled me in the second grade. I didn’t know anything in the beginning: I had no idea of the language. The first day I went home crying. I told my parents that the children at school were laughing at me because I didn’t know anything. My father calmed me down and said to me that I had to be patient. One of the children I used to study with had an uncle who was a shoemaker in the Jewish neighborhood, where we lived. He used to come home and little by little he taught me the alphabet and how to read. At that time there was a very interesting method in the Jewish school, which is no longer being practiced: the classes were separated under a certain criterion. There were A, B, C classes. ‘A’ class was the best, ‘B’ was the average, and ‘C’ was the weakest. In the beginning I was enrolled in ‘C’ class and for a year I studied there. The next year, after the teachers revised the selection, I was moved to ‘A’. When I was in ‘C’ I was the best among the weakest, yet when I moved to ‘A’ I was already at the average level.
When we moved from Vratsa to Sofia I had already finished the first grade. There were no Jewish schools in Vratsa, so when we moved to Sofia my father decided to send me to a Jewish school. But the children here first had cheder and then there came the first grade. I was about to start the second grade, so they enrolled me in the second grade. I didn’t know anything in the beginning: I had no idea of the language. The first day I went home crying. I told my parents that the children at school were laughing at me because I didn’t know anything. My father calmed me down and said to me that I had to be patient. One of the children I used to study with had an uncle who was a shoemaker in the Jewish neighborhood, where we lived. He used to come home and little by little he taught me the alphabet and how to read. At that time there was a very interesting method in the Jewish school, which is no longer being practiced: the classes were separated under a certain criterion. There were A, B, C classes. ‘A’ class was the best, ‘B’ was the average, and ‘C’ was the weakest. In the beginning I was enrolled in ‘C’ class and for a year I studied there. The next year, after the teachers revised the selection, I was moved to ‘A’. When I was in ‘C’ I was the best among the weakest, yet when I moved to ‘A’ I was already at the average level.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Yosif Avram Levi